A plan to honor athletes, community leaders and long-time teachers in the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD community is in motion with a Walk of Honor at Mustang-Panther Stadium.

The Walk of Honor will be lined with plaques honoring GCISD community members who have been nominated by the community. A committee will oversee the process to confirm nominees and see that this Walk of Honor will be built into the newly remodeled Mustang-Panther Stadium, to be unveiled later this year.

“The goal was to try to create something for the community that they could see and learn history,” committee President Leon Leal said. “… It is what it says it is—it’s a walkway; it’s a pathway to our event where everybody comes together, so as you walk in it’s the first thing you see.”

The stadium is already undergoing major renovations as part of the 2016 GCISD bond package. The bond included $6 million for concrete repairs to the stadium, and another $12 million will be funded through a $26 million tax increment financing zone payout from a 1996 agreement with the city of Grapevine.

To accommodate for the Walk of Honor, the entrance to the stadium will change so that event attendees will enter through the center gates to the outer rim of the stadium, which will split into a fork. From there attendees can go up the walk and see the names engraved on the plaques as they proceed to the stadium seating.

“We don’t really have anything that’s centralized where people can go and learn the history and see who really made our district what it is,” Leal said. “We’re hoping that this will be a place where both communities come to.”

The Walk of Honor Committee is a group formed for the purpose of giving back to the community and providing those in GCISD a sense of who shaped the district as they gather at the stadium for events or games.

“I think a large percentage of the community has not been here that long, and even though I’ve been here 28 years, there’s quite a legacy of probably decades before me of how the community and how the district has grown and some of the feats or accomplishments of people in the past,” said Nancy Coplen, Walk of Honor committee secretary.

The committee operates independently from the school board and is its own nonprofit. It will hold fundraisers to purchase the Walk of Honor plaques, which Walk of Honor committee Treasurer David Kelley said will continue to grow over the years.

“It should be able to go for a long, long time,” Kelley said. “There’s going to be an initial display set up, but it can be added onto.”

Individuals are now able to submit Walk of Honor nominations. An induction ceremony will take place at the Walk of Honor annual event, currently slated for the GCISD rivalry high school football match in October.

More information and selection consideration for nominees can be found at www.gcisdwalkofhonor.com.