Spirit Rock finds home at EHS: School Spirit will fill the school with help of the rock

By By

The Spirit Rock is now in place at Emery High thanks to the kindness and generosity of Wayne and John Nielson as well as Nielson Construction employees.
Student body president, Kaitlin Potter came up with the idea of the Spirit Rock as an extension of the Mighty Emery Student Section fondly known as MESS. The MESS section was on hand at all home games for boys and girls basketball as well as many away games and the state championship games. This student section greatly increased the school spirit. The students in the entire school were given a MESS T-shirt which they wore to each game and many added their own decorative touches to the shirts.
The student section was loud and mighty at the games and greatly increased the confidence of the Emery team on the basketball court. A great feeling of camaraderie was experienced by students, faculty and parents alike.
Potter along with school principal Larry Davis and student council advisor Neal Peacock said, “We here at Emery High School would like to thank Nielson Construction for all of the time, machinery, manpower, and money that you donated so generously in providing us with a huge Spirit Rock. As you know the ‘Rock’ is 11′ by 9′ by 8′ and weighs 75,000 pounds, and was donated, transported by truck, and set in place by crane by your company and with the time and talents of your employees.
“This ‘Rock’ will sit outside the Spartan Center for years to come (probably centuries to come) and will have a large block letter ‘E’ chiseled into it to become a lasting symbol of Emery High School. We have arranged to have permanent lighting placed near it so that on nights of victories, on graduation night, on prom night and on other important occasions we can ‘light the Rock.’ We will encourage students to paint and decorate the ‘Rock’ for important events. Our ultimate hope is that this rock will become a focal point for school spirit at Emery High School
“We could not have done this without your kind donations. We also appreciate the time of your employees and particularly the good work and great attitude of Devin LeRoy.
“Thanks, again for this sacrifice and thanks for all that you and your company do for our schools and communities. You are appreciated,” said Potter, Davis and Peacock.
The school envisions the Spirit Rock to undergo many paint jobs and decorations over the coming years.
The Spirit Rock is in place directly in front of the Spartan Center and visible from the highway. The Spirit Rock has already undergone its first change with the painting of a dragon and other artwork upon the rock by Chris Clarke with the encouragement of his friends, Cory Collard, Darin Hunsinger, and Cameron Jorgensen.
The morning the rock came to its final resting place at Emery High, it was greeted by the student council and other interested students and faculty.
The students watched as the workers carefully attached the cables to the rock and the crane gently lifted the rock off of the trailer. The rock was swung carefully over to the spot prepared by the custodians at Emery High and lowered to the ground.
Later on in the week the custodians poured cement around the base of the rock. The Bunderson Monument company will carve a block E in the rock this summer as the rock awaits the beginning of a new school year in August.