Chief Pontiac given a new coat for a new Jenkins High School thanks to Warriors alumni

From the vantage point of DeRenne Avenue, the sprawling Jenkins High School campus is an impressive site — especially with its attractive palm-lined sidewalk leading to the state-of-the-art main building.

The new school looks nothing like its mid-century predecessor, yet it holds a few touches of the past, thanks to a group of alumni who rallied around their alma mater before the old building was demolished.

Metal letters affixed to the new structure spell out the name Heschel V. Jenkins High School (after the local philanthropist) “Home of the Warriors,” which is a shout out to the school’s mascot. Long before the new school was constructed, the Jenkins warrior statue was well known throughout the city.

In the early 1960s, members of rival sports teams would kidnap the plaster statue and deliver it to their own school in a sort of one-up game.

“Stealing” the warrior was all in good fun, recalled alum Don Stewart (class of 1961) who also was Jenkins Principal for 12 years from the early ‘80s into the ‘90s. Stewart attended Jenkins during an era when students would take great pride in homecoming celebrations, he said, adding that it was a big deal when someone stole the warrior.

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Tall tales of how the warrior was removed from the lobby are legendary. As late as the early 1970s, an athlete from a rival school is rumored to have entered the lobby, blended in with the Jenkins student body until the crowd dispersed, removed ceiling panels, climbed up into the bowels of the building and waited until dismissal when the coast was clear. He then jumped down, and with the help of a classmate or two, carried the warrior to a waiting car.

Needless to say, the warrior had seen better days by the time the old school was ready to be torn down to make way for the spacious new school, Stewart said. “It was in pretty bad shape,” he added.

The senior citizen statue had been at the school since the early years (Jenkins opened in the late 1950s). Alum Shawn Wilson, who is a Jenkins resource teacher, said he began looking into the history of the statue about a year ago and discovered that the statue and identical ones were marketing tools for the automobile company that made Pontiacs.

Somehow the statue ended up in the Savannah area — maybe at a downtown Pontiac dealership — and the 1960 senior class found him at an antique store. “The school raised $110 and he came to Jenkins High School,” Wilson said.

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The warrior was named Sequoia after the native American who created the Cherokee alphabet, which “is fairly significant” because of its relationship to education, Stewart explained.

After Wilson learned about Sequoia’s storied past, he decided that the statue had to be saved. He contacted Matt Toole of Toole Sculpture Works who estimated that it would cost thousands to refurbish Sequoia.

In an effort totally separate from official school business, Wilson reached out on Facebook and started a fundraiser to pay for the restoration. The move was kickstarted with a $1,800 donation from Stewart’s class that had leftover reunion money. More funds began rolling in and soon the work was paid in full.

Repairing the plaster warrior was no easy task, Toole said. “It was pretty busted up,” he said. “The head was just hanging on. It took us six visits (the school) of four to six hours each.”

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Toole and his team surmised that the statue had been broken and repaired in the ‘70s because pieces of newspaper from that era were found inside. Graffiti, including a heart, also had been carved into the body, he added.

He’s proud that he played a role in refurbishing a historical figure well known to many in Savannah and that so many alumni helped. “It’s nice that some folks came forward who believe in the school and the (educational) message that Sequoia celebrates,” he said.

The statue was placed behind Plexiglass in the school’s media center near a sign fashioned from oak planed from trees that stood on the old campus.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Jenkins High School Chief Pontiac statue refurbished by alumni