By Howard Greninger
TERRE HAUTE — When snow covers Vigo County roads this winter, some drivers may think “Snow Days Rock” if they see one of 14 unique paintings on the plows of county snow trucks.
Ten schools, five elementary and five middle schools, competed by painting plows as part of an inaugural snowplow challenge through the Vigo County Highway Department.
County Commissioners and Sheriff Jon Marvel on Tuesday judged the painted plows at a county highway garage at 3250 E. Haythorne Ave., with the winning schools receiving $100 for their school’s art department.
The county highway department is funding the awards.
After tying twice in voting, Meadows Elementary School’s “Snow Days Rock” and Farrington Grove’s “Farrington Grove Tigers — Where the Best Become Better” were declared co-winners among five elementary schools. Sarah Scott Middle School won in the middle-school category with a plow that included reindeer made from student hand prints.
“When Commissioner [President] Paul Mason called, we thought it was a good idea. It gets the name of the school corporation out into the community and is a good class project for the kids in the art classes, as you can see by the detail on several of the snowplows,” said Dan Tanoos, superintendent of the Vigo County School Corp.
“I think it shows students’ creativity and also shows that a lot of teamwork and effort has gone into the project,” Tanoos said. “I think one of the funniest ones is ‘snow days rock,’ which I am sure as they were doing that they were thinking about the possibility of snow coming and would the superintendent drive and call off school if I see their snowplow out there on the road.”
Commissioner Judith Anderson said the county plans to make the snowplow competition an annual event. The county has 20 snowplows that can be painted. This year, 14 plows were painted, with West Vigo and Sarah Scott middle schools each painting three plows. Anderson said she hopes to get more schools involved, so that each school can paint one plow.
“We want to make the children aware of how important our Highway Department is to their safety on winter days, with snow and ice,” Anderson said. “Plus, it allows students a chance to look for their plows out on the county roads” during the winter.
“Our highway superintendent is a little antsy about the timing this year, so we plan to move this up to September next year. That will give the schools more time to work on it” and the Highway Department does not have to worry about getting plows back in time for winter, Anderson said.
The Highway Department took a plow to each school for painting. The participating elementary schools are Terre Town, Farrington Grove, Meadows, Ouabache and Sugar Grove. Participating middle schools include Chauncey Rose, West Vigo, Woodrow Wilson, Sarah Scott and Honey Creek.
A couple of plows had large eyes and big teeth painted on them. The Terre Town Tigers had two large tiger eyes amid a colorful background. Chauncey Rose had orange flames painted over a light blue background.
“We had such a short notice to schools this year, I think next year will be bigger and better,” said Commissioner Paul Mason.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
