. ARJUN Verma: Faces in the hills.

. KRIS APARICIO A sturdy, large tree growing on the banks of a river (ie. Susquehanna), its roots showing down in the water, gripping the soil, anchoring other plants and several small seedlings. It boughs shading and protecting plants, birds, animals and people under and within the tree. The tree is surrounded by storm clouds and sunshine that produce a rainbow, the end of which arcs into or connects with the canopy of the tree.

. KATY Kondrat (young adult) My idea of the spirit of community is that everyone should be treated and seen as equal to all the surrounding people. People from other countries should feel "free and easy" when they visit America. We should feel safe and loved in our homes and communities. I believe we should be able to talk to our neighbors and friends and know that they're listening and comprehending.

. KAREN Palmer: Kids of all colors, cultures and abilities playing together.

. J.R. Stelling: People discussing solutions.

. JUDITH Allen: People coming together and serving others, for example: Saturday's Bread; a willingness to give.

. REBECCA Custers-Allen: Dolphins jumping in the moonlight.

. DIMA Gurko: Russian exchange student, young adult: Many people get together, all of them very friendly to one other, in the sanctuary, discussing how to make peace around the world. There is no grief, denouncing quarrels inside. The great useful thing trying to advance children's opinion on peace, appears in my mind.

. BEVAN Walshe: The sun, everyone likes a sunny day. A sun with a smile on it, making it neither man nor woman.

. SALLY Brockway: The older buildings and their architecture. This includes the colleges and Downtown as well as private residences. There is also a wealth of knowledge and beauty in the library and the older cemetaries as they show the roots of the community, its losses and changes.

. AARON Gorsch, young adult: People in Oneonta holding hands.

. IRWIN Gooen: Woodland, rivers and hills.

. SARAH Baden, young adult: The object that represents the Spirit of Community to me would be a tree. I think a tree because a lot of trees have lived a long time and know what went on over the years. I think that all communities should have trees to keep the spirit alive.

. PAT Wilson: The many seasons and colors of the mountains. This small New England town, from the newborns to the cemetaries, all depicting our earthly journey from beginning to end.

. BARBARA-ANN Flannery, young adult: I think maybe a sky, but not a normal sky, something more like a fantasy sky. With a cloud with the face of the wind.

. GARY Torre and LINDY Cummings: Hills, cows, books, Elena's Restaurant.

. KATIE D' Imperio, young adult: Hartwick Wall.

. HELEN S. Benlisa: Its hard for me to pick a particular object to represent community - so many things, thoughts and feelings come to mind. I suppose hands can say the most, older hands reaching toward or holding younger ones.
Even the way an infant wraps its tiny digits around the index finger of its parent, grasping the "staff" that connects it - tethers it - to the earth.
Community isn't always a thing that can be seen (for me). Its a feeling, an experience. When I look at hoar frost in the window, it shows a pattern of a "bloom" coming out of another "bloom". In a similar way, vines are representative of that also.

. NICK Stillman and AARON Stahl, young adults: A community thing is an ice cream cone.

  ANTONIO Virasi, young adult: Everybody flying like birds.

If you would like to better understand how the symbols that we have received from the response to the question will be used in the murals:

Click here to: