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Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: City officials set out to revitalize the underused Francisco Elias Esquer Park, located around the corner from a large public housing community for older adults in Tucson's Barrio Blue Moon neighborhood. To address the needs of locals with disabilities, volunteers installed a wheelchair accessible walking path, benches and a dog comfort station for service animals. They also added passive water harvesting basins to draw birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. At a planting party for community members -- one of several events to publicize the new amenities -- neighbors spent a day digging in the dirt and enjoying a renewed sense of community.
Frederiksted, VI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: To highlight the culture, history and traditions of the island of St. Croix, the VI Council on the Arts created a new mural. A local artist blocked out the artwork's design, then project organizers engaged volunteers -- including retired community members and people with disabilities -- to help paint. Installed in a busy area frequented by local fishermen, the mural depicts fish and coral native to the Virgin Islands. In the future, the Council plans to work with the community to create more murals.
Cedar City, UT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public or private transit access
Description: To help people navigate downtown Cedar City without a car, this project installed bus shelters, benches and bike racks. Additionally, project organizers added picnic tables at the site of a local farmers market.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Las Cruces, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: This project will help community members beautify a revitalizing downtown through a participatory paint-by-numbers mural on the wall of a nonprofit makerspace.
Dona Ana County, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public or private transit access
Description: Founded in 2016, the South Central Transit District serves a largely rural area in New Mexico's Mesilla Valley. Before its launch, no public transportation services covered this part of the state. Despite the area's hot summer temperatures, few of the District's bus stops had amenities aimed at helping transit riders wait comfortably. To fix this, the District added two dozen benches and four bus shelters in several communities, including Anthony, Chaparral, Sunland Park and Hatch. District staff constructed concrete pads for the benches, which sit in high traffic areas. The work represents the first phase of improvements to stops -- the District plans to add LED lighting to increase safety for riders. Project organizers say the shelters and benches are popular with students and older adults, who make up a large share of the transit system's ridership.
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