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Gulfport, MS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The City of Gulfport hoped to create a venue for educational programming, giving residents the opportunity to learn in nature. To do this, they installed a pavilion to be used as an outdoor classroom. The space serves local schools, as well as members of the wider community. Since installation, the City has worked to complete a nature trail system onsite.
Nowata, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project enhanced an alleyway, previously adorned with several murals, by installing ADA-compliant benches, tables, lighting, planters and a small stage.
Roswell, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Roswell often experiences daytime temperatures well over 112 degrees Fahrenheit. The tourist town also welcomes more than 200,000 tourists each year. This project set out to help visitors and residents alike walk in downtown Roswell despite the brutal heat. Over the course of several years, Maitreet Roswell collected plastic bottle caps and container lids -- part of an effort it called Bottlecaps to Benches. Project organizers then sent a tractor trailer full of the caps to a recycling plant in Indiana, which sent back 30 benches made from recycled plastic. Maitreet Roswell then installed the benches throughout the town's commercial district, allowing pedestrians to sit and recover from the heat.
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Albuquerque, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Engaging people in transportation options/safety
Description: To help Albuquerque residents stay physically active and access nutritious food, the Mid-Region Council of Governments repurposed an underused parking lot into a pop-up community wellness and walking hup. Volunteers repurposed wooden pallets to construct benches, tables and planters. They also planted fruit trees and added bird feeders to the site. To give residents a space to meditate, organizers also created a wellness labyrinth onsite. Using paint, they delineated a walking path across the parking lot and created an artistic crosswalk nearby. Additionally, the Council created and displayed interactive walking maps -- available in both English and Spanish -- along with pavement decals displaying QR codes. The QR codes allow smartphone users to access information online about walking and nutrition programs. Organizers say the project is a first step in larger efforts to address health disparities experienced by the community's Latino, Hispanic and Native populations.
Albuquerque, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Developing projects based on residents' priorities
Description: The National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation set out to expand its popular book club for older adults. The club features Hispanic and Latinx authors, often inviting the writers to participate in club meetings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation shifted the book club to a virtual format, which helped expand attendance to members living outside of New Mexico. During club sessions, participants held lively conversations and developed book reviews and discussion questions. Featured books include Argentinian writer Selva Almada's novel, The Wind that Lays Waste and Maria Hinojosa's Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. Project organizers say the club's success has inspired them to expand programming related to literature and history. Feedback gathered from book club participants will help inform these plans.
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