DOWAGIAC — Last week, the walls of the Pokagon Band Community Center were covered inch-to-inch in pictures of faces.

Artwork featuring the likenesses of who each artists looked up to was submitted to the event by local Dowagiac Union Schools students, Southwestern Michigan College students and even adult community members. The images ranged from famous figures, such as Michael Jackson to iconic Cass County names including former sheriff Joe Underwood and former Cassopolis Police Chief Frank Williams to relatives of the individual artists.

“Isn’t all this great?” asked Bobbie Jo Hartline, one of the event organizers. “As we were thinking of ways to connect generations with the One Story Program, we went to the schools and the college to ask them to participate in an art project.”

Thursday, the city of Dowagiac concluded its fifth annual One Story program with its traditional Epilogue Feast. The event, which was based around the submitted artwork, featured a Native American feast, as well as a presentation from N.L. Sharp, author of children’s book “Effie’s Image.”

Dowagiac’s One Story program, a collaborative program with numerous agencies and groups in the greater Dowagiac area, involved a series of events relating to the theme of a chosen book, this year’s being Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie” and Sharp’s “Effie’s Image.” The overall theme for this year’s program was “connecting generations.”

Organizers of the One Story program said the Epilogue Feast was the perfect way to cap off the program.

“I don’t really think we chose art. It chose us. This is a culmination of all the programs we have done all season and for the last five years,” Hartline said. “When someone wants to share something either with you or about you, art just seemed to keep coming to the forefront. We knew [One Story] was bigger than us, and we just wanted to share that with everyone and have them share it with us through art.”

Another One Story organizer, Kristie Bussler, said she was pleased both with the Epilogue Feast and the 2018 One Story program in general.

“I feel like this year has been even more personal than previous years, because instead of just having events, we have had behind the scenes things, like the art project, where people are talking and interacting long term with others,” she said. “We have had a quieter feel this season, but we have had a deeper personal connection.”

Bussler added that she hoped those who attended the One Story events this year walked away with a better understanding of how to connect with different generations and the importance of that connection.

“[Connecting with generations] is something we do every day, but focusing on doing it with intent is important,” she said. “There is so much you know that you can share with others, and there is so much you don’t know that you can learn from others. It is truly valuable and important to nurture those relationships and that flow of information.”