ECHO — Echo School District instructional coach Lindsay Murdock added some excitement to the school’s hallways this year with her photo collages.

Throughout the school year, Murdock, 47, decorated a bulletin board in the hallway outside the old gym with sport action photos.

Welcoming students back to school were pictures from the 2022 fall sports, which she updated with photos as the seasons progressed. When the football team advanced to the championship, Murdock composed a special array to celebrate their success. The winter months saw basketball and wrestling pictures, and then Murdock finished off the year with senior spotlights.

Murdock said she decided to feature seniors instead of sports due to the multitude of spring sports and limited amount of space. She also wanted to give younger students something to look up to, and pointed out how the majority of Echo’s student body might not see the senior banners lining Main Street because they live out of district.

“I think it’s important to see who the school is made up of,” she said.

Murdock took some of the pictures herself and then collaborated with coaches and local photographers Brian Blake and Beth Stafford for the rest. Along with gathering, formatting, printing and posting the pictures, Murdock said ensuring inclusion and variety were challenging.

“I tried to make sure I was representing everybody,” she said.

Her efforts were definitely noticed, as freshman Mary Gutierrez, sophomore Julietta Romero and junor Ryder Simpson testified to. This was the first year of basketball for Gutierrez, 15, and Murdock captured the special season.

“I was surprised and happy that I was up there,” Gutierrez said.

Romero, 16, plays basketball and tennis while Simpson, 17, plays football, basketball and track.

“I thought it was a really nice gesture she used to include everyone,” Romero said.

“It wasn’t just one person or group,” Simpson said. “It was nice to see your whole team up there.”

Murdock said several factors inspired her to create this display.

First of all, she said she had seen impressive photo displays in other schools such as Baker City during her 26-year teaching career and wanted to incorporate that idea since joining Echo six years ago. Her focus was to utilize that specific bulletin board in the old gym hallway to a greater degree, as she pointed out it received a considerable amount of traffic.

Murdock also is no stranger to the lens, having operated her own “Bales and Tales” blog from 2006-16 to document the lives of her sons Mason, 19, and Mack, 16. The real tipping point, Murdock said, was when she helped teach yearbook last year and noticed how excited students got with pictures.

“I feel like people resonate with seeing the pictures,” she said.

In looking to the future, Murdock has plans to highlight more than just athletes. She is even throwing around the idea of adding more bulletin boards so the pictures can stay up all year round.

“It was sad having to take down the football pictures after the championship season,” she said.

Murdock said she is satisfied with how the photo displays turned out. She also was impressed with the respect students demonstrated, as there were no signs of vandalism. Overall, Murdock said she hopes this photo display provides encouragement and helps to brighten up students’ days.

“I just want kids to know that the school is proud of them,” she said, “and hope the board represents that.”