Bloomington’s downtown corridor got a bit more colorful this past Saturday.

The Girl Scouts of Central Illinois Troop 6538 of Springfield spent the morning in the Twin Cities painting a mural near the intersection of Main and Market streets to mark the organization’s 100th anniversary.

Kaylee McMasters, a troop member who designed the mural, was among the four Scouts who worked on the 22-by-8-foot painting on the wall of Crossroads Global Handcrafts building. The mural depicts six girls of diverse backgrounds joined at the hands with hearts. The words “It’s what’s on the inside that counts,” read on top of the mural with a black background.

“There’s such beauty in the simplicity (of the painting),” said Tricia Stiller, executive director for the Downtown Bloomington Association, which partnered with the Girl Scouts for the project. “It’s important for everyone to get what they are saying with the hearts and the girls of different ages and ethnicities. (The design) has such charm; we just couldn’t resist.”

The design was chosen in the Coloring the World with Love contest among six entries by Girl Scout members across Central Illinois, Stiller said. The girls painted the mural under the supervision of Bloomington muralist Marty Klopfenstein.

Klopfenstein said he began to do preparatory work on the acrylic painting last month, including drawing outlines that the girls followed.

Other members of Troop 6538 who submitted drawings are Haylee Catalano, Lauren Freiburg, Allison Taylor and Kaytlyn Williams. The Best Concept Award went to Amanda Breeden, and the Participation Award to Catherine Hawkins.

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Karina Gonzalez
Pantagraph.com

Reprinted with permission of The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.