Ross Art Club students design, paint mural on North Street

Members of the Fremont Ross Art Club were given an opportunity to merge and turn their ideas into a mural now on display on North Street across from the Sandusky County Fairgrounds.

Bradley Scherzer, Ross art teacher and club adviser, said Jarrod Hunt, CEO of Wynn-Reeth/RSS, contacted him about painting a mural on a building the business recently purchased.

"He was willing to foot the bill," Scherzer said, adding it was a perfect situation for the kids to paint a mural. Hunt even arranged to have the exterior wall prepped for the students to paint.

Took two weeks to sketch mural plan

The art club adviser said his club members worked on sketching the mural for about two weeks. 

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"The students in the art club collaborated on the design," he said. "The prompt we were given was it should be meaningful to the community."

Scherzer said his club members chose not to emphasize the Fremont connection but instead concentrated on an Ohio theme with designs for cardinals and carnations — the state bird and flower and, of course, "Ohio" in their assorted designs.

The club adviser took the various student-artwork ideas and then merged them together using the Photoshop computer program so "they look like it belongs together." 

Ross students have worked on other local murals

Students participating in the project were:  

Brianna Boskovich, Zoe Kerr, Adrianna Lape, Brenda Mejia, Mason Gann, Desiree Risner, Mason Ranker,   Nicco Ruiz, Jaylee Scherer, Yasmit Toledo, and Connor White.

This is not the first time Ross high school students have been involved in local murals.

"Art Club has done murals in the past," Scherzer said. His students along with those from St. Joseph High School participated in the Share and Care mural, he said. 

Ross Art Club members have also been involved in the Paint a Plow project sponsored annually by the Ohio Department of Transportation where the blades on state plows are painted before they hit the roads in the winter. 

As for the mural on the Wynn-Reeth building, the students had a near perfect week of 80-degree weather to sketch, block in color and then finish the detail outlines of their big design.

"It's perfect," Scherzer said about the weather, "except it was in direct sunlight."

The teacher said his students stayed hydrated drinking multiple bottles of water while painting after school. 

He also pointed out that Julie Manton, a Day Services Supervisor from Wynn-Reeth, was their main contact on the project and that she also helped in painting the mural alongside the students.

Wynn-Reeth wants to be involved with community

"I did do some painting," Manton said. "I kind of jumped in when others left."

She said this project was all Hunt's idea. Manton said the company leader's aim is to make sure the businesses are involved with the community. She said going to the art club was a good match as the CEO's daughter is a Ross alumna and she had taken Scherzer's class while at Ross. 

Manton said this new Wynn-Reeth/RSS property will be a remote monitoring center that will provide security services for their operations. 

The students — with backup from Scherzer — had the mural completed in seven hours during three afternoons last week.

rbrooks@gannett.com

419-334-1059