Pinwheel event promotes positive messages

CLOVIS — Messages of peace, love and tranquility filled the entrance to the Clovis-Carver Public Library on Friday as an installation of more than 400 colorful pinwheels greeted patrons entering the building.

"(It's) fantastic. You can totally feel the love," said Misty Bertrand, who organized bringing the international Pinwheels for Peace event to Clovis this year.

The pinwheels — made of paper, a pencil and a push pin — were designed by community members during several events over the past two months.

They feature positive messages and symbols of hearts and ribbons, with one pinwheel including the chorus to the song "You Are My Sunshine."

Bertrand said, "there's just something about color," that can lift people's spirits and noted that the pinwheel project mirrored the way the Clovis community came together following last year's deadly library shooting.

"It's kind of the definition of community. These are a bunch of little individual pinwheels that have come together to make utter beauty," she said.

Bertrand said the library was the only place she could have imagined hosting the completed pinwheels. Library Director Margaret Hinchee agreed.

"It shows a dedication for peace throughout our community and our nation and our world and I think it's an appropriate place for it to be here at the library showing our commitment to peace throughout the world," Hinchee said.

In addition to the rock garden located right outside the library's front door, Pinwheels for Peace marked the second art project within the past month looking to bring some positivity to the library following a difficult year.

"In the last year the commitment from our community to the library has been astounding," Hinchee said. "It never ceases to amaze me how well we are loved and appreciated in this town and how blessed we are to be here."

Bertrand said Pinwheels for Peace will return to Clovis again next year.

"We want to make it bigger and better and we'd love to involve all the schools and any groups or organizations, please reach out to us," she said.

Bertrand said plans for another collaborative art installation at Christmas are already underway.

The pinwheels will remain on display at the library through the weekend, after which Bertrand said they would be disassembled, with the pencils to be donated to the United Way of Eastern New Mexico's "Reality Check" program at the Clovis High School Freshman Academy. The paper will be repurposed into Christmas tree decorations to decorate a tree for the Hartley House's "Festival of Trees" fundraiser.