Tollefson Plaza is a very unsuccessful 'gathering place' that consistently lacks gatherers. Letters was one of five temporary public art interventions designed to activate the space during the summer. The project completely exceeded expectations and brought more people to Tollefson plaza throughout the summer than we have ever seen since the space's construction in 2005. We partnered with the Tacoma Art Museum's summer festival in order to capture an initial audience. James arranged for a shiny yellow dumptruck to arrive on site during the festival and dump 5 cubic yards of colorful hand cut and painted letters onto the plaza. The pile of letters, once dumped was descended upon by children and adults alike who climbed the mountain and grabbed letters. The public distributed the letters throughout the plaza making great use of the built in stairs to display words and sentences. Some people built tall sculptural towers out of E's and W's. The letters were kept outside for over a month and people were welcome to take them away, but plenty stayed on the site. The letters showed up in facebook posts, as coupon/ads for local restaurants, as marriage requests. It was very low-tech. It connected so completely to the public in an intuitive way that required no instructions and no policing. It had a life of its own that was embraced with an excitement and participation I had never experienced.