Maya McFadden Photos
Hi neighbor! Covingtons meet Cramers at block party.
Major Ruth dusted off his speakers and sound system. Brian Wingate brought his grilling spatula. Michael Knight offered up his lawn for the bounce house. Ainissa Ramirez flowed all the electricity through extension cords from her home.
Each neighbor pitched in, one by one turning a community-building idea into a memorable “stone soup”-like block party in Beaver Hills.
A hundred Beaver Hills residents passed through the block party Saturday, held on Glen Road just off of Ella T Grasso Boulevard.
The inaugural gathering encouraged residents to get to know their immediate neighbors and meet others from different stretches of Beaver Hills.
Former WEB Chair Chris Peralta with daughter Olivia, 5.
The street was closed for the family-friendly celebration with local vendors, games, music, a pop-up vaccination clinic, and food.
Candice Dormon, who has lived in Beaver Hills for the past eight years, helped market the event by creating a video series called the “Beaver Hills Story Archive” that captured residents’ stories about why they moved to the neighborhood and what they enjoy about it. She also created several videos of the city’s “hidden gems” to introduce the vendors at the block party.
“We want to feel united and like a unified Beaver Hills,” Dormon said.
Organizers also put up flyers in the neighborhood and door-knocked leading up to the day of the event.
Dormon encouraged neighbors to support local organizations and small businesses that are “in our backyards.” During the event Dormon began putting together a business referral network of neighborhood entrepreneurs to later share with the Beaver Hills Community Facebook Group.
“Everybody does a little of something now more than ever. Why look for work beyond Beaver Hill?” she said. “Our neighbors are the plumbers, artists, authors, photographers, urban farmers we should lean on.”
While organizing the event, the team knew they wanted a bounce house. After learning they couldn’t put it on the street, they had to come up with another plan. Ramirez’s lawn is on a hill, so it couldn’t be put there. She reached out to her neighbor across the street, Mike Knight.
“I thought he would say no, because his lawn could be in a movie,” she said.
It turned out that “the guy with the best grass on the street has a soft spot for kids.” Knight agreed to have the bounce house on his property for the block party.
Donations for the event came from community members and the Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills (WEB) Management Team.
Osborn Avenue resident Art Greyser: Raising son in Beaver Hills to give him diverse perspectives.
The Saturday block party was the first of what the organizing team hopes to make into an annual event for the neighborhood.
“This is about public safety and building relationship in our community to be better and look out for each other,” said Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, one of the organizers of the event.
Bellevue Road resident James Cramer got to meet neighbors for the first time who have lived in the area for years as well as some other neighbors who moved in last week.
The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop giving bike tips Saturday.
The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop gave dozens of kids lessons on riding a bike for the first time and how to do so safely.
Eli Whitney Museum set up three craft tables for youth of all ages to make “singing frogs” which kids colored and used as wooden musical instruments; stackable wooden “balancing acrobats”; and spinning paper tops.
Esai Alverez, 12 gets vaccine at Saturday event.
Under a Covid vaccination tent, Griffin Health nurses gave Esai Alverez, 12, his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“I always wanted to get it done to help keep my family and community safe,” Alverez said.
Alverez, a student at Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS), said he enjoys how many kids live in Beaver Hills, enabling him and his younger brother to make friends and play outside often.
Once fully vaccinated, Alverez said, he looks forward to being able to travel more and feel more safe while playing sports like baseball.
Marc Ramirez demos new spice with neighbors.
Marc Ramirez, Anissa’s brother, is a chef who developed a spice, called Taste Budeez. He shared samples with his neighbors. The spice targets taste receptors in the tongue rather than the noses. He moved to Beaver Hills 15 years ago. He began making the spice about five years ago after reading a New York Times article about how taste receptors in our noses decrease as we age.
Marc walked Westville neighbor JoAnne Wilcox through the spice demo Saturday. While plugging her nose, Wilcox put a jolly rancher in her mouth. It gave her a faint taste of the candy. Then she unplugged her nose and the taste got stronger.
“Those nose receptors do a lot,” Marc said.
Before the block party Roydon Road resident Kim Stoner said she mostly only knew Beaver Hills neighbors who live on the east side of Ella T Grasso Boulevard. (Watch her Beaver Hills Story here.)
Bryttney Wingate.
Bryttney Wingate brought her 4‑year-old son Tre’mir to the Saturday event to help him to readjust to playing with kids his age after being limited in his social interactions during the past year because of the pandemic. Tre’mir has also been attending camp this summer to get reengaged. Tre’mir also got to spend the day listening to music, which he loves to sing along to with his mom.
Families played life-sized Connect Four, Beyblade Battles, and cornhole while taking breaks from eating grilled hot dogs and burgers.
Angela Covington moved to Beaver Hills seven years ago. Since then she has gotten involved with her neighbors mostly online. Saturday helped her to match some faces to the names she’s known for so long.
Covington previously lived on Sherman Avenue, which she said didn’t have much of a neighborhood feel. “Now my kids can safely get with their friends from the street and play,” she said.
Other vendors included People Get Ready, the New Haven Museum, City Climb Gym, and MakeHaven.
“This is what a village looks like. Having fun together and supporting each other,” said Dormon.
Awesome creative way to create neighborhood connections. A lot of people without masks, though. We need to continue to have community events but fully masked and with as many people vaccinated as is possible to prevent the spread of the new delta covid variant. I hope more communities come together to create neighborhood events to strengthen ties safely.