First Baptist Church of Westwood is asking local artists to mark their calendars and begin to prepare. Once it is safe to do so, the church will invite people with artistic talent to join in a community assistance project. The idea is to decorate a shutter and support those in need. Here are the preliminary details.
First Baptist replaced the aging shutters on its meeting house last summer, and a large number of the old shutters that were removed are still intact. Rather than just throwing them out, the church will invite artists to take a shutter and decorate it in any way they choose – with paint, flowers, textiles, photos, or something else. The only limit is one’s artistic imagination.
It is planned that the completed shutters will be displayed at First Baptist’s booth at Westwood Day 2020 on Saturday, September 26. Participating artists may include their business cards or other identifying information with their shutter at the FBC booth. Each artist will nominate a charity to receive half of the money donated if their shutter becomes the winning shutter.
At the booth, members of the community will be able to vote for their favorite shutter by making a donation and designating that shutter. The person making the largest donation for each shutter will win that shutter. The shutter receiving the most donations will be the winning shutter.
All funds collected will go into a charitable 50/50 pot. Fifty percent of the money will go to the charity selected by the artist who created the winning shutter, and fifty percent will go to the charity selected by the First Baptist Church. The church’s selected charity will be determined before Westwood Day, based upon needs in the community and beyond. These needs will likely become apparent as the COVID-19 virus and its aftermath play out.
First Baptist urges those with artistic talent to get their thinking/painting/creating caps on. If you know you will want to create a shutter, contact the church office at (781-461-1730) or [email protected]. They will arrange for you to pick up a shutter in May or June, when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, they urge everyone to stay home, stay safe, and stay well.
