Roughly 17 kids worked on the mural, which took 239 hours to complete from July to September. TNT Midwest Martial Arts owner Tony DeWitt also arranged for his martial arts students to help with the project.
“This mural has become a landmark already in Fairborn,” Mayor Dan Kirkpatrick said Friday. “This really is a special thing.”
The mural, which runs the length of the TNT Midwest Martial Arts building in downtown Fairborn, “tells a story” of Fairborn’s history of aviation, said Greene County Director of Juvenile Probation Josh Hazelrigg. The mural depicts several aerospace-themed scenes, including the Wright Brothers, the founding of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during World War I, a C-17 Globemaster, a B-17 Flying Fortress, and even astronauts and a space shuttle.
The astronauts depicted are in honor of Col. Greg Johnson, an astronaut and Air Force veteran who graduated from Park Hills High School (now Fairborn High School). The other is Lt. Ed White, a test pilot for the Aeronautical Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He flew in the Gemini 4 space flight, and later died in the Apollo 1 disaster, when the cabin caught fire in pre-launch testing.
K-12 Gallery and TEJAS has worked with young people in juvenile detention in both Greene and Montgomery counties. In Montgomery County, the gallery is in the process of creating a mural celebrating famous Dayton natives, including Allison Janney and Dave Chappelle.
Last year, K-12 Gallery collaborated with the Juvenile Court on a mural at Shawnee Park in Xenia.
About the Author
