Investing In The Community Through A Vinyl Project At Local Elementary School

It Started With Bold Week

In the business of life, we sometimes forget that we are a part of our overall community. It’s easy to do when you are already being pulled in so many different directions. This past year, we started attending a new church and during a week in August they have something called “Bold Week.”  It’s a week where several of the local churches in the community get together and go into the 6 local schools in that part of the city and they help teachers get things together- they clean, they paint, whatever is needed- they do it.  They feed teachers and administration and help them prepare for students and get the school year off on the right foot.

The goal of Bold Week is to show the community that the local church as a whole- not one denomination or another- is coming together to serve the community.   They invest into the community by serving schools which in turn serves students, which can get their school year started off on a positive step.  It can change the direction of a child’s life.

It never occurred to me that the schools might need help getting all of this together or that there may be ways that I could help serve the local school to make a positive impact.  I know the statement sounds sort of dumb- but the fact is life gets crazy and we overlook the simple things.

 

A Vinyl Idea

You’ve probably seen on Facebook, Pinterest, or even the internet in general school bathrooms where positive sayings and affirmations are being applied to stall doors with either paint or vinyl.  It brightens up the school bathrooms and also is there to encourage students.

I came across a post about it and thought it was brilliant.  I debated on asking my child’s school about doing it there but I wasn’t even sure if they had stalls there (or if they were individual bathrooms).  This school is not in the same community where we attend church and wasn’t one of the six that were being served at.

Self Confidence is something that I still struggle with but I sucked it up and emailed the school to ask if they’d be open to having it done.   To my shocking surprise withing thirty minutes of me emailing the principal emails me back and said: “We were actually supposed to have someone do this but they had to cancel at the last minute.”  I let her know I’d be more than happy to do it for them and we scheduled a meeting.

Come to find out, there were 25 bathroom stalls, then shared individual bathrooms for Kindergarten and First Grade at the school.  A piece of me wondered what I was getting into but, then I thought- I’m up for the challenge!

Quotes, Cutting and Weeding Lots Of Vinyl

Over the next few weeks, I went through lots of quotes and affirmations to find the ones I felt would work best.  Making sure that the fonts could be read by younger kids so that it wasn’t just “pretty” and served a purpose.  I don’t know exactly how many hours went into it, but it was a lot.  Luckily,  I found a lot of really great quotes at lovesvg.com.  I created some, which took a while and then others I was able to edit png images through Cricut Design Studio.

If you don’t have a Cricut but are a crafty person- these things are amazing!  The older ones you were much more limited because you had to use cartridges but for the new ones the possibilities are endless!

You want to use permanent vinyl which can be found at Cricut.com or also at 651vinyl.com.

A Few Vinyl Quotes/Affirmations That Were Cut

 

My daughter helped with the weeding process on some of the quotes.  At first, I didn’t tell her what we were doing it for but then I wanted her to know that we were doing it as a way of investing in the school. I want her to know she should take pride in her school and that we see it as an important thing.   There are many different ways to convey this to your child, this was at the moment, the way we were able to convey it to ours.

 

 

Installing Vinyl On Bathroom Stalls

 

This Batman one was my favorite in the sense of the quote meaning.  I have a picture of BatKid in our walk-in closet as a reminder to myself that what I Do defines me.

 

 

My husband and another fantastic mom helped in installing the vinyl.  It took a few hours but we all agree it was well worth it.  I hope that it inspires a child.  Maybe if their day is a little rough it can make them smile.  Maybe it will serve as a reminder to them.  It may be later down the road when they look back and remember it being there that they see someone hoped to brighten their day.

We can’t fix everything, and we don’t have time to.  But it’s important to stop and realize that we can still do something, no matter how small.