View from the bench at the north end of the future play area.

Nadaka Park is undergoing quite a face lift. I took pictures of the park today to document the “before” and I hope I can match the pictures in November to have the “after” views. A shelter, restroom, community gardens and a nature-based play area will all be installed on roughly 3 acres of the 12-acre park between now and then. And the park Community Festival is Saturday, September 27! Hot Dogs gratis while they last.

This project has been an imagination-fueled community activity for many years. It’s been a decade or so since the city of Gresham purchased the original 10-acre forest that was formerly the Camp Fire Girls day camp: Na Da Ka is “Nature Day Kamp” in campfire girl speak. (Valley Girl speak being an entirely different language.) Of course today it is Campfire Boys and Girls.

August is a tough month for the park. Our fellow human beings who are without homes and sometimes without sobriety use the park to camp. Often they leave messes behind that are difficult to clean up. There is a sadness to seeing this detritus. We don’t often encounter such poverty of spirit in our regular days. The messes left in the forest remind us that some folks in this world are having a very tough time.

The only way to make the park safe and enjoyable is to have enough people using the park every day that it no longer feels isolated and empty. In the process we might lose that feeling of grandeur and solitude we’ve enjoyed for many years. The payoff will be the community involvement in growing food, family and educational events in the shelter, and watching children grow and play in the new playground — nature-based rather than a mechanical wonderland.

Blessed Be!