Schools

Rockwood Parents Spruce Up Eureka Locker Rooms

At a meeting July 18, Rockwood School Board President Bill Brown thanked the club for putting in the "seat equity and elbow grease."

The boys’ locker room at Eureka High School recently received a thorough cleaning, a fresh coat of paint and new benches, all courtesy of the football program’s booster club.

Eureka Athletics Director Jason Green said it’s a big improvement to the area, and one that will have a tangible benefit for students in the fall.

“It gives them a sense of pride to walk into something that is jazzed up a little,” he said.

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Wally Wuelling, a parent and member of the booster club, told Patch the overhaul was an effort to address the kind of issues that have long been a point of contention for some parents and students. The locker rooms were built in 1971, when the school’s population was much smaller, and have had problems with overcrowding and accessibility.

“I went to Coach Shelton with the idea to clean and paint the locker room last year, because of the elevated levels of staph infection that existed,” he said.

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However, Wuelling put the project on hold after the school district’s administration told him they would take care of making the improvements, which Wuelling said then never happened.

A $1.6 million renovation of the Eureka locker rooms was one of the projects included in the $38.4 million bond issue that failed at the polls this spring.

At a meeting July 18, Rockwood School Board President Bill Brown thanked the club for putting in the “seat equity and elbow grease."

Brown added that while some people were disappointed the district had not done more, he was grateful for the parents and community for stepping forward.

Wuelling and his wife recruited volunteers for the old fashioned clean-up through modern methods, emailing their membership and posting messages on Facebook.

“We had 25 kids of all ages, some high school football players, and 20 adults show up,” Wuelling said. The project took primarily took place over the Fourth of July weekend.

The volunteers started by hitting the floors and the lockers with bleach and a power washing and then began painting – a lot of painting. In total, they used 14 gallons of paint to cover the lockers, walls, equipment room, doors and door frames.

They also made repairs to damaged lockers and installed the new benches. Engraved with words “Eureka High School,” Wuelling said they included high quality, anti-bacterial bench tops donated by Steve Kistner of Spec-Rite Designs.

Other donated items included four gallons of purple industrial enamel paint from the Sherwin Williams Store in Eureka, four gallons of white wall paint from the Rockwood School District and new locker name tag magnets from Chris Albert.

Wuelling himself threw in painting and power washing equipment while Eureka Football coach provided fuel for the troop of volunteers in the form of 10 pizzas.

“Countless hours of work were put in and many thanks go out to all that participated,” Wuelling said. “Especially Mr. Dave Walls, Rhonda and Emily Kloeppel, Matthew Wuelling, Diana and Jasper Ables, who went above and beyond in their volunteer efforts.”

The locker room is used by the high school’s athletes throughout the year, including football and wrestling.  There is a separate facility that students access for physical education classes, Green said.


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