Groton — New banners with messages of unity, strength and connection in both English and Spanish have popped up this week in town.

The banners, which have messages such as “GROTON COMMUNITY” and “GROTON SOMOS UNIDOS,” are part of a townwide project to highlight the community’s strength and unity during the pandemic and into the future, said Groton Parks and Recreation Community Outreach Coordinator Jessica Patterson.

The town installed the bilingual banners at the Groton Senior Center and Groton Public Library complex, Poquonnock Plains Park, and over Route 1 by the Groton Utilities Water Treatment Plant.

Patterson said members of different town departments collaborated on the project after seeing positive, supportive messaging campaigns in other communities, with encouraging words such as “we’re all in this together,” during the pandemic. They wanted to do something similar in Groton, with messaging to show togetherness and inclusiveness during these challenging times and also in the future.

“We’re going to get through this, we’ve done a good job so far, and most importantly we’re doing this together,” Patterson said.

“We are certainly focused on community now, but we’re also going to be focused on community in the future, and we’re proud of who we are,” Patterson added. “We’re proud that it’s Groton strong. We’re proud that we’re an inclusive community. We’re proud that we make connections and we focus on unity and (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) efforts.”

She said Groton embodies all the words in the banners, plus one word better shown than said: inclusive.

She said representation matters and a large percentage of the Groton community speaks Spanish as their primary language at home.

Heather McClelland, community policing officer with the Groton Town Police Department and one of the people who helped spearhead the project, said the Groton community has a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and the town is trying to connect with as many people as possible. The banners with messages in English and Spanish allow the town to include a lot more people and celebrate Groton’s diversity, she said.

Patterson said the town would have loved to create banners in tons of languages but didn’t have the budget for it. “We hope the community understands the intention and feels the love,” she said.

The banners also feature the new Groton Town logo that staff has been working on, she said.

The logo features a submarine, the town landscape in the background, and a wave to represent the town’s shoreline location.

She said the town wanted to make the logo reflective of the community and have a more contemporary design.

Patterson said the plan is to keep the banners up as a positive reminder and also use them for activities, programs and events in the future.

“It was a joint townwide effort, and it’s a project that we’re proud of and we’re proud to connect with the community and just want to let people know that not only are we Groton Strong during COVID, but we will be after it and we certainly were before it,” Patterson said.

k.drelich@theday.com