Here’s my craft project for the week—a puzzle for the United Way Rally on August 5th. I’ve been on the committee to plan the rally for the last three years, and every year they challenge my crafty skills. This year, we wanted a big gesture that demonstrated how the United Way, the agencies the United Way supports, and our community are all interconnected.

Interconnection is the theme behind the UW logo “Live United,” and it’s why I am a big supporter of the United Way. Everyone in Cass County knows someone (or is someone) who has been touched by services supported by United Way. If you or someone you know has received blood from the Red Cross, gotten a ride from Cass Transit, used the Y, or been a Scout, you’ve benefited from UW donations. I give time and money to United Way because I know that every dollar is helping people right here in Cass County.

I designed the puzzle to focus on that interconnection. There are 15 agency puzzles, each in one of the small circles around the edge. Within each circle are seven facts about that agency, and each fact is on its own puzzle piece. The United Way logo was in the middle of the puzzle, with concentric rings radiating out to the edges, and the puzzle itself was the shape of Cass County. At the beginning of the rally, each table assembled an agency puzzle. Then, near the end of the rally, each table placed their puzzle on the main board to make the complete puzzle seen above. The last pieces placed were the campaign goal for 2011.

Here, I’m trimming down the agency puzzles so they can be mounted on foam core. The puzzle was too big to place on a single piece of paper, so I carefully lined everything up so you can’t tell where one sheet ended and the next began.

Here I’m lining up the mounted pieces with the center pieces. The concentric rings really helped with alignment! To give you an idea of the size, the big worktable is 5 feet by 5 feet.

Once we had all the pieces cut and mounted on foam core, we could start cutting the individual puzzle pieces. There were 110 pieces total. My mom, Lynne, helped by cutting, cutting, cutting, and then cutting some more!

We ran into a snag at this point. The puzzle pieces needed to be magnetic to attach to the sheet metal backing. My first idea, to use magnetic primer, was a complete fail. If you’ve been thinking about using it for a project, be sure to test it first. A magnet will stick to it after two coats, but it itself is not magnetic, which is what I needed for this project. Also, it makes a very rough and irregular surface, which would be hard to paint over if you were putting it on a wall.

Plan B was to attach magnetic strips to the pieces. Mom had picked up quite a pile of magnetic strip at garage sales, so we thought we were set. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough, and some of the strip was so old that the adhesive wouldn’t stick. Mom made a late night run to Walmart to get more strip. Unfortunately, the adhesive on it wasn’t any better! Out came the glue gun as a last minute rescue.

By this photo, we’re nearly done attaching magnets! The emergency chocolate helped get the project done.

Putting the puzzle together at the rally was fun and chaotic, and I hoped everyone learned something about the agencies and about the support the United Way provides in the community. The completed puzzle will be displayed at Logansport Memorial Hospital, starting on Live United Day, September 16th, so check it out. And if you don’t already, consider giving to United Way so you can touch lives throughout Cass County.

—Loryn