Co-chairs: Michelle Miller, Alix Giannetti
Minutes: Doreen Miller
In attendance: Heidi Moesinger, Celina Warot, Elizabeth Doyle
McConnell Park Grand Opening
- Liz of the Parks Department will join us at the May 31st meeting.
- The Parks Department will take the lead on this.
- Planning ideas for discussion include:
- Use of local musicians for music
- Family and kid-friendly activities such as face painting, balloon animals, bubbles, scavenger hunt
- Games for all ages such as races, tug of war, potato-sack races, carnival games
- Include DCR for teen and adult activities like kayaking
- Parade on the boardwalk with decorated bikes
- Nature activities, i.e. best practices to take care of the park and beach, and identification of local beach wildlife
- Food trucks and ice-cream trucks
- The official grand opening will most likely be at the end of summer or early fall.
Native American Event
- Reviewed and edited letter to be used to approach local merchants for donations. Focus should be non-food merchants such as liquor stores, Pooped Pooch, realtors, Connected Through Strength fitness studio, etc. Contact on the letter will be savinhillevents@gmail.com
- The letter should be on official CSHCA letterhead – Doreen will ask Mike if he has a template for this.
- Doreen will first contact Cedric Woods, Director of the Institute for New England Native American Studies at UMB, for information on potential sponsors and other options.
- Depending on the outcome of the first step, a second step would be to personally approach local merchants for sponsorship donations.
- Call the manager in advance to arrange to meet and get their email contact information.
- Meet with the owners or managers and follow-up with emails.
- Deadline for donations would be June 1, 2022.
- Date of the event: end of July
Food Tour
- Michelle has been in touch with Annie of Little Saigon Boston, Fields Corner, who is interested in coordinating this event.
- Michelle will create a flyer to share with us.
- They will talk to restaurant owners to determine interest and pick about 5 less-known restaurants for the tour.
- Timeline: July or August, in the afternoon when business tends to be slower.
- Ticket price would be about $50 per person. We will discuss ways to make this more affordable for lower income residents. Pre-sell tickets by a certain deadline.
- Work with each restaurant to give them the number of people and a budget to work with/amount per person. Decide on sampler dishes with each restaurant.
- Limit the number of people to a manageable size.
- Spend about 20 minutes at each restaurant. Food should be prepared and waiting for the tour guests. We estimate a 2- to 3-hour event that includes walking time.
Block Party
- Change the name to “Community Picnic” and work with DCR and The Beat to hold it at Patten’s Cove with porta-potties made available.
- People bring their own food and drink.
- Games and music will be provided.
- Suggestion: Make it theme based, i.e. Luau.
- Planned for August.
- Alix will contact DCR.
Friends of Patten’s Cove
- Beacon, who runs The Beat, is willing to start this new group.
- Information and meeting times forthcoming.
Savin Hill Park Tour
- The tour was rescheduled to Sunday, May 15, at 3 PM.
- The videographer will be available to cover the tour.
Neighborhood Yard Sale
- Saturday, Sept. 10, from 9 AM to 2 PM
- Heidi organizes this by flyering to request the addresses of interested participants at the beginning of August to prepare the maps.
- Heidi and Doreen will need help flyering the wide area to JFK station.
- Requests for participants.
- Advertising for the event.
- Taking down flyers at the conclusion.
Budget
- Keep track of expenses for each event to determine our annual budget for next year. Add tabs for events and estimated costs to the google document.
- Fund-raise at the events with a donation box or venmo information. List any sponsors on banners at events.
- Ask Des how funds raised for a particular committee and events are handled and accounted for.
- Work on the Merchant member document to update information, add owner names and contact info.
- Merchant Membership tiers are being considered by the Outreach and Engagement Committee (OEC).
New Events
- Plant Sale organized by the Beautification Committee – target date: early to mid-June
- Held at the Christo Rey entrance in the past.
- Typical budget is $1,000-2,000 to buy plants and sell at a small profit.
- Try to get plants donated by Home Depot or Lamberts.
- Elizabeth Doyle will plan a meeting of the Beautification Committee for May 18and invite members of the Events Committee.
- Dorchester Day Parade, June 5
- The OEC will set up a table with CSHCA information.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, May 31, 7 PM, in person at Doreen’s place, 253 Savin Hill Avenue.