The city will still shimmer and shine. But Vancouver Sparkles no more.
Due to budget cuts and staff reductions, the city has discontinued its annual neighborhood-based community pride awards, known as Vancouver Sparkles.
Vancouver Sparkles kicked off in 2001 and aimed to stoke community pride by having citizens forward their own nominations to neighborhood associations, which selected two winners and passed them on to the city for public recognition.
Anything that bettered Vancouver’s quality of life and earned the appreciation of neighbors was fair game — from volunteerism and good citizenship to trash collection and beautiful private landscaping.
The city would celebrate the winners with a special summer picnic and mayoral recognition in Esther Short Park. Winners’ stories were shared online, in neighborhood newsletters and in The Columbian. In 2007 the city and The Columbian teamed up to hold a special 150th anniversary Sparkles contest, running neighborhood profiles in the newspaper and letting readers vote for the “Sparklingest” one (It was Vancouver Heights). Some city and Waste Connections staffers used to sing, dance and push recycling as a group called the Sparklettes.
Staff cuts
Now, due to tight budget times and staff reductions, said Judi Bailey of the Vancouver Office of Neighborhoods, the city won’t take the lead on Sparkles Awards the way it used to. It didn’t have a specific budget line, she said, but Vancouver Sparkles did “take quite a bit of staff time. With staff reductions, we’ve lost some of the people actively involved in it.”
The city still hopes to keep Vancouver Sparkles alive — by spinning it off to the neighborhoods. That would be in keeping with the spirit of the original program, Bailey said, which relied on citizens to make nominations and neighborhood associations to validate them.
There’s no reason to stop doing that, Bailey said. Neighbors should keep nominating neighbors and neighborhood associations should keep naming and honoring winners in ways of their own choosing. That could mean special events like picnics or holiday gatherings, cleanup days or newsletter articles. The city will provide recognition via certificates signed by the mayor and city manager, a window decoration and a Vancouver Sparkles T-shirt, reusable bag or a garden flag.
Winners’ names and nominations still will be posted on the city website.
Contact Judi Bailey at 360-487-8608 or judi.bailey@ci.vancouver.wa.us for more information.
