A year’s worth of work on a community service project is something anyone could hang their hat on. A group of ninth-grade Girl Scouts hung a piece of art instead.
McKenna Ahlgren, Grace Park, Leighton Holmberg and Mary Noel, local members of Girl Scout troop 100821 since early grade school, each spent 80-plus hours working on a mosaic that they have plans to hang in Maple Grove Junior High. They used Girl Scout leader Cathy Tarman’s garage as their art studio, where they worked all summer scoring, cutting and gluing glass for the piece, then in September, they grouted it and brought it in for framing. The finished product is a 5-by-5-foot, three-panel glass mosaic.
The mosaic is designed as a giant tree, which represents all aspects of Maple Grove. The circle of leaves at the bottom symbolizes the Maple Grove community working together, the wind in the tree represented change/disruption, and the leaves demonstrate how local citizens hold together. The different leaf colors represent the diversity in the community, while the path, pond and animals stand for the natural reserves, parks and trails in town.
The community was also well represented in the making of the mosaic. Karen Highness, owner of The Studio at Rush Creek served as the scouts’ advisor on the project, artist Colleen Illikainen assisted the girls with the idea, the Maple Grove Arts Council funded the project, and Frametastic in Maple Grove framed the mosaic.
The project was initially created to earn the Girl Scout Silver Award, which must be a 40-plus-hour community service project. But the experience ended up being far more valuable to the troop than any award. “They have internalized what their community means to them and given back a beautiful piece of art for all to enjoy,” says Tarman. “They have learned to work together with a team towards a common goal.”
The public is welcome to attend the unveiling ceremony at Maple Grove Junior High at 6 p.m. on December 15.
