Painting a mural, to unite a community

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WESSINGTON — “Togeth-er a community,” is the motto for the Wessington mural project, which locals gathered to begin painting “what their community means to them,” Thursday afternoon. The project is grant funded by the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC).
Up and coming artist, K-12 art teacher and middle school English teacher Rob Ammerman designed the foundation of the mural with the help of his wife, Kayti Ammerman, who is the grant co-ordinator and organizer, and hired students from the Wolsey-Wessington school, Parker VanBuskirk, Allison King, and Chantel Haider.

Kayti Ammerman explains their vision behind the mural: “What better represents Wessington than a tree standing tall with a strong foundation.”   
The mural is made up of six panels, the top two panels with a purple background act as a canvas for Wessington locals to paint their hopes and dreams for the future and the bottom two panels, with a green background are to demonstrate ideas of “what represents the community.” Stars were spray painted, with names written in them, on to the top black portion of the purple murals to remember those from the community that have passed. The last two panels are the tree and lettering part of the mural and will be completed by artist Rob Ammerman.
The mural is the perfect way to show how the community comes first to many of the locals, “I was born and raised here in Wessington and I love that I get to enjoy my life and my children’s life here,” said Kayti Ammerman, and husband, Rob Ammerman said, “It’s really nice to see everybody out here painting and thinking about what makes the community so unique plus a chance for everyone to get together.”
The mutual hope is to have the mural up the week of July 10, 2017, in time for the Wessington Fun Days.