T-burg Girl Scouts brighten downtown with mural

With the girls in their Girl Scout troop reaching high school age, co-leaders Lora Gruber-Hine and Jaime Cummings began talking to them about finding a project they could do before the group disbanded.

What they chose has brightened Main Street in Trumansburg while spreading a message that all residents can benefit from hearing.

“Their interest in Scouts is waning,” said Gruber-Hine, who added she has been the co-troop leader for Trumansburg Girl Scouts Service Unit 429 for about eight years. “We talked earlier in the year about trying to do something in the community that was meaningful and to give back before the group faded away. They wanted to do a project that made the community feel good.”

The result of the virtual and outdoor planning meetings was a mural on the side of the Tompkins Trust Company bank building, with the message that Trumansburg is “Better Together.”

“We had COVID and political upheaval with the election and, in their mind, a lot of turmoil,” Gruber-Hine said. “They landed on the idea of a mural that would depict sentiments of caring and support and tranquility and basically, ‘things are going to be OK.’ If you look up at this mural, you’re going to feel good and you’re going to take away what’s positive in life instead of focusing on the negative.”

Local artist Denise Milito had worked with the troop on other projects and joined them for the mural to provide technical expertise. Milito creates recycled sweater mittens, which she sells at the Trumansburg Farmers Market, and said the Girl Scouts help her use up her byproduct by creating ornaments.

“I always stay in touch with them, and Lora said, ‘I want to do a mural project with the girls,’” Milito said, adding that she volunteered to help them. “I have a relationship with the girls, and they always do great work. I’m always really happy to work with them.”

While she assisted them, she stressed that the troop members were the ones who did all the work.

“My real involvement was taking their ideas and making them workable,” Milito said. “It was totally their project, and I wanted them to be solely responsible for the imagery. I helped manifest it because I know the process of making a mural, but they did the work. They worked so fast it was mind-boggling.”

She said the process involved brainstorming what the girls perceived as the community’s strengths, finding common themes among those and visualizing imagery that would represent them.

“We looked at the common elements in each of their drawings to see which ones were more prevalent to use … as our images,” Milito said. “It was really easy to come together on that.”

She said the mural used red, white and blue colors to represent America and its political parties, with a purple fist rising in the middle “because we need to come together in this country so everyone is being represented.”

“That came from the girls,” Milito said. “They have a lot of rainbow colors for diversity, fish to represent a healthy ecosystem, peace doves to represent arriving at peace. The phrase ‘Be the change you want to see’ came from one of the girls. That statement really resounded with her, and all the girls were excited about that one.”

The overall message, she said, was that everyone needs to come together, and we all have work to do.

“That’s what the girls wanted to communicate,” Milito said.

Gruber-Hine said the troop members explored downtown Trumansburg and “looked at different buildings that would provide a nice canvas.” The top choice, she said, was Tompkins Trust, and she reached out to ask if the bank would be willing to discuss the possibility. After meeting with Brandy Besemer, Tompkins Trust’s Trumansburg branch manager, and Senior Vice President Helen Talty, the Scout troop found a willing partner.

“They were incredibly supportive,” Gruber-Hine said. “They cleaned up the side wall, repaired it and painted it for us. They also provided us with a $200 contribution for supplies and materials.”

Then, the girls got to work, sketching the design out first and then painting it, the latter job with some help from Trumansburg Girl Scouts in other troops.

“Knowing it would be a pretty big project to paint it and also reflecting on our time as a troop in Trumansburg, the girls discussed having the rest of the service unit — there are multiple troops in Trumansburg — help in painting it,” Gruber-Hine said. “We did have several girls from other troops come and join us for the two-and-a-half days that we were painting the mural.”

The work is nearly complete, and Gruber-Hine and Milito expect that to wrap up in about a week.

“We’re working on a frame design around the outside of it,” Gruber-Hine said. “We also need to put a signature at the bottom.”

The response from community members so far has been positive, she said.

“It has been well-received by the community,” said Gruber-Hine, who said people stopped to offer their encouragement while the girls were working on the mural.

Though the future of the troop is unclear, its impact on the village will be seen for years to come.

“Those girls worked hard and deserve a lot of credit,” Milito said.

IN BRIEF:

Library book sale set for October

The Ulysses Philomathic Library will host its 2021 Fall Book Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 7 through 9 at the library, located at 74 E. Main St. in Trumansburg.

The outdoor event, open to all, will feature a large collection of books for purchase on a pay-what-you-can donation basis. Cash, check, credit card and PayPal are all accepted forms of payment. Masks will be required for those attending, and various COVID-19 safety procedures will be in place.