JJ Long '92 was on campus recently to deliver two large signs that note the sites of the new builds. They now mark the places where the Athletic Centre and the STEAM Complex will stand. He also brought by some decals for the new sailboats. This is what JJ does for us, among other things: he makes signs, delivers them, helps install them, so that the campus looks great. The wraps and logos on the vehicles are his, too.

JJ’s the owner of the company that makes signs, Boom Imaging, based in Toronto. His regular clients include Toyota, Budweiser, BMO, and Google. Standing near the racks by Westgate one morning, he showed me some photos on his phone. There were photos of recent installations on commuter trains, condo hoardings, and billboards. It’s a big company, with lots of large projects.

The morning after offloading the site/construction signs, we went down to the sail dock to install the decals. After unfurling the sheets, he laid them out on the dock saying, “this isn’t fun.” He's right. It’s not. Putting a large decal on anything can be unnerving. It sticks in places it shouldn’t. You trap air and make bubbles. It doesn’t always go good.

That he’s doing this is remarkable in ways that aren’t apparent on the face of it. It was his day off, for one. He was heading to his cottage but stopped in at RLC and spent two hours helping with the installations. Most of his clients don’t get this level of attention from him. That we’re honoured and grateful goes without saying but, there, I'll say it again: we're honoured and grateful. Given his involvement over the years, a majority of the signs on campus are now done by Boom. The ones on the buildings; the new way finding signs that we’ve been installing. Even the signs that we use for events to point to visitor parking, and the Family Fun Zone at Fall Colours. Boom has created the banners that are used every Opening Day, including the large green banner than hangs above the main drive.

The reason he does it is personal. He went to school here. This is where learned something of himself and built relationships with others. Perhaps he gained some of the qualities that would take him from high school, to owner of a business like Boom Imaging.

And so, here he is, on an early fall day, on his knees reckoning with the decals for the boats. Finding the right material was a challenge. He first came by in June with some samples, this not long after the Come Sail with Us event when we celebrated the sailing program with friends and donors. We put them on and I left them there for a few days and before trying to peel them off. I'd take a video as I did and then send it to him to see what the adhesion was. Most times I'd get a call back within a few minutes. “Yeah, we’ll try something different.”

The material we finally landed on was the third or fourth try. The next step was the application. For the first one he tore two of the corners off the backing, stuck those on, and then pulled away the backing. He smoothed it out with a tool, moving it in deliberate event strokes from the centre to the edges. He's clearly done this more than a few times, even if he still doesn't relish it. Stepping back, it frankly looked kind of awesome.

As he moved to the other side—there are two sets on either side of each bow—I started in, too. Tearing, peeling, smoothing it out with the tool. We’d worked through the Zests and then moved on to the Lazers. As we worked his phone rang pretty consistently, always seemingly with a new problem to solve somewhere in the world. Someone checking on the sizing of something, or the resolution of an image file, or for an ETA on a delivery.

I suggested that he doesn't need to stay, I could work through it on my own. But he wouldn't hear of it. And I'm glad he didn't. It was a lovely morning on the dock hearing about his work, and the school, and plans for the weekend ahead.

He'll be back, of course, as we have lots of things that need to be done. Right now we're working on a series of trail markers that we'd like to have installed by November, before the snow flies or thereabouts. Inevitably, there will be some calls to JJ and his team and, as ever, we'll be grateful for all their help and support. It takes a village, and we're happy that JJ is a part of ours.

For more on Boom Imaging, click here. 

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