10/07/2026
💛💙 Our mural is finished, and we are so incredibly thankful.💙💛
On October 6, the finishing touches were added to the Hinton Food Bank mural; a project made possible by the creativity, generosity, and care of so many people.
To Julia Shutenko, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have given your time, talent, and heart to creating something our whole community can enjoy. We are proud that the community chose Choice A, and seeing that design brought to life with your own creative touches has been so special. The clouds, sunshine, and colourful landscape add such warmth, and the flowers are especially beautiful. 🌻
A heartfelt thank-you to Sarah Howson who primed the wall and worked alongside Julia, helping fill the larger areas with paint. Sarah, your dedication and willingness to keep showing up made an enormous difference.
We are also deeply grateful to Carbon Diverse LTD for power-washing and preparing the walls and pulling the weeds before painting began. That important work helped make this transformation possible. 💪🏽💙
Thank you to Ian Maston for lending Julia your scaffolding to keep her safe while painting the top levels!! 🦺⛑️
To everyone who helped prepare, measure, paint, provide equipment, vote for the design, or offer encouragement as they passed by: thank you. Every contribution helped bring this project to life.
The mural shows a Hinton Food Bank volunteer handing a box of food to a mother and her son, alongside our heart emblem and the words “Community Helping Community.” Those words are reflected in our work, and in this project.
We hope our community appreciates this beautiful addition to Hinton as much as we do. We hope it brings a smile to those passing by and helps everyone arriving at our doors feel welcome. 💛
Julia shared these lovely reflections on completing the mural:
“October 6, 2026. We did it!
Today we finished work on the mural on the wall of the Hinton Food Bank.
It’s a fairly large wall—11’ tall, 36’8” long, and 405 square feet. John Duguay provided the exact measurements.
We brought to life the design that the community voted for, having been given four options to choose from.
I’m glad Kate Willis gave me some creative freedom, so I added a few of my own decorative elements to the painting that weren’t in the original sketch—such as the clouds, the sun in this particular shape, the flowers, and the striped hill. We transferred the main idea to the wall without any changes in the rest of it.
The scene depicts a Food Bank employee handing a box of food to a mother and her son, along with the Food Bank’s emblem (a large yellow-and-blue heart) and the Food Bank’s main slogan in Hinton: ‘Community Helping Community.’
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Kate for entrusting me with this project.
Thank you to Andrey Shutenko, my husband, who came with me to the wall at the beginning and helped me mark it up (dividing it into 33 equal squares) using a piece of string.
Sarah Howson, a Food Bank volunteer, worked with me throughout the entire process and helped me paint the wall. I am very grateful to her. Without her, the work would have progressed twice, if not three times, as slowly.
Thank you, Ian Maston, for providing the scaffolding. It was absolutely essential for this large wall.
Thank you to Councillor Don MacLean for coming to the wall and supporting us with kind words and a smile.
Thank you to all the observers for your positive, encouraging comments and all your support.
We even painted a small Pokémon Ball icon on the wall, since this wall is a registered participant in the Pokémon game—an idea suggested by Cyndie Borysko.
We signed the mural as follows:
Inspired by the Community, created by Julia Shutenko and Sarah Howson, 2026.
You can also see the small flags of Canada and Ukraine, joined by a heart as a symbol of love.
I hope this wall will bring joy to the residents of Hinton.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! 🎉🎉🎉
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve already eaten a few slices of my favourite pizza from Gus’ Pizza Place and drank some delicious tea from The Gourmet Kettle as part of my celebration.”
Julia, we are celebrating with you. Thank you for leaving such a beautiful mark on our Food Bank and our community.💛💙
