A retired Almaguin Highlands Secondary School teacher is turning bricks into cash.
With demolition underway at the former high school, Stephen Todoroff is selling individual bricks from the abandoned building to support two fundraising initiatives.
Todoroff is one of the teachers who transferred from the old school in Strong Township to the new high school on Highway 124 in 2011.
During his career at both schools, the retired math teacher had a program where he would have graduating students put their hand prints in wet concrete to leave a “piece” of themselves behind.
A walkway at the current school showcases the students’ hand prints.
“Whenever students come back, they show their kids the handprints they left behind,” says Todoroff.
When the public learned a couple of months ago that the former high school was going to be demolished, Todoroff recalled his old program and flipped it around.
“So, where at first we had students leave a piece of themselves behind, I thought why not have former students and staff take a piece of the (old) school with them,” he said. And that’s exactly what he’s done.
With permission from the demolition crew to enter the former high school property, Todoroff took dozens of downed bricks at the rear of the building from what was once the library.
Since the beginning of December, he’s sold 50 bricks at $5 apiece for $250.
“People are putting them on mantles, others are turning the old bricks into art projects and one lady is using them as candle holders by putting candles in the holes,” Todoroff said.
“I know some people who have written their names on the bricks and the years they attended the old school. They’ll have something to tell their kids and that the brick they see, was part of their old school."
The bricks Todoroff has collected to date are red and over the years the former school increased in size. Todoroff says he next expects to get bricks from the expanded side of the building, which was constructed with brown bricks.
Todoroff is fundraising for the school’s Nordic ski team, to help it with future initiatives and also for a community trail behind the present school, which the ski team uses to train and is also the site for annual sled-dog racing.
Todoroff is getting the word out about the bricks through the What’s Up Sundridge! Facebook page.
Each Thursday, people will find Todoroff in front of the Sundridge Post Office from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. selling the $5 bricks.
They are also available at the Second Nature Thrift Shop at 10393 Highway 124 in Sundridge.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
