Winnipeg students create Route 90 sign to show off love for city

Drivers on Route 90 may have noticed and added pop of colour to their commutes.

Brock Corydon teacher Susan Pereles installed an I Heart Winnipeg sign on the thoroughfare at Century Street and Ness Avenue with her class seven years ago.

"We got the idea that the chain link fence leading from the airport wasn't the most beautiful thing to show Winnipeg off, so we decided to make a sign," she said.

This year, Pereles and her Grade 5 and 6 class gave the sign a colourful makeover and expansion in honour of Winnipeg's 150th birthday.

Pereles worked tirelessly to acquire the necessary permits and on Tuesday, she and her class installed the addition.

Brock Corydon teacher Susan Pereles is pictured during a June 18, 2024 interview on Route 90. (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)

The letters are adorned with updated, hand-painted images from around the city.

Grade 5 student Anika Halady worked on a letter featuring Rainbow Stage, the Winnipeg sign at The Forks, the Bridge Drive-In and the Festival du Voyageur logo.

"It's very important to do something like this so we can welcome people that are just coming into our city and to show people this is a great place to be in," she said.

The project is a bittersweet one, as this is Pereles' final year teaching before retiring.

Pereles said she wanted to do the project to teach her students to love where they live.

"We live in such a beautiful city, and so many people put it down, and it's not fair," she said.

"We have culture, we have theatre, we have beauty, we have nature – we have so much to appreciate, and we need to teach our children to appreciate."

Some of the updated letters on the I Heart Winnipeg sign on Route 90 are pictured on June 18, 2024. (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)