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 2020 MARCH NEWS

Spring is just around the corner and we're encouraging neighbors to spring into action on a couple of important activities to promote Groundswell NW's mission to empower NW Seattle to create, care for and activate parks, habitat and open space:

Seattle Parks is holding community meetings on planning for the next six years of Park District funding. The nearest one is in Lake City 6-8pm Thursday March 5, but there are other ways to engage (click on the link above.) Groundswell NW will be advocating for flexible funding for new public open space, like expansion of Gemenskap Park, to take full advantage of available County matching funds, among other priorities.

Closer to home, the campaign to save the Ballard P-Patch continues, along with Groundswell NW's commitment to match up to $5K in donations by the end of March. You can directly donate online, and to attend their St. Paddy's Day fundraiser, 5-9pm Tuesday March 17 at Populuxe Brewing, 826 NW 49th St.

Groundswell NW Members Meeting

We have the election results! The Groundswell NW Board officers were elected during our members meeting at the Phinney Community Center on January 29. Dennis Galvin remains our Treasurer, Sylvia Saracino Koodrich is our Vice President and Secretary, Renée Dagseth is our President.

Courtney Sullivan from the National Wildlife Federation gave the keynote presentation and announced that Seattle has been named one of the 10 best American cities for wildlife. The Board announced its matching grant challenge to the community group, Save the Ballard P-Patch, to raise $5000 by April 1st. The meeting was enlivened by a number of Ballard P-Patch gardeners showing up in their garden gnome hats. Courtney Sullivan and Jan Satterthwaite, a long-time GNW Board member, were named as Local Heroes.

At the end of the meeting, raffle winners picked up plants provided by Doug Gresham with Golden Gardens Forest Stewards.  Meeting attendees stayed around to enjoy food and drinks donated by the Ballard PCC Market and to meet with our partner organizations: National Wildlife Federation, Save the Ballard P-Patch, Sustainable Ballard, East Ballard Community Association, 6th Ave NW Greenway, and Salmon Bay Park Stewards.

GROUNDSWELL NW 2020 JANUARY NEWS

Groundswell NW Celebration and Meeting

As 2019 and the 2010s come to a close, Groundswell enters its fourth decade of empowering NW Seattle to create and care for community parks and habitat. We take a look back at recent achievements in our 2020 Progress Report and invite you to help launch the new year with a Community Celebration, 6:30pm January 29 at the Phinney Center (see details below). If you are involved in a project that furthers the Groundswell NW mission and could use some exposure, please contact us to help get the word out about your efforts at the Community Celebration.

GROUNDSWELL NW 2019 DECEMBER NEWS

Groundswell NW has been monitoring plans for the 24th Ave NW shoreline street end and adjacent Ballard Pump Station site for years. Now is the time to weigh in about this unique opportunity to connect downtown Ballard with the waterfront and create new shoreline open space. We encourage you to attend the community drop-in meeting on 12/11/19. Meeting details are shown below in the events section.