Walkway cemented in tradition

POLSON - The idea for the Polson Stadium Walkway came all the way from the state of Ohio, in the mind of Buck Young nearly 13 years ago.

Young, who was a resident of the Buckeye state before he moved to Polson, noticed a park in his hometown of Newark that had a WWI doughboy statue with bricks laid around it with the names of the veterans.

That stuck in Young's mind and when he came out west to Montana. He thought that it would be a good idea to help raise funds for the Polson High School Athletic Booster Club. So starting 11 years ago, Young, along with the help of Dick Graven, started laying the foundation for the brick walkway by allowing community members to purchase the bricks with personalized names whether it be the name of students as a graduation present, dedications to a sports team's season or passed away loved ones.

A lot of businesses also chipped in and purchased bricks for the walkway, Young said, who also credited the efforts of Denise Amundson, who handled the paperwork for ordering and receiving the bricks.

Since the project started, the numbers of personalized bricks has grown so big that Young has lost count of how many personalized bricks have been laid, but he estimates the number to be in the hundreds.

"It was originally to buy lighting for the stadium," Nancy Hemphill said, the president of the Polson Athletic Booster Club.

Young, who has built patios in Ohio, gave the bricks a sandy foundation when he laid them down but four years ago a heavy rain came by and damaged the walkway. While the bricks themselves were fine and weren't washed away, the walkway itself wasn't in good condition.

"One end of it sunk, and it didn't look too great," Young said.

The high school principal at the time, Rick Rafter, took action and had school maintenance crews put in a permanent concrete foundation.

"He liked the idea of the walkway, he didn't like the idea of it sinking," Young said.

Since then, the school has taken over the operation of laying the bricks. The booster club still operates the orders and publicity of the project, which has largely become active around the time of year that students graduate from school and parents buy their kids the personalized bricks.

"We try to keep it going," said Young, who likes to advertise the brick project periodically. "It's a good idea, people just tend to forget about it."

While the booster club usually waits around for a large order of personalized bricks before ordering them. Those interested can call Buck Young at 883-1676, or pick up applications for the personalized bricks at the Polson library, or any of the banks in town.