Since we moved to this neighborhood, almost three years ago, we have wanted to throw a block party. We wanted a way to meet our neighbors, grow a little community, and share some good food. Talking about it to some of my friends and family, it seems that there are many people who would like to do something like this, but just don't know where to start or how to get it organized. Last week, for Memorial Day, we finally did it. Maybe our experience can help you do the same.
I have no idea the "right way" to throw a block party, but I learned a few things that might come in handy for you.
1. Enlist a "partner in crime". Obviously, this can be your spouse, or an older child, but I found it very helpful to have someone outside my home, who also lives on the street, to help plan and prepare for the event. I have a neighbor who was absolutely sent from the Lord to be my friend on this block. Remember that post about sharing your lasagna? That's the day I met Malika, and our friendship has been in fast-forward ever since. It was great to have her, because then I had someone to help me pick a date. That's the next step.
2. Pick a date. Make fliers. Even though Memorial day was only about 10 days away when we picked it, we felt like it was the right time. Both of us have husbands in church ministry, so making the party on a non-weekend day was a big bonus. I designed the fliers, emailed them to Malika, and she emailed them to FedEx Office to be printed on pretty, glossy flier paper.
I used a pinterest board to help me design the invites. I plagiarized heavily from this one:
Source: theladybeard.tumblr.com via Anna on Pinterest
Here is mine:
You do not have to go overboard on this. I handwritten black-and-white copied flier would probably be just as effective. I used a free drawing program (open office) and some free download-able fonts I found on-line. We printed two to a page to save on printing.
3.Walk the fliers around as a family. I didn't know this was a good idea until we did it. Our two families went door to door inviting each household to our event. The fliers were just a bonus. We had no idea the impact this would make. I truly believe that it made a huge difference to how many people showed up on the day of the party. Some of our neighbors were so excited to meet us, that they walked us through their backyards (gorgeous!!), and one even took us in for a full tour of her home! This was wonderful, because when the day of the party came along, we felt like we already knew a few of the guests.
4.Use what you have. We planned our whole party around the huge blow-up water slide that my mother-in-law brought over to our house last summer. I remember looking at that giant thing (it takes up a lot of space, even when deflated) and thinking, Are you kidding me?! We have a tiny house and no storage space! What are we going to do with that? But the answer was clear this weekend: ministry. Other resources that we already had were tables, folding chairs, my neighbor's speaker system for music, and some streamers left over from Esther's birthday party. We wanted to be careful how much we spent, because there was no guarantee that ANYONE would show up at all.
5. Plan for food. There are 24 houses on our block. But that has nothing to do with how many people might show up for a party. Rule #1: Do not rely on RSVPs. No one does that. My shot-in-the-dark plan was for 64 people. That's because frozen burger patties come in boxes of 32. We bought:
2 boxes burger patties
8 bags buns
2 giant cans baked beans (1 was plenty)
5 bags chips
1 watermelon
5 boxes cookies
1 box flavor-ice popsicles
and also: american cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, onion, lettuce, tomato, 4 boxes canned soda, 1 pack bottled water, 2 kinds of salad dressing. AND plates, cups, cutlery, napkins, name tags, ice, and probably a couple other items I'm forgetting.
We also borrowed a couple of big drink dispensers and filled them with sweet tea and lemonade. It was really hot, and I wanted to be sure we had more cold drink options that we'd ever need. We ended up having 44 people, from 10 houses on our block. The amount of food was perfect, since some of the teenage boys went back for seconds and thirds!
6. Hope for the best. Knock on doors during the party if you have to. Have fun. Enjoy the people who are there, and don't worry about who didn't come until next time.
7. Get ideas from your neighbors about what to do next. We asked each household to fill out a simple form with basic information for an emergency contact list. At the bottom, we had them check some ideas for future events.
(Malika designed this one. It's great, isn't it!)
Through the info sheet, we found out that our next event will probably be a neighborhood yard sale, and that almost everyone is interested in a neighborhood Bible study! That was a bit of a pleasant surprise.
8. Just do it. Do not kill yourself planning or second-guessing. Jesus commanded that we love our neighbors, and this is a great way to start--in our actual neighborhoods, with people who are different, strange, lonely, nice or mean, beautiful or unlovely, and possibly life-long friends who "get you". Show them some love in a big way, and ask for nothing in return. That's how you share Jesus to your neighbors. BE Jesus to them. We did not do this perfectly, but that wasn't the point. Some things are important enough to do them imperfectly. And let God's perfection fill in the cracks.
Matt 25:35 "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;" --Jesus
”Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person." --Fred Rogers
