Since the tornado, Tuscaloosa has been scattered, literally split and dispersed across many towns. We have become accustomed to driving around with heaps of rubble piled along our city’s streets, nagging and pushing at our peripheral. But pause for a moment and imagine this: Post-tornado debris collected and assembled into a giant nest sculpture.

Picture a large, brightly painted nest, displayed amidst the tornado damage, providing those affected by the April tornado with a compelling symbol of recovery, comfort, warmth and growth.

Soon, you won’t have to picture anything at all. You’ll be able to see it with your own eyes in one of Creative Campus’ latest projects, fittingly titled “The Nest.”

For the Nest project, slated to take place in February of this year, University of Alabama sculpture grad student Kelly Shannon will build a larger-than-life nest sculpture out of tornado debris to be displayed as a symbol of rejuvenation in the midst of the tornado’s recovery zone.

With a mission to engage as many students and community members as possible in creative endeavors of all kinds, Creative Campus believes art can be a powerful mode of recovery. The Nest will literally and symbolically weave together the scattered pieces of the Tuscaloosa community.

In February, the assembled nest will be unveiled, but already, the Nest is reaching into the community through art. Alabama students are bringing twigs into local schools, such as Holt Elementary and Tuscaloosa Magnet, to be painted and decorated by the children. When the Nest is created, these smaller, colorful branches will be woven into the larger sculpture, intertwining Tuscaloosa’s youth with the larger community’s healing process. When the Nest is unveiled at an event tentatively scheduled for Feb. 18, the whole community will be welcomed to come and add their own bright brush stroke to the sculpture.

But to make this idea a reality, Creative Campus needs your help to pick up the pieces of the city most of us now call home.

The Nest offers students a meaningful way to participate in community and personal healing in the aftermath of April’s storm. It provides students with opportunities to serve and to create in lasting ways. For many of us, the tornado fostered a connection to our city deeper than we could have imagined. The Nest, likewise, can establish a connection with the renewal and recovery of Tuscaloosa through the integration of art into the rebuilding process.

Creative Campus is currently working with the Tuscaloosa Area Volunteer Reception Center to collect branches and other tornado debris to use for the sculpture. Before we can make our nest vision a reality, we need real help. We need real arms, real legs and real student involvement. We need volunteers to help clear debris and collect branches on Saturday and Sunday.

We invite you to be a part of something larger – a larger-than-life nest, to be precise. If you’re interested in volunteering, please email [email protected] and/or log onto SLPro to log your hours. The first collection weekend will be on Saturday and Sunday with two shifts, 9 a.m. to noon and noon to 3 p.m.

Creative Campus is a student-centered arts advocacy program at the University of Alabama.