Garry Bibbs, associate professor in art studio, sculpted the piece, named "Life, family and good health." Perhaps, he said, the piece can have a multitude of meanings along with its intent of showing how good health, family and life are intertwined.

Perhaps, he said, the sculpture could be a symbol of strong leadership and strong community, which are characteristics that the Central Kentucky Community Leadership Program (CKCLP) is trying to accomplish in Lexington.

The program got good news recently. Lexington was chosen as one of 10 communities in the country that will participate in the Pew Civic Entrepreneur Initiative, a nationwide project designed to equip a diverse group of community leaders for playing greater roles in their communities.

Lexington's team, a group of 20 highly diverse people, will attend two national training institutes, one Nov. 12-16 in Colorado Springs, Colo., and May 28-31 next year in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"This group is diverse in so many ways, it's phenomenal," said Bibbs, a team member. "We have a real mixture."

The team is made up of 10 men and 10 women: eight white, seven black, one Arab-American, one Japanese, one Hispanic, one Asian-Indian and four bi-racial people ranging in age from 15 to 69.

"Everybody's getting along," Bibbs said about the group, which has had several meetings about how they as leaders can guide the community. "Why can't the entire city do the same thing?"

The team from Lexington being chosen as one of 10 speaks well of the community, said Sue Weant, a member of the CKCLP media relations committee.

She said 130 people applied for the team. That number was reduced to 60 people who were interviewed for the 20 team member and five alternate positions.

UK Department of Medicine professor Raj Chawla was chosen as a leader of the community.

"I hate the term leader," he said. "But I consider myself an activist."

Chawla came to Lexington from Atlanta where he helped organize a Third World film festival of short films from underdeveloped countries. He now hosts a show on WRFL called "Music from India."

"I feel very strongly Lexington can become an international city," he said. "I think this is an exciting town."

Patrick Mooney, a sociology professor, said, "(The team) is an opportunity for me to work with people of different parts of the community, of different communities I guess you could say."

The project should make better leaders out of the members, he said. Then, they could pass their leadership abilities on to other members of the community.

"I think it's a real good program in that sense," he said. "Building leaders from the grass roots."

So far, the team has had several meetings for them to get familiar with each other, develop skills as civic leaders and discuss ideas about a project on which they will collaborate in the future.