The city of Wildwood, the Student Route 66 Taskforce and the Route 66 Roadside Project Committee are pleased to announce that Cheryl Rock’s fourth-hour 3D Modeling Class at LaSalle Springs Middle has taken first place in the Student Design Competition for the future park.
Congratulations to Garrett Anders, Preston Field, Charles Simons, Zach Graves-Wilken, Trevor Sanson, Sammi Brown, Brooke Dammrich, Cole Thornton, Keith Major and Kaiden Pullen!
The winning entry consisted of two Route 66 signs with monkey bars in between, a platform with a slide and a climbing wall on the back of the sign.
SWT Design, the project consultant, will be incorporating this design idea into the “photo op” element for the future park. The next formal pin-up review of a preferred project design concept will take place on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, at 6:30 p.m., at Wildwood City Hall in City Council Chambers.
Second place was awarded to Lakshana Gokul, a fifth-grader at Green Pines Elementary, for her Route 66 mural design featuring a vintage car and the Big Chief Roadhouse, a local landmark.
Third place was awarded to Muskaan Bothra, a second-grader at Green Pines, for her entryway structure modeled after the present Big Chief Roadhouse and former Big Chief Cabin Hotel. The cylindrical shape with an opening for visitors included features such as a vintage car photo op area, fusion signage of Wildwood and the Route 66 logo, and a present-day map of Wildwood’s Route 66, with historic landmarks identified upon it.
Both the second- and third-place finalists also have the potential for aspects of their ideas to be incorporated into the final design of the park.
All winners and finalists will be invited to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the future park, which the city hopes to conduct prior to 2026, the 100th anniversary of Route 66, or the “Mother Road.”
Around 40 students from the area participated in the competition. Great job to all participants!
The city of Wildwood would like to thank Rockwood STEM coordinator Brian Reed, social studies coordinator Jordan McGaughey, educators Cheryl Rock, Zachary Avila and Meghan O’Donnell and the Student Route 66 Taskforce members from Rockwood School District for their efforts to organize the school community around this project.
More information about the Route 66 Roadside Park Project can be found at this link.
