At the beginning of the school year, six freshmen asked art teacher Heathyr Shaw if De Soto High School had an art club that they could participate in. Shaw told them no, but promised to let them know if any outside opportunities arose.

That opportunity began April 5, as Shaw and the group of students left school to go to Pegah’s Family Restaurant in Shawnee to paint a mural.

“We wanted to start something that interested us, which was art, so we asked Mrs. Shaw and one of the opportunities was to do [paint] Pegah’s,” freshman Kayla Bishop said.

The project was formulated last semester when the owner of Pegah’s contacted DHS.

“At the end of last semester, our athletic director was contacted by Pegah’s, because we have a relationship with him for fundraisers and things like that,” Shaw said. “He wanted to make it [Pegah’s] kind of like an Applebee’s type of situation, where we have artwork and student jerseys featuring the local schools.”

The students and Shaw met with the owner of Pegah’s to discuss the mural and refine the plans.

“We went over to Pegah’s a few months ago and showed him our design ideas and had a meal with him,” Shaw said.

Art students from Bonner Springs High School drove to Pegah’s as well in order to paint their own mural representing their school.

The project experienced setbacks from its original plan last semester.

“It was postponed a couple of times because we had to get on the same page as the art students from Bonner who were doing theirs so they [the murals] went well together and didn’t clash,” Shaw said. “It was also postponed because of one of the ice days.”

Bishop says she was “excited to have the opportunity” to paint the mural, as she hadn’t done anything like it before.

“It’s something new,” Bishop said.

The Pegah’s mural creates a unique way to display DHS’ school spirit and share it with the community.

Wildcat Photo