<I>Hector del Casillo/Chieftain</I><BR>Wallowa eighth graders Lexie Dougherty and McKenzie Shelton come back from painting at Evans Park on May 24.

In time for Memorial Day, all of the students in the Wallowa school district scattered over town, planted flowers and trees and gave the area an overall polish. Principal John Nesemann and Maryann Keyser, of the Wallowa Union Railroad, worked together to designate Thursday as a citywide cleanup.

“It gives the youngsters some civic pride and spruces up town for Memorial Day,” Keyser said.

While the school musicians played outside in the sunshine, each grade, with supervisors, took on a different project.

The high school sophomores went to the football field on Upper First Street, planted firs and ponderosa pines and painted the restroom entrances. The freshmen crossed the Wallowa Lake Highway and whitewashed the cables surrounding the parking lot.

In junior high, eighth graders walked down Douglas Street to Evans Park, weeded the flowerbeds, painted the fences and stained the wooden tables and benches. The seventh graders took care of the basketball and tennis court lines at the city park on Whiskey Creek Road.

Any time paint was thrown into the mix, it was a colorful disaster waiting to happen. At the end of the day, clusters of students walked over the schoolyard, coated in white or orange. At the football field, sophomores Megan Collins and Dani Weaver dueled with the oil-based paint.

“Oh, we’re going to have to swim in paint thinner,” Weaver cried before ducking another swipe from Collins.

Meanwhile, elementary school students went downtown, where they stained the flower tubs and planted new flowers. The sixth grade had the block with Shell Mercantile Co., while the fifth graders worked on the city library’s side. There, fourth graders put in new flowers.

The youngest children stayed close to school. Third graders had the area behind the building, second grade was at the playground and the first was at the P.E. field and Evans Park. Kindergarteners had the flowerbeds in front of the school.

It was the second time in the last two years that students broke up and fanned to different parts of the town for the project. Last spring, school made a day out of it, along with the Wallowa Merchants Association.

“Last year, I walked behind a young boy – maybe first or second grade – and he was with his grandma. They came across some flowers, and he says to her, ‘Grandma, I planted those.’ It was really exciting to hear that.”

A number of people and businesses donated. Connie Foster and Jill Mallory gave flowers for the students to plant and they both helped weed the work areas.

RAM Auto & Hardware supplied brushes. The Eastern Oregon Nurseries provided plants. Potting soil came from the Wallowa County Grain Growers. Shell’s and Wallowa Food City provided bottled water. Grande Ronde Model Watershed donated trees.