December 22, 2011 News

[Trinity Eco Prayer Park]

Trinity Eco Prayer Park Update
December 22, 2011

$100,000 DONATION PUTS PARK PLANS IN MOTION

A gift of $100,000 from an anonymous donor has jump started plans to
build Trinity Eco Prayer Park in downtown Rapid City.

“This generous, inspiring donation has given us the means to move this
project forward,” said Nancy Whitcher, president of the Trinity
Lutheran Church Endowment Foundation. The foundation owns the vacant
land at 4th and Saint Joseph streets where the park will be located.

“With these resources we will be able to achieve our goal of breaking
ground for the park this spring or summer,” said Whitcher. “We can
stop saying ‘if’ and start saying ‘when.’”

When combined with the donation of preliminary design costs, the park
project has now received more than one-third of its $307,000 budget.

The donor acted independently in response to reading about the park
plans in the newspaper. “The check was written and dropped in the mail
the day the article about the Prayer Park appeared in the Rapid City
Journal,” said Ken Steinken, park project coordinator.

A note with the contribution stated, “We believe what you are trying
to accomplish is a wonderful thing for the city and our overall
community and laude you for taking leadership in creating such an
environment.”

“With the receipt of this gift we have been able to have FourFront
Design begin the construction design process,” said Steinken.
Representatives of the Rapid City-based firm met with city planners on
Thursday (Dec. 22) for a preliminary discussion of the project.


WINDBREAK HOUSE BLOG TALKS ABOUT PARK

South Dakota writer Linda Hasselstrom has been instrumental in helping
with ideas about native plantings to be included in Trinity Eco Prayer
Park. Hasselstrom, who lives on the ranch where she grew up south of
Hermosa, is a poet and essayist who writes about land, nature, rural
life and the environment.

She has dedicated over 300 acres of her ranch as a botanic prairie
site that is run by the Great Plains Native Plant Society (GPNPS). The
society found, moved, and renovated a cedar log cabin on the site. The
cabin, which was probably built before 1900, serves as the
headquarters for the GPNPS.

Linda recently wrote about the Eco Prayer Park on her website. The
entry appears at http://www.windbreakhouse.com/blog.htm. You will need
to scroll down to December 12, 2011 to find what she had to say about
the park.

The Great Plains Native Plant Society is a great resource for people
who are interested in knowing more about wildflowers and other plants
that naturally occurred in the area. Find out more at www.gpnps.org.


DESIGN FOR PARK AVAILABLE ONLINE
If you want to study the park design in detail or share it with
someone, you can find the architect’s drawings at two different
Internet locations.

Trinity Lutheran Church website:
Type “go.to/TrinityLutheran” in your browser address line. Click on
“Announcements”. Click on “View Plans of Eco Prayer Park”. Click on
“Plans”.

Rapid City Journal website:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/prayer-park-to-transform-downtown-lot/article_7f595cf6-1bd0-11e1-8f70-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=image&photo=4


SPECIFIC VOLUNTEER NEEDS:

- A grant writer or assistant grant writer to locate grants and put
together the necessary materials to submit the grant applications
- A webmaster to set up and help maintain a Trinity Eco Prayer Park
website
- A person to set up and maintain a system (spreadsheet) to keep track
of volunteers and the tasks they are interested in helping with

MORE INFO?

Thanks for your interest. Contact Ken Steinken or Nancy Whitcher with
any questions you have about Trinity Eco Prayer Park. You can also
contact us by replying to this email or calling 605-342-9302.

READ BACK ISSUES

You can go to http://groups.google.com/group/trinityecoprayerpark-update
if you want to read past updates that you may have missed before
joining the group.