Whether most east Ballard residents know it or not, the identity and future of their neighborhood is being shaped in a large part by two women whose disparate personalities and skill sets have fused together to create a formidable community-organizing team.

In the past two years, Dawn Hemminger and Shannon Dunn have worked together under the banner of the East Ballard Community Association to spearhead projects, such as installation of planter's on 14th Avenue Northwest this April, and events, such as last summer's East Ballard Walking Tour.

Hemminger, after her involvement with the 14th Avenue Visioning Project, took over the East Ballard Community Association's seat at the Ballard District Council. Set met Dunn in early summer 2008 and found they shared similar goals and desires.

They shared an important connection, Dunn said.

"We both want to live in a certain kind of world," she said.

Dunn said she is old-fashioned in that she wants to know her neighbors. Communities are safer and happier when neighbors know each other, she said.

"I'm in this because of people," she said. "If we could take the feeling I have walking over to a neighbor's house on a lovely Sunday evening and bottle it, we would be bazillionaires."

Hemminger said she originally started getting involved in the east Ballard community for a somewhat selfish reason. She said she was using it as an opportunity to get more comfortable being an extrovert.

"Everyone getting to know each other felt really good," she said. "It felt like I was part of something. I wanted more of that."

The two decided to try an experiment with the East Ballard Community Association. They would hold bimonthly events for a year as a sustainable way of building community and see where it went.

As the year went by, Hemminger and Dunn learned more about how they complimented each other as a team – summed up in the nicknames Digital Dawn and Shannalog.

Dunn said she is stuck in an analog world of snail mail and phone calls made from landlines. She said she couldn't get anywhere in the world of SDOTs, SPUs and electronic newsletters without Hemminger.

Hemminger runs the community association's Web sites and answers emails. She said Dunn was instrumental in getting her out of her shell and up in front of people.

Dunn, who describes herself as a person who is always selling, said Hemminger has become excellent giving presentations at meetings now; she still feels the fear but she does it anyway.

Hemminger is also a great manager of time and people, helping to bring out the best in them, Dunn said.

The year year of bimonthly events went well, and there was no doubt about keeping it going," Dunn said.

"When that year was up, it's not like we sat down and said, 'Should we keep doing this?'" she said.

The continuation of their involvement in the East Ballard Community Association has been rewarding for them both.

As neighborhood involvement in the association has grown during the past two years, Hemminger said she has been able to make connections with people who share similar ideas.

"If we don't get these big projects done, we still met a lot of great people," she said.

Dunn said the relationships formed through the association have been rewarding. It's been good to see neighborhood businesses and schools getting exciting about engaging in the community, she said.

Both Hemminger and Dunn pointed to the June East Ballard Walking Tour as the most rewarding and enjoyable event they have hosted.

It was a beautiful day and it seemed like a lot of the neighborhood got involved, either through attending, contributing free pizza or opening a lemonade stand on the tour route, they said.

In the future, Dunn said she would like to see more people get involved in the East Ballard Community Association, including professionals – graphic designers, architects, grant writers, project managers, engineers – whose expertise the association could use.

Hemminger said she envisions the association becoming more of a hub, using a core group of knowledgeable people to facilitate and empower neighbors to get to work on their own projects.

If there is one thing that is certain about the future of the East Ballard Community Association, it is that Dunn and Hemminger see themselves working together to get there.

"If Shannon left, I would hate that," Hemminger said. "It wouldn't be the same. I couldn't have built the community association like this without Shannon."

Hemminger said she is not sure if she would be interested in staying as involved without Dunn by her side.

Dunn said she would probably not be the lead on community association projects if Hemminger dropped out.

She said she lacks some of the necessary skills, but would also miss the companionship and knowing that someone always has her back.

The good news for the neighborhood is that hopefully they have built up the East Ballard Community Association in a way that it will survive without either of them, Hemminger said.

Besides, she and Dunn aren't planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

"It's part of our life," Hemminger said.