The McHenry Riverwalk Foundation still has a few details to work out for the mural project it is planning to unveil on July 4 during the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“We are still coming up with a spot” where the mural will stay for three to five years before being moved to an indoor location, Barb Neises, a foundation board member, said.

They’ll find the right location, she said, and in the meantime are asking McHenry residents and businesses to help by buying – and painting – one of the 650 tiles they need finished by May 15.

When completed, the nearly 1,000-tile, 8-by-16-foot mural will depict an American flag and a bald eagle. Donors are asked to buy the tiles for $50 each or four for $150. The tiles come with paint and some guidelines, Neises said.

“They will get four different colors in the kit: blue, red, a light yellow and a light blue. There will also be instructions ... on how to paint,” she said, adding that an online instructional video can help provided direction.

Participants can paint whatever they want on the tile, but it has to be in the color palette provided and in the percentage of color needed for that tile.

“As long as, say 80% of the tile is blue” then it will still fit into the mural design, Neises said. “They can paint a cat, as long as 80% of it is blue.”

The tiles must be purchased by May 2, and turned in at the McHenry Recreation Center by May 15. They will then be placed on cement backing before the mural installation.

Neises said the idea for a mural to celebrate the USA’s 250th birthday in McHenry came as she scrolled Facebook. The company making the mural, Alberta, Canada-based Mural Mosaic, is doing similar murals for customers across the U.S. in this and other designs.

“I thought, OK, this could be a cool thing,” Neises said. “Maybe this would be a good fundraising opportunity” for the Riverwalk Foundation.

According to mchenryriverwalk.org, the foundation has helped raise $3.74 million in the past 20 years to help develop McHenry’s Riverwalk. It now runs nearly a mile from the Green Street bridge to Weber’s Park.

The next section, known as Phase 5, has not begun development but likely will run from the Green Street bridge to behind the building that formerly housed Landmark School. A metal and wood bridge, part of the bridge that once crossed the Fox River at Pearl Street, is in storage. Plans are to have that become a pedestrian bridge, crossing Boone Creek and connecting the riverwalk towards Route 120.

If successful, the mural project could bring $35,000 toward the next portion of the riverwalk, Neises said.

The vendors says the mural should last eight to 10 years outdoors, but plans are to move it indoors before it starts to look too rough.

“We want to preserve it” by placing it in a school or one of McHenry’s veterans clubs, Neises said.

Another event planned by the foundation this year is it’s second-annual Chalkfest, set for Sept. 30 at Miller Point Park. In addition to chalk artists, Neises said organizers are looking for artists in other formats who will demonstrate their work during the event.

“We will still have the [chalk] competition, but I want other artists in there, like a potter with a potter’s wheel making art, or a person at an easel sketching,” she said. “We want to bring other arts around and get people familiar with different arts.”

To learn more about the Riverwalk Mural Project, go to the foundation’s website, mchenryriverwalk.org.