Painted parking spots raise spirits, funds at Cloverdale

Cloverdale High School senior Jaren Rossok creates New England Patriot and Boston Red Sox logos in his spot as Class of 2019 classmate Elliott Williamson paints a Monopoly board "free parking" space in his area of the parking lot in front of CHS.Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

CLOVERDALE -- This probably isn't how Picasso, Monet or even Andy Warhol got started, but more than a dozen Cloverdale High School students have put their artistic abilities on display for all to see in the school's main parking lot.

Turning a square of asphalt into a canvas of creativity, CHS seniors have been allowed to personalize their parking spaces before the school year got under way earlier this week. Hoping to brighten up their back-to-school days and their senior year, they paid an additional $10 on top of their $5 annual parking fee for the painting privilege.

That has resulted in a painted parade of sunsets, cactus and ocean waves, along with senior creations like Jaren Rossok putting New England Patriot and Boston Red Sox logos in his spot and Elliott Williamson choosing a Monopoly board "free parking" space after spotting it online.

Hannah Rady, Cloverdale High School senior class president, begins filling in the colors on her parking space creation featuring a sun scene and ocean waves. Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

Nearby SpongeBob SquarePants and pal Patrick are depicted in almost adjoining spaces as Cloverdale students did their best to create street art within the friendly confines of a parking space.

Student Jake Wilkes even designed his spot around a dolphin logo proclaiming "Dolph park'in." Misplaced apostrophe and all, it is apparently an homage to the rapper Young Dolph, classmates explained.

Senior class president Hannah Rady, who turned her spot into an ocean scene of surf and rising sun, was at the forefront of the idea, initiating conversation with CHS Principal Sonny Stoltz last spring.

The idea was not only would the painted parking space designs bring out students' creativity but the extra money raised would be donated to the Dollars for Scholars program at CHS.

"I know a lot of us had wanted to do it, so we went and had a meeting," Rady explained as she sat on blistering blacktop in mid-day 90-degree heat to paint her spot near the front of the school entrance.

"It makes the parking lot look more colorful," she reasoned. "I feel like it livens up the place a little bit."