The Wildwood Wildcats Booster Club recently dedicated to Wildwood Middle High School a special atrium entryway and a bronze wildcat mascot statue sitting on a concrete pedestal.
Speakers at the event included Principal Richard Hampton and Sumter School Superintendent Richard Shirley. About 75 people attended the dedication, including boosters, school staff, teachers and students. Sally Moss represented the school board, with Wildwood Commissioners Marcos Flores and Joe Elliott representing the city. And all of the contractors who made the project become a reality were presented with customized certificates of appreciation.
Booster Club President Peter Beinetti said the project had been in the works for about eight months. He said the vision for it came from his wife, Kathy, who felt that the entryway to the school was very drab and uninviting.
The project got under way when the Beinettis started meeting with school staff to determine needs and priorities the club could address. They expected to hear that things like lab equipment might be at the top of the priority list, but they kept hearing the words “spirit” and “pride” during the discussions.
The Beinettis remembered that when their children were in high school, they had a large cougar as their mascot – right in the school’s entryway. That started a search for the perfect wildcat mascot for the WMHS entryway, which eventually led to a company in Maryland that offered a reasonably priced bronze statue on their website.
The Beinettis called the company and discovered that a wildcat statue was available immediately because another school had ordered it but couldn’t pay for it. It was sitting on a shelf, covered in dirt and grime, but the company was willing to let it go for half-price at $7,500.
The 400-pound statue was shipped free to Wildwood-based PSL Construction owners Sean and Justine Williams, who kept it in their warehouse until it was presented to Hampton in a surprise ceremony at the homecoming football game last year.
Peter Beinetti said many people played huge roles in bringing the project together, including:
- Booster Club members who raised the $7,500 to pay for the statue;
- Wildwood Mayor Ed Wolf, a former teacher and coach, who made a generous donation;
- Christy and Doug Smiley, of Tangent Media in Wildwood;
- Cindy Reed, of Parady Financial Group;
- Terry Yoder, owner of T&D Companies, for donating and constructing the pedestal;
- Karl Kimmons and Ron Coleman, of DZ Concrete, for donating the concrete;
- Charlie Flores, of T&D Concrete, for serving as the project supervisor;
- Mike Stokes, of Stokes Custom Stone, for donating the stone base of the pedestal;
- Mike Peck, of Wildwood’s Royal Decor Company, for staining the entryway’s old concrete floor, sanding and staining the entryway doors bright blue and trimming the windows in blue and white paint, which represents the school’s colors;
- Kevin Burke, owner of Wildwood’s KB Landscaping, for donating large pots to hold artificial trees;
- Jason Stubbs, of Wildwood’s Decades Home Décor, for donating the artificial trees;
- Don and Nicole Drake, of Wildwood’s D2 Fabrications, for painting the words “Dream, Believe, Achieve” above the exit archway; and
- The Sumter County School District for placing spotlights in the ceiling shining on the wildcat statue.
