With four kids in tow, Prairie Grove Mayor David Faulk and his wife moved to town a little over 20 years ago after being uprooted from their Louisiana home following Hurricane Katrina.
“I had lost everything, and [this community] did a lot for us. They really bought into me and my family. Why wouldn’t you want to love a community that loved you?”
As the town grows and changes, this adopted son of Prairie Grove is on a mission to maintain the small-town sense of community that welcomed his own family so many years ago.
That spirit has come to life at a new event for the town, Picnic in the Park. The brainchild of local leaders looking to bring neighbors together, volunteers prepare beans and cornbread, Pie Lady Bernice shares her confections, and nonprofits, service clubs, a church and the high school bring food, activities and resources. The gathering has drawn thousands of people, but its impact is about more than attendance. It gives residents a reason to meet, contribute and connect.
In small towns across the region, the Walton Family Foundation is helping local leaders like Mayor Faulk find opportunities and deploy resources to create more public spaces that help residents stay connected with one another as their towns change and grow.
In Siloam Springs, public space has long been part of downtown life. Twin Springs Park was laid out in the 1880s around two natural springs. Early visitors drank from the springs using a tin cup. But over time, parts of the park fell into disrepair, including the historic spring basin.
With support from a foundation-supported placemaking grant from the Project for Public Spaces, Parks and Recreation Manager Travis Chaney and the city began restoring the park. The work has included renovating a well-loved gazebo and expanding the space in front of it for small performances, weddings and gatherings. A new play pump gives children a way to interact with water while echoing the springs’ history. There are also plans to restore the stonework and stairs leading to the creek, with a landing where visitors can sit by the water, fish or launch a kayak.
For Chaney, public spaces help neighbors connect across the natural rhythms of everyday life. “They're the only places we have left that you can make a meaningful connection with strangers who live next door to you.”
Across from the park, business owner Cindi Payne believes it is bringing more people through her door. “The impact on my business since moving downtown to this location has been tremendous. I think my business has quadrupled since taking this location here,” she says.
Park visitors notice the studio, stop in and sometimes return for a class or celebration. As Payne puts it, “If they're not gathering, they wouldn't see my business.”
In Pea Ridge, Carr Street Park is demonstrating how residents are shaping spaces designed for everyone to enjoy. In a recent renovation, the city gathered input from families and school staff to guide its accessible design.
Resident Erin Quijada Paris, whose twin boys are both on the autism spectrum, advocated for a space where children with special needs could play alongside their peers. The park’s fence, flat ground and play equipment help her family enjoy an outing close to home. For Erin, the opportunity to contribute mattered as much as the finished space: “It's wild to me that my voice matters.”
Pea Ridge Mayor Nathan See says that listening shaped the project from the beginning: “The more that you have public engagements, the more that they build trust with you, and the more they realize that you are listening.”
In the work now unfolding across these small towns, one thing is clear: A region grows stronger when people can gather, participate and see their ideas reflected in the places they share. A park may be where that work begins—but the lasting result is a deeper sense of connection to neighbors, community and the future of Northwest Arkansas.
For Mayor Faulk, that work is personal. Prairie Grove welcomed him and his family when they arrived with little and he has spent years finding ways to give back—bringing neighbors together, making room for newcomers and helping residents shape what their town becomes as it continues to grow.
For the place he now calls home, he says, “Any time we can engage with people, we're building something that is very, very difficult to tear down.”
