Shawn Fitzwater is the owner of Fitz Hand Painted Signs. He started painting mid-2018. He has always enjoyed drawing and sketching from an early age but hadn’t experimented much with paint. He decided to dive in on a large mural for his children’s bedroom wall. While painting that mural, Shawn began thinking this may be something he’d like to do more often. After posting a video of a project on social media, it caught the attention of a local business and the rest is history. After painting that project, he began getting requests for other sign work and found a need in the community, and a new business was born, hand-painted signs and murals.
Shawn sensed how tough things were getting as the pandemic spread and how more and more people were being affected. He wanted to find a way to give back to people in need of, if anything, a smile. An inspirational message of hope that he created in the form of a mural. The mural is located on the wall of Homewood’s Battle Republic.
The inspiration from the “We Are All In This Together” message didn’t stop at the mural, it evolved into a fundraising effort for area healthcare workers.
With the help and suggestion of a couple of friends (Michael Whitten and Drew Binkley) owners of a local apparel company (Vulcan Apparel in Homewood), they decided to team up and take the “Together” mural and transfer the image to a t-shirt, kicking off a seven-day campaign. 100% of the proceeds from the t-shirt sales went to a local charity, BHMCares, to feed frontline healthcare workers in the Birmingham area fighting COVID-19.
Showing attributes of a Game Changer, Shawn made a positive impact through his creative art project and generosity by bringing a sense of solidarity and inspiration during a dark time for many in our community.
To learn more about Shawn and his contributions, check out the story from Alabama News Center.
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Photo of Fitzwater was taken by Erin Nelson (Homewood Star, Starnes Media). Photo was above taken by Fitzwater.