Donny Parenteau plays his guitar in a new music video with students from St. Louis Public School. (Facebook/St. Louis Public School)

By Logan Lehmann

The St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Public School students, Donny Parenteau team up to create song, music video

Sep 24, 2022 | 12:37 PM

In a project that took nearly a year to complete, the St. Louis Public School’s Grade 10 Art class finally finished their class project with Saskatchewan country music legend Donny Parenteau.

Started in November 2021, teacher Virginia Kostyniuk first approached Donny to have him speak to her class about songwriting and it snowballed from there.

Soon thereafter, via virtual meetings, Parenteau had the class write poems about their community. He then worked with the students and together, they each picked one line from everyone’s poem which led to him turning the lines into a song.

The class and Parenteau met together for a total of four virtual meetings over the course of the year, where Donny made the music and the students helped with the lyric selection. In June, Parenteau took the finished product, recorded the song, and filmed the music video in the library of the school.

“We are ever so grateful to the St. Louis Branch Wapiti Library Board, the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division, Gary O, his son Ethan, and Blue Walls Studio, and especially to Donny Parenteau,” said art teacher Virginia Kostyniuk. “Not only did the students far exceed the outcomes of the course, they also learned how to take a project idea from start to finish, and had an authentic once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

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St. Louis Public School principal, Greg Walker, showed his appreciation on behalf of the school to each of the partners involved in this effort. “We had many local groups who took an interest and contributed to this project,” he said. “Without grants from the St. Louis Branch of the Wapiti Library, the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division, and the Gabriel Dumont Institute we would not have been able to finance a project of this magnitude. Gary O and the Blue Walls studio provided the technical expertise that allowed the video to reach such a professional quality, and Donny was able to combine his musical talent with an ability to make the students feel comfortable and confident enough to engage in this work.”

The premiere of the song and music video were held during the schools ‘Meet the Staff night’ on September 15 with members of the St. Louis Wapiti Library Board and the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division, Donny Parenteau, Gary O, and students’ families and friends all being in attendance.

Principal Walker highlighted the key role that Kostyniuk played in making this idea a reality.

“Without Virginia, none of this would have happened. She envisioned this and used her connections in the community to get everyone on board. In fact, it was Virginia’s persistence that ensured that this project remained high on our priority list as a school,” Walker said.

Since being posted on social media, the video has amassed over 40,000 views.

To view the music video, click here.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann