Reds continue 'Murals with a Mission' with third high school

Students from Loveland High School’s HOPE Squad unveiled a new mural on Friday, the latest addition to “Murals with a Mission,” powered by PNC Bank.

The Reds and PNC Bank launched the “Murals with a Mission” campaign in 2022 to create art at Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky high schools designed to elevate positive social messages for the student community. The first schools selected were Princeton High School and Mason High School -- both debuted their mural in November.

Members of Loveland’s HOPE Squad, along with local artist Brent Billingsley, introduced the five individual paintings that together will form the mural. Featured speakers at the event included Mike Broadwater, superintendent of Loveland Schools; Karen Forgus, Cincinnati Reds senior vice president of business operations; and Jessica Yankie, PNC Bank vice president and director of client & community relations.

“What you are doing here, it’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than these four walls,” Yankie said, speaking to the nearly 1,400 students gathered in the gymnasium. “It shows how much you care, think about others and think about things that are bigger than yourselves. You’re going to come back for your 10-year, 20-year reunions, and this mural is still going to be here. And you can think back and say, ‘I was here when that happened. This is our legacy.’”

Loveland’s HOPE Squad program is a school-based peer support team that partners with local mental health agencies. Peers select students who are trustworthy and caring individuals to join the HOPE Squad. Squad members are trained to watch for at-risk students, provide friendship, identify suicide warning signs and seek help from adults.

Billingsley works for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, using art to help youth cope with mental health pressures, meaning he’s well-versed in dealing with heavy topics. When he arrives at a new school, it’s about much more than an art project.

“The Reds and PNC Bank do not hire me to paint,” he said. “They hire me to use art as a way to build relationships. It just so happens I know how to color pretty good, too.”

In this instance, he spent three weeks leading the HOPE Squad through a guided creative process that resulted in a student-led mural project, moving from conception, design and painting. The panels represented and portrayed five categories -- sadness, empathy, comfort/joy, trust and hope.

“The kids came up with this amazing narrative,” Billingsley said. “Every school I go to, I let the kids come up with the theme, concept and color scheme. All of these images are photos of actual kids in the HOPE Squad. We were really big on being holistic with that whole process.

“At every school, there’s always something different. A different dynamic, a different culture. But no matter what, whenever I go to a school and spend time with these kids, they re-energize me.”

As for the students in the HOPE Squad, they were equally fired up to spend time with Billingsley and work on a large-scale project unlike anything they’d done before.

“The first day we met him, he was super energetic and it felt really good,” sophomore Brandon Waple said, remembering the journey the group took with Billingsley. “It was a lot of fun being part of the process, and it feels great leaving a legacy here of what we believe in and our values.”

“It’s really amazing to think that we were involved in this project,” senior Sydney Jenkins said. “Not only the painting, but taking the pictures, coming up with the ideas and colors. And it’ll show when it’s here for years.”

While Loveland was the latest location to participate in “Murals with a Mission,” it certainly won’t be the last. The response by the student body at all three schools has been overwhelming, and the Reds and PNC have been thrilled with what they’ve seen at each campus.

“We see it as an honor and a privilege, at the Reds and PNC, to really just ride along as the people who are helping provide this,” Forgus said. “But our hands are off of it, this is not about us. We truly give it as a gift to the school and community with the hope that it is in the hearts of these students who are our future that they never feel alone and that they always understand they’re part of something big that unites us."