During the summer of the pandemic, what’s a high school student to do?

Combining fun and purpose, Lily Fletcher spent much of her summer using her artistic flare to create a colorful and inviting classroom for Gilmour Elementary School reading students.

A sophomore at Kingfisher High School, Fletcher is the daughter of Jamie and Teresa Fletcher and has a brother, Dexter, who is in fifth grade at Kingfisher Middle School.

Taking art classes for two years under KHS art teacher Summer Scott, Fletcher recently used some of her skills to bring joy to Sheila Redwine’s reading students.

With a new teaching position as the reading specialist for Gilmour and new classroom, Sheila Redwine wanted to create a special place for the students she would be working with to boost their reading levels.

Redwine has taught English to Kingfisher Middle School students for 26 years. Her husband of 36 years, Mark, is also a teacher in Kingfisher Public Schools.

They have two sons, Heath and wife Laci, and Drew and wife Lesley, as well as five grandchildren.

Redwine said she wanted to transform the drab-looking classroom into a fun place the children would enjoy coming to.

While talking with co-worker and middle school secretary Teresa Fletcher, Redwine questioned whether some of the high school art students might be interested in helping transform her classroom with their artistic abilities.

Fletcher knew someone who might be interested - her daughter, Lily, - that is if she agreed to do it, of course.

Her daughter was on board and after talking with Redwine, they came up with a plan which included a wall quote, mural and complete transformation of the ceiling tiles.

Fletcher then went to work.

“Mrs. Redwine was one of my favorite teachers in middle school and I thought it would be fun to do that for her,” Fletcher said.

The initial step was to draw a grid system and number the ceiling tiles, making note of the position of lights, air vents and the intercom speaker so they could be reconstructed to create a painted sky.

Fletcher then took the ceiling tiles home to begin painting blue sky and overlapping clouds, laid out in a grid in her garage. As the most time consuming portion of the project, Fletcher said she would paint four or five tiles in a night a few evenings of the week when she was home during the summer.

Approaching the start of the school year with work still to complete, Fletcher said, “It was fun and a little stressful the last night, but I finished the last eight tiles that night.”

The ceiling tiles were installed and all that was left to totally transform the room was to paint the mural which covered an entire wall and part of another.

On the weekend before school started, Fletcher spent about 10 hours painting the Dr. Seuss-themed mural on the classroom walls.

The mural exploded with bright and colorful puff ball trees implanted in a berm of green grass, with signs pointing the way “to here and to there.”

A Dr. Seuss quote chosen by Redwine is central to the mural and reads: “You can find magic wherever you look, sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”

A bonus feature of the mural’s quote is the vinyl lettering, which Fletcher said could be removed and replaced if Redwine wanted to change the quote at a later time.

Hoping to surprise Redwine, Fletcher said she didn’t tell her when she planned to paint the mural.

“We just came in the weekend before school started and painted the wall, hoping to surprise her when she came in on Monday,” Fletcher said.

Mission accomplished.

“I was so surprised when I came in and am very pleased with the way the classroom turned out,” Redwine said.

The students love it and will comment on how pretty it is and how it makes them feel happy, she said.

Except for some help with the prep work and cutting out the vinyl lettering by her grandma and mom, Fletcher was responsible for all the creativity and artistry of the painting.

“It’s awesome,” Scott said, impressed with the work of her student.

“She is super talented, works really hard in class and has gotten more confident in her artistic abilities.”

Creating a fun and engaging classroom for the children was what she wanted, Redwine said, and Fletcher definitely accomplished that.

The ceiling is so bright and ties together with the outdoor scene, adding so much to the classroom, she said.

Many students are reaping the benefits of Fletcher’s work.

Reading is a skill that requires consistency, Redwine said, and with the pandemic’s closure of schools in March, the number of students reading below grade level has increased.

The students in Redwine’s classroom are there to receive additional assistance with reading and she wanted it to be a happy place for them.

Apparently it worked.

“A pre-k student came in during testing and said, ‘I feel like I’m outside in here and it makes me smile,’” Redwine said.

Most children know of Dr. Seuss and students will comment about a Dr. Seuss movie they have watched or how just being there makes them smile, Redwine said.

When asked if she plans to do more murals, Fletcher said, “It was a lot of fun and it would be cool if I could do more.”

Redwine recognized it took a lot of Lily’s time and dedication to complete the project.

“Lily has a lot of creativity and I’m happy she was willing to share her time and talent to do this for the children,” she said.