Originally published in The Gowanda News on Friday, December 21, 2012.

The boring sea green and yellow tiles in Gowanda Central’s hallways have been painted over with white. A stripe of royal blue winds its way around the school. It may seem like a small change, but the new paintjob, done two summers ago, makes a world of difference. To top it all off, students painted murals just outside the two cafeterias, adding a bit of flair and personality to the school’s many improvements.

“When the hallways in the high school were repainted, the wall outside the cafeteria was left primed and unpainted specifically for a mural on (Principal) Dr. Anderson’s request,” said Mrs. Heather Rydzik, Gowanda High School art teacher. “He came to me with the request that a school pride mural be painted there.”

Rydzik met with Anderson, discussed what should be included in the mural and proposed the project to her then-Advanced Art students

“Out of the nine students in the class, Marcus Hoffman took on the challenge,” Rydzik said.

Hoffman, who plans to study mechanics at Jamestown Community College come January, designed the mural and, with the help of classmates Collin Pfiefer (now a student at Ohio Technical College), current senior Sebastian Luther and then-foreign exchange student Jonas Aldana, completed the mural during the spring 2012 semester at Gowanda.

The highlight of the high school’s mural is Gowanda’s own mascot, the panther. Compared to the other mural located outside the middle school cafeteria, the panthers in the high school mural look fierce.

“Marcus did not want a cute panther,” Rydzik said.

“Collin and I did this mural as our gift to the school from the class of 2012,” Hoffman said. “We know that seniors usually do pranks and all that jazz, but we wanted to do something different.”

The mural near the middle school’s cafeteria features lighter blues and bubbled lettering.

“The mural for the middle school is a drawing that Brian Mohawk (an eighth grade student at the time) did based on the school calendar, which had a cartoon panther tearing through the paper of the cover,” said Mr. Charles Wahl, middle school art teacher.  “He drew it so that it appears to be coming through the wall.”

With students helping to paint 90 percent of the mural, Wahl said it reached completion after three weeks.

Now students heading to lunch can view a wall painted specifically to exude panther pride.

Rydzik has plans for students to collaborate and create things like a tile mosaic for the hallway between the gymnasium and the high school’s main office.

“I’m very excited for how open the school is to artwork in the building!” she said.