(Seguin) – Seguin welcomes its 10th Squirrel to the city’s nest.
Finding a home along the city of Seguin’s Squirrel Trail is “Sudy.” The art projects consist of larger than life stone squirrels that are sponsored publicly, painted and then placed at various locations around town.
This latest squirrel is named in honor of Sudy Bruns. Sudy is described as one of the most dedicated if not the hardest working member of the Women’s Federated Club Building. The squirrel was unveiled Friday morning on the clubhouse’s lawn located at 432 N. River St . The club room is known as “the first structure in Texas built solely for women’s clubs.”
Sponsoring the Squirrel was Frank and Penny Follis.
Penny says it didn’t take very long for them to decide to honor Sudy with her very own squirrel.
She says Sudy’s contributions to the club house over the years have been vital to its restoration and preservation.
Responsible for creating and depicting the contributions of the three clubs that operate at the building was local Artist Nancy Hartfiel. Penny says she couldn’t be more pleased with the final product.
“I just think Nancy did a great job of capturing the history of the club house as well as highlighting the Cemetery Tour that Sudy was so instrumental in organizing. She recognized the three clubs that needed this club house and were responsible for its maintenance and she has the wildflowers, the pearl necklace, the hats, the tea party – kind of the history of the house that goes back to the early 1900s and the ladies that met here so I was very pleased to see all that,” said Penny.
Penny says it was a year ago, when she contacted Sudy’s husband Joe just to make sure that they didn’t go against his wife’s wishes. After receiving his blessing, she says the project was put into full motion.
Although surprised with the honor, Sudy was humbled by the gesture and embraced the legacy of the club house as a team effort.
“No, it’s an honor for all of us that are here. There was a lot of work that was done and that’s nice because it wasn’t one person or two people. It was a bunch of people doing it,” said Sudy.
Hartfiel is not only an artist but a member of the Seguin Delphian Study Club, one of the groups that meets in the building. It’s also in affiliation with the Preservation of Shakespeare & Federated (Study) Club. Hartfiel says depicting the structure’s history was the most important consideration in painting the squirrel.
“The women of Seguin, they wanted a building that was theirs. They got money. They got land donated and they would meet and they would get all dressed up in their pearls, their hats, their best dresses – leave the kids at home and they would meet and have their tea and coffee in their best china and during the war, they would knit for the other people in the country whether it be scarves or hats or whatever they collected to send to people in camps. They always had projects that they were doing and different groups just continued until today,” said Hartfiel.
Hartfiel says her favorite part of her artwork is the Riverside Cemetery that is illustrated across the squirrel’s tail. She says the clubs’ Saints Alive Cemetery Tour that will again be resurrected this fall is among the most notable fundraisers for the groups. She says, again, Sudy is attributed for collecting this very detailed information that had to be researched.
“As the building has gotten older, it needed a lot of repairs and so they were looking for a project that would make enough money to cover the repairs plus scholarships and things to keep giving to the community and that’s when they started the idea of the cemetery tours. That’s when I kind of came into (the group) — it was at the end of the Cemetery Tours and those were so neat and I loved that and then COVID hit and they were over. So, this year, now that I am a member, and we started talking about how we could raise some money — someone said to restart the cemetery tours. (And) when I drew it up and did the cemetery on the back, they said ‘oh, that’s morbid. You can’t have a cemetery on it,’ so I tried to put the tour on it but not make it look like a cemetery. So, it’s fun. It was fun to do,” said Hartfiel.
As of today, the city wide program currently has 15 more squirrels that will be unveiled over this next year.
The opportunity to sponsor the next batch of squirrels is still available. The cost is $2,500 per squirrel. Each sponsor will also need to cover the cost of the artist that he or she personally selects.
Those interested in participating in the program are asked to contact the Seguin Main Street Program at 830-401-2448.
Other squirrel locations include the Seguin Public Library, Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church, Schertz Bank & Trust; Seguin’s Central Park, Seguin’s Hike & Bike Trail just behind St. James Catholic Church, the Meservey Group PLLC, Starcke Park East, Park West and Bauer Park.
