BREMERTON — For Regina “Raye” Hill, the annual cleanup of Lillian A. and James Walker Park at 19th Street and Taft Avenue in Bremerton is a labor of love.

For the past five years, Hill — of Crossing Jordan Ministries and community outreach coordinator of Sustainable You — has organized a fittingly called “Labor Of Love” Clean Up at Lillian A. and James Walker Park. And the Labor Day weekend event has grown to reflect the activism and community involvement of the park’s namesakes.

The state Commission on African American Affairs advertised the event on its web site. The Bremerton City Council made volunteer forms available at the Norm Dicks Government Center and online. Chance Berthiaume, City of Bremerton stormwater permit coordinator, provided gloves, vests, garbage bags, bottled water; participants also received a “goodie bag” with a weed shovel, a reusable water bottle and a “thank you” pen and key chain set.

Berthiaume also brought in a portable restroom; the nearest public restroom is located at the Safeway on Callow Avenue, 10 miles away.

Jerri Eckmann, a park neighbor and member of the League of Women Voters, set up a table at the park and registered voters.

All told, more than 30 people — many of them school-age children who have gotten use to seeing Hill at the park over the past five years — helped clean the park. An employee team from FedEx/Kinkos in Silverdale won the prize for pulling the most weeds.

The Lumpia Factory at 1554 NE Fairgrounds Road, Suite 2, in Bremerton, sent lumpia and pancit for volunteers.

And Hill had her teaching moment, “teaching the children about who the Walkers were and the purpose of the park.”

The Walkers were civil rights pioneers in Bremerton and, in 2009, Mrs. Walker (1913-2012) was honored by the State of Washington as a living legacy. The Walkers advocated for civil rights and social justice in Kitsap County, helped found the Bremerton branch of the NAACP and the local YWCA, and were part of the movement to establish the regional library system. Lillian Walker served on the Kitsap County Regional Library Board and the Kitsap County Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council. Among the honors she and her husband received: MLK Citizens of the Century.

State Court of Appeals Judge J. Robin Hunt described Mrs. Walker as “tenacious as a bull dog, disguised in velvet. She was feisty, but never mean.”

The park’s genesis dates to 2011, when Hill became the first African American to complete the National Sustainability Building Advisor (NSBA) course offered by Olympic College. Hill is also one of a few women of color to be an Environmental Sustainability Cadre trainer for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

A graduation requirement for NSBA course participants is to design a building with “real world” application. Hill, who has a passion for urban environmental stewardship, designed the community center for Bay Vista, which was built on there site of the former West Park Housing Project. Hill said she designed the community center as a way to “show sensitivity to former West Park residents and to Lillian A. Walker, who lived near West Park and spent a lifetime addressing issues which dealt with creating equity and opportunities for the poor and disenfranchised.”

Present at Hill’s NSBA presentation were former Bremerton City Council member Diane Robinson, director of the Black Historical Society of Kitsap County; and Kitsap County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido, a friend of Lillian A. Walker; and other county leaders. After seeing Hill’s presentation, Robinson encouraged Hill to pursue getting “something notable” named after Lillian Walker.

The state Department of Ecology funded the purchase of land for a park that would serve as an urban stormwater filtration site; park construction, $170,000, was paid for by a Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The site is designed to filter runoff from as much as 65 acres. The park features interpretive signage explaining the various stormwater filtration methods, among them porous concrete sidewalks, a sand filter, and a bio-retention swale. The first trees were planted by Naval Avenue Early Learning Center students in honor of Arbor Day in April 2014.

(There was little opposition to naming the park after Lillian A. Walker. The strongest opposition came from Mrs. Walker’s daughter, June Newman, who was adamant that the park not be named after her mother unless it also bore the name of her father, James. “Whatever her mother did, her father was right beside her,” Hill recalled June saying. “Hence, the park became named the Lillian A. and James Walker Park.”)

State Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-23rd District, was one of the first state elected officials to support naming the park after Lillian Walker. She also recorded a YouTube video, in which she talked about all the contributions Lillian Walker made to make Bremerton a better place for disenfranchised residents. According to Hill, Rolfes has expressed interest in working with students from Naval Avenue School, Bremerton High School and Mount Zion’s Missionary Baptist Church’s PYA Youth on environmental events annually at the park.

Regarding the Labor Of Love cleanup, FedEX assistant manager Duncan Fyffe said that over the years he noticed Hill had been using her own money to print materials to promote the park, even before the park’s groundbreaking last year. He brought his wife, Kaitlyn, and 1-year-old daughter to the cleanup.

“I left my job so I could stay at home with my daughter,” Mrs. Fyffe said. “When my husband told Ms. Hill I was quitting my job to stay at home with my child, she came to his job with a baby bag filled with items that every new mother typically has on her baby shower wish list. [It] blew me away and I could not wait to meet her.”

Bremerton City Council member Richard Huddy visited the park prior to going to the Blackberry Festival. He said Hill hand-delivered to each council member a personal invitation for the “Labor of Love” weekend event. “The city needs to do more for this area, which has many low-income residents,” he said. In addition, the city is looking for ways to improve residential roads in the Anderson Cove area, as well as throughout the City of Bremerton, he said.

Another annual event Hill that involves the park: “Caroling and Cocoa.” Carolers go door to door and ask residents to sing their favorite Christmas carol. If they do, they get packets of hot chocolate for everyone who resides in the home.

Bremerton City Council member Greg Wheeler’s wife told Hill last year about “Caroling and Cocoa,” and Hill agreed to take it on in memory of her oldest sister, who died in March that year. Her name was Carol, and she loved cocoa and singing. As a result, Hill pledged to continue “Caroling with Cocoa” in the Anderson Cove Neighborhood to bring holiday joy to neighborhood residents and in remembrance of her sister.

Hill next goal for Lillian A. and James Walker Park: get it included in the annual Kitsap Water Trails Festival.

If you would like to help support events at the park, send your contact information to youaresustainable@gmail.com or mail your contact information to:

R. Hill
Sustainable You
5050 Highway 303 NE
Suite 103, PMB 155
Bremerton, WA 98311