Manhattan Hill gets makeover for cystic fibrosis awareness

Covering giant letters on a hill with purple spandex — it might not sound like a worthwhile activity, but it is the tactic used by Project Purple, a student-run organization, to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Club.

Winston Wolf, junior in architecture and co-creator of Project Purple, said he was the one to come up with the "crazy idea" of covering the letters of Manhattan Hill in purple fabric, one at a time, as money was raised.

Wolf said he was riding in the car with his family on the way to a wedding when the creative spark came to him.

Wolf said two of his friends, Sierra Cuda, junior in interior architecture and product design, and Felicia Balestrere, junior in interior architecture and product design, had been wanting to launch a charity in honor of a high school friend of theirs who has cystic fibrosis.

"They wanted to do a haunted house and all these really creative ideas, but there was some logistic problems they were overlooking," Wolf said. "I was trying to think of something better, and Felicia and I were texting, and I fell asleep in the car."

A little bit of shut-eye was the extra push Wolf needed to produce the winning concept.

"I woke up and the text said something about the fact that cystic fibrosis' color was purple, and I was thinking, ‘Well, okay, that's perfect — we should have it be something to do with purple, obviously here in Manhattan,'" he said. "K-State pride and cystic fibrosis and Manhattan Hill — it just all made perfect sense."

Wolf said he was still "in the halfway awake stages" when he formulated the concept, but he immediately sent this short message to Cuda and Balestrere: "Wait. I've got the perfect idea."

It has been about a year since that texting conversation between the three co-creators of Project Purple. Since then, the team has raised $7,500 for the Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Club.

Cuda, treasurer of the club, said the team's success has not come without a few difficulties.

She said right after the team had their first victory — a purple-covered "M" on Manhattan Hill — the purple fabric covering disappeared.

"We tried not to lose hope and freak out about it too much," she said.

Still, Wolf said he found the situation heartbreaking.

"It was up for 18 hours and then Sierra was leaving town and she called and said one of the sides of the letters was missing," he said. "We got out of bed and gathered everybody and went out there, and it was all gone. It was rough."

Seeing the empty white letter was especially rough on that day, because the friend of Cuda's and Balestrere's who inspired Project Purple, and ceremonially assisted with clothing the letter, was along with them at the sighting of the naked letter.

Cuda said the team contacted Manhattan Parks and Recreation and discovered a maintenance person took the fabric down because he did not know it was there for a purpose. Fortunately, the maintenance employees saved the fabric, so the team was able to reclothe the letter.

In addition to the fabric disappearance, Balestrere said the Project Purple creators also have to deal with time management issues.

"The biggest challenge has been that it's only the three of us working on it, and we're all architecture majors, so we don't have a lot of free time," she said. "Pretty much every day that we do have free time, we're doing stuff for Project Purple."

In spite of all of the roadblocks, Cuda said Project Purple is turning out to be an enjoyable experience.

"My favorite thing is just meeting everybody that I've met so far, and just seeing how amazing this community is and how willing they are to support it and spread the word," she said.

Cuda said it has been meaningful for her to meet with people who are personally affected by cystic fibrosis.

"Whether it's them themselves or a family member or friend — actually meeting them and knowing the people that we're actually touching," she said.

Cuda said Project Purple is halfway to its fundraising goal. To donate, people can drop cash in buckets near cash registers from noon to 4 p.m. at Hyvee on Saturday, or buy T-shirts at Project Purple's booth in the K-State Student Union from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and Thursday, Oct. 28.

"It's turned out better than we thought it would, and we're hoping to keep growing and do it in years to come," Balestrere said.