“Thanks Kate, Evan and your intrepid team. The picnic was well-organized, executed – delightful. The food was splendid, as were the cheery blossoms. You thought of everything, and your guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Bravo!”
Whew! What a wonderful message to receive the day after the community picnic, because planning an outdoor food event for an unknown number of people, diets, ages and weather is complicated. Our community is approximately 100+ homes, on a community water system that needs volunteers, with a population that is shifting to a younger population, so the idea of creating a community mingling opportunity on our grassy field was appealing. Ideas are the fun part, manifesting the idea takes planning and a community. First step was to spread the picnic plan verbally among different groups within the community, create enthusiasm. Next step was to talk to people within the community who have planned events, created an informal planning committee, and used their expertise for how to proceed – as in set a date, identify menu items, how to be inclusive of diets and ages, identify any challenges, and guesstimate how many people. We did have to change the picnic date because the porta-a-potty wasn’t available on the original date. Then we put up flyers at mail boxes, hydro poles and handed out flyers. Word of mouth messaging was people were excited, and would this be an annual event, before we even had the picnic! A community business offered to donate a bouncy castle for the children, what an awesome offer. A mother offered to set-up an art centre for the kids, what a great idea. A few days before the picnic neighbours asked if we’d organized tents for shade, no we had not, and the picnic day was going to be a scorcher. So with their connections we found 3 tents for shade. I’d organized for a neighbour who is vegan to make the plant-based salads but at 9pm night before picnic she called and had a family crisis, and couldn’t make the picnic salads. So at 7am picnic morning I went shopping and made 3 salads to serve estimated 80 people.
On the picnic day approximately 70 people came during the noon-4pm time on Saturday August 10th. We provided hamburgers, hot dogs, meat and plant-based, salads, cookies, dessert squares, juices, and lots of water. People shared their garden abundance of figs and plums. A family brought 11 bouquets of flowers for decorations, and near the picnic ending time people decided to name draw for each bouquet. I overheard a young child ask his mother, who did this (the picnic), she paused, and then said, “we did, all of us”. People came to me and said that in 30 years no one had ever done this, could this be an annual event. Thank you Neighbourhood Small Grants for the inspiration and financial support to make our picnic happen. What I learned: someone has to initiate a space for people coming together, but our human need and joy to be with each other is what brings life to a project. It took the enthusiasm, wisdom and generosity of a community to put together our community picnic.