It's the first summery day of 2022 at Riverfront Park, and the all-inclusive Providence Playscape playground rings with peals of children's gleeful laughter.
The biggest child contributing to this joyful clamor with bellowing chuckles happens to be the incredibly dapper grandfather who helped make the playground a reality — Massoud Emami.
As chair of the Campaign for Riverfront Park, Emami is the man who helps make improvements to Spokane's signature downtown park into a reality. It wasn't exactly the most straightforward path for him to arrive at this point, but he revels in his community responsibility.
A world away from the Pacific Northwest's own Rose City of Portland, Oregon, Emami grew up in the City of Roses — Shiraz, Iran — a place renowned for the natural beauty of its lush, flowering gardens. It undoubtedly infused a love for communal outdoor elegance into his core.
Family ties led him to the Spokane area in 1970. His older brother Mahmoud was attending graduate school at Gonzaga University (his younger brother Cyrous also graduated from GU), which lured him to study at Eastern Washington University. Eventually 10 or so family members migrated to the area.
"Spokane is so perfect for somebody coming out of a small town to another small town," says Emami. "Only thing different — everybody else left. I stayed."
After graduating, Emami worked at The Bon Marche department store for a decade before partnering with Gary Anderson to open the high-end men's clothing shop Anderson & Emami. The store became a fashionable downtown Spokane fixture, and Emami worked there for 35 years before deciding to retire five years ago (the store is now Anderson & Co.).
But Emami's journey to becoming a local fundraising titan wasn't one he fully expected. In fact, when he was approached to be a board member for Sacred Heart (now Providence) well over a decade ago, he was convinced they had picked the wrong guy.
"I told them, 'You want me as a board member? But I don't even take aspirin!' So one of the sisters, I never forget, they said, 'You know, there is a lot more than aspirin here. We have union, we have employees, we have building, mainly we have our image in the city that we would like to improve.'"
After a four-term, 12-year stint with Sacred Heart, which included fundraising for the Children's Hospital, some of the same peers asked Emami to join the Campaign for Riverfront Park team (along with his wife, Jacqueline, as the also very involved co-chair) and lend his skills to help finance six big projects at the park. To date, they've raised over $3 million.
So what makes Emami a fundraising superstar?
The obvious element that jumps out as we stroll around the park is Massoud's personality. He's effervescent. He cannot for one moment hide the enthusiasm, vigor and pride he has for the park and for the Spokane community. It's a charisma that could draw anyone in. When he's in the zone talking about his fundraising projects, it's easy to assume there's not a cynical molecule in his body.
"He is a wonderful, generous, very upbeat and always positive man," says Yvonne Trudeau, the executive director of the Spokane Parks Foundation, the nonprofit behind the private fundraising. "Very personable, and he seems to know everyone in town. He's a very well-connected man, and I think that's because people truly enjoy his company. He's someone who doesn't give up. He's very persistent in a very sort of low-key way. He never feels pushy by any means, but yet he's really able to help people see why they should be interested in this."
"It is his enthusiasm, his determination to get it done," echoes Carol Neupert, who co-chaired the playground committee and worked with Emami as part of the Sacred Heart Foundation in the 1990s. "He has phenomenal relationships and interpersonal skills. He just loves people, and people gravitate to him. And fundraising is all about relationships, so he just makes people feel like, No. 1, it's an important project; No. 2, they can participate and here's how. That's kind of Massoud in a nutshell. He's just one of those people that can make things happen."
Emami himself is a bit more demure about his general likability.
"Someone asked me, 'What is your job?'" Emami says, unable to stifle a laugh. "I said my job is to connect with others, and then connect others with others."
But Emami's approach is also drastically different from many in his line of work, even if it seems simple.
"I never asked somebody gave me money for fundraising," he says. "I always tell them, what I am doing and let them make their decision."
"You love something. And when you hear 'no,' you just get stronger," Emami continues. "People get more generous when you are telling them what you're doing. You're not asking them, 'Hey, give me $5. Give me $10.' And Spokane has a very generous people, and we have some good companies. This [park] project was at the heart of downtown. It's game-changing for all the people around there."
In addition to the children's playground, the core park projects also included an off-leash dog park and restoration of the flapping butterfly sculptures from Expo 74. The last of these projects holds a special place in Emami's heart as he worked as a student at Expo 74, which featured a significant Iranian presence.
"God, what an amazing time; how time changes," he says. "But, you know, memory's always right in your heart, it's not going anyplace."
"Fundraising is easy," Emami says, "the hardest part is to build the best there is. The second part is wisely spend every penny of it. It's not my money. It's the money that people give for certain projects. So make sure you wisely do that."
Providence Playscape, largely funded by Providence Health Care, is a perfect illustration of that idea. Through a connection with his daughter who lives in Southern California, Emami found the Los Angeles-based Inclusion Matters by Shane's Inspiration, which specializes in designing world-class playgrounds that kids with disabilities can utilize. As Neupert sincerely puts it, "[Massoud] definitely connects the dots."
The result is that Providence Playscape is truly a playground for everyone, boasting over 20 features including a we-go-round that's wheelchair accessible, a high-back swing set that kids can strap into, a roller tunnel, a sensory wall, musical chimes, a sandbox, spongy ground surfaces that are both comfortable and safe, and more. While Emami's grandkids have yet to play on it due to COVID (though they've been to the corollary in LA), he relishes a day he'll finally get to share it with them.
Going forward, Emani is primarily focused on raising funds to make the off-leash dog park a reality (he recently helped secure $250,000 from the Humane Society) and maintaining a cash base for future maintenance and repairs in Riverfront. Emami wants the wonder of the park to continue well after he's gone.
"The park is all about connections," Emami says. "You and I can walk here, not knowing a word about each other, and we have so much in common. It gives you the energy of the world."
