IMBLER — Students at Imbler High School have had to complete senior projects as a graduation requirement since at least 2000.

Hundreds of senior projects have been completed since then, few of which have had a more compelling backstory than one being completed by Bryce Sullivan.

The senior is putting finishing touches on a table made of juniper wood, made in honor of his late grandfather Walt, a dedicated volunteer for the Imbler School District.

Woodworking was one of Walt Sullivan’s hobbies and he had a dream of making a table from the wood of a juniper tree. Finding a juniper tree large enough to make a large table was a challenge.

“My grandfather and some of his friends looked 20 years for a juniper that would be big enough,” Bryce Sullivan said.

Walt Sullivan’s friends finally found a tree about a dozen years ago near Burns. The juniper, which was 300 years old, was cut down and much of its wood was brought back to Sullivan’s home in Summerville.

“He was really excited about it,” Bryce Sullivan said.

Walt Sullivan, who was an Imbler School Board member, wasn’t able to start building the table because of failing health. He died in 2017, and even though he had not been well, his death came sooner than doctors anticipated. The sudden loss left his grandson with a sense of regret.

“I never got to say goodbye to him,” Bryce Sullivan said.

Today, he views his senior project as a way to send a message to his grandfather that he was not able to five years ago.

“Now, I feel like I am saying goodbye,” the IHS senior said.

The younger Sullivan did much of his work on the project in the school’s woodshop his junior and senior years. Doug Hislop, the high school wrestling coach and interim superintendent, noted he often saw the student working on the table when the wrestling team’s practice started after school. Two hours later, wrestlers would be leaving school but not Bryce, who would still be busy in the woodshop.

“It was a dedication of love,” Hislop said.

Hislop vividly remembers how badly Walt Sullivan wanted to build the table.

“It was on his bucket list,” the superintendent said.

Hislop said he has never had a school board member more dedicated than Walt Sullivan, who regularly visited his office at least once a week to discuss school district matters. Hislop said it was never because he was upset but because he wanted to discuss, in a positive manner, ways to keep the Imbler School District’s programs operating at a high level.

Walt Sullivan was also involved in raising money for the Imbler Education Foundation, which provides scholarships to graduates and supports Imbler School District programs. Sullivan made generous donations to the foundation, Hislop said.

“Walt Sullivan is probably the reason we have an education foundation,” he said.

Bryce Sullivan recently sold the table at a raffle and has donated all the proceeds to Imbler High School’s FFA chapter, an organization his grandfather was a strong supporter of.

“He is a giver. He would give you the shirt off his back,” Hislop said of the IHS senior. “He is a special young man.”