(JOPLIN, Mo., AP) — Nearly two dozen butterfly sculptures will be on display throughout Joplin by next month in order to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the May 2011 tornado.

The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/1Sgm9Th ) reports that the sculptures were sold by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce and were created by Forged Waterjet Fabrications.

“When we started looking at what theme did we want to carry forward, a butterfly immediately came to the top as No. 1,” said Tonya Sprenkle, the chamber’s vice president. “It kind of represented a metamorphosis, a rebirth; we thought it embodied a positive influence and something beautiful that we could display.”

The Mason-Woodard Mortuary and Crematory’s butterfly was pained by Jason Brookshire, whose grandmother, 75-year-old Ellen Jeanette Doyle, died in the tornado. Co-owner Kim Woodard said it was important to the staff to be part of the project as a way to honor the families the business served in the weeks after the tornado.

“It was so hard for those families to have to endure that, and of course we’re on that front to take care of those people, and it impacted us very much professionally in that we’ve never encountered anything like that in such a magnitude,” she said.

Alicia Zustiak, a senior visual arts major at Missouri Southern State University, designed the campus’ butterfly with green and gold wings.

“I wanted it to look nice to respect the people who went through the tornado,” Zustiak said. “I wanted it to look good to honor them.”

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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com