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St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church pictured with the chalk art of Maddy Campbell '20.

Pink, yellow, blue, purple. The sound of chalk scraping against the path as she draws. The cool lakeside breeze brushes away the dust from the concrete canvas. The goal? Spread love.

Maddy Campbell ‘20 met six feet apart with her youth minister and two other parishioners at St. Paul on the Lake on May 8 to create a bright message for passersby to see. Campbell said SPIRIT, her youth group at St. Paul, will enter this piece into a Pro-Life chalk art competition called Chalk it up for Life.

“We drew it for more than just the entry into the competition,” Campbell said. “We wanted to spread a little love.”

Campbell, a self proclaimed “moderately artsy person,” said she was inspired to do chalk art after seeing them all over Grosse Pointe’s sidewalks. According to Campbell, while she is not typically a chalk artist, she has received a Girl Scouts of America badge for previous chalk drawings.

“Chalk art is a great way to do something with others while still social distancing,” Campbell said. “It brightens my day to see something like this because artists like me put a lot of time into it so everyone can enjoy the art.”

Campbell said that St. Paul on the Lake is creating a chain of chalk art that will be added to by many different people. According to Campbell, this art project gives the parish a sense of community as they can’t gather physically at this time, and also spreads her belief of the importance of all lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Beyond displaying a message about the sanctity of life, this art is a reminder that we all are loved,” Campbell said. “People are trying to do good things, even if they are simple as sidewalk chalk.”

The art, Campbell said, was a great way to get out of her house, and took slightly more than two hours to complete. According to Campbell, the chalk messages were a great way to spread happiness to the community.

“It was so nice to see my friends, even from a safe distance,” Campbell said. “It is fun and meaningful to create some art.”