Past Events
Our Kick-Off “Meet Your Neighbors” Event
To: Witter Ranch Community Alliance
From: Keith Sharward
Date: Wed, August 06, 2008 1:10 pm
Subject: Our GREAT Kick-Off Event! A Brief Post Mortem
Hello all,
I just want to say a huge heart-felt thank you to all who participated in last night's event! We collected a lot of contact information from attendees -- one of the things I had hoped to do was count how many registrations we obtained, but alas, no time for that at the moment! I just know it was a lot! Some think we exceeded 200 people!
How about those ginormous jump castles, eh?! They were a huge hit with the kiddies! Many many thanks go to our very own Janice Brannon for doing the legwork on that, which included schmoozing the owner of Bounces Jumps & More for free services! Kelly and his staff did a fantastic job keeping all the kids safely entertained! And of course, I must also thank Margaret, the nice lady who lives in the house closest to the park whose electricity we were allowed to use for the castles! (For you geeks out there, there were three blowers and each one pulled about 7 amps of juice! It's a good thing we had appropriately sized extension cords!)
How great it was that Sacramento Fire Department Station 18 was able to make it and show off their new grass rig! What a great bunch of guys. They had a wonderful time -- thanks to all who showed their support to our heroes in uniform.
And speaking of uniforms -- both Captain Daniel Hahn and Community Service Officer (and Natomas crime prevention specialist) Kurt McCray of the Sacramento Police Department North Command were also on hand! I was so pleased that Capt. Hahn stayed for as long as he did, especially given the number of National Night Out events in his jurisdiction that he and his crew were rotating through.
And speaking of more uniforms -- Capt. Hahn was in good spirits, in spite of being placed in "the holding cell" by the Ben Ali Shrine Keystone Cops! What a pleasure it was to have them attend our event! Many thanks go to Pat Bell who was successful in schmoozing them.
And how about that awesome martial arts demonstration from Kovar's Satori Academy? Not one, but two, including the Red & Black Attack! What a terrific performance from two very talented age groups!
Those who chose to cook on the barbecues have Bel Air at Market West to thank for the donated charcoal, and Rob Correia to thank for managing the fire. Plus, thanks go to Round Table Pizza at Market West for their refreshing ice cold fruit punch, which they delivered to us at no charge!
Our association's co-founders (myself, Judah Grossman, Brandy Kollenborn, and Josh Ehlers) were all doing their parts too, along with others (Becky Correia and Janice Brannon), making the rounds, shaking hands, signing people up in our registration "so we can bug them later" book and giving them name badges. Joe Goss helped with garbage pick-up and Julio Villanueva stayed until the very end with last minute clean-up. (I'm sure I'm missing some folks, and if so, please know your efforts are appreciated as well.)
But most importantly, none of this could have or would have happened without all of you who attended. You are the reason we put this association together. You are what keep us motivated to continue in our efforts.
I'm sure we'll have more events, so if you missed this one, don't worry -- we'll catch you in the future.
We've got some terrific neighbors and we met a lot of them last night. That should give us all a lot of reasons to be proud of our community!
Keith Sharward
Co-founder, Witter Ranch Community Alliance
http://www.WitterRanchCommunity.org
Member, North Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team