Chair and Host: Alix Giannetti
Minutes: Doreen Miller
Also in attendance: Katrina Martin, Heidi Moesinger
Park Clean-Ups
- April 5, Love Your Block Clean-up for Dorchester as organized by the City
- We encourage other areas outside of Savin Hill Park and Patten’s Cove to take part in this as coordinating many areas is overwhelming. Potential areas to clean include:
- Along the highway on Savin Hill Avenue. Dorothy Manning led this effort last year and was able to secure tool from Home Depot. She could coordinate it again this year.
- McConnell Park
- Ryan Playground
- The area just south of Beades Bridge on the beach/west side of Morrissey Boulevard
- Alix will ask Des to send out a notice to membership for this city event as the sign up to participate is Monday, March 3.
- We encourage other areas outside of Savin Hill Park and Patten’s Cove to take part in this as coordinating many areas is overwhelming. Potential areas to clean include:
- April 26, Savin Hill Park and Patten’s Cove
- We will coordinate with Bill Walczak and his son-in-law Kurt, both of whom coordinate with the Parks Department for tools and bags for Savin Hill Park.
- Alix will arrange with DCR for gloves and trash bags for the cove area.
- Doreen and Heidi are willing to hang flyers two weeks prior around April 11 and 12.
- Doreen has the water-resistant paper to use for the updated flyers.
- Alix is willing to print them out at the office.
- Easter is on April 20 this year, so we may possibly have flyers to hand out at the Easter Egg Hunt event, which typically occurs just before Easter.
Beautification Committee Plant and Bake Sale
- This usually takes place in May. We will recommend to the Beautification Committee that they hold it before Mothers’ Day, which is May 11 to increase sales, so either May 10 or the weekend before.
Dot Day Parade, Sunday, June 1
- We have had trouble in the past garnering interest in people taking part in the parade.
- We agreed we should at least have a table set up that we can man in shifts. We would like to see members such as other committee chairs and E-board officers be present to promote CSHCA and answer questions.
- Items we can include on the table are:
- CSHCA informational handouts
- T-shirts for sale
- Venmo QR code for donations and/or new memberships
- Water
- Candy
- Information about the Surfrider Beach Clean-up on June 7
- We will raise this at E-Board to get commitments for people to organize a crew and help man the table. Alix will email Bill about this.
Surfrider Beach and Boulevard Clean-up, June 7
- High tide is at 9:30 AM, so Katrina will suggest a time for clean-up between 10 AM – 1 PM.
- The locations will be the same as last year.
- Katrina can provide us with the flyer, which we can print out on water-resistant paper.
Art in the Park, Sunday, June 22, with a rain date of June 29
- Doreen has been in touch with:
- James Hobin, who said he would help organize this, but he may not be able to participate.
- Janet Lynch, who is excited to be part of it again this year.
- Doreen has left a message with Dot Art on their website link about participating in the event but has not yet heard back.
- Katrina gave Doreen two email addresses for Liz Carney, whom she believes has a connection with Dot Art.
- Doreen will email Liz to see if she is interested in helping out.
- Doreen believes James Hobin has a connection to someone in the Art Program at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club and will reach out to him again before attempting to contact the Art Program Director Katy Farrar, who is listed on their website.
The Community Picnic, August 23, with a rain location.
- Alix will contact Catherine O’Neil who promised to help us with the paperwork to secure Southline as an alternate indoor location in case of rain.
- We will look to get Sand Machine and The Savin Hillbillies for live music.
Other Upcoming Events:
- The Neighborhood Yard Sale and Book Swap, Saturday, September 6 with a rain date of September 13.
- Music in the Park, September 21 with a rain location and details TBD
- The Mothers’ Group Kid’s Halloween Parade in October
- Christmas Tree Lighting in Ryan Playground, generally the Saturday after Thanksgiving
- Caroling in December – to be limited to a small manageable group so we can walk around
- Historic Walking Tour of Pleasant Street to the Blake House – Heidi will look to arrange this with Earl Taylor, president of the Dorchester Historical Society.
New Idea for an Event: A Showcase of Local Businesses
- The arrival of a new business in the old Venice Pizza location got Alix thinking of how businesses make themselves known to the community.
- Alix has started creating a list of businesses in our area.
- We could work with E-Board members to organize a get-together of owners of local businesses to showcase their business to the community. Alix will reach out to Bill about this idea.
- Business owners could talk about the details of their business and let us know how we in turn can support them.
- This would strengthen CSHCA with more business involvement and support via merchant memberships and/or event sponsorships.
- Refreshments could be served.
- Depending on how many business owners are interested, we may need a fairly large venue.
Other Business
- Alix has been reaching out to newcomers to our neighborhood via Instagram and Facebook.