If you walk or drive past Westgate Elementary School on 220th Street Southwest in Edmonds, you’ll find the fence lining the street covered with hundreds of plywood fish, painted in a rainbow of colors.
The fish went up on the fence on Thursday, May 7, as the culmination of project organized by fourth-grade teacher Peggy Lindquist.
The project aimed to teach students to be mindful of the runoff that goes into creek habitats of salmon.
Lindquist read a newspaper article about a similar project in Bellingham and contacted the Canadian group, Stream of Dreams Murals Society, that organized it.
More than a decade ago in Burnaby, British Columbia, Byrne Creek was devastated by toxic chemicals that came through stormwater drains, killing 5,000 fish, according to the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Web site.
Activist Joan Carne, artist Louise Towell and others decided to remember the fish that died in that tragedy by educating school children about runoff into watersheds. The murals of fish painted by the children serve as memorials of the fish that died, Carne said.
On Thursday, parent Michelle Nye helped affix the plywood fish to the fence outside the school. Her two children, first-grader Dominick and sixth-grader Caitlin, participated in the project and she did as well.
“I painted a fish,” Nye said. “They painted fish. They had a great time.”
The project ties in closely with the science curriculum at the school, said principal Rob Baumgartner, who stopped by to watch the fish go up on the wire fence.
“The whole thing is teaching kids that they have to be conservators of our waterways,” Lindquist said. “It really is a community effort.”
Fourth-grade students at Westgate raise salmon from eggs obtained from the Issaquah Fish Hatchery. They released their salmon into Willow Creek in late March.
After doing the legwork on the mural project, Lindquist, along with her husband, John, cut out the fish on a band saw using eight different patterns supplied by Stream of Dreams. More than 400 students, staff members, parents, community members and workers from the Willow Creek Hatchery painted fish on May 5 and 6.
Westgate’s Parent Staff Organization contributed $1,000 to the project and a grant worth more than a $1,000 from the Hubbard Family Foundation also helped. Seattle Paint Supply donated exterior latex paint and Limback Lumber in Ballard donated the plywood.
The project also tied in with the 50th year anniversary of the school. An anniversary celebration will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 15 at Westgate.
For more information on Stream of Dreams, go to www.streamofdreams.org or call 604-434-4304.
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