LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — As students and teachers get ready to say goodbye to the old Lafayette High School and move into the new building, there were questions about one room in particular.

For almost thirty years, Rodolfo Espinoza has been teaching at Lafayette High School. As a way to honor and remember his students, he began letting them paint a wall in his classroom.

“Many years ago, I wanted to come up with a way to have students leave their mark. Of course what they’ve done for the school is left behind, but I wanted something more tangible, and I wanted to remember them and the work that they’ve done.” Espinoza said.

Seventeen years ago, he came up with a way to honor and remember his students. That’s when the flag wall was born. Each year, he would let the top students in each class paint a flag of their choice.

“The only stipulation had to be that it needs to be a place. A place in the world–a place in America. Enormous amount of creativity went into the wall over the past 17 years. Over the course of that time, we’ve gotten to about 210 flags.” Espinoza said.

When the announcement about a new school was made a few years ago, students of Espinoza started asking what will happen to the wall. For years, students had worked hard painting flags from countries, cities and events all over the world. Over 200 were completed.

Two students, Molly Lai and Kennedi Johnson, found a way to save the wall. At the start of the school year, they began crocheting a blanket representing almost 200 of the painted flags.

“Why not just crochet it to have it last for as many years as it can?” Johnson said.

“The whole idea credit goes to her. Without her, I never would have come up with an idea like that.” Lai added

The girls spent months crocheting a quilt during Yarn Arts Club meetings, and in their free time.

“In the beginning of the year, progress was very slow.” Lai said. “Maybe we did a flag a week. And then we really ramped it up in december. And every thursday, which is when our club meets, she would come home with me and we would just bust out some flags, get as many as we can done. And especially at the end we were really working hard towards that.”

The girls presented the gift to Espinoza in May at an end-of-year banquet.

“We were at UL at our band banquet. It was a very special moment. We knew we wanted to do it there.” Johnson said.

Espinoza said he was speechless. The blanket will soon be displayed in his new classroom at Lafayette High, where it will honor the work of past students.

“It honors the past students who put so much work into the wall and the flags. And it honors the physical building itself that we are all leaving, and leave a lot of memories there.” Espinoza said.

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