Wow!!! A HUGE Thank-You to all in the Old North Salisbury Neighborhood who came out to celebrate at our Fall Social Event yesterday!! We could not have had a more perfect day - blue skies, 68 degrees, golden sunshine, the foliage at City Park in all its crimson glory!! It was made - to - order!!
Our celebration started at about 2 o'clock yesterday - when our musicians began to appear and set up their stage, and volunteers started to arrive with their goodies! And did we ever have goodies! There was probably the Best-Ever Lasagna from Chef Santos by Goodfellas (Fisher St.), the Best-Ever Garlic Rolls from Cartucci's (Fisher St.), and the BEST-EVER Caesar Salad made with fresh spinach from Stelia's Restaurant & Martini Bar (N. Main St.). If you visit these fine restaurants downtown, be sure you tell them THANKS! How cool is it that our downtown merchants support the Old North Salisbury community!
Our celebration started at about 2 o'clock yesterday - when our musicians began to appear and set up their stage, and volunteers started to arrive with their goodies! And did we ever have goodies! There was probably the Best-Ever Lasagna from Chef Santos by Goodfellas (Fisher St.), the Best-Ever Garlic Rolls from Cartucci's (Fisher St.), and the BEST-EVER Caesar Salad made with fresh spinach from Stelia's Restaurant & Martini Bar (N. Main St.). If you visit these fine restaurants downtown, be sure you tell them THANKS! How cool is it that our downtown merchants support the Old North Salisbury community!
We also had grilled sausages from N. Main St., giant oatmeal cookies from Scales St, a complete coffee, tea, hot-chocolate, hot-cider service from the Klaus' on 14th St., fried chicked from 11th St., and too many more yummy things to count - brownies, snack-mix, chips, homem
ade dips, jugs of sweet tea and green tea - our tables were overflowing! This truly was a community event!. . . And the music! WOW! We are super grateful to Salisbury's finest original artists who came, set up, and played for us for 3 hours yesterday afternoon - as a donation to the neighborhood! Tripp Edwards and Alan Wyrick played their wonderful original music under the pavillion - these are Salisbury's home-grown artists destined
for greatness! Tripp and Alan are multi-talented artists -not only song writers, but each plays a multitude of instruments. Tripp and Alan switched off on lead and bass guitar, while Jimbo Martin offered his magical drum experience, Jim Charles entwined the tunes with steel guitar, and Ian (sorry Ian - we'll put your last name here when we get it!) tickled the ivories. Hey! It's not every neighborhood picnic that gets this kind of royal treatment from the local music meistros!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!! We'll have pictures posted soon! If you missed this wonderful opportunity to come out and celebrate - we will try to do this again in the Spring and perhaps again next Fall - twice annually. Over 400 flyers were distributed throughout the neighborhood. IF YOU DIDN'T GET ONE - LET US KNOW!! We want to know how to best make this work FOR YOU!!!
To offer feedback - you can comment on this entry below or send an email to the Old North Salisbury Association at
Thanks to all who came & supported! To all who didn't make it ~ We Missed You!! See you in the neighborhood!
Great to hear there was a great turn out!!! Sorry we could not make it. Did we have more members join? -- Thomas Schwalm 901 N Main
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas ~ We missed you! We handed out Membership Applications to a few folks, but this was intended to be more about having fun ~ and it was! We are planning on a membership drive in Jan-Feb. Got any ideas to get that off the ground? We are in the midst of planning a neighborhood meeting for that same time frame. Hopefully this will be another opportunity for folks to understand who the neighborhood association is, what we do, and to encourage participation. We'll see you soon, I hope. If there is any thing you would like to do to stay involved, please let us know!
ReplyDeleteHi Sue.
ReplyDeleteI was just doing some brain storming about how to improve the number of memberships.
I am a member, and I am because I enjoy being part of this change and emprovment.
When I mention membership to others in the area. They tend to ask me why bother or why should I pay 10 dollars.
The question is how do we motivate others to join? How can we inspire?
I believe communication is the key. Here are some of my suggestions.
1) more newsletter
2) your idea of featuring homes
3) neighborhood face to face, door to door communication for suggestions and concerns.
4) a discount on first year memberships for signing an "online guest book" on the blog.
5) I think that people want to know who is in charge, and who their officers are. (I think people who have lived here a long time and don't know that you are the leader of the association would be delighted to hear that.)
6) Neighborhood awareness of meetings
7) The neighbors that we have, have to start being pesty flies. The more the people hear from us, the more they will become interested in us.
Thomas Schwalm -901 N. Main St.
Thanks, Thomas! Your thoughts echo mine and those the Board has been considering. We had actually planned to send the newsletter at least quarterly. The problem, for now, is that we don't have an assocation secretary so these tasks all fall to one person, and sad but true, schedules are very full! Additionally, we printed and mailed the last one at a couple of Board members personal expense - mostly because these members are interested in achieving the outreach. Some more membership $$ would facilitate getting the word out more routinely.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to figure out a way to increase the awareness. We contacted the Salisbury Post mid-to-late summer to do an article and they refused!! Maybe it's time to try again.
The home-spotlight feature: Do you think people may want their names published, or just the cool things about their property? It may differ on a case-by-case basis.
One last idea we have been considering is to print lawn-style signs (now that all the political ones are almost gone!) that just say oldnorthsalisbury.blogspot.com - and nothing else. We thought that people might wonder what that was all about and tune in via the web. We thought about placing them strategicall at intersections within the neighborhood.
We are just about to organize a neighborhood meeting - not so much a social event this time - more of a communication avenue. I had hoped for January, but it looks like it will happen in February.
Want to help?? I know I would be ecstatic for the extra assistance!
Thanks, as always, for your input! It is most appreciated!
Sue McHugh
910 N Main St.
If I can figure out a way to get a guest book on the blog (blog formats are free however are more limited than a true web page) - I will get it done. That's an excellent idea!
ReplyDeleteWe did recently add a visitors entry (scroll down in the right panel) and a place to subscribe to updates to the blog (also in the right panel - near the eyeglasses). To use these, I believe you have to have a Google account, which is free but an extra bit of effort for some.
I'll work on it!
Thank you!!!
S.
I will be going on maternity leave mid-Jan. when Lori has the baby. I will be glad to help out. If you need me to fill in for the Sec. rule just let me know.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Thomas Schwalm
901 N. Main St.