GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Grand Rapids community members are working to beautify Plaster Creek Trail with a mural on a retainer wall along the path.
Plaster Creek Trail runs for almost three miles between Division and Eastern Avenues just north of 28th Street.
The trail runs along Plaster Creek and is used by community members to bike and walk.
Staci Devries has lived in the area for over a decade and during the beginning of the COVID pandemic, her and her family began to regularly bike along the path.
"During COVID, it became like such a respite, we would see deer flowers, like it was just a really great space," Devries said.
And while using the path, she noticed a large retention wall that ran along a section of the path. That's when she came up with an idea to clean up the area and paint a mural on the wall.
Devries started a Facebook page asking for community members to help with her plan.
The group hopes to not only beautify the trail with the mural but to also support the ecological health of Plaster Creek.
"The bigger need and kind of my heart for the project is to restore or bring back the health of the, of the river of the creek," Devries said.
On April 23rd, the Grand Rapids Water Protectors will host a clean-up near the mural.
Then in June, a mural artist will paint the outline of the mural, and neighbors will be invited to help paint it.
To learn about the mural and cleanup efforts and to find out how to volunteer, check out the Plaster Creek Mural Project Facebook page.
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