Colfax-Mingo community members and alumni have an excited opportunity to “Pave the Path” to the new stadium. A fundraiser, individuals bricks and pillars can be purchased and personalized to help fund the exciting addition to the district.
“From the beginning, we were trying to figure out ways to commemorate aspects of our communities within our new stadium,” Colfax-Mingo Superintendent Erik Anderson said. “Part of it was, outside of the Mingo building where the football stadium was, there were a couple of brick pillars. We were trying to figure out how to integrate those, potentially, into our stadium. That kind of rolled into a brick project where we are selling bricks and have them engraved.”
The idea developed to about 700 bricks and additional pillars that could be purchased and personalized in a new plaza outside of the stadium. Not originally a part of the stadium project, the plaza was added after seeing similar areas at other school.
“A couple of the schools we visited on our benchmarking tours, they had maybe three to five foot pillars then they had a plaque or were engraved if somebody wanted to purchase that,” Anderson said. “We have already received enough interest that we will be adding the plaza and pillars. It has just kind of come together in that way.”
The fundraiser started just before Christmas and will run through the end of February. Brick are set at $100 and can be personalized with up to two lines of ext and 14 characters per line. Pillars are available at $2,000 each with up to four lines of text at 14 characters per line.
“(We) understand that this is a really difficult time to be asking people for money,” Anderson said. “Understanding that, there is obviously no pressure because the bricks, we will fill them in with all of the bricks instead of having them engraved and they can buy them at a later time, it doesn’t have to be right now.”
By finalizing the drive at the end of February, the district will have time to verify the engravings and have them sent to be completed. The goal is to have the project completed along with the stadium at the end of July to be ready for the 2021-2022 school year.
“We are really excited, they are getting some of the final footings poured so they can start building the press box,” Anderson said. “It is moving. It is hard to see when you drive up to the school, you have to drive around back and there is still a great big, we call it our dirt mountain, as well, blocking to be able to see what is happening. If you drive on old Hwy 6 on the south side of the school, you can see the retaining walls, it looks really neat.”
Once the stadium project in complete, the second phase which includes a new gym and wrestling room will kick off.
“They haven’t started anything with that, this is all on the stadium,” Anderson said. “Approximately, we’re looking at hopefully August 2022 to complete the whole project.”
To participate in the Pave the Path fundraiser, visit colfax-mingo.k12.ia.us and follow the COMMUNITY link to the fundraiser information form. Any question can be directed to Andreson at erik.anderson@colfax-mingo.org.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com