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Date: 8/21/2019
EAST LONGMEADOW – This school year, when walking into the girls’ bathroom on the second floor of East Longmeadow High School, students will be greeted with an image of the moon painted on the wall and directly under it, the message, “You are enough!”
All of the girls’ bathrooms in the school now feature art and positive, inspirational messages thanks to a group of five juniors who used a little paint, some initiative, and a lot of creativity.
It started during Women’s History Month in March, when Principal Gina Flanagan left inspirational notes on the mirrors of the girls’ bathrooms, “just to lift [the students] up and give them some positive messages,” said Flanagan. She said, in society, women don’t always get the most positive messages.
The notes inspired student Sophia Wychowski to expand on the idea. After scrolling through Instagram this summer, Wychowski found an image of messages painted on walls and knew she wanted to get her friends together to do something similar.
“We wanted to add some color in the school, something that would make people smile throughout the day,” Wychowski said.
Flanagan was all for it.
“I’m just so proud of them. In social media and on TV, there’s just so many negative messages,” Flanagan said. From a practical standpoint, “our building is really old so it can use a facelift,” Flanagan said.
Wychowski was joined by Raina Plevyak, Abigail Haller, Angelina Carando, and Mackenzie Richards, and together they tackled the job of painting all three women’s bathrooms, each with a unique theme.
Wychowski knew how she wanted to design one of the rooms. There are flowers climbing up the stalls and a large mandala near the mirrors. On the doors are messages such as, “real girls aren’t perfect, perfect girls aren’t real,” and “she believed she could so she did.”
The other two rooms required the students to brainstorm. They decided to paint the first-floor Freshman Hall bathroom with an Under the Sea theme, complete with a mural of a turtle and fish. Amid the octopus and manta ray on the stall doors is an ocean-related quote from Mother Teresa and lyrics from the Beatles song, “Dear Prudence.”
Upstairs, the final of the three rooms contains a starscape. The stalls are painted black with specks of white. Floating in that space are rocket ships, planets, and tiny astronauts. A message there reads “you are out of this world,” while another contains part of the poem by Nikita Gill, “93 Percent Stardust.”
“At first, I think they were apprehensive,” Wychowski said about people’s reaction to the project. She said they were cautioned that it would be a big job. The girls were determined, however.
The students used paint and brushes from the art department and volunteered their own time over the summer.
“We came in when we could for 4 or 5 hours in the morning,” said Wychowski. It took them about three weeks to complete the project, she said.
Flanagan said that Guidance Counselor Amanda Denardo hosts a girls’ group to develop girls into strong independent women. She said the school does a good job embracing diversity.
“Making sure our females feel valued and have a voice going out into the world,” is important, Flanagan said. That said, Flanagan remarked that she would be thrilled if students wanted to do something similar in the boys’ rooms.
Wychowski said there is a culture of art at the school.
“During the school year there is art lining the walls and we have an art show,” Wychowski said. There are small art details around the school including painted office doors and lockers designed to look like books on a shelf.
Wychowski said, before this, she didn’t think she was good at art. Part of what she wants people to get from their project is to go after their goals and be “inspired to do things that they want to do.
“Just make it happen,” she said.