Only a few more hours to make Pocket Park a reality | Maple Valley

The project has raised $18,500 out of the necessary $43,000. The deadline to donate to the Kickstarter campaign is 4 p.m. on Dec. 31

December 30, 2014 2:40 pm
If fully funded
If fully funded

Brandi Carlile’s Looking Out Foundation has just announced a $5,000 grant to the Maple Valley Creative Arts Council’s Pocket Park project. This exciting news comes as the Council’s Pocket Park Kickstarter campaign enters its last week. The Arts Council reports that nearly a hundred local citizens and businesses have already pledged funds to this grass-roots effort, which if successful will bring a community gathering space and arts access to Wilderness Village.

Arts Council member Kathleen Frugé-Brown states, “Brandi Carlile is leading the way, and we’re grateful to her Looking Out Foundation for having the vision to support the Park. This donation brings naming rights to the stage, and we’re thrilled to think that young Maple Valley musicians will be performing for years to come on a stage sponsored and named by Maple Valley’s most famous performing artist.”

The Arts Council has worked for nearly two years to plan, design, and raise funds for the Park project, which transforms the alley between QFC and Starbucks in Wilderness Village—currently full of shopping carts and dumpsters—into a destination park that will revitalize this older area of Maple Valley. With about one-third of the funding already in place, the Council launched a Kickstarter campaign on December 1 to raise the remaining money needed to pour concrete.

The Kickstarter pledges will only be collected if they add up to meet the entire funding goal of $43,000 by Dec. 31. There are rewards for donations at all levels; contributions above $250 put the donor’s name on the Park: $250 donors will receive a plaque on the stage risers; $2000 brings naming rights to one of the Park’s benches; a $5000 donation like Brandi Carlile’s brings naming rights to the rain garden, hopscotch court, or Ripple seating area.

The words “From each small act…the ripples spread…ever outward…” will be cast into the benches in the Park’s Ripple seating area. “The Pocket Park project is for and about community,” says Arts Council director Mary Jane Glaser. Community members who want to be part of the park can donate through Kickstarter by 4 p.m. on Dec. 31.