By Scott Monroe smonroe@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
WINSLOW -- It started out as a small fundraiser for high school students in the Spanish Club to help pay for a trip to Costa Rica.
click image to enlarge
PRIDE: Teacher Trenton Oliphant, fourth from right, and members of the Winslow Spanish Club hold a quilt filled with autographs and T-shirts from Winslow coaches that will be raffled to raise money for a club trip to Costa Rica. From left are Madeleine Daily, Scott Gilbert, Owen Dutil, Michael McMann, Oliphant, Christine Parrilli, Rachel Pelletier and Molly Schassberger.
Staff photo by David Leaming
COACHES ON THE QUILT
The following current and former Winslow coaches are featured in the Spanish Club quilt. They either donated a coaching T-shirt or autographed a shirt: Deb Albert, Brenda Beckwith, Christine Bertolaccini, Steve Blood, Peter Bolduc, Mary Beth Bourgoin, Robert Browne, Lee Bureau, Dan Camann, Sean Carey, Bruce Chase, Andrew Cyr, David Deas, Beth Fisher, Kevin Fredette, Kevin Giguere, Scott Giroux, Rick Hendsbee, Brian Hutchinson, Sean Keenan, Eric Lachance, Wally LaFountain, Carrie Larrabee, Dave Lindie, Wes Littlefield, Corey Lessard, Lori Loftus, Zach Longyear, Linda McCann, Joanne McKenzie, Kristal Michaud, Tom Nadeau, Jack Nivison, Bob Nixon, Mark Pelletier, Diane Plourde, Jim Poulin, Rod Record, Gene Roy, Mike Siviski, Mike Smith, Trisha Souviney, Bruce Stafford, Melissa Turner, Chuck Underwood, Harold Violette, Robin Weed, Ray Week, Jeff Wickman and Scott Wood.
It's still that, but it's become so much more: a visual testament to Winslow's coaches, past and present, spanning some 60 years.
It's an orange and black quilt, 6.6 feet by 8.2 feet, made of 50 cotton T-shirts, made into 30 blocks, featuring 60 autographs and shirts from local legends of coaching, from 1958 to 2010.
It's called "Raider Pride," in reference to the Black Raiders nickname of Winslow sports teams.
"This thing has really exceeded my biggest expectations," said Trenton Oliphant, a foreign language teacher at Winslow High School who's guiding the club. "It ties in six decades of history."
The Spanish Club's seven students have been planning a trip to Costa Rica for March 24 to April 1, costing an estimated $1,700 per student.
They had tried bake sales, and other events, but wondered what else they could do.
Last summer, Susan Gilbert, a parent of one of the students, offered to make a memorabilia quilt to raffle off. At first, they planned to collect maybe 16 to 20 shirts or so.
They got more than twice that.
"It mushroomed," Gilbert said. "The project was like opening Pandora's box. It became a very emotional, inspiring project, and it wasn't intended to be that."
Gilbert and another student's mother, Janet Pelletier, went about collecting the coaches' shirts, and it was all put together by professional quilter Marcia O'Donnell, of Albion. It was completed in November and is valued at about $600.
Spanish Club students, meanwhile, have been selling raffle tickets for the quilt, mainly by publicly displaying it at different Winslow sporting events. The quilt was on display Saturday night at a home hockey game at the Sukee Arena and $16 worth of raffle tickets were sold.
Among the quilt's squares is an athletic letter and football appliqué from Harold "Tank" Violette's first undefeated season in 1976.
"The quilt turned into a Winslow athletics history, with so many stories, so many people involved," Gilbert said. "It will be a treasure to whoever wins the raffle. Each of the 30 squares, some of which are pieced from multiple shirts, has its own story to tell."
Wally LaFountain, 84, said he was happy to donate a shirt and signature for the quilt. He came to Winslow in 1958 and would go on to coach for nearly 30 years, on and off, for varsity football, baseball and wrestling.
In fact, he started the town's wrestling program when he arrived, and it was among the first programs in the state. LaFountain recalled that the Winslow wrestling team traveled to Dexter, and "it was the first wrestling match in eastern Maine."
These days, he assists with the basketball team.
"There's a unique thing going on here," LaFountain said. "I've been here 52 years with Winslow High School stuff and some schools change coaches every couple of years, and Winslow's had three coaches who've been around 52 years, which is a rarity. There's something to be said for continuity. I'm coaching grandchildren of the people I've had when I first got here."
His granddaughter, Beth Fisher, is also among the coaches; her teams played field hockey and softball.
Jack Nivison, 76, who coached junior high baseball and basketball starting in the '50s and is a former athletic director, said he was humbled to be asked to contribute to the quilt.
"I think it's a great idea for a good cause," he said. "A lot of the kids come through the school system and associate themselves with some of these names on the quilt."
Spanish Club member Owen Dutil, who plays baseball, thinks the quilt has turned out "really cool," because "it's a part of Winslow's history."
And, it's gone beyond a simple fundraiser, Oliphant said: "The quilt represents a lot of local pride and many years of sports tradition in Winslow."
The drawing for the quilt is Feb. 18.
Raffle tickets cost two for $3 and 10 for $10. They can also be purchased by calling Gilbert at 873-9944.
Scott Monroe -- 861-9239