A colorful new mural now greets children and families entering Fostering Hope Lower Bucks, offering messages of encouragement and self-worth at a place designed to help families navigate the challenges of foster care.
The Words of Worth mural was officially unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 26 at the Lower Bucks chapter’s Newtown headquarters. The project brought together Fostering Hope, Worthwhile and the Ten Thousand Flowers Project, along with children, foster families, volunteers, donors and supporters who helped paint the mural.
The mural fills the entranceway and staircase leading into the Foster Share Closet, transforming the previously plain white walls into a colorful display.
Jenae Travia, chapter coordinator for Fostering Hope Lower Bucks, welcomed those attending the ceremony and recognized the people and organizations involved in the project. She also thanked Sue Abramson, a Fostering Hope volunteer who originally suggested bringing a Ten Thousand Flowers mural to the location.
“Last month Tim Gibson (founder of Ten Thousand Flowers Project) drew the outline of the flowers that you will see here today,” Travia said during the ceremony. “We then invited the children we serve and their foster families along with our community supporters to help us paint the flowers.”
With their help, Travia said, “we turned the plain white entrance to our Foster Care Closet into a vibrant uplifting inspirational mural.”
Travia explained why the project is particularly meaningful at Fostering Hope.
“There are more than 350 children experiencing foster care here in Bucks County,” she said. “Many of them come here with very few clothes, toiletry items, shoes and sometimes they don’t even have a bed.”
Fostering Hope’s Foster Share Closet provides those necessities free of charge, along with what Travia described as dignity, compassion and other essentials. The organization also provides children with a dignity duffle so they do not have to carry their belongings in black trash bags.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child,” Travia said during the ceremony. “You’re all part of a very important village. We couldn’t do what we do without your help, encouragement and support.”
State Reps. Kristin Marcell and Joe Hogan also participated in the ceremony. Marsella presented a certificate recognizing the project and praised the effort to bring people together.
Gibson, the Perkasie artist who created the mural, told those gathered about the larger project behind the artwork.
Gibson started the Ten Thousand Flowers Project in 2018 with the goal of painting 10,000 flowers across all 50 states. Each mural connects to the next through its design, with the flowers trailing off one mural and continuing onto the next.
“This one mural holds flower number 4,000,” Gibson said.
Gibson added he partnered with Worthwhile to create the Words of Worth experience, which combines art with a message intended to help young people recognize their value.
Dan Emr, founder and executive director of Worthwhile, explained the message represented by the mural.
“We work with individuals that have been told that they are less than, that they don’t have worth and value,” Emr said during the ceremony. “We love this opportunity where we can come together in Words of Worth. Tim brings the art and artistry and we try to bring that message of worth and value for youth, individuals and adults.”
Emr described the six words in a central flower of the mural.
“As you walk inside you’ll see this beautiful mural, and as you walk downstairs, you’ll see a painted flower with empowering words. In the center of the flower, it says, ‘You are,’” he said. “And it has six words surrounding those words, each one on a separate pedal — ‘unique’ so kids know they are unique; it says ‘enough,’ meaning you don’t have to change who you are; it says ‘brave,’ because we encourage kids to be brave because sometimes they need to speak up and be heard.”
The remaining words, he said, are ‘heard’, ‘seen’ and ‘worthwhile’.”
“If they are ‘heard,’ that means they are often ‘seen’ and finally the last word is ‘worthwhile’ to know they are worthwhile,” Emr said.
He added, “Change and healing happen in partnership,” making the mural a representation of that idea.
The ceremony concluded with the ribbon cutting and unveiling of the mural.
In interviews following the ceremony, those involved in the project offered more insight into how the mural came to Fostering Hope and how the painting process unfolded.
Abramson said she first came to Fostering Hope to donate items with her granddaughter.
“When I first came here, I came to donate,” Abramson said. “I had heard about Jenae and that she was a wonderful woman. I came to donate with my granddaughter and we walked into these white walls surrounding the staircase.”
She said the space itself was warm and inviting, but she thought the entrance could be made more welcoming for the children and foster parents who use the closet.
Later, Abramson saw a Ten Thousand Flowers mural at the Northampton Library and asked about the artist. She received Gibson’s information and contacted Travia about the possibility of bringing his work to Fostering Hope.
“I told Jenae that this mural would really be something special for your entrance,” Abramson said.
A few weeks later Gibson expressed interest in painting this space, and then the project then became a group effort.
Gibson prepared the walls and drew the outline of the flowers and stems. He marked the areas to be painted, and foster families and children were invited to a special painting session.
“They painted as far up as they could go,” Abramson said. “They spent a couple of hours when people could come in anytime to casually paint for as long as they wanted.”
The following day, volunteers, members of community organizations, their families, donors and supporters came to help.
“They came to paint and they painted anything they could reach without chairs or ladders,” Abramson said.
After the group painting sessions ended, Gibson spent another week completing the ceiling, background and other areas that required him to work from chairs or ladders.
Gibson said the Newtown mural is one of about 25 he has completed in the Bucks County area. The Ten Thousand Flowers Project has now reached 16 states.
Emr said the Words of Worth program reached about 13,000 individuals through its mural program last year. The organization is based in Bucks County and serves the greater Philadelphia area through schools and youth service programs.
“Our hope is that it’s the kids who will benefit the most when they come through here and see that bright colored mural and also see those words that we want them to recognize,” Emr said.
For Travia, the mural has already changed the feeling of the space.
“It brightens the whole vibe of what we do here,” she said. “It brings joy and happiness to people as they walk in here and are going through a rough time.”
She said the mural also shows families that they are not alone.
“They see that not only are we here, but that the whole community is involved in helping them, supporting them and having their backs,” Travia said. “Everybody who came in and brushed a stroke here is part of their support system.”
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