Thank you so much for the Neighbourhood Grant Funding. For my project, I hosted a community building “Back to School Block Party on September 14, 2025. My original idea, “Pupusas in the Park,” centered around one of my neighbours providing the food for the event from their pupusas truck. However, the neighbour was fortunate enough to find a permanent location for their business and could no longer move the truck to the event location.
Instead, I used the grant funding to purchase BBQ food, freezies, and drinks, and invited everyone in the neighbourhood to a Sunday lunch event from 11:00 am-2:00 pm. To advertise for the event, I created and printed multiple copies of a poster (see attached featured image) and went door to door inviting my neighbours to the event, taped copies of the poster to the mailboxes and streetlights, and posted the details of the event on the neighbourhood community Facebook page. I found door knocking and posting the event on Facebook was an effective way to find neighbours who were enthusiastic about helping to plan the event.
Lots of neighbours signed up to bring lawn games, and one family volunteered to help me with door knocking, which I found more time-consuming than expected. The event was well attended with an estimated 60 people. Most of the attendees were families with young kids. I led a scavenger hunt in the adjacent forested area and had a variety of kids’ activities, such as bracelet making and temporary tattoos. Some of the neighbours brought lawn games, like corn hole, and I encouraged the neighbours to get to know each other with block party bingo.
Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of my project. I created a budget based on the allocated grant funding, and it covered most of the food costs; however, I did end up spending some of my own money on printing posters and games from Staples. I really appreciated the opportunity to get to know my neighbours and was inspired by the number of people who shared their games and stayed late to clean up afterward.
