A blooming blast

Three women swung hula hoops around their hips and up to their hands, held high over their heads. As the hoops traveled back down again, the women moved in formation to the beat of drums. Pole dancers slid up and down the cold steel in a show of athletic prowess, and musicians commanded the stage with heartfelt songs.

And there were cupcakes – dozens of them, with frosting in many shades of lilac, in honor of Spokane and in celebration of the Shrinking Violet Society’s first birthday.

The self-described “saucy social co-op,” made up mostly of young women, is aimed at community-building.

So far, it seems to be working. Three hundred people attended the party at Silver Auctions on North Monroe where, besides the entertainment, a dozen artists and 30 local vendors schooled attendees on their wares and organizations.

A man (yes, a man) offered samples of hummus from One World Café while nearby, a chaise lounge was set up for massages. Obscure organizations ranging from Greendrinks to Aura Acupuncture to Little Sistahs Wit Tudes got some face time with their community.

“Shrinking Violet Society does all that it can to socialize members into having local interests and spending habits,” says founder Mariah McKay.

McKay, 26, conceived the society a year ago with the click of a mouse as she reached out to others in an attempt to build bridges – because, she says, a dysfunctional community is a disconnected one and she wants Spokane to be the best it can be.

Raised in Spokane, McKay moved to Portland to attend Reed College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology – quite a stretch from her current aspirations, which include work for the local nonprofit Community Minded Enterprises.

Perhaps the common thread is her desire for change and growth, not in a petri dish but in a city.

“While I was working on my thesis, I began having a change of heart,” she says. “I couldn’t stop thinking about Spokane.”

After moving back, she began seeking the intellectual stimuli and friendships that she easily found in college. She saw Portland as artistically alive and culturally aware, descriptions not easily applied to Spokane.

Her “ah ha” moment was simply an “if you build it, they will come” attitude.

“I felt sort of out of my element when I moved back,” McKay recalls. “I decided that I had to build ‘my element.’ ”

She volunteered through AmeriCorps at KYRS-FM, Thin Air Community Radio, where she saw the diversity and open-mindedness that she craved.

“KYRS was sort of my anchor,” McKay says. “The station inspired me and convinced me that Spokane was blooming.”

Crystal Clark never thought she’d find her niche in Spokane, let alone a large group of women to bond with.

“Groups of women always seemed so daunting to me,” says Clark, 26. “I had a child when I was a teenager, I went to an alternative high school, and, though I grew up here, I never felt like I belonged.

“I felt like Seattle or Portland would suit me better but now Spokane feels like home. The Violets have created a community I want to live in.”

Through the Violets, she has found more members for her own organization, Spokane Vegans, and discovered a host of other organizations to be a part of including RiverSpeak, an arts organization that was organized through the Shrinking Violet Society.

The society meets once a month during “Ladies Who Lunch” at One World Café on East Sprague Avenue.

During the lunch, 30 to 40 women and some men introduce themselves and share their passions. They connect and grow branches from the Shrinking Violet Society, suggesting other events and groups and moving forward with their ideas.

Violet members host book groups, writing groups, clothing swaps, craft nights, bike-fixing groups, even one on canning. The latter was hosted by Carol Bryan, McKay’s mother.

“It’s validating when others showed interest in my canning skills,” says Bryan, who attends many of the Violets’ proceedings and especially enjoys the luncheons. “I always leave the Violet events feeling good about the state of the world and its future.”

Gaia Borgias Brown met McKay in college. She also was raised in Spokane, but rarely thought about returning.

“I communicated with Mariah for six months before I moved back,” Borgias Brown says. “She was an inspirational factor in my decision to come home to Spokane.”

Borgias Brown’s husband, Tyler Brown, fully supports the Violets and has even attended the book groups.

“At first I didn’t quite understand what it was,” he says. After learning more about it, Brown has begun his own branch of the society called Accessory Gentry.

He and others will host different sporting events, and the spin-off “Dudes Who Drink” is scheduled to meet for the first time at the Checkerboard Tavern, 1716 E. Sprague Ave., on March 30 at 7 p.m.

Long story short, the Shrinking Violet Society is blooming (500 and growing) and inspiring others to do the same.

Monique Kovalenko, 40, who moved to the Spokane area from Bellingham four years ago, sums it up like this:

“I’m a Shrinking Violet because I like being around people that are interesting and interested in others, and there are plenty of those in this group. I like participating in conversations that feel as though they make a difference in people’s lives and in our community.

“I love that ours is a group that is openly pro-Spokane and, rather than pooh-pooh all that it is not, we focus on all that it has to offer and take the attitude that ‘it is what you make it.’ This group is all about what is positive in Spokane and the positive changes happening.”