King George VI School
Millennium Project
King George VI School Millennium Project--Be a part of our School Heritage
As a part of the Millennium celebrations, the school has created a paved patio
area underneath the flagpole. The patio is being constructed with individually engraved
bricks. The bricks will be Grey in colour with black lettering and approximately
8" x 4" in size. A dedication ceremony will be held at a later date.
The bricks are for sale at a cost of $35 each. There are three lines of text available
with twelve characters per line. The bricks may be dedicated to past or present
students, teachers, principals or families.
Order forms were sent home Jan. 31, 2000. Additional forms may be obtained from the
school office.
The order forms asked for the following information.
Please write clearly in black ink, one character or space per box, unfortunately no
hyphens, apostophes, semi-colons or periods are permitted. The engraver reserves the
right to make adjustments to the message where necessary.
Student name_______________________________ Room_____________
Teacher___________________________________ Grade_____________
Daytime phone number__________________________________________
Contact Name_________________________________________________
Please make cheque payable to King George VI P.A.T.T.
For more information on this project, you may contact the school at 1-519-344-2942
or fax 1-519-344-4426
****More information****
King George VI Bridging Past, Present, Future
By Patrick Lawrence - Sarnia this week - April 20, 2000
With the year 2000 here, special projects all over the city have been set up to celebrate the new millennium. Even the local schools have decided to take part in celebrating.
King George VI Elementary School has decided to create a patio underneath the flagpole located outside of the main entrance of the school. The patio will be constructed of grey bricks approximately 8" x 4" in size which will include up to three lines of black text for the past and present students and teachers to inscribe a message.
The school has also decided to keep adding on more bricks throughout the years to include future staff and students as well. "I think this is a great project because it can encompass our past, present and future students and staff," says King George Principal Eleanore South.
The project was developed by school council member Steve Thomson. "The area in front of the school was looking pretty scuffy, so the bricks were a good way of beautifying the entrance," says Thomson.
One of the other options considered was painting the world's largest flag on the back field. "We got in touch with the Guinness Book of World Records, but the cost and logistics of it were just too high," says Thomson.
Order forms for the bricks are available through the school's office.
For more information about the project, call Eleanore South at 344-2942
or Steve Thomson at 383-6630.
Millennium Patio Preserves 50 Years of School Memories
by Paul Morden - The Sarnia Observer - May 9, 2000
The bricks in the King George VI School millennium patio will be made for walking on and reading.
Last year, the parents council at the Sarnia public school began looking around for a millennium project, said council member Steve Thomson.
"There were one or two ideas bantered around." The one that stuck was building a stone patio around the flag pole at the school's main entrance and selling the bricks to raise money for the work.
It's a take on donor walls, Thomson said that they have seen in churches and in Sarnia's Centennial Park, down by the riverfront.
The cost to get involved in the project is $35 per brick and buyers will be able to have up to three lines of text engraved on them. The stones will be installed in a pie-shaped patio around the pole, probably next fall.
"Virtually everyone who comes in and out of the school will be walking on it and looking at it," Thomson said.
It isn't a fund-raiser. Money from the sale of the bricks will all go towards the cost of the patio. "It's just a chance to put their name in lights, or in stone," Thomson said.
Buyers can choose what they put on their bricks. Organizers expect that most will opt for their name or the name of a family member, friend or teacher who went to the school over its nearly 50-year history.
I hope there's people out there that will think of something funny that will make people smile," Thomson added. He's thinking of investing $35 of his own to engrave a brick with, "Kilroy wasn't here."
A bit of basic math came up with the estimate that about 2,000 people have likely graduated from the school since it opened on O'Dell Avenue in the city's north end.
Thomson said they're hopeful that many of them, or their family members, are still around and will be interested in having a permanent record of the connection to the school.
There's room for 3,000 bricks in the patio and the project needs to sell 500 to get started. Thomson said it's hoped that graduating classes in future years may adopt sections of the blank stones expected to be in the patio. Students could each add their name before they head off to high school.
"It's really an ongoing project for the next few years."
The bricks will be placed at random in the patio so part of the fun will be hunting around to find the dedicated stones, he said.
The school's most famous former student is Chris Hadfield, the Canadian space shuttle astronaut who was born in Sarnia and attended King George during his early years. Hadfield has made some visits back to the school and has kept in contact through e-mail over the years.
Thomson said they figure it's a longshot that the committee will get Hadfield back to town to help open the new patio, "but we'll certainly give him a brick."
Order forms for the millennium bricks are available from the school office, 344-2942.
King George VI School's millennium project is a brick patio at the entrance to the school. Principal Eleanore South and parent council member Steven Thomson show a brick sample which will feature the donor's insription.
