Everything is a lead-up to the evening of June 21- the block party. It’s a modest attempt to break through this community of guarded neighbours.
Throughout the year, the primary funding resource is refundables. (It’s hard to convince neighbours to open their front door, let alone surrender their refundables for a community event. Plus, the competition is fierce here with a lot of retired ladies patrolling the back alleys for bottles and cans.) With that money, I try to buy items that would make good prizes for a raffle draw. One way of enticing people to attend this community event is to, but food is the biggest method of enticement.
Vancouver Coastal Health has strict guidelines for how food can be delivered and consumed because nobody wants to get sick. This grant is an excellent method of covering my biggest expense. There is no party without food.
In a few weeks leading up to June 21, I’m making and delivering flyers, and talking to neighbours. Word of mouth is slow, but it sure beats social media because it offers consistency and connection. I deliver flyers in a grid, from E. 23 Ave in the south to E. 29 Ave in the north, between Nootka and Rupert. This year, I ended up talking to a few neighbours in their yards, with the theme being: this neighbourhood is hard to engage.
I also enlisted the help of family: my mom and I chalked up a sign on a concrete wall at the corner of Nootka and E. 24 Ave. Yay for moms!
This year, I envisioned setting up canopies in the basketball court along Winderemere because it’s better to visualize from the sidewalk. Also, it would cut the costs of renting the field from Winderemere Secondary, which has been the traditional location for this party.
However, the weather was very hot. So I was basking in the shade, which is off the courts. Also, the person bringing the canopies was late. By the time the canopies arrived, neighbours started trickling in, congregating in the shade. And it was so pleasant in the shade … So, the block party unfolded on this walkway, which we made sure to keep clear should anybody need to make an emergency exit. Totally unplanned, just like the weather.
Neighbours brought a nonperishable donation to the Copley Orchard. They also brought their kids and their dogs. Two even through their musical instruments: a banjo and a guitar. These two musicians met at this event, and through small talk, it was divulged that they both knew how to jam. This is the epitome of any party: people connecting.
After the pizza, there was the raffling of the prizes, which two girls in the neighbourhood helped me with handing out tickets. People lingered after the pizza and had a freezie. Others lingered because their kids were playing soccer in the field.
There were about 50 people. Some I had never seen, some I met last year. Others had recently moved into the neighbourhood. One knew about Trouble, the notorious rat-eating neighbourhood cat.
Yes, absolutely, I am already starting to plan next year’s party. I now know I need to approach restaurants before applying for this grant.
It takes a lot of persistence, but slowly it’s turning into perseverance.
