National Veterans Wheelchair Games Murals History
| During
the 2004 National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) held in St. Louis, Missouri,
I was involved as a volunteer assistant to my husband who was acting as
a Co-Chairman for the Transportation Committee. My main responsibilities
were to gather information, to help secure transportation to be used by
other committees during the games and to solicit and coordinate volunteers
to work during the games to assist the athletes when boarding busses to
different venues. I met a lot of the athletes throughout the week and even
though I did not see much of the competition (because of transportation
duties) what I did see impressed me tremendously.
I had recently made use of a wheelchair, walker and crutches over a six-month period of ankle surgery recuperation so I was very appreciative of the effort required on a daily basis just to maneuver around using those tools. I quickly concluded that I would not be able to accomplish what many of the athletes do even when I was under normal circumstances, much less with the special circumstances some of the veterans have. I respected their abilities very much and appreciated their competitive spirits and they were all just so much fun to be around! There was a large, locally created mural depicting veteran’s participating in military actions that was on loan for display during the games in St. Louis. I really enjoy painting murals so it was especially interesting to me to view the mural. As a passing idea, I thought it would be great to see a mural depicting the history of the games, especially since the 25th year of the games would be in 2005. This idea would not let me be so I decided to approach the coordinators about their interest in the idea. I volunteered my services and a decision was made to go ahead with the project. The murals, end to end, cover 4 feet by 24 feet. This was determined to be too large for display at some of the games locales so six 4x 4 feet canvases were chosen as being a more versatile display. The images used on the murals were sent to me from NVWG and a few private individuals as well as the British Ex-Services organization. There were not a lot of archived images available from the earlier years. All the images/items were digitally scanned into a computer graphics program and the design of the murals was then created digitally and printed for use as a reference for painting the canvases. The approximate time for completing the project is 445 hours, which was over a six-month period. This included scanning, designing and 4 months of painting. The media used was exclusively Golden Acrylic products on stretched artist canvas.The bulk of the materials needed to produce the project were provided by NVWG and a few accessories were provided by Sherwin-Williams in Festus, MO and my company, Rosevine Design. My husband donated his time and talents to make a very nice painter's easel. The frames and storage crates were provided by NVWG. The murals are expected to be on display annually during the NVWG event, either as wall art or on easels. Each mural represents a number of years from 1981 – 2004 in celebration of the 25th year of competition. If the National Veterans Wheelchair Games ever takes place in your city, please take time to visit the games and meet the participants. Information can be found on their web site. It is an experience you will remember for a long time! Debra M. Ferrell |