The kickoff event for a yard sign campaign to welcome community newcomers to the community is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Boyd Park shelter.
The “WELCOME” campaign is sponsored by humanKIND, an outreach committee within the Eastside Hill Neighborhood Assn. (EHNA) that works to build community and celebrate diversity within communities.
People affected by the current changes in immigration policies will state their concerns to begin the Saturday program. Following that, the signs themselves will be unveiled at the entrance to the footbridge over the Eau Claire River, and a group photo will be taken.
The event is intended to foster “building bridges” within the East Side Hill neighborhood and externally. The broader public is welcome to attend – all nationalities, social classes, spiritual traditions, races and ethnicities, sexual orientations and gender identities, and all levels of ability, according to a press release from the EHNA.
The welcome signs will be for sale at Boyd Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. After that, they will be available at Just Local Food, 1117 Farwell St. Donations of $15 to $20 are requested for each yard sign, with all proceeds from the sales going to humanKIND’s future inclusivity projects.
The design for the signs was created by Lori Chilefone, an Eastside Hill resident, in collaboration with humanKIND. The signs present the message of welcome in many different languages and fit it into an outline of the state of Wisconsin.
Woven into the design is one of the country’s core national beliefs: e pluribus unum – “out of many, one.”
Traci Ohlmann, a local music educator, founded humanKIND last August and has nurtured it since then in the belief that “we are stronger, safer, wiser and more beautiful because of our diversity”.