Chester County students, partners showcase talent through sculpture

Several local organizations, students and individuals have come together to honor the community with a unique sculpture. Those partnering on the 2022 Recycled Sculpture Project include Chester County High School, TCAT Crump, Chester County Solid Waste Department, Keep Chester County Beautiful, City of Henderson and Mayor Bobby King, FHU Department of Fine Arts, Henderson Arts Commission and United Auto Body.
Chester County High School welding students and their instructor, Derick Gibbs of TCAT Crump, have been constructing a large, 12-foot-wide sculpture of wings made from recycled metal since January 2022.
The students put in more than 500 hours of work and used more than 350 horseshoes to construct the sculpture. Once completed, United Auto Body donated their services to sandblast and paint it. Mary Gobelet of United Auto Body spent 42 hours hand painting the sculpture’s vivid colors with the assistance of FHU’s Department of Fine Arts.
The recycled or reclaimed metal used for the sculpture was donated by Chester County Solid Waste and county residents. Solid Waste Department and Keep Chester County Beautiful Education Coordinator Misti Pequignot asked community members via social media to donate scrap horseshoes to create the sculpture. The collection box for these project supplies was set up at the Henderson Solid Waste Convenience Center on Talley Store Road. “The concept for these community sculptures is to be a visual representation of our community, with many individuals coming together to form a whole and creating something beautiful for everyone to enjoy,” Pequignot said.
The wing sculpture will be installed in Henderson’s Gene Record Park to be enjoyed by community members and visitors.
The sculpture will be unveiled during Keep Chester County Beautiful’s Community Celebration to be held at Gene Record Park Saturday, May 6, at 10 am. Other events during Keep Chester County Beautiful’s community celebration include a tree and butterfly garden planting and dedication at 9:15 am, environmental storybook trail and West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub’s mobile classroom.
Previous sculptures made by the welding students can be found throughout Henderson. The 2021 recycled sculpture of an 8-foot-tall guitar was installed at Sue Shelton White Park in downtown Henderson last May. Several sculptures are displayed outside of the observation and education classroom at the West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub in Henderson.
“By working with students studying a trade, we as a community want to celebrate their skills while also introducing the number of possibilities and paths those skills can take them in the future. At Keep Chester County Beautiful, we also use these sculptures as just one example of the ways that individuals can reuse items instead of putting them in a landfill,” Pequignot said.