01/06/2007
Seventy years of accomplishment on display at CHS
Jessica Selby , Daily Times

COVENTRY - Until recently, a glance around the walls at Coventry High School revealed several expanses of bare brick. A look around now gives a glimpse of the history and achievements of the school and its students.
New displays - courtesy of students Michaela Tracy and Aimee Olivier - contain photos, medals, trophies and plaques from the school spanning the last seven decades.
Tracy, a sophomore, created a photo display featuring photos of former student council and senior class presidents at the entrance to the school near the cafeteria. The photos, she said, came from school yearbooks dating back to 1935.
"I got the idea because there used to be a display in the school of all the class presidents, but it had gotten old and out of date so someone took it down," Tracy said. "I thought, seeing as how this is such an important part of our school's history, that it needed to be replaced with an updated version."
Tracy said she spent several months scanning photos of each of the presidents from each and every yearbook back to 1935 into her home computer.
"It was actually a lot of fun," Tracy said. "I found that I spent more time reading the yearbooks though than actually finding the photos and scanning them. It was fun to see the changes people went through with their hair and their clothes from back in the '80s and the '70s."
In Tracy's case, the bulletin boards she used for her display were already on the walls in the foyer area. What she had to do was add the photos and find some way to protect them.
Tracy said she secured each photo onto a slightly larger sheet of red construction paper. She tucked the corners of the photo into small slots at the paper's edges and then matted the images onto white felt and mounted them onto the billboard in chronological order.
Tracy said Matthew Brissette, the social studies department coordinator and senior class advisor obtained some Plexiglas, and, once she had it, she placed it over the photo display on the bulletin board.
"This is going to become my CIM Capstone project," Tracy said. "I wanted to pick something to do for it that I was really interested in so that I would enjoy working on it."
"That is why I chose this," she said. "I figured it would be something neat to do because my mom [Susan Criscioni] and my brother [Ted Tracy] were both former presidents and I am on the student council, so it was fun to look back at the school's history."
Olivier, a senior, applied her talents to the school band trophy case. Behind the Plexiglas sliding panels of the three oversized display cases, Olivier arranged a medley of honors including plaques, medals and trophies the school band has attained from competing in festivals all over the country.
Over the years, the band accumulated a plethora of trophies that were stacked on tables and desks in the music department, collecting dust instead of praise, according to Olivier.
"I have been a part of the band for the last four years," said Olivier, who plays the trumpet. "And, since just my freshman year, we have probably won eight or nine awards, never mind what the band did before I went to school here."
"So, all of those trophies and medals that the band was earning were getting absolutely no recognition. They were basically just sitting there collecting dust. That is why I thought this project was such a great idea," she said.
Inside of the three cases, two of which stretch 6 feet by 6 feet, and one of which is a bit larger at 6 feet in height by 9 feet width, there are approximately 30 trophies, 12 medals and 15 to 16 plaques, Olivier said.
"I do not think that a lot of people in general realize how successful our band is unless they are a part of it or are close to someone who is," Olivier said. "Having these cases out in the school where everyone can see what we have done brings more pride and recognition to the program."
Olivier said she created her display as a Capstone project but she is a senior and it was not a required task. Brissette did encourage her, she said, telling her he thought it would be a "really good idea."
"I am not technically required to do a Capstone because I am senior, but that is not why I did this anyway," she said. "I did it for another reason. I did it because it makes me feel like I am leaving something of myself behind at the school."
Both girls, as well as many of the school faculty, administrators and staff, said they are pleased with the new wall decorations in their school.
"I would definitely say that I am pleased with the way my project turned out and I have heard a lot of good feedback from everyone at the school who has seen it," Olivier said.