Penn State Health’s Award-Winning Festival Banner Connects Kids Through Art

This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette .

Penn State Health won first place in the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts 2024 Banner Competition — Youth Division with its collaborative project “From Our Kids to Your Kids.” The winning banner was displayed over Allen Street throughout this year’s festival.

“From Our Kids to Your Kids” was an effort by Penn State Health and the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey to bring together kids at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and patients at the hospital through art and creativity. The Penn State Health State College location was the Silver Sponsor for the Children and Youth Day at Arts Fest on Wednesday, July 10.

“We want them to know that they’re not alone,” Jennifer Moore, marketing account manager for Penn State Health State College, explained. “So, everybody comes together as one to bring hope and encouragement to those who are going through something. It can also be a beautiful thing. We all have messy things in life and this mural banner represents the hope and beauty of what the outcome could be.”

The project, now in its third year, created a banner with the help of the nonprofit Murals Talk for last year’s festival, where it was painted by visitors on Arts Fest Children and Youth Day. The banner was then brought to the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital for patients and their families to paint a portion. Once completed, the banner was entered in the 2024 Arts Fest Banner Competition, where it won the youth category.

“Being able to do something inspiring for the kids and the families down there in the hospital is something we really wanted to do here,” said Michelle Damiano, owner and creative director of Impressions, a marketing agency that works with Penn State Health State College. “I think that connection is so cool; it’s just been really fun.”

Murals Talk is an organization from Altoona created to inspire youth around the globe facing life challenges, often due to circumstances out of their control. The nonprofit was founded by Penn State alumna Pamela Snyder Etters, a muralist and Arts Festival executive director.

With the help of Murals Talk, Penn State Health and the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital brought the project back to Children and Youth Day at the Arts Fest on Wednesday, July 10. This year’s banner, themed “The Quilt of Hope,” features puzzle pieces on one side where local kids, patients, parents, doctors, caregivers and more created portraits around the Nittany Lion to show the message “We Are.”

“In the pieces of the puzzle, we see not only the Nittany Lion, but we have a doctor, nurses, a family physician — we encourage kids to put their version of themselves into the puzzle piece,” Moore said.

Moore went on to explain that the other side of the banner will feature a map, half of which will be of State College to represent the local aspect, and the other half will be of Penn State Hershey, where the children’s hospital is located.

“It’s definitely a hit, the kids love it — especially the kids here (at Arts Fest),” Moore noted. “The kids at the hospital who are receiving treatment, they have something to get their minds off of what they’re going through.”

The new banner mural will now make its way to Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey for kids undergoing treatment, families, hospital staff and more to add their artistic touches over the next several months.

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