SARANAC LAKE – Current and former Saranac Lake High School art students came together on short notice Thursday to repaint a village history mural along the Saranac River Walk.

The effort was led by now-retired art teacher John “Doc” Ward, who helped organize the original painting of the mural on the east footing of the LaPan Highway bridge in 2000. He said the idea of touching it up was a suggestion from village Clerk Kareen Tyler.

“She called me and said, ‘That mural needs help,'” Ward said. “This was last week sometime. This past Monday, I came down with her and the village manager (John Sweeney) to take a look, and it was in rough shape.”

Ward said he was a little reluctant to get involved at first.

“I said, ‘It’s going to take a team, and I’m retired. I don’t have my team anymore,'” he said. “But Kareen said, ‘People love that mural. You can do it. Get your kids together.’ I said, ‘Alright, I’ll see what we can do.'”

Ward put up a post on Facebook and, within a matter of days, many of his former students responded and said they’d help out. About 30 people showed up Thursday for the one-day project.

“It’s like 10 years of classes that are here trying to touch it up,” Ward said. “In 2000, when the kids designed it, they put this all together to tell the historic story of Saranac Lake. Since then, it’s taken an awful pounding being under this bridge with the elements and the water running down.”

The group at work Thursday included members of the Class of 2016, current art students at the high school and many of Ward’s former students, including two who helped paint it in 2000: Tabatha Lincoln, who now lives in the town of AuSable, and Shawn Rohe, who lives in the village.

“We were part of the original art club, and it started from there,” Rohe said. “It took two weeks to do it back then, and we’re trying to redo it in a day.”

The mural includes scenes of the prisoners who were rescued from the jail in the original Harrietstown Town Hall when it burned down in 1926, Gov. Roswell Flower on the Riverside Hotel balcony pointing out a good spot for a dam on the Saranac River, and early logging activity around the village.

“We were talking, and we both said we don’t remember what we painted; we just remember painting, and goofing off,” Lincoln said. “It was definitely cool to be a part of.”

Lincoln and Rohe both brought along their children to help out with the project.

“It’s cool that our kids get to see what we did, and now they’re helping us,” Lincoln said. “It’s awesome.”

“To see all the different generations coming together here is great,” Rohe added.

Ward said the village supplied the primary colors but much of the paint and supplies came from the people who showed up Thursday.