Dear Foundation Friends,
I’ve been watching visitors take photos in all the likely spots - underneath the Cowboy Bar or the antler arches, facing Snow King, or looking down Broadway to capture western silhouettes. Our town originated in homesteading and ranches but we’ve been welcoming tourists for more than 100 years.
Jackson has an architecture of place that makes visitors and locals feel good. I’ve noticed that other mountain towns seem to be growing into cities. Taller buildings can make me feel smaller, less significant. It strikes me that the architecture of place reflects the architecture of community. The scale of our town is not far off from our homesteading roots. Standing in our town square, we are each significant.
This may be why when a crisis hits, everyone shows up. Government and businesses, nonprofits, part-timers and full-time community come together to create solutions. If we are doing our job as community, no one feels like a guest at our one long table. We all participate. We shop where tourists visit too. We all belong.
The Response Fund just provided for an additional three months of 9 community mobilizers who reach out to Latino and Eastern European families with children, keeping them informed about health issues and resources available. Several organizations and churches are utilizing the mobilizers weekly. Additionally, we supported a request by Children’s Learning Center for cleaning, extra food, and disposable paper goods. The cleaning standards for COVID-19 are higher, and use of paper goods more expensive. These are basic needs, the pillars of our local structures.
This is on my mind – the architecture of community – as we swing into summer and Old Bill’s season. I want you to know that your participation and engagement count. You know the bones of this place like the back of your hand. Supporting what you know and believe in will be crucial in the coming months.
Frontier spirit founded this place and designed our original community. It’s up to us to create, maintain, and sustain a community architecture that makes everyone feel significant. Let’s keep doing everything we can to keep our community healthy and strong.
Warm regards,
Laurie Andrews
President, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole
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