Residents at the Waverly Farms and Villas and Cherry Creek Apartments are through complaining about the gang-bangers who’ve been messing with what should be a safe and pleasant summer.

With the help of Safe Streets’ Darren Pen, they’ve organized.

Tonight, they’re inaugurating the push with their first National Night Out.
Their complexes are among several east of Interstate 5 and north of South 96th Street, and they have a unique problem. Though most of their neighborhood is in Tacoma, they also have an orphan slice of Lakewood, across the freeway from the rest of the city.

Their management is responsible, responsive and tight with the police, but that’s not the case in all the complexes. Some allow gang members to live and do business in the neighborhood.

Residents have had armed thugs bust into their apartments. They’ve had taggers dueling with spray-paint on their fences. And you don’t want to know what’s been going on in the greenbelt.

Now that they’ve organized, Tacoma Police Community Liaison Officer Dan Hensley is looking into their complaints of slow police response. He’s given them resource lists of all the numbers to call, and coached them on how best to report a crime.

Jim Borah of the Neighborhood Councils is helping them with information on how to get traffic circles and speed bumps.

The core group invited the neighbors, including residents of the Woodmark Apartments, or a Safe Streets meeting two weeks ago.

“This whole neighborhood is so unsavory, it’s just pathetic,” said a Woodmark resident. “We had a shoot-out up here today at 3 p.m.”

They had another last Thursday.

This National Night Out Party is serious business. Lives depend on it.

In a quiet neighborhood in University Place, residents rallied to Laura-Elizabeth Boyle and Kayce Burdge’s cause with blankets for homeless people.
Boyle, who will be a senior at Bellarmine Prep, and Burdge, who will be a senior at Wilson High School are working toward their Gold Awards, the highest honor in the Girl Scouts.

When they read that Catholic Community Services was taking over and refurbishing what is now The Tacoma Avenue Shelter, they had their project. They contacted shelter director Jim Anderson and asked where they could fit into the work.

Anderson had plans to convert an old garage into a space where volunteers could serve dinner to shelter guests.

Perfect, said the girls.

They started gathering donations of materials, notably the paint and primer given by the Center Street Home Depot.

They spent their summer weekends pressure washing the interior, priming, then painting the walls. They pulled weeds in outdoor parking area, and they prettied up the whole site. Together, they spent 130 hours and transformed a grim space into a welcoming one.

But wait, they told each other. There’s more.

As they learned about the people who need the shelter, they began collecting blankets and bedding for them. They saw National Night Out as a prime chance for a blanket drive.

They organized the event for their cul-de-sac, spamming dorways with flyers, buying burgers and dogs for 200, and inviting their neighbors to bring side dishes, salads, drinks - and new and gently-used blankets.
Their goal: 45 blankets and sheet sets, and warmth for that many people.
They aren’t done yet.

Once back at school, they’ll launch drives for toiletries, games and other necessities.

“From this experience we have borth grasped a deeper understanding of what life on the streets is like, and how we can give back to those who are less fortunate,” they said in a note they wrote together,