Most years in most places, July 4th is a day to celebrate, with flags and fireworks, bunting and barbeques. In Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood it's also become a day for remembering.

Remembering, specifically, Zina Linnik, a "quiet, shy" 12-year old, a teacher recalled, who was a "wave of calm in the middle of chaos." Her face, she remembers, lit up as she watched Beluga whales at the aquarium on what would be her last school field trip.

On July 4th, 2007, Zina was playing behind her house in Hilltop when she was abducted. Her body was found a few days later, a long way from home in a rural part of Pierce County. The murder shocked both the neighborhood and city where Zina had "lived, played and went to school."

Most especially it shocked her 5th-grade classmates at McCarver Elementary. "Zina's house was right by mine," classmate Matthew told The Tacoma Weekly. "That could have been me."

But fear did not paralyze her classmates and grief did not deter them from doing what they thought needed to be done - in memory of Zina restoring an underused, run-down park playground right next to their school as well as enhancing the playground at Wright Park, the two "bookends" of the Hilltop neighborhood.

They could "be a barrier so other people who think about hurting people in the community will just back off and go away," Matthew continued. "We've already been hit hard.",

And build it they did. The design work was done by students in a University of Washington landscape architecture program. But the ideas - a "spray ground" at Wright Park and a reading circle, a wading pool, a community garden, an aerial aquarium with sculpted Beluga whales and, of course, a memorial to Zina - came from McCarver students.

So did the campaign to raise the $3.5 million to build the project w. Funding came from the Greater Metro Parks Foundation, the City of Tacoma's general fund and CDBG program through the Central Neighborhood Council, the Tacoma Public Schools, Metro Parks Tacoma and, after McCarver students paid a visit to the capital in Olympia, the State Legislature. But it also came from the kids themselves who, said one, "saved our pennies."

Ground was broken in June 2010 and the work finished by November. "Fifteen or 20 years later," McCarver student Mack commented, "we will be able to go back and say, 'We built this. This is history. Nobody can tear it down.'"

It's a "story of great partnerships, of people helping kids to dream." said Deputy Mayor Lauren Walker who represents Hilltop. "And it's the kids that are leading the way. That's the most exciting part of this."

It's not the only way McCarver's students are "making history" or "leading the way." The Hilltop neighborhood is not one of Tacoma's most affluent. To the contrary, a lot of its families are hard-pressed to make ends meet, stay together or live long in one place.

Like schools in many low-income neighborhoods, McCarver has had very high turnover rate. "About one-third of the students stay for years," reported Kathleen Merryman in The News Tribune. Nonetheless, last year its turnover rate "was 120 percent, primarily because families became homeless." The result? "Kids can't build relationships with teachers. They lose their friends. They have no sense of being a valuable part of the school. Their grades suffer."

That's about to change. HUD's just okayed a Tacoma Housing Authority plan to work with Tacoma Public Schools to provide 50 rental vouchers to McCarver families, said Merryman, to "get them into safe and stable homes" so kids can stay in the same school for years. "We want our families to succeed, as parents, students and wage earners," Authority executive director Michael Mirra told her, and their time with the Authority to be "transformative."

It may be the first time the idea's been tried anywhere. And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation likes it, so much so it's given the Authority a three-year grant to run and evaluate the program. So does Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland who believes it;ll "provide a solid foundation to improve student performance and graduation rates."

"Sometimes government rules and regs can stand in the way of homegrown ideas," commented HUD Northwest Regional Administrator Mary McBride. "Not this time. Instead, we let a place and the people who live there - and not our program - decide what's best for where they live. HUD played a small part. But I'm proud that we could."

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