Last week, Walmart provided an update on its DEI initiatives and efforts towards embracing racial equity - more specifically within the marketing side of its business.

• Quote: "We’re committing to deeper and longer-term relationships with minority-owned media partners. In particular, we will spend at minimum 2% of our total budget with Black-owned media businesses this year and 4% next year, and that figure will continue to grow."
• Additionally, Walmart will make certain 40% of all production directors and photographers, as well as crews, will be women or underrepresented minorities.

You can read the full press release HERE.

The Jones Center in Springdale is inviting artists to apply for a new project to collectively determine future locations for public art on the 52-acre campus redevelopment.

• Rewind: The Jones Center is in the process of reimagining what a new center might look like on the 52 available acres. The Center is now asking local artists to come play a role in selecting where public art should be installed.
• The aim is to produce integrated, community-responsive public art in this new park-like setting. Up to three artists will be selected to work with the design team to collaboratively identify a set of locations and potentially begin working on the project.

Find out if you qualify and how to apply HERE. Applications are due June 16.

Last week, Fayetteville City Council members accepted a generous grant from the Walton Family Foundation to connect the paved trail from Mission to the Razorback Greenway.

• $385,000: The amount that was provided by the Foundation with an aim to improve the "on-street bike corridor along Prospect Street, Park Avenue, Trenton Boulevard and Rebecca Street."
• The connection is expected to be finished in 2023. Upon completion, it will connect a 12-mile loop with more than 12,000 people living within one mile (or a 6-minute bike ride) of the central point of the route.

This will be a huge improvement, because biking on Mission to get to the Greenway currently is not for the faint of heart. You can read more about the project HERE.

Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest growing metro areas under one million people in the United States. So are we just growing aimlessly? Well, that's where Urban Land Institute NWA comes into play...

• What is ULI? ULI is a nonprofit created to help communities grow and transform optimally. The organization is comprised of a variety of professionals focused on municipal planning, real estate planning, and economic, social, and health planning to ensure that an area grows in a measured and calculated manner.
• ULI is focused on helping NWA grow smart and not just big for the sake of being big.

Wes Craiglow, NWA Coordinator, recently sat down with Randy Wilburn on I am Northwest Arkansas to discuss ULI's role in the changing landscape. You can listen to the full interview HERE.

Nurses Crushing Covid is a group of 200+ nurses and other medical professionals from Northwest Arkansas who have been tirelessly distributing and administering vaccines to the community.

• What started as an initiative by three local nurses to simply help, turned into a regional movement. Fayetteville Mayor Jordan proclaimed May 18, 2021, as “COVID-19 Vaccine Volunteer Day” in honor of this group.
• Quote: "The reward has been in the many thanks we’ve received from the volunteers and from those receiving the vaccines.”

The Nurses Crushing Covid group plans to continue distributing shots. You can read the full, encouraging story HERE.