What began two years ago as a modest effort around Traverse City has grown into a regional campaign stretching across northwestern Michigan. The lay group, Friends of the Immaculata, has raised enough support – largely through anonymous donors – to place 14 Sacred Heart billboards across the region this month, more than quadrupling the number from previous years.

The group, made up primarily of parishioners from Holy Rosary Catholic Church, has worked parish to parish, spreading the word and inviting others to help reclaim June as the Month of the Sacred Heart. In previous years, donors funded three billboards in familiar locations around Traverse City. This year, the group expanded its fundraising to coincide with the USCCB consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

One member, Phil Nachazel, described the effort plainly: a public reminder “that Christ is King.” “In a culture that often feels untethered from that foundation,” he said, “we felt called to make a visible witness to the hope and stability found in Him.”

For organizers, the billboards are not political statements. They are invitations – brief encounters with a sacred image during the routines of daily life.

The image itself is striking in its simplicity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, recognizable to generations of Catholics, elevated above highways, small towns, and rural byways throughout the region.

As for the Friends of the Immaculata, the expansion from three billboards to fourteen is its own kind of proof. Even modest efforts – offered up – can travel farther than expected.