The concept for this project was started with nothing more than the question, “How can we get more people to help with the costs of running this school?”
Of course the school had been doing fundraisers since they had opened 6 years earlier, often doing auctions to sell artwork by the students, raffles, and auctions of donated goods and services.
A variety of local artists in the community, including myself had been asked and happily participated in working with the students to make art that didn’t look like, for instance, 3rd grade art projects. Along with beautiful catered diners donated by local restaurants, parents, friends and patrons spent generously to help the school be one of excellence, in a situation where many of the students lived in a very rural area, many living in a local trailer court, and a variety of nationalities, while others were the children of parents who were willing and happy to have their children attend this amazing school as an alternative to the public schools in the two counties this school sits on the border of.
This was Mosier Community School, a very young charter school in rural Wasco County, Oregon, perched on the banks of the Columbia River. The mascot is the tiger. So the students of course are Mosier Tigers.
I was asked the initial question by the originator and executive director of the school at the time, Carol Schmidt. After a bit of brainstorming, we came up with the idea of having something to acknowledge large donations of $1,000 or more with a display in the entry of the school, and we would call them GOLDEN TIGERS.
Carol put it upon me to design the display, and “carve a tiger, since this school is the Mosier Tigers.”
So I transformed some valuable timber, some old Mahogany, plus white Hard Maple, Tiger Wood and Ebony into something which would inspire trust by donors to know they would be acknowledged for helping the students at this special school transform into great humans. The Mahogany had been banned from import from Honduras shortly after I acquired this plank and seemed like the right choice since many people have also been banned from entering the United Stated; The Tiger Wood seemed appropriate for obvious reasons; Ebony is rare and valuable, much like the students, the teachers and the education at this school.
Of course the school had been doing fundraisers since they had opened 6 years earlier, often doing auctions to sell artwork by the students, raffles, and auctions of donated goods and services.
A variety of local artists in the community, including myself had been asked and happily participated in working with the students to make art that didn’t look like, for instance, 3rd grade art projects. Along with beautiful catered diners donated by local restaurants, parents, friends and patrons spent generously to help the school be one of excellence, in a situation where many of the students lived in a very rural area, many living in a local trailer court, and a variety of nationalities, while others were the children of parents who were willing and happy to have their children attend this amazing school as an alternative to the public schools in the two counties this school sits on the border of.
This was Mosier Community School, a very young charter school in rural Wasco County, Oregon, perched on the banks of the Columbia River. The mascot is the tiger. So the students of course are Mosier Tigers.
I was asked the initial question by the originator and executive director of the school at the time, Carol Schmidt. After a bit of brainstorming, we came up with the idea of having something to acknowledge large donations of $1,000 or more with a display in the entry of the school, and we would call them GOLDEN TIGERS.
Carol put it upon me to design the display, and “carve a tiger, since this school is the Mosier Tigers.”
So I transformed some valuable timber, some old Mahogany, plus white Hard Maple, Tiger Wood and Ebony into something which would inspire trust by donors to know they would be acknowledged for helping the students at this special school transform into great humans. The Mahogany had been banned from import from Honduras shortly after I acquired this plank and seemed like the right choice since many people have also been banned from entering the United Stated; The Tiger Wood seemed appropriate for obvious reasons; Ebony is rare and valuable, much like the students, the teachers and the education at this school.
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