“It Takes Many Hands to Make a Community Bloom.” A project inspired by an idea from St. John’s Vice President of Skilled Services Nate Sweeney as well as months of planning is starting to take shape! On April 1-2, St. John’s residents, employees, volunteers, visitors, and special guests came to make their mark on a community initiative planned to coincide with the annual Lilac Festival.

“This is a way to show that we’re still connected to the festival, to the community, and inviting people to check us out,” said Sweeney in an interview for a story on 13WHAM news.

The hand prints– and we collected over 270 individual images– will be scanned and configured onto a giant mural that will adorn the front of the Hastings building at St. John’s Home during the Lilac Festival, which takes place throughout Highland Park from May 10-19.

The Lilac banner was installed on May 6, 2019 after weeks of work to get the design perfect! The following day we held a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of this ambitious project. Check out 13WHAM’s coverage of the banner’s debut.

Be sure to check out all of the great photos in our “Many Hands” photo gallery.  Thank you to the children from Generations Child Care for joining in on the fun and to all of our great volunteers– including our friends from SWBR Architects.  Big thanks also go out to The Image Press for all of their work on design and printing of the banner.