Block Party

Our town's community foundation gives a $200 grant to neighborhoods who want to hold a block party! This incentive made it easy to get a bunch of our neighbors on board to plan a party. It was fun meeting with the committee and making plans -- we had a few meetings in our house, and the committee members were awe-struck by our meeting-planning-and-running abilities (thanks, LDS Church upbringing!).

The party turned out to be a hit, with 50-60 people, clowns, balloons, and tons of food. My favorite part was how many neighbors I met that I had no idea even existed! Several young families were there that we didn't even know about. How do we live near these people and not even know them? It was also fun meeting the old-timers. Those who have lived on our street for 30 years said our neighborhood has never done anything like this. These are the people who seemed to enjoy the party the most, staying until the last table was put away. We had good feedback, and we plan to make our party an annual event! I'm a big fan of neighborhood bonding, so it really made me happy to see so many people making their first attempts at mingling and mixing. It was no "Celestial Circle" (the cul-de-sac where I grew up), but we'll get there someday. Baby steps . . .