Students, GMI join to create walking path at PSS

By MICHAEL KITCH, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Thanks to the diligence of the first-grade classes at Pleasant Street School, which was rewarded by the generosity of GMI Asphalt of Belmont, when pupils return from their spring vacation, the playing field will be encircled by a paved walking path where they can keep themselves fit and enjoy the outdoors.

David Levesque, principal of the school, said that the pupils, teachers and parents have been raising funds for three years and the first-graders brought the project to fruition by writing 60 letters, all embellished with illustrations, to GMI Asphalt explaining how by walking every day they would remain healthy and grow strong.

He noted that last year Pleasant Street School was recognized as the healthiest in state and through events like "Walk to School Wednesday," "Taste Test Tuesday," and regular morning recess has sustained a keen commitment to fitness and wellness among its students.

As the walking path was the work of the first-graders, it was their secret until they shared it with the rest of the school at an assembly yesterday. Warren Colby, with Marc Bourgeois, co-owners of GMI Asphalt, and Bourgois' wife, Renay, first met privately with the first-graders and their teachers — Mary Faria, Allison Walls and Caitlin Friend-Rushton — to answer their questions about the project.

"How big is it?" asked one boy. "One thousand feet long and eight feet wide," Colby replied. "What color is it? asked another. "Black," Colby said. "Can we paint PSS on it?" a girl wondered. "That's a project for you to do with your principal and teachers," Colby answered.

Then the pupils walked single file into the gym, spreading themselves across the front row to the applause of their schoolmates. Levesque reminded the pupils of the school's commitment to encouraging sound health and physical fitness, announced the construction of the walking path and expressed appreciation to the first-graders and gratitude to GMI Asphalt. "When you come back from vacation," he said, "it's all yours."

Colby stressed the role of teamwork in bringing the project about. He said that pupils did their part by eating healthy food and engaging in daily exercise and above all by working together to write the letters. His wife said when she opened the packet she spread all the letters out on a table for everyone in the office to see. "You did an excellent job," she said. "Your letters made me come here today." Colby said that company gives something back to the community each year and "the hard work they did and the healthy eating had me sold."

"Hard work pays off," Colby told the pupils. "It's an important lesson."

Warren and Renay Colby of GMI partnered with the three first grade classes at Pleasant Street School to build a walking path around the playing field where the children, who attend the the school chosen healthiest in the state in 2015, pride themselves on eating plenty of healthy food and getting lots of physical exercise. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Michael Kitch)