Hermie the Squirrel Returns to Magnano Park with Student-Led Redesign
Hermie the Squirrel Returns to Magnano Park with Student-Led Redesign
From a spilled paint scare to neighborhood fundraising, the rededication of Hermie the Squirrel is a true story of community spirit, history, and art education.
By Belle Martinelli, Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce
What better way to honor Seneca Height’s history than to have it on display in squirrel form for all of Olean to see? Enter: Hermie the Squirrel.
Originally unveiled in 2009, Hermie was sponsored by the residents of Seneca Heights, with Mary Lou Wood the spearhead behind the community efforts to bring a squirrel to their neighborhood and commemorate its unique characteristics. Not only was it physically a representation of Olean’s history, but the creation was fueled by community and designed and executed by Olean Middle School students under the direction of their art teacher, Dan Brown.
OG Hermie, lovingly named after Mount Hermon, showcased scenes of former elementary school, Hillside, the neighborhood’s signature streetlamp, the bald eagle nest, and more.
“At first, we weren’t sure what we were going to be doing,” said Amy Sherburne, who spearheads Woodland in the City with her husband, Bob. “Do we just start over with an artist, do we go back to the original concept that we want to have students involved?” she mused. “This definitely is the wonderful reality of that choice, which is that the students did this again.”
Hermie 2.0 was redesigned and completed by Kellie O’Brien, an art teacher at Olean High School, and her Art Club students.
“I would like to thank everybody involved in this project for allowing the students that I work with, who I love dearly, to actually do this project,” she said. “It was a great honor and your support of art education, and the Olean City School District is greatly appreciated.”
Over the course of two school years, O’Brien and her students invested in Hermie. From deep diving into research on Cloud 9 and Swartz Grocery, with the help of the Olean Historical Society, to sketching and delegating jobs to students’ areas of strength, and a perilous spilled-paint accident, the students supported each other from beginning to end.
“I can’t tell you how empty my room is at this stage of the game without him present,” O’Brien joked. “It was a great collaboration and again, I have to extend my thanks from not just myself, [but] from the art department, and from my students, for this opportunity. It was wonderful.”
Mary Lou Wood agreed with this sentiment. “That’s what I like the most about it,” she said, “it’s everyone. It’s not just one person.”
Wood fondly shared how she engaged the community 15 years ago to raise money for Hermie. “I had the paper boys take a letter around and I gave them extra money so they could do the whole area,” she said.
Residents of the neighborhood, from every street including the River Road, donated money. Even former residents of the neighborhood heard of her efforts when visiting town and gave to the cause. “It was community then, too. It’s been a wonderful experience,” said Wood.
Wood and O’Brien were joined by one of her students who helped work on Hermie, Robyn Duplechain, and unveiled the newly redone Hermie. Hermie can be found in Magnano Park on the corner of York and W. Ohio, bright and colorful with depictions of Cloud 9, Mount View Cemetery gates, and more unique characteristics of the Seneca Heights neighborhood.
Special congratulations to students Cara Barry, Sanaa Booker, Robyn Duplechain, Valeriia & Viktoriia Lozynska, Rhyannon Luper-Orcutt, Hailey Manning, Raine Maynard, Hannah McAdam, Iraya Prosser, Avianna Rauber, and Zaiden Thach, and to advisors Kellie O’Brien, Ashlyn Schuman, Courtney Brisky, Laura Cawley, and Alex Milne for supervising the project.
“He means so much to your little neighborhood, but he means a lot to this whole region,” said Sherburne. “He was very much missed. It really is a wonderful story of the dedication these kids gave to this squirrel.”