Monthly Archives: April 2018

Helping immigrants prepare for citizenship

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One of the benefits of being a small business owner is making time to give back to community. We are a nation of immigrants, and I’ve been looking for ways to help immigrants in the South Sound.

Tacoma Community House — Citizenship Classes

Photo of citizenship tool kitI’m proud to help immigrants prepare for their U.S. citizenship interview as a volunteer in Tacoma Community House‘s Citizenship Classes. This weekend I volunteered in a citizenship class for the first time — so inspiring!

I teamed up with another volunteer, and we met with three people independently (three people from three different continents). In reviewing civics questions, I helped them learn more about the U.S. government (for example, what are the three branches of government, what are two major political parties, who is one of your U.S. Senators). At the same time, I learned more about their counties and cultures. It’s a great learning environment for the immigrants and volunteers!

Background — Citizenship Celebration

In working for the Pierce County Auditor‘s Office last year, I learned about the Auditor’s work with Tacoma Community House, the Washington State Sons of the American Revolution and others to hold a Citizenship Celebration. In this celebration, immigrants take the final step in becoming U.S. citizens and are honored in Pierce County. As U.S. citizens, they can vote — something many are excited to do!

The Pierce County Auditor received an award from the Sons of the American Revolution for the Auditor’s work on the Citizenship Celebration. As a social media contractor for the Auditor, I took pictures of the award ceremony. You can see it here:

 

My education and work experience should help immigrants in this citizenship class. I earned a Master’s degree in international relations and started my career working for a U.S. Senator and then a federal agency in Washington, DC (the legislative and executive branches). I’ve made friends from all over the world, and am excited to help make a difference in my community!

For more information

— Liz Satterthwaite, Engage Northwest. EngageNorthwest@gmail.com

Get involved in Tacoma’s waterfront park projects

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Photo of waterfront along Ruston Way

The waterfront along Ruston Way in Tacoma.

If you enjoy Tacoma’s waterfront parks, get more involved in the planning process! Metro Parks Tacoma provided information about planned improvements for some waterfront parks — Dickman Mill, Ruston Way, and Foss Waterway at a March 15 open house at the Foss Waterway Seaport. Many people attended and provided input on the plans. There are still opportunities to get involved! Here’s a quick overview of some of the key projects discussed at the open house:

Dickman Mill

Dickman Mill project explained at open house

Metro Parks described the Dickman Mill project.

Metro Parks will restore the huge head saw that worked in the old Dickman Mill and publicly display it in Dickman Mill Park along Ruston Way. The expanded park would include a plaza area to view the head saw. This head saw is the last known to operate in Washington. Metro Parks gave an overview of the project, including the preferred location for the head saw.

Liz Satterthwaite with Engage Northwest represents the Tacoma Waterfront Association on the Dickman Mill Steering Committee. See Liz’s previous blog post about this project.

Envision Our Waterfront

The City of Tacoma and Metro Parks Tacoma are starting a project to envision the future of Ruston Way in the next 50-100 years. Public input is important! The City and Metro Parks are interested in knowing what people like about Ruston Way and what improvements would be needed. They are looking at infrastructure, art, activities and more. To learn more and be involved, visit the project webpage and sign up for Metro Parks’ email updates.

Envision our waterfront-display board

Foss Waterway projects

The Foss Waterway Development Authority and Metro Parks plan to build two new parks on the Foss Waterway: Central Park and Waterway Park.

Central Park proposed design.
Waterway Park proposed design.

Central Park would extend the public esplanade, create a new walkway to connect Dock Street to the waterfront, and include a play mound and a smokestack-looking tower inspired by the area’s industrial heritage. Waterway Park would turn the existing Berg Scaffolding building into a boathouse with restrooms and boat storage for outrigger canoes, dragon boats, kayaks, and stand-up paddleboards. See Metro Parks webpage for more information about these projects.

Other waterfront park projects

Waterfront parks are true gems in Tacoma! Thanks to voters saying yes to park bonds in 2014, Metro Parks Tacoma is improving many waterfront parks now, including Titlow and the most popular park in the South Sound — Point Defiance Park. I plan to provide more information about these park improvements in a future blog post.

For more information

  • Presentation slides and live video from Metro Parks Tacoma’s March 15 waterfront open house is available on their website.

— Liz Satterthwaite, Engage Northwest. EngageNorthwest@gmail.com