Stanwood students team to rid park of vandalism, drug use

STANWOOD — The mural is about transformation.

It’s about overcoming struggle.

It’s about finding a voice.

That’s how seven Stanwood teens describe “Project STAND,” their work painting a mural for Church Creek Park at 27116 72nd Ave. NW.

The teens and other volunteers are working with Stanwood police to clean up the 16-acre park, where vandalism, damaged play equipment, and drug and alcohol abuse have led to prolonged closures, especially during school hours.

When Police Chief Rick Hawkins visited the park last fall, the gate was locked, closing off the entrance, and young people were hanging out inside.

At the sight of him, they scattered into the bushes.

He waited them out. They all got to talking.

He asked them for ideas to make the park vibrant again.

As chief, Hawkins didn’t like the idea of a park being closed because of a few people committing crimes there, he said.

“We’re supposed to prevent that,” he said. “Let’s stop the damage and criminal activity and get it fixed up and cleaned up, where people want to be a part of it.”

Around the same time the chief was thinking about the problems at the park, Krystal Roig, 32, stopped by the police station, to report issues with graffiti at a local grocery store. She’d recently moved to Stanwood from Florida.

She and the chief talked. When people have problems, he likes to hear their ideas for solutions, he said.

Hawkins learned that Roig has a master’s degree in criminal justice, and she had experience working with young people. Hawkins asked her for help with the park.

That’s how the project got started: “STAND,” for Stereotypes Alternatively Defined.

Church Creek Park has a negative stereotype, Roig said. She assembled a team of teens who volunteered from Lincoln Hill High School, an alternative campus in town.

“They put a lot of hours into this, since the beginning of February,” Hawkins said.

The teens created a mock-up for the mural. They recently presented it to the school board, and are now painting the final piece, a 10-by-4-foot two-piece plank of plywood, at the Community Resource center.

“I have a trunkful of donated paint,” Roig said.

Last week, Mayor Leonard Kelley stopped by to check in.

If the project is successful, the city may approve a similar mural for another park, he said.

The depth of the work is slowly emerging on the plywood.

There is a heart made of curlicues, an imposing dragon, flowers and finches, turtles and angels. Each teen contributed to the design, their earlier sketches lined up on poster boards set on chairs.

On July 2, Natasha Wilcoxen, 15, was filling in the details of a tree, its bark the gray of a stormy sea.

Her sketches included a “big sister,” a robot-like guardian to protect children, playing on a swing. She drew a lantern, to light up darkness.

Kayli Rodgers, 17, worried about her yellow-and-purple finch, if the wings matched the body in size. She sketched elaborate hummingbirds, poised over petals. Her work is delicate, like her subjects.

“I really like drawing flowers and animals and nature and swirly things,” she said.

Nick Platt and Ellie Nowak, both 18, just graduated high school.

Platt helped the other students decide which cans of paint to open and mix.

“I just think it was a wonderful opportunity to get involved with the community,” Platt said. “It was positive and uplifting.”

A murmur of excitement crossed the room when some of the girls found glitter paint. The dragon’s scales, they whispered.

Platt is tasked with the dragon’s head. Together, the teens brainstormed the theme of the mural, with concepts of strength and personal growth, Platt said.

“It’s going through struggles and getting up to a point where you realize you have self-empowerment, and you go through a transformation,” he said. “At the end of the mural, you have a voice. You can say what you want. You have an opinion.”

Nowak kicked off her shoes. She’s drawing hands that curl out from the gnarled tree.

She likes drawings hands. It challenges her.

“It’s a realistic thing. It can go so easily wrong,” she said. “Proportions are everything, or it’s not going to look like a hand.”

The design in the mural moves from black-and-white into color, from left to right.

“It represents confusion, and how you have not yet found the color within yourself,” said Jordyn Corey, 17. “It shows the starting point in your life, the blacks and whites fading into these bright, vibrant colors you create for yourself.”

Meanwhile, volunteers have work parties planned at Church Creek Park in July and August. They are going to weed and clean. City crews also are working on the park.

The mural unveiling is set for Aug. 16. The time is not final, yet.

One of the young people has suggested live music for the event, Hawkins said. The resource center has a portable stage the volunteers can borrow.

Hawkins figures if the community can be involved and take part in something like a park cleanup, they will feel pride and ownership in the work. That makes others less likely to want to cause damage.

The mural is not a cure-all, the chief said.

It’s a first step.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Trader Joe’s customers walk in and out of the store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Trader Joe’s opens this week at Everett Mall

It’s a short move from a longtime location, essentially across the street, where parking was often an adventure.

Ian Bramel-Allen enters a guilty plea to second-degree murder during a plea and sentencing hearing on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Deep remorse’: Man gets 17 years for friend’s fatal stabbing in Edmonds

Ian Bramel-Allen, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for killing Bret Northcutt last year at a WinCo.

Firefighters respond to a small RV and a motorhome fire on Tuesday afternoon in Marysville. (Provided by Snohomish County Fire Distrct 22)
1 injured after RV fire, explosion near Marysville

The cause of the fire in the 11600 block of 81st Avenue NE had not been determined, fire officials said.

Ashton Dedmon appears in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett Navy sailor sentenced to 90 days for fatal hit and run

Ashton Dedmon crashed into Joshua Kollman and drove away. Dedmon, a petty officer on the USS Kidd, reported he had a panic attack.

A kindergarten student works on a computer at Emerson Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘¡Una erupción!’: Dual language programs expanding to 10 local schools

A new bill aims to support 10 new programs each year statewide. In Snohomish County, most follow a 90-10 model of Spanish and English.

Cassie Franklin, Mayor of Everett, delivers the annual state of the city address Thursday morning in the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center in Everett, Washington on March 31, 2022.  (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
At Everett mayor’s keynote speech: $35 entry, Boeing sponsorship

The city won’t make any money from the event, city spokesperson Simone Tarver said. Still, it’s part of a trend making open government advocates wary.

Logo for news use featuring the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Woman drives off cliff, dies on Tulalip Reservation

The woman fell 70 to 80 feet after driving off Priest Point Drive NW on Sunday afternoon.

Everett
Boy, 4, survives fall from Everett fourth-story apartment window

The child was being treated at Seattle Children’s. The city has a limited supply of window stops for low-income residents.

People head out to the water at low tide during an unseasonably warm day on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett shatters record high temperature by 11 degrees

On Saturday, it hit 73 degrees, breaking the previous record of 62 set in 2007.

Snohomish County Fire District #4 and Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue respond to a motor vehicle collision for a car and pole. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, near Triangle Bait & Tackle in Snohomish. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Police: Troopers tried to stop driver before deadly crash in Snohomish

The man, 31, was driving at “a high rate of speed” when he crashed into a traffic light pole and died, investigators said.

Alan Dean, who is accused of the 1993 strangulation murder of 15-year-old Bothell girl Melissa Lee, appears in court during opening statements of his trial on Monday, March 18, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
31 years later, trial opens in Bothell teen’s brutal killing

In April 1993, Melissa Lee’s body was found below Edgewater Creek Bridge. It would take 27 years to arrest Alan Dean in her death.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Man dies after crashing into pole in Snohomish

Just before 1 a.m., the driver crashed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of 2nd Street and Maple Avenue.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.