Tiles will be painted and displayed to celebrate Marguerite
Maze
On a chilly, gray Saturday afternoon, Morgan King sat quietly at
a table in front of Marguerite Maze Middle School, her long hair
falling across her face as she bent her head over a square ceramic
tile.
Tiles will be painted and displayed to celebrate Marguerite Maze
On a chilly, gray Saturday afternoon, Morgan King sat quietly at a table in front of Marguerite Maze Middle School, her long hair falling across her face as she bent her head over a square ceramic tile.
The cool weather didn’t seem to bother Morgan, 12, nor did the conversation taking place among the four women sitting with her. Instead, the Maze seventh-grader was intently focused on her task, painstakingly painting a row of daisies onto her tile, adding stems, leaves and a bit of background.
The tile is part of a project intended to celebrate Maze’s 14-year history, according to Timi King, Morgan’s mother and vice-president of Maze’s Parent-Teacher-Student Organization (PTSO). King is currently selling 6-inch by 6-inch square tiles for students, teachers, parents and alumni to paint designs, logos, sayings or names on. The tiles will be mounted on to a wall in the school’s courtyard sometime next year.
“I’m trying to capture the history of Maze,” King said. “There are a lot of teachers on staff today who were here when the school first opened, and Principal Bernice Smith s still here and she has been here since the beginning. I’d kind of like to see this be a tribute to all of them.”
King spearheaded a similar project at Calaveras School in 2000 to raise funds for a new campus playground. The idea grew from a mural she saw while in Atascadero with her husband the year before.
“We were walking through a park, and they had a tribute there to someone from the community who had died of cancer,” King explained. “They had hung tiles on which children had put their handprints. I thought to myself, ‘how cool!'”
Shortly after seeing the handprint mural, King, whose children were attending Calaveras at the time, became involved in the school’s playground fund-raiser.
“We were looking for that little something that would push us over the top of our goal,” she said. “I looked into doing a project such as the one I had seen, and discovered we could do it pretty easily. It was well received, and I really like the way it came out.”
More than 250 tiles were sold at Calaveras, and today adorn eight different walls on buildings throughout the campus.
“Last time people were very interested; there were people who chose not to participate that were disappointed they hadn’t done it once the tiles went up,” King said. “The tiles have really added something special to the school and help beautify the campus.”
About a dozen tiles have been purchased for the Maze project so far, but King said she has just begun putting the word out.
“I went around to all the classrooms about a week ago, and spoke to all of the students,” she said. “A note went home with report cards last week as well. But I think it would be cool to get as many alumni as we can. If we could get at least one student from every year, that would be great.”
King plans to sell the tiles every Wednesday and Friday through Dec. 21 from 2:30-4 p.m. in front of Marguerite Maze; she also plans to be available on Saturday, Dec. 22 from 2:30-4 p.m. A table will be set up so that customers can paint their tile on the day of purchase, as tiles cannot be taken away from the site.
“People have to come here to do it because I have the correct supplies. Not everyone has the right paints for this type of project at home,” she said. “Also, I have to arrange to have the tiles fired in the kiln, so people will have to make the time to come out and stay while they paint. And they will have to sign a release so that if they end up really liking it, they know they can’t take it home.”
One tile is $20; King said people can purchase as many tiles as they wish, or families can purchase just one tile and work on it together.
“It sounds expensive, and I’m sorry about that, but we don’t have any ceramic stores in town so I have to travel to get them,” she said. “But families can buy one tile and share, or friends can buddy up and split the cost.”
King has arranged for the completed tiles to be baked in a kiln at San Benito High School and expects them to be ready by the end of February 2008. Her goal is to have the tiles mounted while students are on spring break in early April. The tiles will be framed in wood so they cannot be removed once they are mounted.
In order to offset the total cost of the project, King says she needs to sell 100 tiles; any additional funds would go to the PTSO, which is raising money for emergency supply totes for each classroom.
As Morgan finished her tile (this particular tile will be added to the tiles King’s children have done for their home), King said she can’t wait to see the designs of past and present Maze students.
“This is such a cool way to make a lasting impression, and it adds so much to a school,” she said. “Most people like to leave their mark somehow. Why do you think there is so much graffiti? This is a way for people to leave their mark in a positive way, and years from now, they can come back with their children, say ‘here is where I went to school, and I can prove it’ and then show them their tile.”
Tiles for the Marguerite Maze Mural Project can be purchased in front of the school every Wednesday and Friday from 2:30-4 p.m. through Dec. 21 and again on Saturday, Dec. 22 from 2:30-4 p.m. Tiles are $20 each. For more information, contact Timi King at 636-1541.
