“It makes downtown fun. I don't see Topeka or Manhattan doing something like this.”

— Matt Campbell, custom painter, Topeka

“I think it presents a message about the sense of community. There’s an African proverb that it takes a community to raise a child.”

— Douglas Jackson, D.J., Lawrence

“I think it says we are a community that enjoys anything that happens.”

— Joyce Schmid, admissions clerk at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence

“It says that we have the ability to attract cultural diversity and make it work for the community financially”

— Jay Wachs, media executive , Cleveland