Edith-Carrie Gathering Place

An artistic infusion for a neglected community

After working and planning with Walla Walla partners and the neighborhood for over a year, Pomegranate Center brought a team of fourteen staff and volunteers to join forces with our Walla Walla counterparts and community members.

In what all participants agreed was a magical week, with nearly 1000 community volunteer hours, we created a neighborhood park with a shelter, an amphitheater, two gateways, a fence made of salvaged wood, benches, a large mural, punched-tin lanterns and ornamental beads.

The park is beautiful, but the ripple effect of our work there is even more stunning: neighbors have continued working together to further develop the park and, in doing so, they have come to know and care for each other in new and profound ways. They organized outdoor movie night, planted dozens of trees, organized their own translator system, and presented for the first time at a City Council meeting.

Our week-long project helped transform a neighborhood that could easily become even more fragmented into a vital, engaged and more beautiful place to live.

Project Update: Edith-Carrie Gathering Place Six Months Later

Check out pictures from our week of building and the final project at our Flickr site.

Year: 2007-2008
Location: Walla Walla, Washington
Partners: Edith Carrie community members, Blue Mountain Action Council, Commitment to Community, Sherwood Trust
Lead designers: Milenko Matanovic, Paul Olson
Project team members: Federico Diaz, Luis Gonzales, Chiaki Takanohara, Bree Delgadillo, Katya Matanovic, Deanna Goldy, Terri Barila, Nancy Carter
Volunteer hours: 1000