By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Lake Orion graduates from the 1990s and earlier tread across it, played basketball over it, and danced upon it in the giant gymnasium at the corner of Elizabeth and Lapeer Streets.
The 6’x6? fire-breathing mascot, hand painted in the gym’s center, emblemized then the Dragon spirit and pride that has carried on until this day.
Board by board, it was carefully pulled up from the gym floor earlier this year, and just recently donated by Legacy LO, who now own the Ehman Center that was formerly the Lake Orion School.
‘The Dragon is coming home,? Lake Orion Schools Superintendent Marion Ginopolis said.
Private investors Legacy LO, composed of local business owners’Kellie McDonald, Christian Mills, Todd Garris and Scott Garretson, couldn’t resists Ginopolis? sweet request for the district’s piece of history.
‘I asked if they (Legacy LO) would like to go out to lunch one day, and then I asked them if I could have the dragon. This really belongs to the district. It’s part of the history of the high school, and they so generously said absolutely.?
Class of 1945 student Miss Patricia Olsen designed the logo after the legendary Dragon that hides in Lake Orion, her design appearing on the high school yearbook cover that year. It was then painted on the gym floor by Reuben Barclay and Joe Dore, before the pair graduated in 1950.
The Lake Orion School was built in 1927 to replace the first K-12 Lake Orion school of 1893. It operated into the 1990s, and housed the Boys and Girls Club afterwards, along with several other charitable groups.
Legacy LO purchased the building in 2014 with commercial goals in mind. The owners removed the individual boards of the 9’x9? center-court-section and reassembled them back into the dragon on pressboard earlier this year.
McDonald said the Dragon is in good hands.
? Marion has been a huge proponent in preserving our Lake Orion history, and we were more than happy to do our part,? she said.
The district became the official owners of the oldest known Dragon design Sept. 17.
‘Just knowing that we got it, that was the best part. An hour later we had it in the shop,? said head of Buildings and Grounds Chris Green, a 1991 LOHS graduate.
Green welded a steel frame to prop up the Dragon, which he cut from the 9’x 9? chunk to a 6’x6? piece, the resize needed to fit through standard doors.
The district has big plans for the Dragon.
It was toted around in the Homecoming Parade Sunday, and will make its debut throughout the week for the Lake Orion High School’s spirit week.
It will be on exhibit at the Homecoming football game Friday, and eventually, Ginopolis, echoing the common opinion, would like to see it housed in the current Lake Orion High School gymnasium.
Before it is permanently stored at LOHS, the district is brainstorming ways to get it out in the community this fall.?
Ginopolis said when it comes to mascots, the Lake Orion district is unique.
‘In talking to other superintendents, I discovered that we have the same mascot in every one of our schools. That is not the case with every district.?
Many districts have separate mascots per building.
‘If you really think about it, everyone in Lake Orion is a Dragon, period. It doesn’t matter if you are at the elementary level, or an employee at Kroger, that’s why I think it’s really unique. The tale of the Dragon in the lake, it has history, it has mystique. To me, it reflects the unitedness of our community.?