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I truly enjoyed getting to know my city better and the collaboration between the 3 of us (You,Sarah and <br /> 1) was great! I think we were able to play to each of our strengths. We couldn't have asked for a better <br /> day to hold the event and I was truly impressed on the set up and tear down efforts. What a great day! <br /> Volunteering <br /> I used several mechanisms to find volunteers to support the event; Sign up sheet at Bethel CDC,Arden <br /> HillBillies and Facebook social media options, email, word of mouth. <br /> There was a great deal of excitement at the beginning and we had 9 volunteers raise their hands. <br /> Once we laid out the commitment of meetings and the list of opportunities to support the event, one by <br /> one, life took over and the volunteers could not make the commitment to assist. <br /> In the end, it was myself, Sarah and Michelle that carried the work load. <br /> Although the community appears to enjoy the event,their ability to assist and support the planning of <br /> the event is simply limiting. Life is too busy! <br /> New Event Ideas <br /> Several new ideas were implemented this year including; photo booth, stamp card to draw people into <br /> the community booths,give aways provided by local businesses and community booths, demonstration <br /> area, D1/Karoke, Magician, Bethel band, and new food vendors <br /> I think this was an excellent blend of activities for all ages <br /> I had several of the community booths stop me and compliment us on the stamp card idea. They really <br /> felt like it made the day go by fast and allowed them an opportunity to engage with a number of <br /> residents. <br /> I think the demonstrations were more mixed. The runway show had a nice draw but the other demos <br /> were difficult to hear and had small number of interested individuals. Not sure if this is worth doing in <br /> the future. <br /> I wasn't able to visit the magician or D1 but I heard several people commenting about the magician and <br /> how great he was! <br /> I know that Michelle personally spent a ton of time trying to secure the food vendors this year. I would <br /> love to see us find a food truck that does some of the Fall favorites—roasted corn on the cob, kettle <br /> corn, etc. There is a huge food truck following now in downtown MPLS so I believe I might be able to <br /> assist us with this next year. Also would also like to try to secure a coffee/tea/smoothie vendor next <br /> year. <br /> Sponsorships and Community Involvement <br /> I spent several hours driving around and personally speaking with over 50 business to ask for their <br /> support this year-donation,gift cards, community booth, demonstration,volunteering. There seemed <br /> to be a great deal of interest in supporting the city this year. I hope this was reflective in the fundraising <br /> and give-aways collected. <br /> I also spent time driving around putting up posters at businesses and the businesses were very <br /> supportive. <br /> Overall, I thought the event planning and execution went very smoothly. I would have loved to get a <br /> volunteer group to help out but honestly, I couldn't have asked to be on a better team with Michelle <br /> and Sarah! Thanks for allowing the opportunity to participate and would love to help out again next <br /> year! <br /> Kimberly Tamble <br />