Our View: Community/school pipeline is very strong in Alliance
Several recent stories are examples of the terrific ties between school and community in the Alliance area.
The first is the new sculpture in the back parking lot of Alliance High School. The work is a joint effort between the district and MAC Trailer. The school wanted a large, permanent reminder of Aviator pride, a spot to take photos after significant school events, similar to the Victory Bell at Marlington High School.
Enter MAC Trailer, which proposed working directly with AHS’s welding program on the project. According to a Review story, engineers, welders and fabricators at the business started the project. Among them was Korryn Jackson, an Alliance High School welding graduate who has gone on to success at MAC.
The sculpture, a stylized blue A with a red jet at the center, along with the word “Aviators,” then came to the high school for student welders to finish.
The final product, involving Jackson, MAC vice president Dennis Postiy, AHS welding teachers Steve Fuson and Eric Peters, among others, is a visible reminder of the power of collaboration.
A similar change in landscape can be observed at West Branch High School, where an outdoor basketball and volleyball court came to fruition thanks to a variety of sponsors. Among them are TC Energy and Columbia Gas, which donated the land, and fundraising efforts by the girls’ basketball and volleyball programs, which raised $75,000.
The finished courts will be used by the two sports programs, gym classes, and the community during non-school hours.
Other community collaborations are perhaps less visible, but no less impressive. They include a $1,000 scholarship awarded to Cecilia Zucchero, AHS ’22, by the Alliance Chamber of Commerce, and scholarships awarded to Katherine Huntley and Jane Miller, recent graduates of Bio-Med Science Academy in Rootstown and Alliance High School, respectively, by the Carnation City Players. Huntley and Miller were active in CCP productions.
Those three scholarships are only three of dozens upon dozens offered to students from local and area businesses. The Marlington Alumni Association reported scholarships to their students totaling $121,900, and Alliance City Schools reported almost $1 million in scholarship for its graduates.
Not all this money is generated locally, but much of it is, the results of generous endowments and gifts from individuals and businesses, past and present.
All of these examples, and others too numerous to mention here, illustrate the strength of the bond between the community and its schools, a recognition that one cannot exist without the other and that both are enriched by the mutual relationships.
Maybe they will inspire others in the community with ideas or funds to work toward making them a reality.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Our View: Community/school pipeline is very strong in Alliance
