Block Party Rocks!

Our 2009 Block Party was a wonderful success, thanks to the generous participation of so many amazing volunteers and contributors. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!

Click here to see a full size slide show

We've had a cool and rainy summer, but Saturday turned out to be the best day of the season so far. Our God is faithful! So many marvelous people were involved in making our day a success that it will be hard to list them, but I'll give it a try. Our setup crew arrived early and up went the tents! Then Mitzie Collins, Padraic, and Tom Bohrer set up their Punch and Judy show, Richard Stutzman hopped out of his car as Happy the Clown, Aya Kaufmann and crew got their balloon-filled face painting tent ready, and a fantastic circus atmosphere began to emerge. We closed off Arnett Blvd. between Warwick and Rugby, Tom Ellinwood fired up the Owens' grill, and a crowd began to gather that numbered in the hundreds by mid-afternoon. When Jeff Peden and Joe Showers opened up their Airplay Jugglers stage, we knew the show was on!

Special thanks go out to Rora, Eula, Nancy, and all the other faithful members of the Arnett Block Association whose tireless planning, preparation, and free food service made the whole event possible, to the City of Rochester for letting us block off Arnett Blvd. and RPD Sergeant Frank DiPrimo for coming with Operation Safe Child and signing up 65 kids (!), to rap artist and brother Cuevas Walker, and to Benjamin Vasquez and James Powell for their amazing break dancing and mouth percussion (see YouTube video below).

Overwhelming gratitude goes out to Community Bikes for their generosity in giving away 15 free bikes this year and fixing numerous other ones, to Willie Lightfoot for his lively performance as our Master of Ceremonies, to all our sponsoring merchants who provided us with so many generous donations and raffle prizes, to Sandi Clawson and Mindy Monk for running our Embracing Options/Grace Family Medicine booth, to Lisa McElroye for her free massage demonstrations, to Jeanne from the Arnett Branch Library for her kids' story time, to Richmond Futch for his open air painting workshop, to Rebecca Fadner and the French Quarter Cafe for hosting an open house at Risego, and to Marion Reed and the entire New Progressive COGIC Sacred Dance Team for the wonderful tribute they paid to our Lord by leading us in open worship before our God and Maker at the close of the afternoon.

Remarkably, everyone pitched in and helped, so even the cleanup was a breeze and by 5 pm you never would have known the event had happened. Already folks are making plans for "next year's Block Party." Want to help? Just give us a call! God bless you all!