GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — When you visit downtown Grand Rapids for ArtPrize 10, there's plenty that will catch your eye — even if you look up.
You may catch sight of something blue and it may have you wondering.
"I think it's going to be fun for people as they see those to ask that question: what is this about? And really this is our way of introducing a new nonprofit in West Michigan," Paul Boyer told 24 Hour News 8 Tuesday.
Boyer is co-founder of the new West Michigan Prostate Health Alliance. He and four other community leaders an came up with the idea for the group, which they believe is greatly needed in the region. Boyer, who survived prostate cancer himself, said statistics for West Michigan are surprising — and in a bad way.
"A thousand guys a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer, every year. That's almost three a day. Three today, three tomorrow. So you can see there's a big need here to get this word out that this is important. Get checked," Boyer said.
To serve that goal, the nonprofit collaborated with Detroit-area sculptor John Sauve to create an installation called "Man in The City: A Conversation of Numbers." It's a 7-foot steel sculpture of a man painted blue for prostate cancer awareness. The main sculpture is on the Blue Bridge, but there are 11 other blue men on rooftops all across downtown.