STANWOOD — A fleet of time-traveling rocket ships is being built in Stanwood and on Camano Island to launch the treasures of today into tomorrow.
A local artist and a teacher are working with the city, library, schools and teen center to ask what people would take to the future with them. Participants decorate squares of paper with colors, symbols, pictures and words that represent their answers. The square tiles are photographed and digitally stitched together into a rocket ship shaped mural representing the community’s wishes for the future.
The first Destination Future rocket is done, the second is in the works and a third is just getting started.
Camano Island artist Danny Koffman and Twin City Elementary School teacher Lynn Devora McNabb are the masterminds behind the rockets. The project was inspired by a mural Koffman put together at Freedom Park on Camano Island that stitched the work of 30 artists into a map of the island.
The first rocket mural is 10 feet long and was created by first-, second- and third-grade students in McNabb’s class. The tiles are covered with hearts, smiley faces, stars and words such as “love,” “sing,” “joy” and “be you.” There also are sketches of pencils, notebooks, music notes, a laptop and an orange cat. McNabb and Koffman agree that the students had the best ideas about what to take to the future.
“When you’re (3 feet tall), you’re a genius,” Koffman said. “As we get bigger, we get stupider. When you’re young, everything you say is so full of curiosity and wonder.”
McKnabb encouraged her students to use paint, chalk, markers, crayons, photographs or anything else they wanted. She built a curriculum around Destination Future. Students wrote and spoke about their ideas. She had each write a “Dear Future Self” letter, then seal it in an envelope to read in 15 years.
“As we talked about the students as individuals and what they want for the community, the rocket really started to come to life,” McNabb said.
The second 10-foot rocket is almost done. The tiles were designed by teenagers at the Davis Place Teen Center for the third annual Church Creek Park mural project.
The third rocket is expected to be 30 feet long. It is destined for the side of the Stanwood Library. Koffman was approached by city administrator Deborah Knight about the idea. This time, he wants at least 50 tiles designed by families. Packets are available at the library or community resource center in downtown Stanwood. Each family can decorate two squares, one for the rocket and one for the outer space portion of the mural. The deadline to return packets is Aug. 23.
Eventually, Koffman wants Destination Future to spread to communities around the country.
“This project asks a question that lingers, a question that begs an answer,” he said. “What would you take to the future?”
He went to this year’s National Night Out event in Stanwood to pass out packets and talk to families. Many people “started to sparkle” when he asked them about what they would put on the rocket. He remembers one little boy who said he would take a big container of his mom’s homemade cookies.
“It was like his mom was made of chocolate on a hot summer day,” Koffman said. “She just melted.”
That’s the magic of the project, he said. Every tile has a personal meaning.
Koffman sees the rocket murals as a way to celebrate what people have in common and find what they’re passionate about. For more than three decades, he worked on community projects like this with his wife Sandy. She died four years ago of pancreatic cancer.
“If I had one wish it would be that Sandy was here doing it with me,” Koffman said. “But I’ve got the next best thing because she’s inspiring me.”
McNabb is excited to see how the rockets turn out. Working with her students on the first one got her thinking about the future, too. One of the things she put on her tile was “questions” because she hopes her students always stay curious and keep learning.
Seeing a rocket with the wishes and hopes of children emblazoned on it is eye-opening, Koffman said. It’s a dose of something positive in a crazy world. Destination Future leaves no doubt as to what children value most.
“While each kid took something different, they all took some of the same things,” Koffman said. “They all took love and family.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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