Students give ‘Penny’ a makeover

The pig was undamaged by the fire that hit the school earlier this month.

By ALISON KEMP

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

LORDSTOWN — Penny the Pig is getting a make-over. She’s received a new interior, is getting a fresh coat of paint and will have new carpet.

No, Penny is not a real pig—she’s a piggy bank for Easter Seals collections.

Students from the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, now taking classes at the Gordon D. James Career Center in Lordstown, are repairing vandalism done to Penny after last year’s Easter Seals penny drive.

Repairs to the body of the pig have been in the works for approximately two months, said Scott Rowe, aviation mechanics instructor at MCCTC. His students also were making a ledge inside Penny to prevent any change dropped inside from entering her legs.

It did not matter to Rowe that his students were repairing a pig.

“What mattered was the material,” he said. “It gives the kids something different [to do].”

Repairs are a little behind schedule this year — MCCTC students also repaired the pig three years ago — because of the fire at the school more than two weeks ago, Rowe said.

Then the rain last week kept the pig inside, and she could not be painted.

The painting began Friday and will continue through today.

Special color

Rowe got to shop for the paint for Penny. He said he took a paint chip from her with him but decided he wanted something a little more pink than she had been for the past three years.

“I was looking for pig pink,” he said.

There wasn’t a color with that name he said, but he found what he thinks fits the description.

After worrying about the students and their supplies after the fire, the teachers working on this project called each other to find out the status of Penny. The only injury Penny sustained was a little bit of smoke.

There were jokes of having some smoked or barbecued ham among the teachers, but they were glad she was OK.

Rowe said there were no thoughts of discarding the project because of the fire.

“I don’t think either one of us wanted to leave [Easter Seals] hanging,” he said.

The teachers did not want to leave the project unfinished because they had said they would do it.

“It was one more thing to keep normalcy,” said Melissa Hackett, who was working on Penny with Mary Ann Thoburn, both interactive multi-media instructors at MCCTC. Three of their students were involved with painting Penny.

One student said his teachers asked him if he wanted to paint and he agreed, particularly since the work would be done outside.

Happy painter

“It’s actually really fun. ... I love painting, especially since it’s for a really good cause,” said senior Corey Witherspoon, an interactive multi-media student from West Branch.

Plus, he said this work has kept them busy and from thinking about all that was lost during the fire.

“It’s so nice to see them smiling,” said Jodi Harmon, director of marketing and development at Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana counties’ branch of Easter Seals.

Penny’s due date is June 15, when she begins her tour of the area, collecting change that will help children and adults with disabilities and special needs. Her first stop is the GM fabricating plant in Lordstown.

At one point, Penny was the world’s largest piggy bank, Harmon said.

Easter Seals MTC has owned Penny for four years. She came here from Pittsburgh, where Coldwell Banker was using her, Harmon said.

“We just love her,” Harmon said.

The Don Booth Co. in North Jackson is donating new carpet for Penny, and Fast Signs of Boardman will be adding an Easter Seals sign to each side of Penny’s belly.