Students at a school near Brandon, Man. created a new community monument inspired by residents coming together to help motorists stranded on a cold, snowy stretch of Highway 1 during a powerful March blizzard.

Each of the 128 students at the Alexander School played a role in creating a bronze-coloured heart that's about 1.5 metres tall by 1.2 metres wide. It will be erected next month at the entrance to the community.

Teacher Karen Kempe said the students chose a heart because it’s representative of their community.

“The conversation around the blizzard did come up, around the idea that people in Alexander help each other,” said Kempe. “I’m hoping what (the students) take away is that sense of community and working together.”

Community members banded together in March to help 80 storm-stranded motorists who spent a night sleeping in the school’s gymnasium after getting stuck on a section of Highway 1 west of Brandon as temperatures plunged and massive snow drifts piled up.

Kempe said some of the students had parents who volunteered at the gymnasium to help the stranded motorists, while others needed assistance themselves.

“Some of them had family members that were stuck on the highway,” said Kempe.

The idea to create a town monument came from a student teacher, who came up with the idea of doing a virtual road trip of roadside monuments in other Manitoba towns.

Kempe said she contacted a Brandon-based artist for help in creating the monument. The heart is made from Styrofoam and rebar.

The monument will be presented to the community at a volunteer tea on June 16 and placed near the entrance to Alexander on June 20.