This year, Central students have once again been given the opportunity to buy an engraved brick at the front entrance of the school through the Buy A Brick program.

“The Buy A Brick program was started six years ago in 2006. One of our parent sponsors for class board had helped do it at Clarendon Hills Middle School, and she suggested the same thing as a fundraiser for Central,” said Laura Sievers, one of the faculty sponsors of the program.

Because the front entrance is already being renovated this summer, Sievers believes this is the perfect time to bring back the program. “They have to pull the bricks up anyhow, so why not go ahead and add more engraved bricks.”

All of the existing personalized bricks lie around the flagpole outside of the front entrance, but plans have already been put in place to change this design. “It is going to be two tiers of steps going up and the bricks will be in each of the tiers. The bricks will be intermixed then, the ones that are engraved and the ones that are just plain,” Sievers said.

Student response to the Buy A Brick program has been mixed.

“I would consider buying a brick because your name will live forever in the history of Hinsdale Central. That seems pretty cool,” said Chetna Mahajan, sophomore.

Others disagree. “I wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t really have a use for it. It might be nice for seniors, though, because they would feel like they’re still connected to the school,” said Suhana Thakrar, sophomore.

The engraved bricks are $100 each and the order forms are due on May 25. “Since we’re tapping into all the parents from the school, we felt that whatever profits we made should be distributed among all the class boards,” Sievers said. “We hope that a lot of people participate. It’s kind of neat to be able to leave your mark on Central permanently because the bricks will always be there.”