When Hazel Stein comments on how crazy the world can seem at times, you listen.
After all, she’s been alive for two world wars, the Great Depression, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War.
So at her 100th birthday party Saturday in Vancouver’s Marrion neighborhood, Stein smiled to think of the legacy she’ll leave. Stein is donating an acre adjacent to the neighborhood’s Tanglewood Park and has offered the city first right of refusal to buy her remaining adjacent half-acre when it’s put on the market.
The way Stein tells it, she’s most thankful for the opportunity to help people take a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
“We can really have a moment of peace in this mad world,” she said.
The park, tucked in the end of a cul-de-sac at the end of Northeast 97th Avenue, is just 0.77 acres right now. But with Stein’s donation and the city’s recent purchase of 1.85 acres adjacent to the park, the overall size will increase to 3.42 acres. The city plans to add a few more amenities, as well — right now, the park boasts only a single bench.
In exchange for her donation, the city will rename the park George & Hazel Stein Neighborhood Park in the couple’s honor.
Dozens of friends and neighbors gathered in the park to thank Stein. Neighborhood parks are typically designed with the immediate families in mind, but cars wrapped through the cul-de-sac and down the block.
“Oh, wow!” a smiling Stein said of the crowd. “I can’t believe it.”
There was chocolate cake, golden balloons spelling out 100 and a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” led by Mayor Tim Leavitt. Leavitt, speaking in front of the crowd, admitted he felt “kind of overwhelmed” by Stein’s generosity.
“We are so blessed to have Hazel in our community,” he told the crowd.
Stein moved from Tacoma to Vancouver with her husband, George Stein, in 1961. She worked for years at the city of Tacoma in the civil service, personnel and retirement offices. Her husband, a World War II veteran who died in 1988, worked in Clark County Public Works for 36 years.
As for the families who will use her park, Stein is glad to know she’s done something to help.
“It makes me feel very thankful that I can help in some small way,” she said.
