Seattle to celebrate neighborhood fund's 20th year

A traffic circle in Northwest Seattle, a community garden tool shed in Southwest Seattle and a 50-foot mural near the Woodland Park Zoo all share something in common: They were the visions of volunteers who turned them into realities with support from the city's Neighborhood Matching Fund.

Saturday, the city plans to kick off the first of six celebrations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Neighborhood Matching Fund, which has invested more than $42 million in some 3,500 projects across Seattle.

The fund awards grants to individuals and groups whose ideas produce a public benefit for their community. Recipients must match the city's grant with cash, volunteer hours or donated services and materials.

The first five celebrations will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will offer live music, free reusable shopping bags and a scrapbook station where people can create a page from a project they worked on. All the celebrations are on Saturdays.

• Saturday: Phinney Neighborhood Center Community Hall, 6615 Dayton Ave. N.

• Sept. 13: Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way S.W.

• Sept. 20: Cascade Playground, 333 Pontius Ave. N.

• Sept. 27: Powell Barnett Park, 352 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.

• Oct. 4: Rainier Community Center, East Gym, 4600 38th Ave. S.

The final celebration will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 11 at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., where an exhibit and video will show the breadth of funded projects, according to the Department of Neighborhoods.

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com