The 136-year-old little red schoolhouse that’s the public face of St. Peter Lutheran School in Schaumburg will be living up to its traditional description as the new school year begins next week after volunteers from two local businesses provided a new coat of paint.
The paint itself was donated by the Sherwin-Williams store in Hoffman Estates and applied by volunteers from Schaumburg-based Trend Building Services.
Both businesses have ties to St. Peter Lutheran School through people who either went there themselves or enrolled their children.
Trend’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Anthony Kahl began attending as a fourth grader in 1984. CEO George Perschon began sending his kids to the school in 1998.
Trend Building Services and Sherwin-Williams are volunteering their time and donating paint, respectively, to paint the old red schoolhouse on the campus of St. Peter Lutheran Church & School. Pictured front row from left are Sherwin-Williams’ Justin Roberts, Principal Julie Messina, Trend’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Anthony Kahl, and Trend Vice President of Operations Paul Perschon. Back row from left are Sherwin-Williams’ Joe Meck, Trend Co-owner Mike Skulstad, and Trend CEO George Perschon.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
Sherwin-Williams’ personal tie to the school is through store manager Justin Roberts’ wife Paige, who attended under her maiden name Longerman.
Principal Julie Messina, who’s beginning her second year at St. Peter, said the building was clearly in need of a face lift, and the donation and volunteers making it happen are most welcome.
“It had been over 10 years, so the paint was starting to flake and it wasn’t looking so pretty,” she said. “You can’t see the rest of our school from the road, so this is how most people think of St. Peter.”
Francisco Capo of Trend Building Services puts a coat of paint on the old red schoolhouse on the campus of St. Peter Lutheran Church & School in Schaumburg.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
Furthermore, as the place where preschool and youth groups are housed, the schoolhouse creates an important first impression about school in general among the youngest students, Messina added.
“I’m looking forward to the first day of school and the first-day-of-school photos,” she said.
Messina noted the schoolhouse was originally painted white in the late 19th century, but it’s been red for so long that it’s been called the red school for as long as anyone can remember.
Kahl said he’s on the campus often enough that no one else needed to point out the need to him.
Francisco Capo of Trend Building Services in Schaumburg puts a coat of paint on the old red schoolhouse on the campus of St. Peter Lutheran Church & School in Schaumburg.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
“You could see it throughout the years that the school was needing some TLC,” he said.
Though Messina never got as far as an estimate of what the work would have cost through a normal contract, she said those funds are still available for curriculum programming thanks to the workers’ volunteerism.
The work began last week and is expected to be completed later this week.