BOB PRATTE
A bold, long and expensive “Bulldog Country” graphic now stands out on the entire upper length of the Hemet High stadium home grandstand. It is a massive statement of Bulldog pride towering above East Hemet.
Its price tag of a little more than $17,000 did not cost the Hemet Unified School District at a time of tenuous school finances in California.
“The school didn’t pay for it,” said Emily Shaw, Hemet High’s principal. “The students did.”
Al Fernandes, Hemet High’s activities director, said the graphic, which is nearly as long as the football field the grandstand flanks, was paid by senior-gift funds accumulated over several years, beginning with the Class of 2005. He said the classes also made other gifts during the time. Surplus cash was saved for the project, which was too big of an expense for a single class.
Painting the mural has been quite an extreme-heat spectacle. Work began June 20. The big slogan, which includes a caricature of a studly Bulldog, was designed and painted by Boss Graphics of Pasadena.
Painters worked from morning to night using a boom to to lift them high above the stadium parking lot to paint the long slogan in Bulldog red. Like the big graphic, they were in prominent view of drivers on busy Stetson Avenue, which passes through the campus.
Wednesday evening, July 11, painters Billy Teichert and Kate Mauldin were surprisingly upbeat about the project after enduring a day of high humidity and temperatures that reached 105. At 6 p.m., the temperature still was above 95. They were high on the lift platform rolling on a clear, protective coating. Teichert said the requirement to wear respirator masks in the heat while applying the coating was the most uncomfortable part of the long job.
He said it was a time-consuming project because it was painted high above the parking lot on a corrugated steel surface. He estimated the logo was about 275 feet long, making it the most lengthy graphic he has ever painted.
“This was a complicated surface,” he said. “There is corrugated steel on press boxes, but never this long.”
I admired their smiles and spirit at the end of the long, hot day. “I think it looks great,” he said.
Shaw is pleased with the project too and considers it part of a mission to upgrade the appearance of the school, which is being extensively renovated. She said because of its prominent location and expense, the long graphic’s design underwent several revisions, including making the mascot Bulldog less cartoonish.
“I was very particular about what I wanted,” she said. “We paid so much for it.”
She said she wanted to complete the logo project ever since she became principal two years ago. “It was something they’ve been meaning to do,” she said. “It looks better than I thought it would.”
Painting will not end with the stadium. Another logo will be painted inside the school’s gym.
Fernandes, the school’s activities director who oversees Hemet High’s student government, was happy with the result of several years of donations by graduating classes.
“People say, ‘The school has no money, why are you putting it up?’ It’s not the school’s money. It was the students’,” he said.
“It catches your attention, that’s for sure.”
A bold, long and expensive “Bulldog Country” graphic now stands out on the entire upper length of the Hemet High stadium home grandstand. It is a massive statement of Bulldog pride towering above East Hemet.
Its price tag of a little more than $17,000 did not cost the Hemet Unified School District at a time of tenuous school finances in California.
“The school didn’t pay for it,” said Emily Shaw, Hemet High’s principal. “The students did.”
Al Fernandes, Hemet High’s activities director, said the graphic, which is nearly as long as the football field the grandstand flanks, was paid by senior-gift funds accumulated over several years, beginning with the Class of 2005. He said the classes also made other gifts during the time. Surplus cash was saved for the project, which was too big of an expense for a single class.
Painting the mural has been quite an extreme-heat spectacle. Work began June 20. The big slogan, which includes a caricature of a studly Bulldog, was designed and painted by Boss Graphics of Pasadena.
Painters worked from morning to night using a boom to to lift them high above the stadium parking lot to paint the long slogan in Bulldog red. Like the big graphic, they were in prominent view of drivers on busy Stetson Avenue, which passes through the campus.
Wednesday evening, July 11, painters Billy Teichert and Kate Mauldin were surprisingly upbeat about the project after enduring a day of high humidity and temperatures that reached 105. At 6 p.m., the temperature still was above 95. They were high on the lift platform rolling on a clear, protective coating. Teichert said the requirement to wear respirator masks in the heat while applying the coating was the most uncomfortable part of the long job.
He said it was a time-consuming project because it was painted high above the parking lot on a corrugated steel surface. He estimated the logo was about 275 feet long, making it the most lengthy graphic he has ever painted.
“This was a complicated surface,” he said. “There is corrugated steel on press boxes, but never this long.”
I admired their smiles and spirit at the end of the long, hot day. “I think it looks great,” he said.
Shaw is pleased with the project too and considers it part of a mission to upgrade the appearance of the school, which is being extensively renovated. She said because of its prominent location and expense, the long graphic’s design underwent several revisions, including making the mascot Bulldog less cartoonish.
“I was very particular about what I wanted,” she said. “We paid so much for it.”
She said she wanted to complete the logo project ever since she became principal two years ago. “It was something they’ve been meaning to do,” she said. “It looks better than I thought it would.”
Painting will not end with the stadium. Another logo will be painted inside the school’s gym.
Fernandes, the school’s activities director who oversees Hemet High’s student government, was happy with the result of several years of donations by graduating classes.
“People say, ‘The school has no money, why are you putting it up?’ It’s not the school’s money. It was the students’,” he said.
“It catches your attention, that’s for sure.”
http://blog.pe.com/bob-pratte/2012/07/12/hemet-high-bulldog-graphic-towering/
Source: The Press Enterprise July 12, 2012