More than a year after the April 27 tornado, Alberta City is still recovering from the damage, but residents have an opportunity to build a community center through a project that began June 2 and continues until June 9. The community center hopes tto service and renew hope.
The Alberta City Gathering Place Project is sponsored by the Pomegranate Center, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to uniting communities through art and service. With the help of Tully’s Coffee, Green Mountain Roasters, the group was able to give a $100,000 grant to help fund the project.
Milenko Matanovic, executive director and founder of the Pomegranate Center, said one of the goals of the project is to encourage the surrounding community to work together for a main goal.
“The Pomegranate Center believes that we find the greatest truth through collaborating with each other,” Matanovic said. “Having something in common to work for leads to great things.”
Community members, along with Tuscaloosa’s Parks and Recreation Department, have worked with the Pomegranate Center since January 2012 to design the perfect addition to Alberta City’s Jaycee Park, but the idea for a gathering place goes back to even before April 2011.
Kimberly Conway, an art teacher at Matthew’s Elementary School, said she wanted to plan a project that would incorporate public art and a community center months before the tornado, and when she heard about the Pomegranate Center, she applied for a grant.
“I searched all around Tuscaloosa and couldn’t find any public art or any places where everybody could gather,” she said. “I wanted to do something that would really bring the community together.”
After the April 27 tornado, the goal to reunite the community became stronger than ever. Matanovic said the gathering place has become a symbol of rebirth for the city.
“We want to show that when something bad happens, all of us have the power to turn it into something good,” he said. “It represents something springing forth, life happening after death.”
University of Alabama student Katerina Puzinauskas got involved with the project and brought along the Slash Pine Press, a printing press associated with UA’s English department. She said the press has been receiving poems and works from community members about their tornado experiences and eventually 20 compositions will be burned into the wood tables at the gathering place. These will serve as a remembrance for the many people who were impacted by the disaster.
“We are trying to get a good cross-section of pieces to represent how the community felt during and after April 27, 2011,” Puzinauskas said. “We feel that it is important to honor and remember the events of that day but also to move forward as a community.”
Puzinauskas said she, like so many others, has a story to tell and this project has helped her cope with the loss she feels.
“Volunteering with the Alberta City GPP has been cathartic because I can finally make a small contribution to the community as a whole,” she said. “It has given me closure, and for that I am so grateful.”
According to Tuscaloosa County Parks and Recreation, construction is scheduled to conclude on Saturday night, but before then, many volunteers are still needed. Becky Booker, public relations manager, said all volunteers, regardless of age or skill level, are encouraged to participate.
For more information, contact Erin F. Wiggins with the Tuscaloosa County Parks and Recreation Authority at 205-562-3220, or go to www.tcpara.org.
