Everybody can leave their mark at Citrus College through a brick permanently placed on the Owl Fountain in the campus central region.
The “Buy a Brick” campaign, sponsored by the Citrus Alumni and Friends Association, is selling bricks to raise money for scholarships and beautification projects on campus.
CAFA hope to raise over $20,000 with the inscribed bricks.
The original Citrus College owl that sat on top of the fountain near the library was donated by the graduating class of 1975. When the owl was destroyed in 1995, the CAFA, the Associated Students of Citrus College and the Citrus College Foundation came together to fund a new owl in 2000 to celebrate Citrus’ 85th anniversary, which cost $12,000.
Alicia Nichols, Alumni Association secretary, said the buy-a-brick campaign started in the late ’90s to help fund the new owl, future scholarships and projects. Ever since, the campaign has been silently existing in the Alumni Association.
Since the campaign has not been revisited since its creation two decades ago, Nichols had to find out how this campaign had started to bring it back.
“The cool thing about having a brick is it stays there on that fountain, so you’ll always kind of have a memorial on Citrus,” Nichols said.
Although the foundation has always been open to sell the bricks, it lost the esteem five years ago when they were not selling new bricks anymore. That is because it was not a high priority at that time.
Because of that, the Alumni Association set a deadline for June to try to sell the remaining 150 bricks.
Foundation Director Christina M. Garcia said the campaign is a priority now. With 600 bricks designed as part of the fountain, over 400 bricks have already been inscribed.
“It was just a quiet program that was happening, but we are revitalizing it now because we want to close it and start a new project,” Garcia said.
The bricks are on the fountain, in the center of campus, together with the owl mascot.
As long as the fountain stays in good shape on campus, the bricks will remain there permanently.
Community members, alumni and staff have bought bricks.
Lari Kirby, online education supervisor, bought a brick in celebration of her work at Citrus for the past 30 years.
“I’ve liked the campaign since it started, I’ve just been procrastinating in doing it,” Kirby said. “It was just time to do it before I actually leave.”
Kirby will retire in two years. The brick will remain as her memorial on campus, which she referred as her “second family.”
“I just want to know when I come back to campus, or if my kids come to campus, or my grandkids, or my great-grandkids… they are gonna run into me,” Kirby said. “I’ll feel like I’m always here, like I never left.”
Anyone who is willing to support the Citrus community can buy a brick. Some of the reasons might be to either celebrate a graduate’s class year, an athletic team or to give as a memorial gift for a loved one.
The brick costs $150.
“If everybody did a little thing, they could all actually own a piece of campus,” Kirby said.
For more information, visit http://www.citruscollege.edu/foundation.
