A frequently used buzzword these days is sustainability, which refers to methods for perpetuating the lifespan of everything from plants to architecture.

Megawatt is a nonprofit organization that was established four years ago to bolster the sustainability of West Seattle. Although it helped the broader community, the group realized it cannot sustain itself. So Megawatt will close its office and cease to exist by the end of January.

The founder of Megawatt, Mary Ellen Cunningham, lauded the commitment and tenaciousness of the organization's volunteers and board of directors. But they didn't know enough about how to develop the organization.

"We needed more patience to build," she said. "We needed more experience in building an organization."

During its brief life, Megawatt initiated some new West Seattle events that proved to be popular enough that other local organizations want to keep them going. The Gathering of Neighbors, for example, enabled West Seattle neighborhood groups and other local nonprofits to set up booths and explain to the public what each group does for the community.

Megawatt also started the West Seattle Garage Sale. More than 100 individual garage and yard sales throughout West Seattle are held on the same Saturday. Participants paid Megawatt a small fee to cover advertising costs and the group then publicized where each yard sale was being held.

The annual garage sale has been successful enough that it might continue under the guidance of another organization, Cunningham said.

Some of Megawatt's other goals remain undone, such as a plan to match West Seattle volunteers with projects and organizations needing assistance.

One of the first things Megawatt did was sample West Seattleites' opinions about what might improve the community. They surveyed people at the weekly farmers market in the Junction and paid ran focus groups.

"People told us there was a need for one-stop shopping," Cunningham said.

Residents recommended setting up a simple, online clearinghouse to match West Seattle volunteers with West Seattle community-improvement projects needing their skills. Unfortunately Megawatt didn't have volunteers with enough technological know-how to get it up and running, she said.

Megawatt's "circuit board" was envisioned as a way to foster volunteerism for West Seattleites of all ages but it might have been particularly helpful for high school students, who are required to complete 60 hours of community service in addition to the academic requirements before graduation. Megawatt determined there are about 2,000 high school students living in West Seattle. However the schools don't have the staff to connect students with opportunities to volunteer, Cunningham said.

"We have a ton of nonprofit organizations that need energetic, smart and available volunteers," Cunningham said. "We hoped for more headway on that idea."

It's difficult to measure Megawatt's effectiveness or its impact on the community because much of its work involved abstract, intangible activities such as making human connections, said Stan Lock, director of the West Seattle Neighborhood Service Center. The group's Gathering of Neighbors event was increasingly popular and, with hundreds of people meeting and greeting, the assumption is that a lot of new connections among people were established. But it's impossible to measure.

Lock credited Megawatt with getting West Seattle's two district councils, Southwest and Delridge Neighborhoods district councils, to hold more joint meetings.

"Megawatt strengthened what we (he and Ron Angeles, coordinator of the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center) did," Lock said. "We felt they were valuable to the community."

Angeles was a fan of the community field trips Megawatt sponsored, during which people were invited to tour West Seattle institutions and landmarks. He thinks Megawatt made residents more knowledgeable about the community.

Megawatt moved into the new West Seattle Community Resource Center at 35th Avenue and Southwest Morgan Street when it opened last year. It will vacate the office in the coming weeks.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932-0300 or timstc@robinsonnews.com