I had spoken with Terry, one of our wonderful neighbors, about doing a block party. “Give me dates and I will make it happen.” she said. And she did, to the delight of the neighborhood! Everyone came out for food, crafts, s’mores and a kid friendly movie.
Here are some key planning steps and ideas from our event:
Close your Street
In our town you are required to get 50% of the people on the block to agree to close the street. A $30 permit and many signatures later Terry had collected the required amount. The City then drops off signs to close your street.
Check with you local city for requirements in your town.
Spread the Word
We used the social media site Nextdoor to invite our neighbors.
It’s important to remember that not everyone in the neighborohood is online.
Terry created a flyer and placed it in everyone’s mailbox. The Block Party invitations were also distributed to neighboring streets.
On the day of the event, reminders were placed in everyone’s mailbox on the block.
Food
Potluck is a great way to bring the community together. In our multicultural society the array of food can be fascinating and delicious. Our potluck table was overflowing!
We had neighbors roll out their BBQ’s and people brought their own meat to grill.
A fire pit was set up in a driveway for S’mores and of course, there was Popcorn!
The Movie
As our Block Party was in October we chose Wallace and Gromit – Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Be sure to keep it Family Friendly. Don’t forget that showing a movie in a public location requires a licence. We had a group of local small business owners, and neighbors, sponsor the licencing.
Our movie was sponsored by Terry (organizer extraordinaire and local Realtor), FunFlicks (that’s me) and GoWithSlim (a local Plexus natural weight loss ambassador). Have a table with info for these businesses.
Before the movie we had music and a slide show thanking the sponsors
Your local Police
We invited the local police to come talk about neighborhood safety. It’s great for the neighborhood to see local officers in a friendly environment. They even brought free swag for the kids. We had a table available for neighborhood safety information and exchange of phone numbers and email addresses. We even had a brief, unofficial visit from the major!
Kids played tag, we got to see our neighbors and made some new friends.
“Let’s do it next year!”
Sounds like a plan.
Paul the Outdoor Movie Guy
(If you truly want to be mobile)
