By Diane Wright
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Surrounded by magazines and books, 310 of Snohomish County’s movers and shakers had breakfast Tuesday in a unique space: the reading room of the Everett Public Library.
This first sit-down gathering in the reading room marks a major transition for an 8-year-old foundation with a new name: the Greater Everett Community Foundation.
And this breakfast was a chance to announce the name change and begin to build an endowment.
Emcee Peter Newland asked the gathering to imagine what it will be like in the years ahead to have a permanent source of endowed funds managed for the benefit of Snohomish County residents.
"We’ll be a voice for the importance of charity in strengthening community," he said.
He cited other examples, including the Seattle Foundation, begun by seven Seattle families in 1946 with $40,000 each. Now, that foundation’s assets number $315 million, giving $20 million in grants a year directly for improvements throughout King County. There are about 550 such foundations in the United States, Newland said.
The local group, originally endowed to help build a strong parks system in Everett, is now expanding to cover all kinds of civic needs throughout the county. Just as its mission has broadened, the Everett Parks Foundation got a new name also, the Everett Parks Fund, according to parks director Bob Cooper.
There were warm tributes to four key families present on Tuesday: the Veda Newland family, John and Idamae Schack, the Grace Bargreen family, and Phil Johnson, founder of Millstone Coffee. These four families contributed the $1 million in seed money needed to make the original foundation permanent. Since the foundation’s origin in 1993, the fund has received more than $1.6 million from 1400 individuals, corporations and others to enhance Everett’s city parks. Another endowment has been created for the Everett Public Library.
Mark Nesse, director of the Everett Public Library, noted that libraries share a lot in common with parks. If the library is the "people’s university," a place where all races, classes and culture come together, the same can be said of parks.
"Parks and libraries are owned by all of us," he said, calling them "places for growth, peace and sanctuary."
Nesse gave a nod to the library’s founders back in 1894, when "Everett was a logging town with no planned streets, two-digit phone numbers, few schools, no parks and a lot of saloons."
"A small group of women decided the community needed a library, the group formed the library at a difficult time — Eastern money had left."
Robyn Johnson, executive director of the Greater Everett Community Foundation, says that the endowments will be donor-driven.
"An individual or family can either say, ‘I’d like to give to unrestricted funds,’ or, ‘I have a special interest in the arts.’ Then a grant would be made in their name to nonprofit agencies operating in the arts," she said.
"If a person has a particular interest, they can establish a fund to benefit those needs; families can establish their own fund, or you can give any amount to the collective fund."
As for the unorthodox use of the library’s reading room, 30 tables managed to fit into the space. And it all had to be put away by the time the library opened at noon.
"It was such an unusual sight to see the tables in the reading area," said Fran Habicht, director of the library’s circulation department. "But it’s marvelous what was accomplished."
For more information about the Greater Everett Community Foundation, call Robyn Johnson at 425-257-8385.
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