Rotary gift

By the end of the weekend, the south side of the J&P Custom Plating Building will have been transformed.

Former Portland resident Zach Medler is in the process of painting a mural featuring a crabapple tree and red-winged blackbird as part of Portland Rotary Club’s celebration of its 100th anniversary.

Portland Rotary actually marked 100 years in 2020 but, as with many things in the year of the coronavirus pandemic, their celebration was disrupted and thus stretched into this year.

The idea for the mural as part of the celebration came not only because of the club’s desire to gain greater visibility, but also as a symbol of its spirit of giving.

“We wanted to do something for the town,” said Pam Bennett, who is serving on the club’s 100th anniversary committee and chairs its public relations committee.

“Something that was a gift back,” added Bonnie Maitlen, chair of the 100th anniversary committee.

When they decided on a mural, Medler immediately came to mind. A former Portland resident and the son of Portland Rotary Club member Mike Medler, he had recently completed a Geneva mural featuring the Limberlost Swamp.

Medler offered several initial designs to the club, with the club choosing one that featured the Loblolly Swamp. But as the project got closer and Medler, now a Lafayette resident, visited to check out his canvas — former Portland Rotary Club president John Goodrich volunteered his building for the effort — he had second thoughts. He came up with a new design — a blooming crabapple tree with a red-winged blackbird nestled in its branches takes up at least two-thirds of the space — and the Rotary members approved.

“I just realized the Loblolly image was not going to be right on this wall, because of its visibility from the intersection,” said Medler, who grew up in Noblesville but spent about five years working at Arts Place in Portland after earning his master’s degree in ceramics from Purdue University in 2004.

“I feel like this is just a stronger image. The bright pink of the crabapple tree is going to be really strong and vibrant.

“It’s a good fit. And it’s really visible. For me, visibility is the most important thing in choosing a wall, and understanding how people are going to view it.”

The mural — it will be about 56 feet wide and 20 feet tall — will also feature the Rotary logo in the upper left corner, with Medler’s “ZMED” signature in the upper right.

The crabapple tree is symbolic of a long-standing Portland Rotary Club project.

Each year they buy and bag crabapple trees that are then donated to local fourth graders. It has been going on for more than 40 years. (Bennett noted that she and her husband Pat have one such tree in their yard that is now more than 30 years old.)

“Not every child has a tree at their home or has the means to have a tree at their home,” said Maitlen. “This is a way for us to foster that at every home.”

As for the red-winged blackbird, that was Medler’s choice.

“This guy is usually one of the first birds you see in the spring,” he said. “That’s why I picked him.”

The mural — the $10,000 project was funded entirely by the club and its members — is just one part of Portland Rotary Club’s celebration of its 100th anniversary.

Other aspects include adding $100 to each of their annual donations to community projects, creating the Portland Rotary Scholarship Fund and sharing information about the club through local newspaper and radio as well as social media.

The club is also having banners made about the Rotary four-way test — Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? — to be hung in all Jay County schools.

“We wanted people to know what all we’ve done and what we’re about,” said Maitlen.

Medler, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Wabash College and has painted about 30 murals mostly in northern Indiana in the last decade-plus, began work on the Portland Rotary Club project Thursday. The base coat of light blue was complete by the end of the day.

By mid-morning today, Medler was finishing up the blackbird.

He hoped to have the entirety of the mural complete by Saturday evening.

“All of the design work, everything is done already,” he said. “All I have to do is install it. … I already know where I’m going with everything.”

“We’re excited to give it to the community,” said Maitlen. “This is a gift for us to give to the community, to show off an Indiana artist and to bring a piece of beauty.”