Group of people gather to paint mural at Cole Park

ALAMOSA — “Good will among people, deeper connections and cooperation in our community, and the healing of broken relationships.” Those are the first words in the city council’s proclamation last week declaring Oct. 21, as “A Day of Kindness” in the City of Alamosa. The proclamation was largely written by local resident Elise Rudolph.

The idea to proclaim a day devoted to kindness began with a workshop offered last spring at Adams State University that Rudolph attended with colleague Beth Kinney. As Rudolph tells the story, the workshop was conducted by Rivera Sun, author of “Change the World Through Non-Violent Action." With an audience of roughly 50 people from different churches and community organizations participating, it was the spark that ignited the formation of the Community Non-violence Coalition.

The Coalition was further inspired by Vivek Murthy’s book “Together, the Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World." As Kinney described in background information provided to the council, Murthy tells the story of the mayor of Anaheim, Calif., who was elected to office by a substantial margin based on a platform that established kindness as a core value for the city. 

Over the next 10 years, Mayor Tom Tait consistently encouraged kindness as a guiding principle in Anaheim when people interacted with each other. Tapping into the power of collective commitment to kindness, resulted in a community that was, as described in materials Kinney provided to the council, “safer, healthier, and more connected.”

The message soon spread to other cities, Kinney wrote, including the mayor being invited to Washington D.C. to discuss the role kindness can play in building societies that are more connected and resilient followed by a second invitation from the US State Department Bureau of Counter-terrorism to travel to Germany to talk discuss how a culture of kindness could be used to counter extremism.

“Beth Kinney and I came up with the idea and then the Coalition really ran with it,” says Rudolph. When asked about the mission of the Community Non-Violence Coalition, Rudolph quoted the following, “As residents of the San Luis Valley, we may have differences of opinion on things like culture, religion, or politics, but we share a LOT in common. In this age of division and polarization, we commit to listen to each other and work to understand each other with open minds and hearts. WE are the SLV.”

Although it wasn’t planned far in advance, the Community Unity Mural Project was timed to take place on Alamosa’s Day of Kindness, and Rudolph praised all that the mural stood for and the way it gathered members of the community together.

She also clarified that a Day of Kindness is not necessarily an event-oriented day. The idea is for acts of kindness to happen from one person to another.

During the city council meeting when councilors considered the proclamation, Councilor Jan Vigil suggested that a Day of Kindness become an annual proclamation. The idea, at least at the last meeting, was not taken up for discussion.

When asked about that possibility, Rudolph said she thought that would be a good thing. Better yet, she says, would be an emphasis on kindness every day of the year.

The beauty to be found in kindness

Last Saturday, a large group of people showed up at the pedestrian bridge at Cole Park over a four-hour period to take part in a “paint by number” mural celebrating unity in the community after the bridge had been vandalized with a racial slur.

The two artists responsible for the design — Bianca Maestas and Katie Dokson — along with fellow artist Augustina Briones spent the next days “cleaning up” some of the work that had been done by the volunteers.

“We started this literally a week ago,” says Maestas. “We started drawing on Monday. It went up on the wall on Tuesday and then we figured out the colors and what the numbers would be. It was a pretty fast-paced project. On Saturday, about 150 people showed up. Young adults. Older people. There were a lot of kids, too. It was amazing.”

When asked about the design, Lucero had told them to use their best judgment. Maestas then called Dokson because she had the idea of using quilts, based on another project she had been working on.

“I had already been doing a drawing of a quilt,” Dokson says, laughing. “We both had the same idea. It was meant to be.”

Maestas explains that part of the design is based on a Star quilt, which has its own symbolism. The wall also incorporates a Windmill quilt, primarily farm quilts representing water and life. The wall also includes a Bear Claw quilt, which, Maestas and Dokson explain, was used during the Civil War when women hung quilts indicating to people using the Underground Railroad that they were on the right path.

“We thought that would be appropriate for the running path,” Maestas says. “And we’re all women. We’re doing this in honor of what those women did then.”

“The Bear Claw also fits with the mascot for Adams State,” Dokson says. Motioning to another segment of the wall, Dokson adds, “These blue and white symbols represent the acequias because we’re right on the Rio and the triangular figures in flight represent the birds. Another segment represents the rolling hills, like the vegas and other parts of the Valley. We just wanted to portray everything that is part of our community.”

When asked, the artists — who each have work displayed all over the state — estimated that they had each put in much more than 60 hours on the mural, not counting the work they were doing on Sunday and Monday. But, as was clear in the conversations of all three, the effort was more than worth the time involved. Not only is the mural, itself, representative of the connection each part of the Valley has to another, but its creation and execution speaks of the connections between the people themselves.

“And who knows,” Dokson says, “maybe this will inspire even more art in the Valley.”