2012-13 Grant: Broadening Our Base

Building upon the wonderful success of our Holiday and Harvest Walkabouts and Garden Tour, we continued to hold these events in 2012/2013 as part of our “Broadening Our Base” grant effort.

In addition to the above events, we hosted more frequent neighborhood association meetings to encourage further interaction between neighbors and the sharing of ideas. The grant helped cover many basic meeting expenses such as printed materials (at our local print shop), water (from our local Smart & Final), name tags / pens / markers (from our local Hallmark store), and creation of association meeting signs that were posted in the neighborhood.

As part of the Broadening Our Base initiative, we debuted a “CJ Olson Day” event to align with the larger annual C.J. Olson Cherry Festival at the end of May. Members rode bikes from the neighborhood over to the historic CJ Olson Sunnyvale Stand on 348 W. El Camino Real and joined up with the activities planned at the annual cherry festival. At the C.J. Olson Cherry Festival, neighbors learned about the history of orchards in Sunnyvale, participated in tours of the orchard and assembled for a picnic (with cherry-themed food). We hosted a bike decoration contest for children – complete with a cherry theme, of course, and created a bike route map that followed recommended bike routes through Sunnyvale neighborhoods. Fun cherry-themed prizes were awarded to the best-decorated bikes. The bike ride was named the “Fritz Stawitcke Memorial Ride” to honor our neighbor and dear friend, Fritz, who passed away suddenly on 12/3/2010.