ROCKFORD—For a couple of months Terri Hill, program director at St. Elizabeth Catholic Community Center here, has been painting the walls in the center with “positive messages.”
Hill wants “a welcome environment for the people who come in here, because I don’t want this place to look so institutionalized,” she said. “I want people to feel comfortable and at home when they come here.
“When a person walks into this building and you see all these yucky colored walls, all boring beige or grey, there is no life,” Hill continued. “And we want to share life and that is why we are doing it.”
Some volunteers with artistic talents have joined her in the project.
One of those is Angel Aarons.
“I didn’t know this (center) was here actually, until I got hurt,” she said. While recuperating, a trucking company she works with sent her to the center to donate her talents.
“I do a lot of crafty stuff at home, especially for my nephew,” she said.
Aarons brought her relative Jennifer Helgeson to help.
“I originally was a person who came for their services here, clothing, pantry,” Helgeson said. “And when I came years ago it was not so inspirational just for someone who comes for help. Now walking in and seeing these things, ... you know, making (you) feel better,” she said.
The clothes room for children for years had murals of children but now the painting project is more ambitious and includes the stairs, the bathrooms, and some halls that those who come to receive food and clothing pass through.
Being creative
The artistic process starts with the selection of the messages and figures, Hill explained. The artists draw them so the images can be projected on the wall to make the sketches.
Finishing the work could take some weeks.
In this jubilee Year of Mercy, convoked by Pope Francis, Hill decided one mural wall would be dedicated to the corporal works of mercy painted over a stylized tree.
“I felt that we are the roots in our community,” she said, “and when we perform the corporal acts of mercy we are growing out to the community and that is how we help people.
“A tree,” she continued, “reminds me of people, roots of families, and that’s what we are doing. The seven corporal acts of mercy are the root of what we are supposed to be doing and by what we do, we grow that tree and we perform those acts,” she said.