MARQUETTE — Back in May we brought you a story about the Power of Words Project which kicked off a fundraiser to bring a large mural to downtown Marquette. Members of the community were given a chance to vote on the word that would be the theme of the mural, and now we have those results. After close to fifteen hundred online votes, the word “Natural” has won the vote and will be the theme of the mural, which will be painted on the corner of Third and Ohio.

Mia Tavonatti, an Iron Mountain native, has been the artist doing the community inspired murals across the Upper Peninsula. Now she’ll begin to plan the Marquette mural, which will also have local artists and volunteers working on it with her.

Voting closed yesterday for the word, and the participation for the Marquette mural was the highest out of all of the U.P. cities that have done this, all to choose a word unlike any of the past winners.

“It’s certainly open to interpretation,” said Kate Lewandowski, the building owner. “If you think about it, the other murals she’s done are ‘imagine,’ ‘believe,’ ‘inspire,’ ‘wonder.’ These are all words that are just loaded with concepts, so ‘natural’ could go many different ways. And all of her murals are complex and have a lot to them, so it’ll be beautiful.”

The project is set to begin at the end of August, and it’s all happening because of the help and participation of the community.

“I just am so excited that we go a lot of people involved and there’s a lot of excitement for it,” said Lewandowski. “We had the auction, and had people donate things, and so it feels great to make it a whole community event and not just my event.”

The fundraiser met its goals back in June, but there are still opportunities to help sponsor the mural and help them get the last bit of funding they need for the project. For more information on the Power of Words Project, click here.