people of the palouse

by gayle anderson

Let’s get to know our neighbors, those like us and those who are different from us. Please send any introductions to: Heather@homeandharvestmagazine.com

Nicole Flansburg

Maybe it was my time of having once lived in Genesee that gave me an appreciation of the beauty of small-town living. And that is probably why I have been enamored for so long with Palouse, Washington. Anytime you see a thriving and vibrant small community, you know there are active, committed people behind the scenes, the movers and shakers who give of themselves to create a better place for others. If I could put a face in the dictionary of what community spirit looked like, it would be a picture of Nicole Flansburg . With that let me introduce you to a woman with a mission. I met Nicole at their farm on a hot July day and which happened to be the first day of wheat harvest. Her husband, Aaron was off in the distance on a combine, bringing in the crop that ends up in some form or another on most American’s dinner table. As we chatted in their farm shop, which by the way I now have “shop envy”, Nicole shared the two things outside of family that she loves, plants and community activism. Growing up in a farming community, it wasn’t the act of farming that inspired Nicole’s love of being outdoors and growing things, rather it was her time spent with her mom gardening and bringing beauty in the form of plants to their home. She recalls going to a couple of nurseries in Spokane that were game changers of what kinds of exotic plants were available and ways to incorporate nature into artistic landscape settings. Farming seems to bring out the practicality in people and despite the love of nature, Nicole graduated from college with a double major in Human Resources and Business Management. This seemed a good pathway to being able to enter into the business world. During her senior year, Aaron proposed, and during that time his 5th generation farm had recently acquired more leases which means in “farmer talk” that he now had a place in the family farm operation that could support him and his new wife. So instead of ending up working in a large urban area, she and Aaron settled in Pullman as newlyweds in a rented apartment. In hindsight this was a blessing as Nicole’s mom was diagnosed with cancer and being close to home, Nicole was able to help care and spend quality time with her beloved mom before she passed away.

Nicole landed a job with the Pullman Chamber of Commerce, and as she tells it, one day she felt like she was just the girl in the breakroom and the next she was lunching with the mayor and eventually held the title as Director of Tourism and Special Events. Her behind the scenes work with the ever-popular National Lentil Festival and the Cabaret inspired a new passion. Creating public events and fundraising. Little did she know these skills would help transform the City of Palouse. A few years of being the face behind the Pullman Chamber events, Nicole stepped down to tackle the new role as a momma. And despite the demands of being a farm-wife, mom to three kids who today range from 8 to 13, Nicole is co-chair to the Tony Kettel Skate Gardens, Haunted Palouse and Distinguished Young Woman program. They are also remodeling an old farmhouse themselves with hopes to be completed by late Fall, sell their home in Palouse and move…. and if that isn’t enough, Nicole is a Master Gardener and Landscape Designer, wherein she has several clients. (Seriously does this woman even get to sleep?) After we left the farm shop, she and I went to the skate park so she could show me what 20 years of a vision looked like. When I asked her how the project began, Nicole explained that her husband Aaron loved skateboarding in his youth and there was no place to do it. So, he wanted the youth in the community and surrounding towns to have a place to safely practice the art of skateboarding and a place where families could gather. Tall order in a normal world, but in the Flansburg household, this was a doable goal and with many, many other committed individuals and regional partners the dream became the reality on June 2, 2018. It began in 2015 when a small tract of land was donated to the project. The donors only had one condition which was that a garden also be created along with the skate park. The site was overgrown and was the place where items were dumped. Countless man hours, many of which were given by skaters & contractors outside of the Palouse community, began racking up. Years of fundraising and lots of hard work went into the project. As we drove up to the skate park, there were a group of young boys resting with boards in hand. They see Nicole and wave. She greets each of them by name and then I ask if I can take their pictures doing their moves. Nicole points out one young man and says earlier that he was helping her pull weeds at the skate park. She proudly tells me that the kids have been involved firsthand in fundraising, parts of construction, and now upkeep of the park. They are taking ownership very seriously and it shows. The site of the concrete park has a steep hillside and on top is where the transformed garden space sits. I was expecting a garden, such as rows of corn, beets and potatoes….and what I saw was nothing short of enchanting. Obviously, my version of a garden is limited and-

-Nicole and her trusty committee’s view was nothing short of spectacular. Being a writer, words failed me as I was introduced to their vision. All I could mutter to a beaming Nicole, was “this is magnificent and stunning and amazing”. Nicole went on to tell me that every Tuesday morning she and a group of volunteers tend the garden to weed and continue working on its completion. She also mentioned that volunteers inspect the garden several days a week to ensure that the water system is working and tend to anything that needs immediate attention. The plants selected by this committee were based on their low water capacity with a nod to xeriscape design. Drip lines installed ensure the plants thrive while conserving the precious city water resource. As we leisurely make our way down the pathways, where most were dirt, some were covered in black landscape material, we end up on the concrete walkway where several donated benches are placed for viewing the city and looking below at the youth doing those crazy hair pin turns on their boards. Nicole pointed out the bird sanctuary area and a patch of sunflowers that commemorated a woman who recently passed and who was a mentor to Nicole as well as integral part of this committee. She continues on giving me a vivid description on how the skate garden will look like when it’s completed, wherein it will be a place for gardening talks, perhaps acoustic music gatherings, and where nuptials could be performed in the circular area towards the end of the park. Nicole describes again with pride the community support of man-hours, materials and regional partnerships that built the skate park and garden. If this would have just been contracted out, the cost she guesstimates would have been in the range of $300-400,000 instead of the $70K plus spent. That alone speaks of the commitment by her fellow project supporters and young adults to bring a 20-year-old vision to fruition where families come and kiddos of all ages delight in swirling around the concrete park while parents enjoy the garden and often end up picnicking and enjoying the space. As our two hour plus visit was ending with Nicole, her enthusiasm for making the world a little better place was infectious and I decided that just because I don’t live in Palouse, doesn’t mean that I can’t help with a few volunteer projects and become a Palouse wanna-be. So, when I got home, I happily informed my sweet man, Rod, that I was going to be a volunteer/helper and I was dragging him with me! If you see me working around Palouse, just know that if you catch the enthusiasm for community spirit from Nicole or her committee, know that you have been forewarned and I’d be happy to work along side you. And in Nicole’s words of wisdom, “the doers are the visionaries to a better world”.

Amen to that my friends.