Deering High School has received $25,000 from the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation to help renovate the school's auditorium.

The Lowe's grant will be used to purchase materials for fixing the stage and improving lighting. Parents, students and community volunteers are providing much of the labor for the project.

The Portland Partnership worked with Deering's staff to help secure the Lowe's grant. The auditorium project also has received a $5,000 donation from the 2007 senior class and a $1,400 gift from the class of 1947.

Efforts are under way to seek additional contributions from Deering alumni. A Deering Wall of Pride in the renovated auditorium will honor any class with individual or collective gifts of at least $5,000.

The Deering auditorium has showcased student musical performances, plays and other events for more than 80 years. But lighting is minimal, many seats are uncomfortable or unusable and the stage has numerous limitations.

A group of parents, students and staff began working with the district's facilities staff and the architectural firm of Semple and Dane last winter to plan the renovations. Their goal is to complete the project by the fall of 2008. They plan on volunteers doing as much of the work as possible.

Last spring, band and chorus students surveyed all of the auditorium's 700 seats to determine which needed to be fixed, replaced or tightened. Parents and students devoted a July day to make the necessary repairs.

Volunteers removed portable staging and repaired and replaced tiles during a second work day. Paul G. White Tile Co. provided materials at no cost. Additional work remains to rebuild the stage and to upgrade both the house lights and the stage lighting.

Anyone interested in helping with the fundraising effort, volunteering labor or donating materials and services is encouraged to contact Deering Principal Kenneth Kunin at kunink@portlandschools.org.