Lend a hand: Neighborhood projects help organizers and beneficiaries during COVID-19
“You want to help? We make it easy.” The motto of the Thurston County Food Project captures the mission of this neighborhood-based program.
The particulars are fleshed out on its website, but simply put, a volunteer neighborhood coordinator recruits a minimum of four other households. Participants fill a green bag with non-perishables every other month, the coordinator picks up the full bag, leaves an empty in its place, and delivers it to the Thurston County Food Bank warehouse.
Frankly, without kids to put on a bus or dogs to walk, it can be a challenge to even know your neighbors’ names. Neighborhood activities such as the food project rally neighbors around a common goal that can overcome cultural differences and improve the quality of our lives.
During the pandemic, neighborhoods around the globe have found meaningful ways to appreciate front-line workers, celebrate graduations and birthdays, and welcome neighbors home from the hospital.
Knowing that April in Olympia would not be the same without Arts Walk, an Eastside neighborhood organized a mini art walk. Residents displayed art in their windows, played instruments on their porches, gave chalk to the kids and turned them loose on the sidewalk.
Sometimes a ”one-off” becomes a tradition. A group of women in my Boston Harbor neighborhood once decided to host a garden tour. We all enjoyed digging in the dirt, and luckily for me, enthusiasm counted more than expertise. Eighteen years later, we’re still at it. My husband maintains that these tours are a thinly disguised ruse to get husbands on the business end of a wheelbarrow. Maybe.
Income from the tours help us maintain the landscaping at “Shipwreck Corner,” the entrance to Boston Harbor and home of the sewer treatment plant. People call us the “Sewer Sisters” and we call each other friends.
Local governments support neighborhoods in several ways. Map Your Neighborhood, a Thurston County program, provides a guide for collecting neighborhood data useful in case of an emergency. Websites for Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater list an impressive number of neighborhood and homeowners associations, plus an array of programs designed to support neighborhood projects. Each city offers matching grants that support safety projects, beautification, sustainability and education.
Two neighborhoods on my regularly traveled path have received matching grants: The South Capitol Neighborhood Association and the East Bay Drive Neighborhood Association. Partnering with the city, both associations installed banners to welcome travelers to their respective neighborhoods. Six local artists designed the powder-coated aluminum banners that adorn Capitol Way, while cloth banners designed by neighbor and renowned artist Nikki McClure grace East Bay Drive.
Both neighborhood associations have a 30-year history of collaboration with the city. Residents’ safety concerns led to reduction of traffic lanes on East Bay Drive. Murals depicting people at play on the concrete bulkheads beautify the drive and remind drivers they are in a neighborhood. A partnership with the Port of Olympia produced a pocket park, sustainable native plantings and interpretive panels.
The scope of possible neighborhood projects is limited only by imagination. Both drinking and reading have increased during the pandemic. Popular as a neighborhood wine bar might be, if you want a grant, go for a neighborhood mini-library.
Seriously, if you are at a loss, check out the Olympia Solar Hummingbird Project, a solar project which will benefit the Hands On Children’s Museum, several other non-profit partners and the investors. The project’s name derives from an African folk tale. When a fire engulfs the forest, the hummingbird fills her beak with water and flies to the fire. When the other animals mock her efforts, she replies, “I will do the best I can.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 5:45 AM.