Before I Die...in Missoula

It’s not every day that you get to announce your most intimate life goals to the community on a public art installation. But for the next month Missoulians are encouraged to write what they want to do before they die on a giant 24-by-7-foot chalkboard hanging on the west side of the Central Park parking garage on West Main Street downtown.

Part art installation and part community activity, the board was officially unveiled to the public Friday afternoon by Mayor John Engen and Syann Stevens, co-founder of TrickleTrade.com, a community bartering website.

“At first I wanted to write, ‘I want to eat mayonnaise with a spoon,’ ” Engen joked as he walked up to the installation, self-conscious about his penmanship.

Instead, his vision was a tasteful “Before I die, I want to leave this place a little better than when I entered it, like so many before me have done.”

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