By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
All Ruth Bell wanted was a nice, safe park where her kids could play. Three years, one city-funded matching grant, and an art contest later, Bell will have that wish. On Monday, Bell joined the Seattle-Beer Sheva Sister City Committee in a rededication ceremony of the park bearing that name, just south of the Seward Park neighborhood.
A large crowd came to the ceremony, which included a performance by the dance group Tzahalah and Israeli snacks. A quintet of sequoia trees called the Spitzer Grove – named for the association’s founder and local philanthropist Jack Spitzer, who died in July – was dedicated, as well as an art piece called a conversation circle. Artist Josh Levine talked about the plans for his work already underway.
Like so many Jewish celebrations, this event was also tinged with a touch of sadness. Seattle City Councilwoman Jean Godden read a letter to attendees that was addressed to Beer Sheva Mayor Yaakov Terner and signed by all members of the city council. It expressed their sorrow about the dual bus bombing in Beer Sheva that took 16 lives the week before.
“The nature of the violence, designed to target civilians, brings into sharp focus the need for us to seek ways in which together, we can stop these senseless acts of violence,” the letter said. Council members also expressed their hope that by marking the event it would “inspire a strengthened and enduring relationship between us.”
To help build that relationship, a special guest was introduced at the ceremony.
Victoria Thurgood, a 15-year-old student from Beer Sheva, was on hand as the Israeli winner of the art contest held last spring that brought together Rainier Beach High School and several high schools in Beer Sheva. She received an expenses-paid trip to.
It was their first visit to the United States, said Victoria’s mother, who joined her daughter for the trip. Andrew Benjamin, president of the Seattle-Beer Sheva Sister City Committee, led them around town for their weeklong visit.
“We decided, in order to have Beer Sheva, Israel be part of the project somehow to bring that aspect into it,” Bell said, “and also to bring the high school students into it, that it would be good to do something to get them involved and interested.”
Victoria’s work, as well as the Beer Sheva runners-up and the Rainier Beach winners’ works, were all displayed in Seattle City Hall from August 12 through September 8.
On Tuesday, Victoria presented Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles with a small gift from her own city – a glass sculpture with a porcelain dove – and received a tour of the mayor’s office and city council chambers.
Seattle-Beer Sheva Park and the sister city association, one of the first of its kind in Seattle, was started by philanthropist Jack Spitzer in 1977. Since that time, however, not much has happened with the park, which sits adjacent to a boat launch at the southern tip of Lake Washington, and abuts the City of Seattle nursery to the east.
When Bell began her quest to get funding, she and other neighborhood organizers began writing grant requests in the hope that $250,000 would be enough to build something that would attract families from the neighborhood. After receiving $10,000 to draw plans, “we went back and got the $125,000 with the matching funds grant, which we thought would be half the cost of the project,” Bell said.
At that point, Beer Sheva-Seattle Sister City Assocation came in and said “keep it going, and put new interest in it,” said Bell. She began meeting regularly with the association at that point, and they helped her with keeping the project afloat.
Corporations ranging from Starbucks to Safeco to a local Bank of America branch pitched in, as well as Spitzer, the Seattle Foundation and other nonprofits.
Bell, who works part-time as a grantwriting consultant for environmental projects, stretched out as many of her resources as she could to increase involvement in restoring the park.
“We’ve done a lot of work with Rainier Beach High School,” she said. “To get the students involved, we’ve had science teachers to get them out planting plants. We’ve planted trees over on both ends of the park, we had a tree-fund grant that was available us from the city of Seattle” to increase the number of plantings as well.
With the Spitzer Grove, several other saplings already in place, and groundbreaking that was set to begin Tuesday for the new playground, things are moving quickly.
But, she cautioned, having a firm date for starting city projects can be a waiting game. “One of the things the parks department warned me about right away,” she said, is “it’s going to be a wait-and-see thing. Either you’re gong to be under construction you may not have started.
“As far as I know today, as the way everything sits, we should be done by the end of the year,” she said in early August. “Construction is 6-10 weeks, it’s very fast, and heavy equipment is only in here for a week or two.”
Once finished, a functional playground will sit at the park’s highest point in the center, gravel maintenance paths will allow easy access for both pedestrians and vehicles, and a fence that sat around a decrepit tennis court will be removed. Building a shelter over the tennis court will be a future project.
Also, during the wet months, the lowest points of Beer Sheva Park fill with water from higher points. Because the association received a park accessibility grant and was not meant for environmental improvement, irrigation measures will not be taken at this point. However, she said, the city is talking about daylighting an underground stream that runs under the high school and the southernmost end of the park, and that would eliminate the swamp-like conditions.
“But it wouldn’t be until 2008,” she said.