By Deborah Guziak
Record-Courier staff writer
Brick by brick, a patio at Brimfield Elementary School will be created through the Pave the Legacy project sponsored by the Brimfield Parents Club.
The patio will feature shade trees and a concrete table " a memorial to 7-year-old Dakota Bauer, who was a second-grader at the elementary school when he was murdered in 2005 by his mother's boyfriend, James Trimble. Trimble is on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary after being found guilty in 2005 in the murders of Dakota, Dakota's mother Renee Bauer and Kent State University student Sarah Positano.
The patio will be a happy place for children to enjoy, said Principal Pam Way.
"They'll have a place to sit and have shade," she said.
At this time, the bricks are available for purchase by anyone wishing to leave his or her mark.
The engraved bricks come in two sizes " one is the size of a regular brick; the other is an 8-by-8-inch size. The regular-sized brick is $25; the other is $50. Companies and businesses will be charged $100 for the 8-by-8-inch brick.
About 100 bricks have been purchased, said Terry Kettering, a volunteer at the school. Their inscriptions are various " there are inscriptions from the Boy Scouts and three generations of Field school district teachers. There are individual bricks from people wanting to be part of the project. There are also bricks to remember people, including Linda Bogle, who was a secretary at the school, and Navy Corpsman Luke "Doc" Emch, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2007. Emch was a student in the Field district.
Proceeds from the sale of the bricks will help fund new playground equipment, in addition to paying for the installation of the bricks and other beautification projects around the outside of the school.
Anyone interested in ordering a brick can visit the school office, call Kettering at (330) 699-9239 or go to www.brimfieldparentsclub.com.