How It Came To Be: The Gathering Place Celebrates 5 Years
By Crystal Best
The Gathering Place is a 66.5 acre park next to the Arkansas river, with basketball and tennis courts, along with interactive landscaping, and playgrounds. But questions still remain on how this place was thought of? Who was the true creator? And how does this truly benefit the community?
In an interview with Andrea Leich, Vice President of Marketing and Engagement for the Gathering Place, she gave background information on the Gathering Place.
The creator of the Gathering Place is George Kaiser, a philanthropist who wanted one goal: “Build a community park unlike any other in the world.”
He tried to construct this idea with the help of landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. Together these two billionaires made the Gathering Place, a place made up of parks, educational opportunities, canoe ride, and so much more. “They got funding for this from both their own foundations, George Kaiser Family Foundation and MVVA, along with 80 other foundations.”
The wall showing all of the investors and foundations that donated.
The Gathering Place–which just turned 5–was opened in 2018 and is still going strong as a popular attraction in Oklahoma, but more specifically the Tulsa community. The celebration happened on September 8th.
Some things they did during the party were offer food, lawn games, face painting, live music, dancing, a real life paint by number, and more. They also added an exhibit showcasing special stories of those who visited the park.
With events like their fifth anniversary and all the different activities that they host, the Gathering Place pays for vendors to come, and full time employees to work at all the different activities. They pay for this through GGP Parks, LLC–A company that pays for not just the Gathering Place, but also Guthrie Green and Low Down, which are other community parks in Tulsa.
The Gathering Place has more events than just their fifth anniversary. They have Trucktober next month where there are food trucks all month long, along with live music and dancing. They also do their own version of Winter Wonderland with train rides, Christmas stories, and photo ops all around, or in Williams lodge.
A playground part of the Chapman Adventure Playground.
All these ideas for events come from their team that work together, making meaningful focus, while also keeping up with the trends of the time. The usual focus on it dealing with some type of community building.
“We offer free programming 365 days of the year, but we produce about only half of the ideas we have for events. There’s so much we want to do,” said Leich.
The constant flow of ideas that the Gathering Place has keeps the place having something happen everyday. They want to provide a free public space for Tulsans to come together to explore, learn, and play.
Their activities help the community learn about different cultures that they may have never known about before. Also with helping pushing health and wellness, something that is truly important at this time.
The Gathering Place is always evolving to do something different and to contribute to the community. Ways that people can help out is by volunteering, which means you could help out at events, work at guest services, their Grow Mobile Library, and more. Another way to help them is simply by donating. You can go to the Gathering Place website and donate to them directly, giving any amount of money.
A part of the Cabinets of Wonder inside the ONEOK Boathouse.
The entrance to the new exhibit of the stories the Gathering Place and celebrating their Fifth Anniversary.
The Gathering Place though seemingly just a park is much more than that. It’s a place where you can, not only surround yourself with nature, but can socialize with those around you. It's a place for the community to truly unite no matter the distance or difference.
