Walkway of the Stars

La Mesa Walkway of the Stars

The “Walkway of the Stars” is a pedestrian walkway that has been transformed into an urban park in downtown La Mesa. The vision for a place to recognize La Mesa’s extraordinary volunteers was provided by Councilmember Ruth Sterling. The park’s theme honors the city’s outstanding volunteers who have provided 10,000 or more hours of service to the City of La Mesa. “Walkway of the Stars” is located between the Allison Avenue municipal parking lot and La Mesa Boulevard. The walkway was renamed “Walkway of the Stars” in 2003 and features decorative stone stars with the names of volunteers who have achieved this high standard:

• The first honoree was volunteer extraordinaire Alice Larson. Alice’s bronze star graces the entrance to the walkway. When her star was dedicated on a June 2003 morning, Alice had contributed over 13,000 hours of volunteer service to the City. Her spirit of giving back to her community signifies what this walkway is about. In fact, Alice is still giving to the city by working at City Council meetings.
• The second ceremony in July 2006 honored two volunteers who worked in the Police Department. One was Anthony D. Guggenheimer who volunteered over 10,000 hours in the RSVP program. The second star was for Timothy S. Tarbuk for over 12,500 hours in the Police Reserve Program.

The second phase of the La Mesa “Walkway of the Stars” consisted of adding murals on the walls in the park walkway. Eight artists were selected to create murals. Since the theme of the “Walkway of the Stars” is honoring La Mesa’s tradition of volunteerism, the murals follow the same theme of “People Helping People.”