Groundswell NW 2020 July News

Summer has arrived! Our parks and open spaces recently have taken on special importance as an alternative to isolating inside our homes. The current situation is a reminder of how your continuing support of Groundswell NW’s work contributes directly to a healthy community. 

As the weather gets warmer, think about visiting parks you haven’t experienced before. Check out the Seattle Parks and Recreation webpage: www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks   If you are looking for a way to volunteer while staying home: consider joining the Groundswell NW Board or helping us with a specific project.  Sign up here..

Thanks to all of you who responded to our postcard and have switched to email for future mailings. That will make more money available for our Seed Money grants. Speaking of grants, if you have a project that could benefit from a grant of up to $500, please visit our website and fill out an application. An easy way to support Groundswell NW is to shop through Amazon Smile and designate us. More information on grant applications and Amazon Smile are on our website.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking comments on the Lake Washington Ship Canal Master Plan which includes the Ballard Locks upland. The Master Plan covers recreation, cultural/historic resources and natural resources management but NOT navigation. View the plan and submit comment at https://www.nws.usace.army.mil/Home/Master-Plans/LWSC-Master-Plan/igphoto/2002304318/   Comments are due by July 31, 2020. 

Wishing you a healthy and happy summer. Wash your hands!

The Groundswell NW Board

Photo credit: www.eopugetsound.org/magazine/ballard-locks

Announcing the Sustainable Ballard UnFestival

We’ll Make the Un Fun!

Given the uncertainty of large group gatherings in Seattle for the foreseeable future, we are creating a virtual festival to replace our annual live festival in 2020.

Starting June 2020 and running through Nov 2020, the virtual festival will feature a variety of online workshops, masterclasses, discussions, movies, games, contests and challenges via Zoom/Facebook/Instagram live/Twitter. We will introduce a theme for each month and work with our sponsors, project leads and this community to develop rich and engaging programming that highlights the sustainability issues we all care about. 

Some of our activities will be free thanks to business sponsorships or the efforts of community members. Some will be offered for a suggested donation to cover costs and help us cover our annual expenses.

We are offering a season pass for those who can afford it ($100 members, $150 general public) that covers your donation for all UnFestival activities. There will be many! Every month will include a movie, multiple learning opportunities, and a game, contest or challenge with prizes! All educational events will be recorded and available for viewing at any time on a private YouTube channel for Season Pass holders.

Donations and sponsorship from our annual Sustainable Ballard live Festival make up about 40% of our net annual income. With the help of Sustainable Ballard Board Members, Project Leads, community members and local business sponsors we hope to raise $15,0000 in 2020 through the UnFestival. Will you support us? 

Click here to get your Season Pass.

GROUNDSWELL 2020 APRIL NEWS

Dear Groundswell NW followers, 

As we prepare to release our April newsletter, Seattle is under a “Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order from the Washington State Governor. In accordance with that order, we have no events listed for this month. Nevertheless, we still have some good news to share. 

• While much activity seems to have ground to a halt, work continues on at least a couple important projects that Groundswell continues to monitor and be involved in, as described on their websites. Construction on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project and the Ballard Multimodal Corridor Project will move forward in April.

• For those of you who were at our January meeting, you may recall that we issued a challenge to the Ballard P-Patch—if they could raise $5,000 in donations, we would match that amount.  The Ballard P-Patch succeeded in reaching and surpassing that goal - thanks to many of you - and Groundswell NW has sent them a check for $5,000. This was the largest grant ever made by Groundswell NW and we are so happy that the Ballard P-Patch was able to meet the challenge.

  Saving the Ballard P-Patch for future generations of gardeners supports the goals of Groundswell NW: to create, activate, and care for parks, open space, and habitat. With public and private support, we believe the Ballard P-Patch can thrive and inspire other innovative community open space efforts. We thank all of you who contributed and we thank our elected representatives, especially Dan Strauss, for their efforts to protect this important open space in NW Seattle. The Ballard P-Patch is still far from reaching its fundraising goals so please visit the Ballard P-Patch’s website to see how you can help this effort.

We hope to have more outdoor events to share with you in the next few months. In the meantime, stay safe and if you are lucky enough to have a garden of your own, this is the time to enhance your garden’s wildlife habitat. Check out the National Wildlife Federation’s ideas for what you can do in your garden, on your patio, or even your apartment balcony. www.nwf.org.

All the best,

Groundswell NW Board

Join the New Fabric Face Mask Production Project

Getting Crafty Has Never Felt So Good

Face masks are in short supply, even for first responders and medical staff. While medical grade face masks are the best first line of defense against viruses such as COVID-19, supplies are in hot demand. According to the CDC, fabric masks are a crisis response when other options are limited. Sustainable Ballard is chipping in to help – will you join us? Volunteers needed to sew, provide materials and/or pickup/deliver. Learn more at: 

http://www.sustainableballard.org/join-the-new-fabric-face-mask-production-project/

Groundswell NW October Newsletter

When you think of iconic spots to visit in Seattle, The Fremont Troll will be near the top of your list. This is why it was such an honor for Groundswell NW to become the fiscal sponsor for the Friend’s of the Troll’s Knoll who had a great idea back in 2009 to create a park and p-patch along the east and west sides of the Troll. With Kimberly Scrivner in the lead organizing her neighbors, the west side of the park received $685,000 in 2011 through the Seattle Parks and Green Spaces Levy and opened to the public May of this year. If you’re standing facing the Troll, walk along the sidewalk to your left and follow the windy path up the hill along a green space to a bench with a view and community P-Patch at the top.

Looking down from atop the Troll's Knoll Park

With ½ of their vision under wraps, Friends of the Troll’s Knoll are still on a roll and are concentrating their efforts now on the east side with a new neighbor in the lead, Kaley Bender. Kaley brought her neighbors together for a block party in August with the help of a Department of Neighborhood’s Small Sparks grant. We’re also pleased to announce that Friends of the Troll’s Knoll is our most recent recipient of a $450 microgrant from Groundswell NW! These funds will provide key resources for their inaugural clean up day October 8th. SDOT will be helping by providing labor to pull out blackberry bushes, do some landscape cleanup and mulching. There will also be future community events for this site in the coming year, thanks to Tableau Software who just awarded $5,300 to support these events! Congrats to Friends of the Troll's Knoll, thank-you Tableau for supporting this great community project and thank-you to grass-roots community organizers like Kimberly and Kaley who continue to inspire us to create, activate and care for parks, open space and habitat!

Be sure to hover over the dates in the calendar below or click here to view upcoming events on our website!