Greenlake Dragonfly

Hello, Team Dragonfly

Most Recent Painting Day: September 3, 2022

DragonBingView

To ask questions or get on the neighborhood group mailing list, email Lisa at [email protected]

2022’s valiant corps of volunteers for the planning stages:

Getting Permit:
1) Kelly Frawley. 
2)  Ed offering assistance
Renting Barriers:
1) Ed  
Getting Paint and Painting Supplies:
1) Lisa 
Power Washing the Street:
1) Emma and Brett Nixon, with own power washer
2) Jon Strayer for additional power washing help, with own washer
3) Jon and Jen, and Max and Kelly W offering additional power washers if someone wants to wield them
4) Neighbors offering water and power: Lisa & Clark
Closer to the day:
#1 Making a big event sign for the intersection: Lynda and Harris
#2 Making flyers to drop on neighbors’ porches: Kelly Frawley
Day of painting:
#1 Coordinate a food and drink team:  Laurie
#2 Create a hand washing station Jennifer

Donations:

We are a 501(c)3 through the Phinney Neighborhood Association. If your work place offers matching funds for either your volunteer time or donations, we qualify! Make checks out to Team Dragonfly, Account #480010, and send them to:

Team Dragonfly, Account #480010
c/o Phinney Neighborhood Association
6532 Phinney Ave. N
Seattle, WA  98103

 

2019’s Painting Day

2016’s Painting Day….

Why do I have no pictures here? It’s a mystery.

2014’s Painting Day

We’ve done it again. After a year of planning, fundraising, supply gathering, donation begging, permit-getting, street cleaning, flyer distributing, etc. etc. etc., we have repainted the dragonfly and it once more shines brightly on the intersection. A year to prep, 5 hours to paint, and uncounted hours to enjoy the street bbq afterwards.

A few photos of the day:

JohnCoffee

KayElizabeth

SteveDragon

Sarah

SwapnaKidsEd

whitewings2

lunchbreak

tailsection

PaintStation

scrubbing

bodyalmostdone

almostdone

elizabethrun

LisaDragonfly

ClarkPaintHands

smores

Facebook:

We’ve got a neighborhood Facebook page going, where I — and everyone else — can post updates about the dragonfly, the neighborhood, anything and everything. You don’t need to be a Facebook member to see the page, although you do need to join if you’d like to comment or post. Take a look! Greenlakedragonfly

Fundraising:

Have ideas for raising funds for the annual repainting of the dragonfly? Share them! Either on Facebook, or email me — [email protected] — or send emails to the whole group.

Dragonfly Garage Sale Day: Pending

9 AM – 1 PM (or however long you want to go)

Location: all around the dragonfly, in driveways and on the parking strips

What: Your goods, goods from your friends and family (ask for donations!), bake sale items

Please let me know if you think you’ll be participating: [email protected] 

FAQs:

Q: I have some stuff, but don’t want to hang around selling it. What should I do?
A: Starting Memorial Day Weekend (May 28), you can bring your stuff to Lisa’s covered porch and she’ll sell it for you; whatever doesn’t sell, she and Clark will haul to the Goodwill. Her house has a red door and yellow dormers, on the corner at the dragonfly.

Q: Do I have to set up my sale at the dragonfly?
A: You can set up wherever you like. We discovered the last time we did this, though, that having lots of sales clustered in one spot brought in a mass of shoppers, while sales set up farther down the block got no traffic.

Q: I don’t want to give away all the money I make. Do I have to?
A: It’s completely up to you how much or how little of your profits you donate to the dragonfly project.

Q: I don’t have anything to sell, and don’t have money to donate, but I want to help somehow. What can I do?
A: You can man a donation jar at the sale, and talk to people about the dragonfly mural. Or if you have any sort of talent you could give away in exchange for a donation, donate that! Like face-painting for kids, or cookies you baked, or busking by playing an instrument, or drawing caricatures… Think “Street Fair.”

Q: Will the sale be advertised?
A: I’ll put up a “multi-family garage sale” post on Craigslist, and Clark will put up signs at the main intersections. Please feel free to put up your own Craigslist post, and/or send photos and lists of items to me: [email protected]

Q: Why do we need money, anyway?
A: It costs about $500 a year for the street closure permits and barrier rentals, both of which are required for painting the dragonfly. We can usually get most of the paint donated, thank heavens, but always need to buy fresh roller covers.

All money collected will be deposited into our account with the Phinney Neighborhood Association.

Questions? Email lisa:  [email protected]

2014 Garage Sale Day Results

Our first-ever neighborhood garage sale was a rousing success. Our preliminary total in sales & cash donations is $1,127, with more due to arrive in employer volunteer matching funds. With the matching funds, and assuming we can get some paint donated again by Rodda (or if that fails, Sherwin-Williams), we may have earned what we need for this year’s painting over Labor Day Weekend.

Lessons learned from the event:

  • have all sales set up on the dragonfly mural, rather than down 4th; there’s a shopping synergy that happens when all sales are together, and items sold in minutes at the dragonfly that had languished all morning down the street
  • talk about the dragonfly and have donation jars handy, as well as kids with lemonade and free cookies and muffins. Henry made a grand haul at his little lemonade stand.
  • pick a different weekend than the one that conflicts with the Greenwood Car Show (or the Fremont Solstice Parade, for that matter) — for 2015, June 13 is a possibility.
  • actively beg donations of goods from friends and family. Most people have a pile of stuff waiting to go to Goodwill; might as well give us a go at it first, for the dragonfly, right?
  • have tarps and canopies in case of rain
  • price all items. Shoppers like it.
  • include for sale items that you would never guess would sell. Video cables, rusty bits of yard decor, jars.

An idea for next year is to have more activities going on, in the vein of Henry’s lemonade stand. Perhaps face-painting for kids? Carnival-like games? Other foods? Apparently you need a permit or something to sell food, but one can give it away and ask for donations. If you go to any street fairs this summer, take note of booths/activities that you think might translate well to our garage sale day.

We could also have a booth selling our dragonfly gear, from Zazzle.com.

On a side note: we had the happy surprise of a fun-run going through the neighborhood in the afternoon. We suspect the route was chosen in order to run by the dragonfly! (Why else would they choose to run up 4th?)

Many thanks to all participants and donors, and to the neighborhood in general for dealing with the piles of traffic.

 We did it!

And got some attention while we were at it:

Article at Q13 News

Article at King5 News

Seattle Times photo and blurb

*

dragon22

A special thanks to Rodda Paint on Stone Way, for donating half the paint to us. Thank you, Rodda!

Rodda
We love Rodda!

If anyone has a good shot of the whole dragonfly (or nearly the whole thing), send it to me and I’ll post it.

Want to be added to the email list, or have a question? Contact Lisa:  [email protected]

Freeway Estates Community Orchard:

Been curious about the orchard project down by the freeway on 6th? Check out the Freeway Estates blog for what’s new, and how you can get involved. It’s all in our ‘hood!

Information on Funding:

NeighborhoodsLogo2010_2

We have funding! The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods has agreed to fund our dragonfly mural. Thank you, John S., for wrestling your way through the long, long application form. Here are the documents about the matching funds: Webgrants Dragonfly

We also have a fiscal sponsor: The Phinney Neighborhood Association (thanks again, John!). They will handle the large funds for us, and deal with taxes, etc. They will also make it possible in the future for people to donate money to the project. (If you know someone itching to donate, we are Team Dragonfly, Account #2700. Checks can be made out to us like that.)

Here’s the PDF of the fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Phinney Neighborhood Association:  Team Dragonfly agrmt

*

Links to Seattle information on how to get a mural at your intersection:

An overview of the process at the Seattle Department of Transportation blog.

Client Assistance Memo 2506, Painting the Intersection in Your Neighborhood.

How to get some of those Neighborhood Matching Funds.

Pictures of the design and painting process of the Wallingford Ladybug.

*

Did you know…

Going from talking to your neighbors less than once a month to talking to them on most days is worth an equivalent of a $55,000 increase in income, in your happiness?

*

Locations of Existing Murals in Seattle:

41st & Interlake, in Wallingford:  turtle

49th &  Burke, in Wallingford:  ladybug

80th & Stone, in Greenwood:  ??  (I have to go see if there’s really one there.)

Articles on intersection murals:

Coloring Inside the Lanes, a photo essay on intersection-painting urban art projects.

An article at Playborhood on the Portland intersection known as Share-It Square, “When Communities Take Over Their Own Streets.”

An interview with the founder of City Repair, about his mission in creating a sense of community in neighborhoods.

*

Neighborhood map:

4 Ave NE 60 St Dragon Fly PI Pet Map 20120618-1

Petition form:

4 Ave NE 60 St Dragonfly PI Pet 20120618-1

Neighborhood list:

4 Ave NE 60 St Dragonfly PI Pet List 20120618-1

MuralInterPlot  PDF.  Three versions of the intersection map by Sasha: no grid;  1′ grid; and  5′ grid.

Or, below is a jpg that may have a storm drain or utility cover or two missing.