Follow the GOLD Sandbag!

Sandbag Art Pictures

This post features an album of some of the sandbags produced by Fargo-Moorhead residents the past two weeks.  If you are unable to see the album, you may need to download Adobe Flash Player.

7,000 Sandbags Delivered!

After a week of work, we have delivered sandbags to over 6,000 people from as far away as California!  I will begin harvesting back the sandbags on Friday and will enter them into the Sandbag filling system.  All total the project will finish 7,000 sandbags, offering words and images of encouragement for the folks who will be doing the hard work of fortifying our dikes protecting the Cities of Fargo and Moorhead.

The city has also asked to have a number of these sandbags on display during the month of filling, we will then fill these last, before sending them out into the city.

Lewis & Clark Elementary – February 15

Thank you for letting us visit your classroom Lewis and Clark Fourth Graders!

 

 

Waterford, February 10, 2011

Thank you, Waterford residents, for your help!

George & beth Ann Smith with Michael Strand

Waterford Residents

Virginia Palm

Good Job!

Waterford Residents Creating Sandbag Art

Welcome to the Sandbag Art blog!

Just imagine it is late in the day, it’s cold and you are wet from volunteering in the sandbag line for the last couple of hours.  Just as you are about to give up, you come across a bag that says “Uffda” or features a picture of William Shatner.  Chances are you’ll point this out to your neighbor, who will point it out to the person next to him, and so on. It will lift your spirits and create an even tighter sense of community not only for those around you, but for those who created the Sandbag Art.

NDSU Visual Arts Department Head, Michael Strand, felt this year he could utilize the talents of the young, old, and in-between to impact morale on the sandbag line.  He organized students to tag, or paint, speech bubbles on 3,000 sandbags provided by the city.  They are now delivering sandbags to area nursing homes, schools, and senior centers so volunteers who can’t lift a sandbag, can lift morale with a stroke of a pen.

Strand believes the Sandbag Art project is not about the image on the bag, but the gesture of allowing everybody the opportunity to contribute to the flood fight.  The bonus is some amazing sandbags protecting our city.

So far the project is exceeding expectations.  Strand visited Waterford yesterday and received some amazing messages from residents, including:

“The image of older people being childish, brainless, and useless was erased when forty of Waterford residents put verse and saying on sandbags.”

“What is wonderful about this is we are able to do the one thing we are great at…lifting spirits.”

“At our age, we often wish we could help but don’t know how.  Just a word of encouragement might help-we hope so.”

Strand and NDSU Visual Arts students will continue to deliver sandbags to area organizations.

Tagging sandbags at Renaissance Hall

Printmaking Student with Sandbags