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.

Evanston, WY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: To bring vibrancy to Evanston's downtown, Evanston's Main Street program installed a unique, new seating option. This project added swing tables, which consist of a picnic table with bench seating on one side and swings on the other. Each table also accommodates people who use wheelchairs, who can roll up to either end of the table. To make the seating more comfortable, Main Street equipped each table with shade sails and solar lights. Additionally, the program engaged volunteers to paint pavement murals in the central business district's street crossings. The public art serves a dual purpose -- the murals add color to the streetscape and make crosswalks more noticeable to passing drivers. This calms traffic and increases pedestrian safety.

Rock Hill, SC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project will create a pollinator garden at the Northside Recreation Center, which will provide residents with an opportunity to learn about the benefits of pollinator gardens and how to care for them.