MARINER — Mariner High School in South Everett pulsed with energy at the fifth annual Mariner Fest, a lively community celebration that drew hundreds of families to honor connection, culture and opportunity. From face painting and job training to educational entertainment, the event shined a light on the vibrant heart of this often-overlooked South Everett district.
Sponsored by Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation, Sound Transit, Molina Healthcare of Washington, Project Girl Mentoring Program, and Everett Housing Authority, the festival transformed the high school grounds into a hub of free food, crafts, family activities and community resources. What began years earlier with roughly 14 to 16 vendors has grown dramatically. Organizers and participants counted more than 70 organizations this year offering services to the community.
Project Girl Mentoring Program facilitated the annual back-to-school backpack and school supply giveaway, aiming to support more than 1,200 students. Founded by Olympia Edwards, the program creates a supportive environment for young women of color.
Families explored booths from groups including Evergreen Goodwill, which offered live job training sessions, and Dawson Place, which provides child advocacy services. Dawson’s Place, Cocoon House and Bikers Against Child Abuse were among the many organizations present.
The Washington West Africa Center previewed its upcoming Sounds of Africa Festival, set for August 15 at Garfield Park in Everett, with musical demonstrations that drew children and adults alike.
Snohomish County Public Works featured information on its Road Safety Program, to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries using an objective and data-driven process. An Road Safety Program Online Open House remains available.
Sno-Isle Libraries played a central role as a longtime sponsor and presence at the event. Executive Director Eric Howard of Sno-Isle Libraries described the motivation behind the library system’s involvement.
“I think the vision behind this was let’s connect with the community that wants to continue to support the library,” Howard told the Lynnwood Times. “So the library has demonstrated that. Year after year, this event has gotten larger and larger with the community demonstrating how much they want a library…. And the library is much more than just books, though that is still critical. It’s really about connecting with the community.”
Howard shared visible progress on the Mariner Community Campus, the planned permanent home for Mariner library services in the South Everett area. The site at the northeast corner of 4th Avenue West and 128th Street Southwest has been cleared and leveled after Sno-Isle purchased the 0.8-acre property in 2024.
“So, it’s a priority of the Board’s to get built,” said Howard. “We leveled it, you’re right. So, we own that property. What is going to determine its scale is the levy. So, we’re looking at this levy to see how much we can actually invest in that space. So, there will be a library, win or lose. It’s really around the scale of that, and that’ll be determined on August 4th.”
The Mariner Community Campus project remains in the rough-draft and conceptual pre-design phase. Sno-Isle is collaborating with Johnston Architects and the Everett Housing Authority on a mixed-use concept featuring a ground-floor library and housing above. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2027; however, the temporary Mariner Library at 520 128th Street Southwest continues to operate.
State Sen. Marko Liias, who represents the Mariner neighborhood, attended and shared the importance of Sno-Isle’s libraries role in an unincorporated area that lacks many municipal services available in nearby cities such as Lynnwood, Mukilteo and Edmonds.
“It’s all unincorporated, so although everyone’s looking at annexing, but it’s unincorporated now, so the community doesn’t have access to all the same services that folks in Lynnwood or Mukilteo or Edmonds do,” Sen. Liias explained. “There’s no parks department; there’s not a lot of that on-the-ground services; so Sno-Isle library has been one of those fill-in-the-gap institutions here [in the Mariner neighborhood]. That’s why I’m excited to build the new library so the community has more resources, more access.… So this is vital. It’s important whether you’re rich or poor, there’s incredible services at the library that everybody needs.”
Liias played a critical role in legislative efforts to secure state capital budget dollars for the Mariner Campus site acquisition. Liias for years has invested into the Mariner neighborhood with policy efforts such as the Kids Ride Free transit program that helps Mariner students reach Everett Community College, rent stabilization measures and expansion of the senior property tax exemption program.
State Rep. Strom Peterson, attending Mariner Fest for the first time, praised the gathering and the library’s role.
“It is fantastic for families to be able to kind of access every service that they might need, right, in one space, get to know people, get to know faces, and the way that the library has created this opportunity is just fantastic,” Rep. Peterson shared with the Lynnwood Times.
Peterson said he helped champion capital budget funding on the House side, working with Liias on the Senate side for the Mariner Campus, and supports the upcoming library renewal levy on August 4 to ensure communities have accessible “third spaces.”
Mariner Library Manager Bryan Gabehart described the festival as an extension of the library’s everyday work. He oversees a staff of eight, mostly paraprofessionals, who provide bilingual resources, services and programming in Spanish and English.
“As the library manager, I am a jack of all trades,” Gabehart said. “What’s so great about Mariner Fest is that it’s really an opportunity to show what we [as a library] can do, that we can bring this positivity and the light that we bring at the library out into the community and meet community where they’re at. This is a great example of what Sno-Isle Libraries is able to do because not just Mariner Library staff here, we have marketing and communications, we have our capital strategy department that’s working on the Mariner Community Campus project. We have our bookmobile services here as well. And we’re all here to celebrate the beauty that is our community here in Mariner.”
Gabehart identified digital literacy as a trending need in services, particularly among seniors and baby boomers. The Sno-Isle Libraries provide laptops and hotspots for checkout and staff support for learning to use the technology. For older adults, the library also offers social activities, arts and crafts programs, and educational sessions on topics such as health care and financial literacy to help reduce isolation.
Two Sno-Isle leaders shared personal connections to libraries that shaped their service. Inez Olive, a member of the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation Board of Directors, recalled libraries as a safe space in childhood while waiting for her mother after work and as a place with computers when her home lacked one.
“It was just more than just books,” Olive told the Lynnwood Times, “It was a safe space, it was a community space. Sno-Isle has been instrumental in not just my own kind of being in community, but my library regularly as well.”
Griselda Guevara-Cruz, secretary of the Sno-Isle Libraries Board of Trustees and a Mariner High School graduate who grew up in the service area, first encountered Sno-Isle through the bookmobile that stopped in local parking lots.
“My first connection to the Sno-Isle Libraries was at Bookmobile, and so they used to come to the Mariner parking lot, Voyager parking lot, and that was the way we accessed books. Because there wasn’t any in the library nearby. And similarly, access to resources, computer, internet,” Guevara-Cruz told the Lynnwood Times.
She recalled reading Spanish translations of Sandra Cisneros, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, adventurous stories and Harry Potter titles that were in high demand.
Author: Mario Lotmore
