History of our Day’s Pay Mural
On the north exterior of the Art Dawald Gymnasium
On “D-Day”, June 6, 1944 during World War II: workers at the Hanford Engineering Works Project thought of the men giving their lives on Normandy’s beaches. A carpenter came up with the idea that the Hanford workers could buy a plane for the Army Air Force to help support our troops. This idea was quickly supported by other workers including carpenters, millwrights, steamfitters, plumbers, laborers, electricians, engineers, painters, firemen, truck drivers, linemen, hospital, boiler firemen, mess hall, sheet metal, concrete, janitors, reinforcing steel, earthworks, rigging, office and other workers.
Actual photo of the Day’s Pay B-17 Bomber
In all, approximately 51,000 Hanford workers donated a full day’s pay collecting nearly $300.000.00 to buy a B-17 Bomber to give to the Army Air Force. The plane was manufactured by Boeing in Seattle delivered to the Army Air Force on July 12, 1944. In a ceremony at Hanford Airport on July 23, 1944, Hanford workers christened the bomber “Day’s Pay”. The Day’s Pay was stationed in the European Theatre and flew about 67 missions before being returned to the United States on July 10, 1945.
The Richland High School Class of 1993 has honored those workers who paid for the bomber by donating a mural of B-17 Bomber to the school as their senior class gift. The Class of 1993 raised $21,000 to get the mural of the Day’s Pay painted, lighted, and maintained. The 3200 square-foot mural is fastened to the north outside wall of Art Dawald gymnasium. In donating the mural , the Senior Class President stated, “This is commemorating a historical event,…it’s what the community did that we want to remember”.