Maarten Park

West Seattle Church of the Nazarene established this community park adjacent to the church and to our house when these 6 houses among which we live were being developed. Maarten always loved anything that brought people together, and for this park, he was always bringing his ideas to the church for what may be possible to make it an even more fantastic community gathering space.

Sadly, Maarten passed away on February 13, 2023, after a nearly year-long battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The church has given Maarten the great honor of naming the park after him - Maarten Park. An honor that Maarten thought was too great for him, which brought tears to his eyes when Pastor Shaun brought the idea to him. Maarten's wish is to have people donate in his honor, in lieu of flowers, to make this gathering place a reality.

While the final design will be for the church board to approve, Maarten envisioned a playground for the neighborhood kids, some nice flowers, a bbq area, picnic tables, pathway lights, and the continuation of the summer movie nights. We'll also plan to have a community bbq each year on Maarten's birthday, May 30.

Because this is a community space, there will be extra challenges of permitting and ensuring any playground equipment is commercial grade (not allowed to just go buy a swingset from Walmart!). Maarten had started looking into what would be required and costs, so we're setting a goal of $20,000.