♥ My Neighborhood Week

♥ My Neighborhood Week

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RNeighbors is partnering with the Mayor’s Office and other community groups to organize a week to cultivate and celebrate neighborhood connections across the city with ♥ My Neighborhood Week. Make a difference in your neighborhood. Unleash your creativity, choose a way to celebrate your neighborhood, and contribute to the community’s vibrancy.

May 19-25, 2024

How You Can Celebrate

  • The “Ways to ♥ Your Neighborhood” flyer is being distributed across the community. You can also access the list below on the RNeighbors website. If you’d like flyers to distribute to your class, neighborhood, coworkers, or club, please email RNeighbors. 
  • Get inspired. Complete one of the actions on the list, or unleash your creativity and devise your own way of loving your neighborhood. Here are some tags the Oak Terrace neighborhood made you can print.
  • Capture your efforts in a photo and enter our photo contest to win fun prizes, including a grand prize of a popsicle party from La Michoacana Purépecaha for up to 100 of your neighbors. Your photo could even be featured on RNeighbors’ Facebook page and website, giving you a platform to inspire others.
  • Print a poster and post it at your work or favorite local coffee shop.
  • Kids can complete the “In My Neighborhood activity sheet,” which can printed from here.
  • Finally, watch this promo video for ♥ My Neighborhood Week, created by the John Marshall High School FCCLA team.

Ways to ♥ Your Neighborhood

  • Leave flowers, a coloring book, or a goodie bag on a neighbor’s doorstep with a note about paying it forward.
  • Ask a neighbor if they need assistance with yard work.
  • Leave a handwritten note for a neighbor wishing them well.
  • Play a musical instrument? Give a concert on the front lawn at an appropriate time.
  • Offer to walk your neighbor’s dog.
  • Set up a neighborhood-wide garage sale
  • Organize an annual neighborhood trash pick-up for Litter Bit Better, last week in April.
  • Say good morning to a neighbor- maybe a new person you have never met.
  • Plan game night or story time in the yard.
  • Organize a bike or costume parade.
  • Set up an outdoor selfie-taking spot for kids, pets, and grownups.
  • Plan a cooking contest with neighbors as the competitors and judges.
  • Outdoor movie night: Project a movie onto a garage or outdoor screen. RNeighbors has a Movie in a Box for reservation.
  • Take walks or bike rides with neighbors and sign up for Move with the Mayor.
  • Plan a neighborhood scavenger hunt.
  • Adopt a stormdrain in your neighborhood.
  • Host or enjoy donuts and coffee on the driveway, pancakes in the parking lot, or soup or dessert potluck in the garage.
  • Start a neighborhood lending library. Go to www.littlefreelibrary.org
  • Organize a neighborhood progressive dinner in which each home offers a different course.
  • Host a neighborhood book club.
  • Use sidewalk chalk to write an inspiring message or draw hopscotch on the sidewalk in front of your home.
  • Compliment a neighbor on a feature of their home, garden, or front door.
  • To get inspired, read a good book about placemaking. Try to find one at the Rochester Library! Try Jay Walljasper’s The Great Neighborhood Book.
  • Create a neighborhood contact list with emails and phone numbers.
  • Organize a neighborhood cornhole, basketball, or whiffle ball game.
  • Welcome new neighbors with a list of your favorite things in the neighborhood.
  • Visit the Olmsted County History Center to research your neighborhood. Share what you learned with neighbors and ask them to share their neighborhood stories.
  • Cheer on your neighborhood youth by attending their events.
  • Join your local neighborhood association. If you cannot help lead, find ways to support and thank them for their efforts.
  • Offer to teach a skill to local neighbors. Skills like baking, sewing, watercolor, or fixing a lawn mower are just a few ideas.
  • Support local businesses in your neighborhood.
  • Start a community garden.
  • Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series.
  • Play cards with neighbors.
  • Walk or bike to support a cause and invite neighbors.
  • Form an outdoor activity group.
  • Plan a walking tour of a historical area in the neighborhood.
  • Start a fix-it group: friends help each other clean, paint, garden, etc.
  • Say “thanks” to public servants: police, firefighters, government officials.
  • Gather a group to clean up the neighborhood and play a game afterward.
  • Log off and go to the nearest park.
  • Attend a public meeting.
  • Start a babysitting cooperative.
  • Start a carpool or a group of parents taking turns walking the children to school.
  • Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others’ self-worth.

Planning Committee

RNeighbors is partnering with the Mayor’s Office, members of the John Marshall and Century High School’s Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), UofM Nutrition educators, and neighborhood leaders on this first-year initiative.

Mayor Norton, a planning committee member, shared, “By uniting people and fostering this unique opportunity, we hope the effort contributes to a more vibrant and connected community.”

“We must ensure that in our neighborhoods, there are people who act with good intentions by treating others with kindness for the common good to create united communities where indifference does not predominate,” said Milena Nunez, planning committee member and UofM Nutrition Educator.

The John Marshall High School Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members have also served on the planning committee. When asked about their experience, they said, “Being a part of “I Love My Neighborhood Week” has been an eye-opening experience for how FCCLA can help impact our community. We cannot wait to see what the future holds!”

Logo Artist

The vibrant logo for the week is a collaboration with local artist Tierney Parker pictured above.

“The Doodles” is artwork from a local artist, Tierney Parker, aka “mixie madness,” who serves rich, layered, raw, deeply personal, and unapologetic work grounded in her experiences as a bi-racial bisexual woman navigating her individuality and struggles. Tierney strives to make art that opens up minds and hearts to a space for uncomfortable, necessary conversations. 

Inspirations

Ideas for this week of celebrating neighborhoods came from several different sources. We thank them for spurring our creativity and building community.

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