“A fiberglass replica of Georgia Gerber’s bronze sculpture Rachel makes its way toward the Langley Middle School art room carried by artist Georgia Gerber, LMS art teacher Linda Racicot, students Kaitlin Phillps, Sarah Jovich, Kelly Riggs, artist Randy Hudson, and pig donor Ward Phillips. Matt Johnson / staff photosThere is a pig in the art room at Langley Middle School.Over six feet long, weighing more than 50 pounds, and made entirely of fiberglass, it is not your average pig. Students, art teachers, and even the artist who designed the creature carried it into the building Friday morning to start what could become the school’s best-known contribution to the arts.The fiberglass swine is modeled on one of two Georgia Gerber bronze sculptures created as offspring of her famous Pike Place Market piggy bank Rachel (itself the portrait of a real pig named Rachel, who posed for the sculpture after winning the best pig award at the 1985 Island County fair). It is an art project with a purpose. Along with 199 other fiberglass pigs, the LMS pig is part of the Pigs on Parade benefit for the Pike Place Market Foundation, which gives grants and donations to social service organizations for children, the elderly and families. The pigs are being purchased by sponsors and distributed to Western Washington artists, who will decorate and redesign the pigs for a May 26 parade and a May through September display in the Seattle Market District. The pigs will then be auctioned off in October. In all, the Foundation hopes to raise about $1 million through Pigs on Parade.South Whidbey resident Ward Phillips is sponsoring the LMS pig. When he hauled the creature to the school Friday, he became the only sponsor to turn one of the pigs over to students. Giving the pig to students, he said, will assure that it receives a truly original design because there will be many young, artistic brains working on the project.You can really cut loose, Phillips said.The Pigs on Parade benefit was inspired by a 1998 exhibition in Zurich, Switzerland in which more than 800 decorated fiberglass cows adorned the streets. The Seattle Market Foundation decided last year to do something similar and commissioned Langley artist Gerber to cast two new bronzes of Rachel. The original Rachel sits in the Pike Place Market and acts as a giant piggy bank for people who wish to donate coins to the foundation’s projects. Gerber’s new bronzes, which are about 15 percent larger than her original, depict Rachel both sitting and in her familiar standing pose. The bronzes were used to make the molds from which the fiberglass pigs were manufactured.Gerber said she was excited to learn that one of the replicas was coming back to South Whidbey to receive artistic treatment at LMS. But she was not half as thrilled as LMS art teacher Linda Racicot. Racicot said she and about a half-dozen of her students can hardly wait to start designing their pig project. We’re just spinning with ideas, Racicot said.But before they get started, the teacher and students must submit their design idea to the Market Foundation. Most important to those evaluating the design is whether or not it will be vandal- and weather-proof. The pigs will be bolted to the sidewalks outside Seattle businesses. Once they are in place, the public will be able to vote for the most creative and artistic entries.LMS sixth grader Kaitlin Phillips — Ward Phillip’s granddaughter and one of the students who will help design the school pig — said there is only one word to describe how she wants the pig to look.Wild, she said.Sarah Jovich, another one of the student artists, said she has some idea of how she wants the pig to look.Something original no on else is going to do, Jovich said.The students have until mid-May to finish their project. Their pig, along with all the others, will be sold to the highest bidder at the Market Foundation’s October auction.Lovers of Rachel will be able to see the pig in at least one other incarnation during the spring, summer and fall. Pigs on Parade sponsor Nordstrom has commissioned Gerber to cast a miniature of Rachel, from which a number of fiberglass replicas will also be made. The replicas will be turned over to Nordstom clothing designers, who will dress up the little pigs, then display them at Nordstrom department stores. “