Valor Home plans an outdoor mural

Funds sought to pay for project

Supporters of Valor Home are seeking help to create an outdoor mural that will show respect to veterans, raise awareness of the facility and beautify Lorain.

A new painting of “Valor” is planned for the western outside wall of the Valor Home Lorain County, 221 W. 21st St. in Lorain.

The facility offers transitional housing and assistance programs for homeless male veterans of Lorain County.

Since opening in late 2014, the facility has offered a safe, comfortable environment that looks good and is respectful to veterans, said Rosa Gee, a member of the Valor Home advisory board.

The outside of the building does not reflect that reality, “so I feel that our community as a whole needs to step up,” said Gee, who has had numerous family members serve in the armed forces.

Gee and her husband, Joe, who is Valor Home advisory board recording secretary and a Marine Corps veteran, aim to raise $10,000 for materials to prepare the wall, paint it and seal it with protectant.

Working with them are artists Mike Sekletar, 40, and Brian Goodwin, 38, the painters who created the Veterans Mural in downtown Amherst.

That public art project, with tributes to World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, has received national attention through the American Legion, said John Sekletar, a Navy

veteran of Vietnam and the father of Mike Sekletar.

“I can’t emphasize enough: Any and everyone has seen the ones in Amherst and it’s time Lorain has one,” Rosa Gee said.

“And you couldn’t get better artists than these guys,” she added.

The mural, showing “Valor” personified standing next to a lion, exists in sketch form. A small version adorned one side of a commemorative medal given to veterans at “Because We Were Soldiers,” a tribute to veterans at the Lorain Palace Theater in November 2016.

The mural is not meant to be a war picture, Mike Sekletar said. Rather, it is a sculpture in paint to stand as a permanent reminder of the valor of those who serve, he said.

The Lorain project has several purposes.

The mural would raise awareness about the 30bed Valor Home for veterans and their families.

“One of the reasons is to bring awareness to what they do here and what they offer for veterans,” Mike Sekletar said.

On the practical side, it would help veterans, their families, volunteers and delivery drivers find Valor Home, said Goodwin, who also works as a cook there.

“I know there’s people out there struggling and they just don’t know to come here,” Goodwin said. “The awareness part of it also is a huge factor.”

The building sits at the corner of West 21st Street, a heavily traveled east-west roadway in Lorain, and Reid Avenue.

The Valor Home mural would be larger than any of the single murals in Amherst. The painters have not made an exact measurement

yet, but Mike Sekletar estimated its height at three basketball hoops, or 30 feet.

“This mural, standing the full height of that building on 21st, is going to look magnificent,” Rosa Gee said. “This is really something for the vets, but isn’t this a wonderful facelift for that area of the city of Lorain? This is a win-win situation.”

Valor Home serves all of Lorain County, so the fundraising effort for the mural is a way to build unity among all county veterans and their supporters, the planners said.

“We can all come together and show honor,” Rosa Gee said.

If all goes well, the artists hope to paint the building this spring.

“This is going to be pretty cool for Lorain,” John Sekletar said. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be an awesome project. I can’t wait.”

SUBMITTED The concept/draft image of the mural that could go on the outside wall of Valor Home in Lorain.