Rotary # 8 Major Projects
Mar 16, 2023
Jackie Flowers
Rotary # 8 Major Projects

For 113 years, the Rotary Club of Tacoma #8 has positively impacted our community through service projects large and small. We have an opportunity to join forces with community partners and deliver big impacts to underserved areas of our community as early as this summer!

Last fall, Joint Municipal Action Committee Chair Elizabeth Bonbright shared with our Club the community assessment work they completed. That work identified key priority areas for community projects. Our club’s Major Projects Committee has been reviewing JMACs recommendations this past year, with special focus on our ability serve youth in Southeast Tacoma.

Major Projects Committee Co-Chairs Jim Whitacre and Jackie Flowers will join Trust for Public Lands, Metro Parks Tacoma, and Greentrike to present plans for transforming outdated school yards into vibrant green spaces that will serve as neighborhood parks outside of school hours. In conjunction, there are also opportunities to serve youth in underserved areas centered around literacy.

While Tacoma is arguably home to the most spectacular urban park system, access is unequal. 31% of Tacoma residents do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of homeā€•the largest park access gap in

Washington. Like in many cities, park access follows inequities in income, health, and other resources. And most land is already developed, leaving limited opportunities to create new parks. Tacoma’s Eastside neighborhood has fewer parks than wealthier neighborhoods with more parks and more resources. We’re working to change that by partnering with community members and local schools.1

Transforming schoolyards into vibrant parks has the unique potential to expand nature access and create new community spaces in Tacoma’s neighborhoods with limited existing park access. In Tacoma, renovating and opening schoolyards to the public after school would put a high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of 88% of residents. 1

Trust for Public Land has created more than 250 community schoolyards nationwide. Every

schoolyard is designed by students to reflect local cultures and feature students’ interests. For the Tacoma project they are partnering with Metro Parks Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, State of Washington, Names Family Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, Bamford Foundation.

The Major Projects Committee sees this project as a perfect fit for our club! By partnering with these organizations and leveraging existing projects, we can get immediate traction and connect our club to underserved youth and residents most in need. We look forward to sharing more with you and planning for our next major community service project!

1 - Information provided by Trust for Public Lands