After more than a year in the making and more than a month of preparation, it all ended up coming together in just a few hours thanks to lots of helping hands.
We had kids, parents, grandparents, friends, family, neighbors, and folks who just happened to walk on over. Everyone came together in pretty much perfect 60 degree weather to help get the design on the wall. The result of all this transformed what had been a drab cinder block wall for decades into this 👇
We couldn’t be more proud of the result — by which we not only mean the mural but how the whole community came together to make it happen.
But that’s not all!
Coinciding with our mural was our first annual Spring Clean event. This was an opportunity to clean out your closet and donate gently used items for a pay-what-you-can yard sale.
And y’all certainly came through! We had several tables and multiple blankets full of items for people to pick through.
The best part? After tallying up our proceeds and donations, we raised over $250 for our Haywood Street Food Pantry! That money will help us keep this popular local resource stocked with food, clothing, toiletries, and other items in need.
In case you didn’t get the chance to come out, you can still donate to our pantry via our Venmo:
While donations of all kinds are always welcome and appreciated, you can also drop by the boxes anytime and make a contribution. In case you’re wondering what we’re looking for, we’ve put together a whole sheet with recommendations.
You can also sign up to sponsor the pantry for a week! This is one of the best ways to support our efforts. Currently, a small handful of us take charge keeping the food pantry stocked every day, so any help you can offer here would be huge. If that’s something you’re interested in, just let us know via our Contact form and we’ll be in touch.
It was a great day on Haywood today. Can’t wait to see y’all out there soon!