ST. LOUIS – Love is in the air along Interstate 44…
You may have seen the big red billboard with ‘LOVE’ on it, it’s part of a nationwide effort to bring the community together.
Life and health coach John Pogachar, of Spokane, Washington, began putting up several billboards in his hometown. After 11 people were killed at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, he put one there, too.
The goal was to bring love, with no strings attached, to not only his city, but places around the country that needed it most.
Carole Glauser, co-founder of a nonprofit in St. Louis, met Pogachar at a meditation retreat in California and heard about his ‘Love on Every Billboard’ project during a life coaching class. She fell in love with the idea and paid to put one up in the St. Louis metropolitan area for about a month.
"St. Louis has been a core player in racial inequality and division in the country," Glauser, co-founder and treasurer of Attitudinal Healing St. Louis, said. "I would love the billboard to be part of the healing of some of that so that people get in touch with living from that place of love."
Seven billboards have gone up so far in three states. Two recently went up in Marshalltown, Iowa, where a tornado ripped through in July. Another is set to go up in Havre, Montana later this month and Pogachar has plans to make the project international. A towering tree that he saw at Sequoia National Park during the camping trip partly inspired him. Although a fire had severely damaged it, it kept growing, he said.
"We've got people out there that get kicked and beaten up and they just keep loving and keep growing, too," Pogachar said. "If we continue to pour love into our cities and towns, into our children and nature...love wins out. We win out."
The billboard went up on Wednesday and sits along the north side of Interstate 44, west of Missouri Route 141.
For more information about the Love on Every Billboard project, click here.
