OLDS — Wednesday, March 31 was a big day for École Olds High School teacher Rhonda West and her stained glass students.
On that day they received a big donation of stained glass, patterns and other related items from Olds residents Emery and April Hagerty on behalf of Emery’s mom, Lori Hagerty, a stained glass devotee who passed away last May.
Emery pulled his pickup to the front door of the TransCanada Theatre where the stained glass classroom is and students hauled armload after armload of glass and other items from the truckbed.
Emery told the class that his mom Lori, originally from the Westward Ho and Sundre area, got into the stained glass field 10 or 12 years ago.
“Unfortunately she got sick just after, so she had to give it up. But for a couple of years there, she was enjoying it quite extensively,” he said during an interview.
“We were cleaning out my mom’s garage and we noticed a lot more stained glass than we originally thought, so we figured instead of selling it we just would donate (it) to the school and they could get better use out of it than we would,” Emery said.
He and April noted another big factor in their decision is that their 16-year-old son Shelby is in the stained glass program.
After all the glass and patterns had been stored in a nearby room, West addressed the class.
“This was an extremely important donation,” she said. “I want you to understand; you know the value of glass, I talk to you about it all the time and I’ve said, ‘no, you’re cutting too much.’”
At that point, Emery stepped forward to read a piece written for the class about the donation.
“Mom had a warm and generous heart. Throughout her lifetime, she could be found giving and performing acts of kindness. Things like volunteering at the school, sewing figure skating costumes, volunteering (for) boy scouts and cadets, delivering backpacks filled with overnight essentials to the local children’s services office and delivering meals to shut-ins.
“So it only seemed fitting to donate her large collection of glass to a local high school.
“Each of us kids have kept a little for ourselves, but we know our mom would love to know that her passion for stained glass work is being shared with the next generation.
“Mom always thought that kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give, so this is our act of kindness on behalf of our mom,” he read.
Emery’s recitation was greeted with loud applause from the class.
Shelby came up and joined his parents for a photo taken by West.
Afterward, the Hagertys were asked how they feel having made the donation.
“It feels great,” Emery said. “It’s been a long year of nothingness because of COVID, so it feels good to do something upgiving and warming and I just – I know my mom would be very happy. She’d be very proud and this would warm her greatly.”
West said she’s thrilled by the donation.
"One of my students said ‘this is like Christmas’ and I have to say this is beyond Christmas. This is a once-in-a-lifetime Christmas. To get this kind of a donation is absolutely exceptional.
“And yes, the fact that they could have made a lot of money off of all these materials and chose instead to think about us and donate it to our program, I'm absolutely overjoyed, I’m thrilled,” she said.
West said she’s especially grateful for the glass because every year they seem to “use a little bit more than our budget allows.”
“This will definitely be one of the years where I’m going to be able to go into next year with extra, not less,” she said.
