Before I die chalkboard

About two weeks ago, one of my friends told me about Candy Chang, an artist who created (among quite a lot else) a giant chalkboard on the side of an abandoned house where people could record their hopes for their lives. I was inspired by the idea of giving people a space to make their dreams public.  So I decided to make something similar for the place I work.
I'm a therapist at a drug treatment center. Most of our residents are veterans; virtually all were homeless before they moved in.  A major task for the men who come here is to develop hope for what their lives could be like without drugs or alcohol.  So I showed photos of the original project to my boss and she said I could have some wall space to hang my chalkboard.
I originally planned to just buy a chalkboard and stencil it, but I discovered that it's nigh impossible to buy a large chalkboard in a store anymore. I went to Staples, Office Max, Target, Walmart, and several craft and teacher supply stores. I considered ordering one online, but they were expensive (the cheapest suitable one I found was 24 by 30 and cost $60) and I'm an impatient kind of person. So I followed the suggestions of coworkers and craft store employees and bought some plywood and chalkboard paint.

I also bought some white spray paint, though I ended up not using it since I was worried about overspray. I had to force myself to use primer (again, I'm impatient) but I suppose it was a good thing I did. I let the board dry overnight and then used stencils I had persuaded my grandmother to make with her die cutting machine.  We originally made a large "Before I die..." stencil for the top and a smaller "Before I die I want to______" stencil for the rest of the board. Later I decided since it was a fairly small board (2 feet tall and four feet long) that we'd just use the big stencil and leave the rest  blank.

A few of the guys helped me hang it on Monday morning. Here's what it looked like that night when I left. The guys seem to like it, and I'm glad I didn't use the smaller stencil, because people have started drawing pictures  on it too.

Total cost, including several boxes of chalk and an eraser: about $35.