When planters placed to help beautify an already thriving Uptown Arts District in Michigan City were topped over, thrown about and damaged late Saturday night, members of the neighborhood and city at-large were not about to sit back and not respond.
"Take back Uptown," an event started on Facebook, seeks to not only repair the damage from last weekend, but get the Uptown Arts District looking better than ever. Volunteers will meet at the Warren Building, 717 Franklin St. at 5 p.m. on Friday and work for two hours making sure everything looks better than it had before last weekend's vandalism.
Dominique Edwards, a local business owner who has a booth at the area's Farmer's Market for her natural spa products, said she decided to start re-planting on her own after sharing photos of the damage, which began outside Maxine's Restaurant and then continued northward to 9th Street.
"Some (planters) were just misplaced, some were taken from Maxine's and thrown down the street and in front of other businesses," Edwards said.
Now, 60 or so volunteers plan on attending and helping out at "Take back Uptown," which has received support from local businesses and community members.
"I didn't think of anything of this magnitude," Edwards said. "I thought I was just sharing photos on the Michigan City forum and letting people know I was going to plant on my own."
But when Edwards' post was seen by local milliner Amanda Joyner, the idea for community involvement came.
"When I saw her post I thought why not think bigger," Joyner said. "As a member of the Uptown Arts District I know how tight knit our community it and saw an opportunity to invite everyone to be involved."
Joyner says not only are people coming, but bringing donations of soil, plants from their gardens and pots.
"It's been so exciting to see how many people are willing to join together to give back to the Uptown Arts District," she said, adding that more donations of flowers, other plants, pots, gloves and gardening tools are needed.
"We are also looking for people to give just time, from 5-7 p.m., so we can make sure everything is back to being beautiful before the Steamroller Printmaking Project event," Edwards added. The Steamroller event is planned for Saturday afternoon in front of Walnut Ink Gallery, 607 Franklin St. - an event that a number of people are expected to attend and showcase art steam prints that will be rolled out in front of the gallery.
Linda Byer Mickevicius is the owner of beach bum jewels, a jewelry studio located at 621 Franklin St. Count her as one of the affected business owners who supports the effort Edwards and Joyner helped spearhead.
"As one of the businesses who suffered vandalism, we appreciate the effort of our fellow Michigan City residents to help us make the front of our store look nice again," Mickevicius said. "We have an awesome city and terrific folks that live here!"
John Avila, a Michigan City dentist and highly engaged cityzen, plans to support the effort to send a message of moving forward.
"I want to express solidarity with the immediate victims of this crime," he said. "I also want to reinforce to them that they are not isolated or alone. Further, I am trying to serve notice to criminals that they are not in charge or have any power over us."
Edwards agrees, saying the city "can only be as good as its people."
"If we have negative events that occur like this and people don't want to put action behind it, then what does that say about the citizens?" she asked. "We have to be more proactive in finding solutions than just leaving business owners to clean up the mess. A mess like that could easily discourage businesses and residents from participating in events down here and reflects negatively on the city. It just takes a few community members not to be discouraged and we could easily just replace what was damaged. We need to show that we, as a community, are stronger than the planters they destroyed."