The year 2025 was Eaton High School’s first time participating in painting the spots. With the old high school parking being mostly on the road, it simply wasn’t even thought about. The campus monitor, Michael Brisendine, said, “They parked on the street, you know, they’re on Cottonwood, on Park, on First Street, but there was never any place that students really parked.” Not to mention that the new high school was only built three years ago, with the class of 2026 being its first full four years in the building. Painting the parking lot has not been allowed because the admin decided that it was best to treasure the fresh new start for as long as they could, and they held on to the idea tighter after the first senior prank in the new building completely trashed many classrooms.
It was, however, time to show what it meant to the students and community to participate in this traditional activity. Many families and friends would come by on the morning of Sept. 13 to help paint these spots. Senior Callie Wakkinen said, “A lot of people have crews of people helping them. Like at least one other person on their spot. So my advice is to definitely get people to help you because it’s quite literally almost impossible to do it by yourself.”
Art teacher, Payton Sporleder, ran around painting from eleven in the morning to one in the afternoon. She said that even though students might’ve picked a simple design, it would take a lot of time to finish their design. Sporleder was very grateful to be able to help as many students as possible and noticed that when they sign up to be a part of this, they must make sure they have time because it was like a full-time commitment.
The only difficulty people had was the problem of getting the paint at Ace. “When they ran out, they made us get a more expensive kind and they discounted it, but it was still more expensive to get the discounted kind, which was frustrating because then it was like five more dollars from the other kind even discounted. So it cost a lot of money because the school didn’t let them know that seniors were painting,” Wakkinen said.
Painting senior parking lot spots developed a core memory, as students will remember this activity for years down the road. The Class of 2026 has now begun to pave a new path for the future seniors as they are now able to design their own spots, and the district can begin a new tradition. “I know traditions always change and stuff like that but I do think that we’re still holding up to the equal values that I started here within the sense of taking ownership for your things, being excellent at what you do and leaving your mark. I think that this is a very unique way that the seniors get to leave their mark by painting their spots and being who they are in those spots,” said Sporleder.
