'Forget about the troubles': Art and wellness shine at Green mental health event

In Green’s Central Park on Saturday, children and adults pressed and rolled pinecones, sticks and rocks into clay tiles.

Bob Yost and other local artists will cut and kiln-fire the clay with blue, green and orange glazes and incorporate the resulting tiles into a mural to be placed in the entrance of the park’s community center.

“Clay is very accessible. It's very literally impressionable, so anyone can do it,” Yost said. “I can have 2-year-olds and I can have 92-year-olds working clay. And it’s going to record whatever they bring to the mix today.”

Yost said the mural, which will be primarily blue and green with some orange pieces and mirror fragments, will be complete in six to eight weeks.

The community art project was part of the event, “A Change of Art: A day of wellness, art, and mental health,” hosted by the city of Green and sponsored by the Green Drug Task Force, Green Community Leadership Initiative and Portage Path Behavioral Health.

Green Mayor Rocco P. Yeargin explained that the goal of the event was to teach people about artistic activities and other things they can do to support their mental health, which he pointed out is a subject that still has some stigma attached to it. “A Change of Art,” he said, was “low-key” and uniquely focused on “marrying art with mental wellness.”

Yeargin also called the event a “gateway” to the city’s Central Park Summer Celebration , which includes events such as live music, a Taylor Swift dance party and a community tailgate for the Green-Tallmadge football game.

Activities promote health and wellness

More than a dozen organizations shared information at the event, which also branched into the spiritual realm with a church present and physical health with chiropractor practices’ booths. The event also included a silent disco, yoga with instructors from the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Lifestyles, food from the Traveling Tom’s Coffee and D & M Grille food trucks and more.

With the mural project, attendees of Saturday’s event wrote down answers to questions like, “What makes you feel happy?” and “What makes you feel supported?”

“God is always working!” someone wrote in response to the first question.

Someone else wrote that family makes them feel supported.

Yost said he plans to write responses in clay and add them to the mural.

He said he’s been teaching ceramics for 30 years and called the art form “forgiving.”

“It pulls you into the moment, makes you forget about the troubles you had for the day,” he said.

Therapy dogs provide smiles, laughter

Summa Health’s WAGtime team also brought therapy dogs that engaged with happy children and grown-ups.

WAGtime volunteer Diana Salla attended with Brody, her 10-year-old golden retriever, who greeted attendees and even carried his informational "card" in his mouth.

The front of Brody’s card has his picture and name, while the back has facts about Brody, such as “I retrieve everything” and “My tail never stops wagging.”

Springfield Township resident Brianna Garduno and Garduno’s niece Khloe Tapscott kneeled down to pet Brody.

Garduno, who also has a golden retriever, said dogs can make a difference in people’s lives.

To that end, the WAGtime dogs visit patients and families in Summa hospitals.

Yost said he took the opportunity when the dogs walked by on Saturday to add paw prints to the in-progress mural.

Envisioning a greater Green

Also at “A Change of Art,” Mac Love, chief catalyst at creative agency Art x Love , collected responses for “The Green Visionary Community Activity Book.” In the book, city residents and visitors write about what they would like to see in the city and draw what their ideal park, home or business would look like.

Love illustrated the 16-page book’s line drawings, including a map of the entire city, landmarks such as Camp Y-Noah, the MAPS Air Museum and Southgate Farm and sustainable features of the community like wetlands and rain barrels and gardens.

Crayons and colored pencils were on hand for people to add their own flair to the book.

People who complete the books − or if they’re children, their parents or guardians − can drop them off at various city locations or digitally submit them. Love said the responses will be included in a report to the city.

Love said community is healing, and he feels that wellness “is actually part of the identity of this community.”

“It does seem like there’s a general sense of wellbeing, and hopefully that can be shared and learned from in other places," Love said.

Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Forget about the troubles': Art and wellness shine at Green mental health event