I have a friend who is not only a renaissance man, he’s an unsung hero.
When I went to the hopscotch event that he ideated and created with a group of friends and volunteers, I was amazed by the randomness of a childish past-time transforming into meaningful community building. And I was even more impressed with how many organizations he managed to engage in his first year and how many participants attended. Sure, he was complaining that it was much slower in his second year, but he quickly learned that June was much better than August.
When I asked him why he thought of hopscotch to create a community event, he said that he was interested in starting a conversation between very diverse groups within the Central District. So he created a trail of hopscotch to forge the connection, painting up to 2.9 miles of hopscotch on sidewalks from Jackson to Union. Seattle Public Library, local schools and even Cupcake Royale set up along the way.
Not only did these and several other organizations participate, someone recorded a world record attempt at hopscotch with a drone camera filming.
The fact that one guy had an idea that’s become an annual community event shows the power of one-to-many. It takes one good idea, and one good leader to make it happen. Way to go, Knox Gardner!
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