Project changing lives of McCarver students

Groundbreaking ceremonies are a fairly common occurrence, held to mark construction starting on office buildings and transportation projects. But the one held on June 9 for the Zina Linnik Project was considerably different from a typical groundbreaking where political and business leaders give speeches and push shovels into the dirt. It was planned by students at McCarver Elementary School on Hilltop. They wrote and delivered the speeches, led guests on tours, distributed information and gave performances.

The project was borne out of a horrible event that greatly impacted the students. On July 4, 2007 Zina Linnik, a young girl who attended McCarver, was abducted from the alley outside her family’s home. A convicted sex offender was eventually caught. He was found guilty of kidnapping, assaulting and killing the young girl and sent to prison for life.

The Linniks are immigrants from the Ukraine whose children had made many friends in their new country. McCarver students delved into an effort to pay tribute to their late classmate with improvements at Wright Park and McCarver Park. Features include several nods to Zina’s heritage. Her sisters offered input on her favorite books and her love of the aquarium at Point Defiance Park, which have been incorporated into the design.

The project has a price tag of $3.5 million. Of this, Metro Parks had already allocated $150,000 for improvements to Wright Park and $175,000 to McCarver Park through a bond measure passed by voters in 2005. Raising the rest fell to Greater Metro Parks Foundation in its first major capital project in its 10-year existence.

It has raised close to $3 million, of which $500,000 will be set aside for maintenance. Asking the private sector to donate to a public project such as a park is not typical. But those who donated have an enormous sense of pride in their city and gave generously.

The project has affected hundreds of young children in a positive and innovative way. McCarver students past and present have made important decisions. Their minds have been stimulated as they used their creativity in planning the project, and they got a civics lesson in how government operates in regard to funding.

They have made presentations to Metro Parks Commission and testified before Tacoma City Council. They have made two trips to the state capital, the first to lobby for funding from the legislature and the second to thank Governor Chris Gregoire for the state’s assistance.

Students from the University of Washington, both from the main campus and the branch campus in Tacoma, have been involved in planning the project, as have students at the University of Puget Sound (UPS). For many of the McCarver students, the word college had never been on their horizon prior to this project. Working alongside the college students has led many of them to ponder college and what they must do to attend one in the future. Two UPS students are even chronicling the project for a research paper.

McCarver Park is not a place that generally draws visitors from outside the Hilltop vicinity. But that could change. The playground equipment will be top of the line. Coupled with the dramatic views of Mt. Rainier, this could become a destination park that draws families from across the city.

T-shirts sold to raise money for the project have become popular items, and can often be seen on both children and adults around town, another indication of the pride in this effort.

The groundbreaking ceremony marks a closing of the door on a tragedy in the past and the opening of a window to the future.

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