Friends of Congress Sq. Park Launch Southwest Airlines Project June 24th

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David LaCasse, Treasurer, of the Friends of Congress Square Park

David LaCasse, President, of the Friends of Congress Square Park

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Ron Spidle, owner, Vindle Builders, LLC. With Mark McCormick, Building a Bench Today.

Ron Spidle, owner, Vindle Builders, LLC. With Mark McCormick, Building a Bench Today.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,332)

The Friends of Congress Square Park have announced a press conference on Wednesday, June 24th at Congress Square Park to launch its “Heart of our Community” Project.  The press conference begins at 10:30 am with  a representative of Southwest Airlines, (Project for Public Spaces,) Mayor Michael Brennan and Diane Davison, of the Portland Parks Commission,  present.

Earlier this year, this non-profit was awarded a $100,000 place making grant by Southwest Airlines. $50,000, is in cash and the other $50,000. is in-kind according to David LaCasse, President of the Friends of Congress Square Park said today. The purpose of the grant is to help cities reimagine and reactivate important, but underutilized public spaces in cities. Today, Ron Spidle, owner of Vindle Builders, LLC and Mark McCormick were building a bench that will seat a number of people in time for the launch on Wednesday. Please visit www.vindlebuilders.com This is funded by the Southwest  Airlines grant money according to LaCasse.

In April of this year, David LaCasse, President of the Friends and his daughter, Bree, traveled to Dallas, TX. the corporate headquarters of Southwest Airlines.  They were hosted there for several days and during that time gave a presentation on the Friends of Congress Square, met the other finalists for the grant money and were interviewed by officials of the Southwest  Airlines, Public Spaces Project, Shortly following that the announcement of the grant money was announced.

“This is a really big deal.  We worked hard all winter to make this happen,” said LaCasse this afternoon.