Street Roots celebrated the launch of construction with a groundbreaking that resembled a flash mob and festive parade. On Thursday, March 16, Street Roots vendors, staff and board members gathered with the project team and supporters on the northeast corner of West Burnside Street and Third Avenue. O’Neill Construction, general contractor for the project, had already erected the construction fence and will lead renovations over the next seven months.
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. This column represents her views.
The groundbreaking celebration started outside the building, around a piano on the sidewalk that the community then rolled around the block. Why? Emblematic of how Street Roots finds our solutions to what present as problems, we decided to turn moving a piano — the final item we needed to move out of the building so construction could begin — into a moment of beauty.
Cody McGraw, Street Roots capital campaign director, worked with vendors to choreograph a swing dance parade, rolling the piano through Old Town to celebrate the neighborhood. The parade ended at two new neighborhood businesses that support Street Roots, Goodies Snack Shop and Barnes & Morgan tea shop, where the community shared snacks and tea.
To learn more about the project, including how to support it, visit streetroots.org/hope.
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