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Permalink Reply by Dan DeMarle on January 19, 2010 at 9:52pm

And thanks to everyone who participated in this years 19th Ward Luminary Evening. It was a successful event. I know I enjoyed visiting many of the Hot Chocolate stands and visiting with friends. Thanks to everyone who worked on getting this set up.

For those who missed it, we had some nice media coverage. Channel 13 has a nice piece.

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Dr-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Tri...

and the D&C had a nice article in today's paper.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100119/NEWS01/1190325...

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on January 19, 2010 at 10:19pm

Marlborough had good participation - one neighbor organized the street by distributing flyers to every house with information about the event and an offer to deliver luminaries to people who wanted them. Another neighbor donated supplies for those 'kits'. We hosted a hot chocolate, hot cider, hot dog, mac 'n cheese, chili and desserts front porch/outside meal - i cooked 50 or so hot dogs and neighbors helped contribute to the dessert selections! Many Marlborough people came by for food and drink and we also had neighbors from other nearby streets stop by - 2 teenage boys stayed until almost 8:30 and offered to help clean up! Several people in cars stopped to ask about the luminaries.

I personally spent a lot of time getting ready for this event and was both exhausted and FREEZING cold by the time the evening ended but it was time well spent and I think it contributes to the quality of life for people who live here. If nothing else, people left my house well fed!

The event could be improved if more people knew about it and decided that it's worth participating - getting information to people seems like a BIG part of the challenge.... the luminary signs are lovely but very difficult to read unless you really stop to do so - that's probably less likely to happen in the winter.

I don't know if area churches participate but it seems that they'd be a place to encourage participation.
As far as I know, Thurston Road merchants, except for Hunts, don't participate. My new next door neighbor has been a barber on Thurston for many years and this year is the first time he heard about it - and he participated by coming over to meet new people on Marlborough.

I have heard feedback from some neighbors that they choose to participate in other MLK events through their churches, schools, etc so i wonder if that's a barrier and/or if this event competes with others.

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Sullivan on January 20, 2010 at 7:37am

My husband put out luminaries as did many neighbors - building on more personal participation here on Woodbine near Brooks. We didn't have a hot chocolate stand due to illness this year but hope to resume that next year. Every year a little more. The media coverage on TV and paper was great - especially given they had so many MLK,jr. events to cover!

The spirit of Luminary Night is one of the reasons we remain in the 19th Ward and are "Urban by Choice".

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Permalink Reply by Christina Christman on January 21, 2010 at 5:00pm

I didn't know about this event until Monday when I read about it in the D&C in the events section. After I looked it up online I ran over to the hardware store to get my luminary kit. I rounded up and dragged my family out and we walked around the neighborhood. We didn't see too many people over our way but we did stop at one stand and we went to see the movie. We were the big group with the red wagon.

We all had a good time and will definitely participate again next year. I think if more people knew about it there would be more involvement. I must have seen the signs before but never stopped to read them.

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on January 21, 2010 at 9:20pm

Information sharing and flow seems like a chronic problem/challenge for our neighborhood - the Luminary event is really terrific but we need to find ways of getting the word out to people more consistently and effectively..... GLad to know that the notice in the D&C prompted you to get involved- red wagon and all!

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Permalink Reply by Dan DeMarle on January 21, 2010 at 10:55pm

Information sharing has been a huge problem. For the luminaries we had newsletter coverage, yahoo group, location 19, yard signs, City Newspaper coverage, and a couple notices over a few days in the D&C, and the fact that this was our fourth year.

Last year we had people going door to door passing out sample kits (but sample kits cost money and let along volunteer time). We also had a table for two days at Tops the weekend before the event (more volunteer time). We did not repeat either of those this year.

But there are always new ideas and ways to reach out.

But what suggestions do others have on ways to spread the word?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on January 21, 2010 at 10:55pm

Location19 is a good source for info sharing, as we know... and the publicity seemed very good on this particular event, Luminary Evening. One small step at a time! Word of mouth will help too as this event grows from year to year.

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Permalink Reply by Christina Christman on January 23, 2010 at 2:23am

I usually check the events section of the city of Rochester website, ynews calendar, kids out and about, the City newspaper, and the Insider for things to do. Also maybe giving other businesses in the area kits and flyers they would hang them up and promote the event.

I've invited a lot of people to this site and the facebook group since I found out about them. I can't believe I've lived here two years and didn't know about this. Maybe reaching out to different groups would work. We've been involved with the girls scouts and the Pee-wee football team here in the neighborhood and met very nice people.

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