Kids add color to Downtown Riverwalk

Jan. 6—Some Pullman students were so excited to garnish the city's flood wall that they skipped recess to paint.

Downtown's Riverwalk was embellished with another art installation; the region's flora and fauna can be seen lining the trail near Pine Street Plaza.

Students from Pullman schools were tasked with painting about 20 flood boards measuring 4 by 8 feet apiece. Illustrations done by schools like Jefferson Elementary, Kamiak Elementary, Sunnyside Elementary, Pullman High, Pullman Christian School and the Pullman Community Montessori were placed on the wall Friday morning.

Art Garro, the city's maintenance and operations supervisor, said this is the first time the panels were painted. He added blank plywood had been used since the wall was built in the 2000s.

Mayor Francis Benjamin said the city is always looking for ways to beautify the town, and the project was a community-led effort. In the past, several community members proposed something similar, he added, and many were happy to see it get done.

"This is the perfect opportunity to involve the community in our community," Benjamin said. "We needed to replace the flood boards and I couldn't have imagined a better way than this."

Garro said part of the reason the project was initiated was to add more public art to Pullman, but the panels represent much more than another installation.

"The flood wall is a testament to the community's resilience and tenacity," Garro said. "It's a symbol of collaboration and hope."

The wall was constructed by Dale Rogers, the city's former senior engineering technician. Garro said he always had an eye for beauty and a desire to give the community a space to admire the aesthetics of the region.

"I think about Dale and the flood wall and it just complements his vision of the area so well," Garro said. "He had an eye for beauty, and wanted to give the community a place to go, a place to look and a place to rest and take in the beauty of the area."

Dave Schneider, Pullman Community Montessori's adolescent community guide, said originally he was planning to do most of the work until one of his students said the project was beyond him. Seventh grade students took over and painted four panels featuring plants and farming unique to the Palouse.

"The kids really took this over," Schneider said. "All I really did was move furniture out of the way for them. We went through a lot of paint, but the kids were happy with the quality of their art, which was great to see."

Alaska Janssen, one of Schneider's students, said they had only five colors and mixed paints for the project. She added there was a minty green that ate all the colors they tried to mix it with, and they had to work around the ashy color.

Izaya McBride, another student of Schneider's, said his favorite things to paint were the raspberries and huckleberries in one of the pieces.

Erin Downs, Pullman Christian School's art teacher, said her students had a lot of fun with the project and she was amazed by their creations. Her high school students painted two flood boards, one featuring a moose and the other the Palouse's iconic sunset.

"It was fun going through and helping my students with the design," Downs said. "They turned out beautiful. It was just a good way to bring our class together and the community."

Keira Downs, an 11th grader at the school, said she spent hours working on the paintings. She said she enjoyed painting beautiful scenes and admiring "God's creation" in a creative way.

Olivia Stratton, a second grader at Sunnyside Elementary School, missed a week's worth of recess painting. She said she really liked making the sunflower in the piece, and wanted to decorate it outside her art class.

"This is a great project and I'm very proud of everyone who made this work happen," Garro said. "When we picked up (the flood boards) from the schools, that's when the magic happened. Each panel was made beautiful by the students, I stopped the first time I looked at them and went 'Wow, absolutely wow.' This far exceeded my expectations."

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com