BY JULIE RIDDLE '92
In spring 2024, Whitworth Grounds Manager Brandon Pyle '05, MBL '25 had an idea: What if his summer student grounds crew spruced up yards for West Central neighborhood residents in need of a helping hand? The students could give back to the community and build their skills too.
But Pyle's enthusiasm soon gave way to doubts: What if no one in West Central nominated deserving neighbors? What if area businesses didn't volunteer needed supplies? What if the students didn't buy in?
Instead of scrapping the idea, Pyle partnered with Whitworth's Dornsife Center for Community Engagement team and got to work. By mid-July his doubts, along with a lot of yard debris, hit the dumpster. "Human beings," Pyle says, "are just cool."
Across three days, 17 grounds-crew students and six staff members overhauled five yards in Spokane. They mulched, weeded, trimmed bushes, planted trees and flowers, installed a sprinkler system, laid sod, mowed, hauled out debris, repaved a walkway and more.
Katelyn Demant '27 fits new sod along a sidewalk. "There's a different type of feeling you get when you're serving people," she says. "It's a feeling of just joy and passion, and it's not about getting something in return."
Lane Watkins '26 trims grass around the Little Free Pantry in the yard of Larry Barringer, 70. Barringer, who struggled with food insecurity as a child, is co-founder of Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, a group that packs 400 lunches weekly for people in need. "Hunger and thirst never take a day off," he says. Barringer provided the crew drinks in the 100-plus-degree heat and served them lunch. "These students give me hope that when I'm gone, they'll take over and make this a better world," he says. The crew also overhauled the yard of a neighbor Barringer nominated who had recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will be watered."
Grounds Manager Brandon Pyle '05, MBL '25 (left) and homeowner Nicci Gooch (right) connect during her yard makeover. "Seeing how well this worked," Pyle later reflected, "there's a real opportunity to build community while teaching [yard care] skills that people can use in their neighborhood, as opposed to us making a big change in one day and then leaving." In summer 2025 Pyle and his crew are applying this approach - known as asset-based community development - as they team up with their growing West Central neighbors.