Lyndale All Stars have been super engaged in their neighborhood this summer, and their work came together last Thursday for a Pocket Park Extravaganza.
Lyndale has a neglected park space just half a block from our PillsburyFarm, and this year Youth Farm and the Lyndale Neighborhood Association decided to hold its annual Driveway Tour Puppet Show in the park. It became an opportunity for the All Stars to bring out their neighbors to clean up the park and build community. Before the event Farm Steward Shanna Woods facilitated her crew of Lyndale All Stars to plan a menu, cook up some chili, come up with roles for the park clean up, design a new sign for the park, and flyer the neighborhood for the event.
The event kicked off with picking up trash, taking out dead bushes, and painting a new sign. When the delicious All-Star-cooked chili and watermelons came out the neighborhood really started comingin. We had over 50 people come out to see Open Eye Theatre’s Driveway Tour put on “The Adventures of Juan Bobo.”
During the event community members were also welcome to bring in a unique object that represented themselves or their community. The objects are being photographed for the “Curosities of Lyndale” project. These photos will be compiled into a cabinet design and then installed onto electrical boxes into the neighborhood. Youth Farmers have been supporting the project through outreach, documentation, and hosting three events. At the Pocket Park Party All Stars were interviewing community members for the story of their object.