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WCHC staff building mental health-focused mural

Kalen McCain

May. 14, 2025 12:33 pm, Updated: Jun. 5, 2025 9:37 am

From left, Dawn Boyd, Brandy Parsons (Gunny Sac owner) and Gwen Weghorst prepare to paint a handful of 4x4'' canvas squares, for a mural that will soon decorate a mental health area at Washington County Hospital and Clinics. (Photo courtesy of WCHC)
From left, Dawn Boyd, Brandy Parsons (Gunny Sac owner) and Gwen Weghorst prepare to paint a handful of 4x4'' canvas squares, for a mural that will soon decorate a mental health area at Washington County Hospital and Clinics. (Photo courtesy of WCHC)

Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.

WASHINGTON — Staff from Washington County Hospital and Clinics have collaborated with downtown art studio GunnySac Designs to create an indoor mural for a not-yet-complete mental health wing of WCHC.

Hospital Director of Marketing Greta Clemons said WCHC celebrated hospital staff throughout May every year, which is also widely recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. And with upcoming renovations to the McCreedy Medical Clinic aiming to add a dedicated “mental health area” to the hospital, she said the project gave staff a chance to celebrate one another.

“We always recognize them and celebrate them in the month of May … but we wanted to do something a little more meaningful, and more of an activity,” Clemons said. “We thought it’d be great to incorporate mental health as well, since mental health month is also in the month of May.”

The creative process involved hospital employees coming to GunnySac and painting their own 4x4’’ canvas squares in shades of green, orange, yellow, pink and white, all of which will be attached in a grid when the mural goes up. Participants also added to a “words of affirmation” list, which will be painted onto tiles at the center of the display.

WCHC staff Glenda Sulentich, Grace Loomis, Katy Samo, Kelly Ross work on their contributions to a mural that will decorate an interior wall of the hospital's mental health area, following renovations to the McCreedy Medical Clinic. The project will comprise over 100 small canvas squares, painted in bright colors by hospital employees. (Photo courtesy of WCHC)
WCHC staff Glenda Sulentich, Grace Loomis, Katy Samo, Kelly Ross work on their contributions to a mural that will decorate an interior wall of the hospital's mental health area, following renovations to the McCreedy Medical Clinic. The project will comprise over 100 small canvas squares, painted in bright colors by hospital employees. (Photo courtesy of WCHC)

GunnySac Owner Brandy Parsons helped coordinate the project. She said she was thrilled with how it had turned out after hospital employees painted over 100 of the square canvas tiles, and while the mural isn’t finished yet, it’s already drawn some foot traffic to the store as community members venture to see how it’s come together.

“It was beyond my imagination,” she said. “There was no way I could have planned this … that was the goal, that everybody could come together and create one beautiful piece.”

Parsons and Clemons said the mural would hopefully be completed this summer, with the renovations to McCreedy expected to wrap up later in the year.

Clemons said the anticipated mental health area would house WCHC’s crisis and transitional care liaison, and its psychiatrist.

“It’s such a huge need right now, especially in Washington County, and with our mental health growing, we thought (the mural) would be a great way to incorporate it all together,” she said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com

Article Tags Washington County, Iowa
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