Graduating students leave their mark with in the halls of St. Marguerite School in Tooele

ourtesy photo/Lorena Needham

+ Enlarge

Eighth-graders paint murals on the walls of St. Marguerite School's hallways.C

TOOELE — The 8th graders of St. Marguerite Catholic School will be moving on to high school and leaving the familiar walls of their old school. But these walls will not be the same. On March 27, they finished painting 10 murals, one for each graduating student, on the walls of the school, which “will allow our graduating students to remember our school and feel like it was theirs,” said Lorena Needham, principal of St. Marguerite.

Needham, who said she wanted to find a tradition for the 8th graders and a way for each class to make its mark on the school, came up with the idea for the murals. This year is the first time that the murals have been made, but the plan is to have each year’s graduating class paint murals on the walls, she said.

This year’s murals were painted in hallways outside the school’s science lab and library.

While some schools can afford to raise funds or make donations as alumni to show their support for their school, “our families don’t have the means to do that,” Needham said. Instead, students can do something even more lasting and impactful with a unique mural, she said. These murals will convey “heritage and ownership and pride,” she said.

The murals can serve as a sign of faith as well, Needham said. Each mural is a variation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which reference the visions seen by the patron saint of the school, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.

“My Irish ancestors often painted images of the Sacred Heart,” Needham said. “I have a painting of one that was handed down to me. It is more than 100 years old. I often look at it asking Jesus for mercy and hope. I thought perhaps that by inviting our youth to contemplate the Sacred Heart of Jesus, they might learn to pray in this way, too.”

The ten 8th graders each got something different out of the experience.

 “I loved just being able to draw on the wall!” said Tyler Davis.

For Taylor Prosser, he enjoyed “coming up with a cool and new idea.”

Jasmine Campos loved “(painting the murals) with all my friends.”

“I liked seeing all the different takes on the Sacred Heart,” Cecilia Child said. Marissa Krish agreed, adding that “We all started with something (similar), but when we were done … we had something pretty different.”

For Lizi Child, the best part was “knowing that we left a mark” on the school.

The goal is that these students and future students who take part in this tradition will feel the same as Lizi  Child, Needham said. She hopes that the students left a piece of themselves behind in St. Marguerite that they can look back on fondly, she said. “My hope is that these images will inspire prayer, ownership of our school and build up our community of faith by reminding us of how much we are loved by God.