Renton Sunset Neighborhood hosts resource fair
Published 7:55 am Tuesday, August 11, 2026
The Renton Sunset Neighborhood Association (RSNA) is hosting a resource fair for the people of Renton.
The RSNA was formed by Lora Ueland, now the president of the association, and the Sunset Community Church a year and a half ago as a way for people to connect.
“We knew that loneliness nationwide, but certainly in the Pacific Northwest, loneliness is a big, big issue,” Ueland said. “It’s an epidemic in this country that people are not connected with each other, that they’re not in a community. They don’t know their neighbors.”
RSNA community outreach coordinator Nicole Giusti said she had a hard time forming connections when she moved to the Renton Highlands as a full-time Registered Nurse clinic manager.
“These early years with young kids and no village nearby have been some of the hardest years of my life,”Giusti said. “I spent 3.5 years trying every group and event I could find, hoping something would come together, until I finally decided to build the community myself.”
Ueland said the association’s mission is to build community and “get back to front porch living where neighbors know neighbors.” The first thing RSNA did was have listening sessions and heard hear the neighborhood wanted community and traffic calming measures in the highlands, and they had concerns about crime and safety. Since then, the association has been meeting monthly.
“We had Renton Police come in and talk about crime and safety and traffic. We had the school district come in and talk about their school bonds that was last year. We just had time where neighbors could get to know each other.” Ueland said.”We held litter patrol pickups. We’ve done three of those and neighbors love that. I mean they were very excited to don on safety vests and get their garbage pickers and walk around and pick up garbage.”
The RSNA is hosting their biggest event to date, a community resource fair, on August 15 across from Sunset Community Church at 1032 Edmonds Ave. NE. Ueland said the goal of the event is to connect Renton residents with resources they may not know about.
“We reached out to a lot of nonprofits and city organizations and asked them to come to this fair,” Ueland said. “We have 23 participants lined up. Everyone from Renton Fire Department to Alcoholics Anonymous to five or so different departments of the City of Renton including the HR. They’re going to be talking about open jobs and how to apply for jobs.”
Other organizations planning to be in attendance include Vision House, Step by Step, Bloodworks Northwest and Renton Housing. The event is free and family-friendly. Dirty Dawgs will also be there serving hot dogs.
“We want to encourage people to join with us again for that community connection aspect and some of the future events that we’re hoping to do include things like a movie night or some kind of craft fair or barbecues, picnics,” Ueland said. “So we just are looking to build community in any way we can and get our name out there so that people know that there’s a resource for them.”
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, visit rentonsunsetna.com.
