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Washington Evening Journal
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New signs go up in Fairfield on ‘How To Build Community’
FAIRFIELD – Residents of Fairfield might have noticed a few new motivational signs have gone up in the last week, one in Chautauqua Park and one on the west side of the Fairfield CoLab building in the downtown.
The top of the sign reads “How To Build Community,” and below that are a list of recommendations such as “Turn Off Your Devices,” “Honor Elders,” “Help Carry Something Heavy,”“Take Children to the Park” and “Fix It Even If You Didn’t Break It.”
Shanaz Kreider, director of Habitat for Humanity ReStore, said the idea to create these signs started when someone donated a poster with this same theme and list of recommendations for building community. ReStore staff hung the poster on a piece of wood in the store, and as it attracted more and more attention, Kreider thought it would be nice to give it greater visibility.
“Everybody who walked by read it and said, ‘That’s nice!’” Kreider said of the poster. “Then we thought, ‘Why don’t we make it into something for the whole town to see it?’”
The original poster was created by Syracuse Cultural Workers in 1996. Kreider contacted the organization to see if a group she’s involved with, the Fairfield Volunteer Center, could create an updated version of it with new artwork. Syracuse Cultural Workers gave their blessing for the volunteer center to reproduce the text and turn it into a public mural.
Kreider asked Fairfield artist Chad Starling, who will create the mural on Fairfield’s railroad underpass, to give the poster a fresh design.
“I told him, ‘Make this look contemporary,’ because this is kind of old-fashioned, 1960s,” Kreider said.
Starling joked that the design he settled on actually makes the mural look like it’s from the 1800s.
Kreider said both the Fairfield City Council and the Fairfield CoLab board of directors were supportive of the project, and Park Superintendent Pam Craff even volunteered to build a frame for the mural, secured by two posts where the Fairfield Loop Trail enters Chautauqua Park.
Fairfield Cultural Alliance arranged for the production of the mural, partnering with the Fairfield Volunteer Center again just as it did last year to produce the 14 signs promoting “Keep the Parks Clean.” Fairfield Hy-Vee stepped forward to sponsor the cost of producing and installing the signs.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
