Emerson Garfield

Free Training: How to Engage the Community

July 23, 2013 Emerson Garfield

The Office of Neighborhood Services is providing another free session as part of its Neighborhood Training series. This one is called Organizational Success: How to Engage the Community, and it will take place on Monday, July 29 from 6-7:30pm at the West Central Community Center (1603 N Belt) [map].

Like its title suggests, this training session will teach you how to reach out to, interact with and involve the community in your neighborhood organization. This training is ideal for neighborhood councils of all shapes and sizes, but it’s open to anyone who wants to attend — which means senior centers, nonprofits, churches, schools, and other organizations in that vein.

The ONS’ last training session, which focused on social media, was overbooked and received very positive feedback from the participants.

To reserve your spot for Organizational Success: How to Engage the Community, get in touch with Jackie Caro at (509) 625-6733 or jcaro@spokanecity.org.

Meet Your Neighbors: Mary Charbonneau

July 22, 2013 Emerson Garfield

How did we miss this?

Last year Emerson-Garfield resident Mary Charbonneau won the Peirone Prize as part of The Inlander’s Give Guide, the alt-weeky’s annual philanthropy issue in which they highlight people who are making things better here in the Inland Northwest.

The paper featured a long profile of Mary and her work with Washington Bassett Rescue.

Mary is a familiar face at neighborhood council meetings, neighborhood events, and even (or especially) in the virtual ‘hood on our Facebook page.

What’s even cooler is that Mary isn’t the only one in the neighborhood who has been highlighted by the Give Guide for making a difference. In 2011, Brent and Amy Hendricks, who run Global Neighborhood Thrift here in E-G, won the same philanthropic prize, which was accompanied by a similar profile writeup in the paper.

Now in its third year, the Give Guide is once again calling for nominations of deserving individuals for the Peirone Prize. Whether it’s education, social action, the environment, animal welfare, or community gardening, they want to know who to recognize when it comes to people generating positive change in our community.

So send the full names of your nominations, their ages (if you know them), and a sentence or two explaining why you think they deserve recognition to giveguide@inlander.com by no later than Thursday, August 1.

And who knows — maybe Emerson-Garfield will be represented three years out of three!

New Public Plaza by Spokane City Hall

July 21, 2013 Emerson Garfield

Here’s a heads up on downtown construction and road closures that was issued by City Hall on Friday:

A new public plaza is planned in the parking lot north of City Hall that will include seating and gathering space for events. In appreciation of the 125-year partnership between WWP/Avista and the people of Spokane, the newly developed City Hall Plaza will be a gift from Avista Corp. shareholders to the City of Spokane.

Work on City Hall Plaza will begin on Tuesday, July 23. The north parking lot will close permanently following the City Council meeting on Monday, July 22. Three handicapped spots will be moved to the lot on the southwest side of City Hall.

Improvements will also be made to Post Street, which will close for several weeks beginning in mid-September. The Post Street project will be finished in late fall.

Current parking options during construction:

Street parking will be available before work begins on Post Street and after it is finished.

River Park Square parking garage with skywalk accessibility to City Hall.

More information on the Huntington Park improvement is given in this Spokesman-Review story. Avista also blogged about it here.

Photos from the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market Launch

July 20, 2013 Emerson Garfield

Patrons at Pacific Produce booth.

Slicing a nectarine for sampling at the Pacific Produce booth.

Rachel’s handmade soaps at the Orange Thyme booth.

Rachel and Brian discuss her handmade soaps at the Orange Thyme booth.

Claire from the Vinegar Flats booth.

Jennifer de-stresses a patron at the Jennifer Michelle Massage booth.

Bev from Petunia’s Marketplace proudly displaying honey from her own apiary.

Pete explains his homemade rubs and spices at the SavorX booth.

Lauri can’t bag her bread fast enough at the Pleasant Prairie Farms booth.

Some of the homegrown veggies on offer at the Sweet Things booth.

Info leaflets on Sweet Things’ Trades of Hope.

Wild-caught, flash-frozen sockeye at the Old Harbor Sustainable Seafood booth.

The Scoop doing a brisk trade on an especially hot day.

Anne with her homegrown veggies at The Father’s Table.

Sunny and Jim at the JJ Goats booth.

Rocky River Soap Co’s gorgeous lineup of liquid castile soaps.

Rocky River Soaps — good for your skin, good for the environment.

Alie of Gluten Busters shows off their range of tantalizing gluten-free products.

Gluten Busters is proud of being gluten free.

Making friends at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market.

Climbing trees at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market.

Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council T-Shirts

July 19, 2013 Emerson Garfield

It’s all going off.

As of today, we have brand new Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council T-shirts thanks to Pat Maguire. Pat’s an E-G resident and the owner of Spokane Valley Screen Printing. Totally unsolicited, he offered to make us T-shirts so that EGNC members and organizers can be better recognized at neighborhood events and strut their E-G pride.

The front bears the logo designed by former EGNC Chair Liorah Wichser (it won our neighborhood logo contest a few months back). On the back it reads “Emerson-Garfield Ambassador.”

Huge thanks to Pat for volunteering his services. The organizers will be proudly sporting these Ts at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market today. And depending on the response, we might be printing a variation of this T-shirt for general sale. Stay tuned.