Oskaloosa Main Street Project: Cardboard Town hits Penn Central

Jun. 14—Small-town Iowa just took on a whole new meaning thanks to Oskaloosa Mainstreet's Project: Cardboard Town.

Oskaloosa's children and their families joined forces to create a kid-sized model of some of the town's most recognizable buildings and landmarks in an exhibit running through Saturday, June 18 at Penn Central Mall.

"Our vision is that Individuals, Organizations and local businesses will be inspired to help us build Oskaloosa in large cardboard boxes representing the best of our landmarks, businesses, homes, and beloved spaces, as a large-scale art piece," said the project website's mission statement.

"When we arrived in Oskaloosa last year, I said 'this town speaks to me in terms of being able to be recreated in some artistic way,'" said Fiona Limpach, who spearheaded the community art project alongside Danielle Willhour.

"To have the banks and the big businesses that you wouldn't think really as being more artistic-driven — it's been a really good community event," said Willhour about the collaboration required to pull the project off.

Children recreated buildings like the George Daily Auditorium, First Presbyterian Church and even Oskaloosa's famous Sno Biz truck for display in the mall. The project became the perfect opportunity for kids to express their love for the parts of town that truly make it home.

"Well, first of all, I play softball and I love playing softball, and I thought it was a cool idea to do that," said Nora Limpach when asked why she chose Lacey Sports Complex for her project. "It took a long time. It took about a week and a half."

Nora's project has an extra personal touch, since she included some sand from her family's pond to make her tiny baseball diamonds as realistic as possible. The end result is just one example of the hard work and creativity put into recreating Oskaloosa out of cardboard for the whole town to enjoy.

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.