Place:  Pioneer Women’s Park

Location:  Las Cruces, New Mexico

Person interviewed: Carrie Hamblen, CEO/President, Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce

How this site benefits you and your community: Thanks to investments from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Pioneer Women’s Park is a vital community gathering place for Las Crucans. As one of the historic parks in our city, this beautiful place has been the site for school picnics, birthday parties, community celebrations, and neighborhood get-togethers. Through these and other events, this park has created many memories for our community, including my wife and me. For many years, I led a group of people to organize the annual PRIDE festival at this park, celebrating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. Holding the festival at Pioneer Women’s Park was very symbolic since it was spearheaded by prominent women who lived in the area who wanted a place for the community to gather.

Because of the many years I spent in this park, bringing together the LGBTQ community, my wife and I felt it was symbolic for us to have our wedding there, surrounded by 250 of our friends and family. It was incredibly emotional to be able to share that day with so many people. After our ceremony, one of our friends was asked by a bystander what had just happened and she said to this stranger, “Love Happened Here.” We are grateful that LWCF helped make this happen.