If you had $50,000 to improve your community, what would you do? Would you invest in infrastructure, build a park or fund a non-profit organization? Or might you try something a little more creative?
The Knight Cities Challenge pushes urban thinkers to do just that: think creatively about how to engage their community. There are 26 Knight Cities around the country, including Philadelphia and State College, and anyone in those cities can submit a project to the challenge. The winners, announced Tuesday, get a portion of $5 million.
The parameters for the challenge are very wide. Each project must address at least one of three issues:
- Talent, through ideas that help cities attract and keep the best and brightest
- Opportunity, or ideas that expand economic prospects and break down divides
- Engagement, ideas that spur connection and civic involvement.
State College
It's that third point that captured John Stitzinger's interest. Stitzinger runs the Make Space, a community workshop where residents can build, create and test out new technologies and products. They have a 3-D printer, a laser cutter and whole lot of tools and construction equipment. What they don't have is enough community involvement.
"The simple goal was to make the Make Space known to the community," said Stitzinger. "It's a great resource that very few people know about. We've tried to do various demos and events, but there's still a lot of people that don't know it's available, and what kind of possibility a maker space can be."
There are a lot of community spaces in State College that aren't being utilized by a wider audience: start-up incubators, an arts and crafts studio and even the library. Stitzinger wanted a way to bring the services of those places to the community, and the community to the services. So he proposed creating ice luminaries.
"We've been doing some demos with ice luminaries and vacuum forming, and [thought] we could turn this into an interesting community project," said Stitzinger.
The equipment needed to make a luminary mold is easy to transport and set up at community events. Once residents make the mold, all they have to do is fill it with water and stick it in the freezer.
This summer and fall, Stitzinger and other 'makers' in State College will help residents make their own luminary mold. By winter, he hopes enough molds will be made and shared that everyone can bring an ice luminary out to an event and set a record for most ice luminaries in one place at once.
"We want to show that the community can come together and do something spectacular that an individual could never do on their own," said Stitzinger.
Read the full version of this reportat Keystone Crossroads' website. Keystone Crossroads is a new statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.
