There was an energy going around in our community, expressing the need for a community gathering/event that was small enough for our direct neighbours to interact with each other. I had a few other neighbours on my street vocalize their interest so I offered to organize if they were willing to support the effort. I started by contacting bouncy castle, magician, face painting and food vendors to secure a date. Our goal was to keep the kids busy so the adults could mingle and get to know each other better. The weather is always unknown but we were hopeful it wouldn’t rain, because bouncy castles are always a great hit with all ages! We got the word out with physical, hand delivered invites to 200 houses in our area as well as invites to students at our school. The invites encouraged everyone to bring friends and family as well. If the weather had been better that day, our turnout would have been double (we think) but with grey skies, we were still impressed with how many kids and their families turned out! The activities we offered were perfect! Everything except food was free so it was easy for neighbours to show up and bring their kids along and not feel pressured to spend money. The magician was hilarious. Adults and children alike were fully engaged and had a great time. Learning from this experience, it would be great to make the food aspect more available to everyone but we felt it was a choice to either entertain or feed people and in the end it was the right choice. Lots of smiles and great memories made.
