Curated Collectors: Students at East share their collections

Ranging from silly to sentimental, the collections that East students have stem from different interests or family traditions. Here’s a few example of students and what collecting means to them:

EJ

Sitting in class fiddling with a loose screw she found on the floor of the hallway during passing period, senior EJ Padgett unknowingly started the beginning of a now increasingly-large collection.

Although loose screws are not the typical collector’s item, Padgett picks up each screw she finds to serve as a reminder of where she was and who she was with. 

After finding her first screw at East freshman year, she brought it home and placed it in a jar in her room. The jar slowly started to fill as she began to notice screws everywhere — from the band room to downtown Kansas City.

“I have a lot of weird ones — a bunch from school — but my favorite one is a huge one that I found down at a train track that’s half a foot long,” Padgett said. 

Although some may overlook the jar of nuts and bolts on her bookshelf, Padgett is able to recall where she’s acquired a majority of them based on their color, rustiness and size — including the ones her friends and family have given her. Her younger sister and freshman Lida Padgett always keeps an eye out for screws to add to the assortment. 

“Anytime that I find an odd screw anywhere I’m going I’ll pick it up and carry it around until I see her again and can give it to her,” Lida said. “And [her collection] is just slowly getting bigger and bigger so it’s really funny.”

While Padgett is quick to use her collection as a fun fact and funny story in an ice-breaker activity, it also serves as a constant reminder of time spent with friends and places she’s been. 

“I think that people have kind of lost that appreciation for random little things,” Padgett said. “They think, ‘Oh that’s stupid, why would you do that,’ and I’m like, ‘Of course it’s stupid to collect screws,’ but I think it’s fun because it reminds me of all the places I’ve been.”

Brooke

At the beginning of every Christmas season, senior Brooke Blair pulls out her collection of music boxes —  antique trinkets that wind up and play a song. It had become a tradition for Blair and her grandma to scour antique shops and find the perfect addition to her personalized Christmas decor.

Blair’s grandma, Kathy Waller, gave each of her grandchildren the opportunity to decide what they wanted to collect at a young age. Straying away from her twin sister who chose Christmas ornaments, Blair found herself drawn to music boxes instead.

Although the tradition ended when she was 16, the stopping age her grandma chose for all her grandchildren, Blair now has 15 music boxes to put on display in her future home. For Christmases until then, the music boxes are exhibited in her dad’s office for Blair and her family to admire.

“I love the fun she got out of finally making the decision as to which one she wanted because there are some wonderful Christmas music boxes out there,” Waller said. “I think it’s important for a child to decide what they want to collect rather than me to decide what they should collect.”

The majority of Blair’s collection only makes an appearance during December, but she keeps a few of her less Christmas-themed boxes in her room. A gold ferris wheel music box serves to keep her collection and family memories fresh in her mind year-round. 

“I don’t know a ton of people that have a collection just because we have technology and they think having something tangible is not as important,” Blair said. “I’m just going to look back and remember all of the fun times that are associated with them.”

Louis

Then-seventh-grader Louis Prosser-Gebhardt was making his way through the aisles of a comic book shop when a display of Funko Pop figurines caught his attention. Scanning the display, he picked up an X-Files Fox Mulder funko and has been collecting figurines of various characters ever since.

Now a sophomore, he has enough Funko Pop boxes to reach his ceiling and form several stacks around his room. Among the stacks are characters from his favorite bands, TV shows, video games and movies throughout the years.

“Some of them show what I was into when I was younger,” Prosser-Gebhardt said. “I have Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance, and I have a lot from ‘Pokémon’ and ‘The Walking Dead.’ I think it kind of grew with me.” 

Each character has an intricate backstory based on the TV show or move they came from and can even increase in value over time. He bought a Funko from one of his favorite anime shows “Sword Art Online” for $12 a few years ago and it’s now worth upwards of $300. 

Although Funko Pop characters are an upgrade from the “Pokémon” card collection he had when he was younger, his “Pokémon” phase is what inspired him to start collecting. The figures now serve as a symbol of his personality.

“I think they look cool and they’re fun to have around,” Prosser-Gebhardt said. “It kind of shows what I like, you know?”