Blaine County, ID

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places

Description: Like many places, Blaine County struggled with community connectedness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat this problem, The Senior Connection created the Wood River Valley Daffodil Festival. Over three autumn days, a multigenerational group of volunteers planted 30,000 daffodil bulbs at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden. As planned, the flowers blossomed during the festival, which took place the following spring. The volunteers included older adults, school classes, landscape companies and other community businesses. The festival -- which features food trucks, live music and garden tours -- is now an annual event.

Philadelphia, PA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places

Description: Among the goals of the Go, Go, Go: Making Our Community More Livable project was to enable Chinatown's residents to build friendships -- Go outdoors. Go be creative. Go make friends -- in a linguistically and culturally accessible way. One out of five Chinatown residents is an older adult and nearly 90 percent of those individuals have limited English proficiency. To help foster social connections, the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation offered free art classes, with local artists serving as instructors. The organization then created a pop-up Chinatown art gallery featuring work created in the classes. In addition, PCDC founded a community garden club. More than 150 people ranging in age from 3 to 87 participated in the activities. The PCDC hopes to continue offering free community at its Crane Community Center, which broke ground in 2017 -- the first space of its kind in Chinatown.

Wichita, KS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places

Description: The Wichita Public Library and Bike Walk Wichita launched three historical walking tours, which can be accessed through a smartphone app. It's all about inspiring curiosity in people about their hometown. According to Jeff Flor of the Downtown Development Corporation, Wichita has a lot of stories to tell, from the drugstore sit-in during the Civil Rights movement to the now-gone Victory Arch honoring World War I soldiers. To promote the app, library staff and volunteers participated in an open streets festival while wearing t-shirts with the message Ask me how to travel time.