With its interesting and diverse neighborhoods, there’s just no place like the north side of Madison. On Saturday, Aug. 27, from 1 until 5 pm, the Mendota Back To School Block Party, with its live entertainment, games, activities and variety of food from some of the best food carts in Madison, will be the place to be.
“This will be a very important event for us … it will not only be kicking off our community school for Mendota but it’s also bringing our community together,” Mendota Elementary School Principal Carlettra Stanford tells Madison365. “We’re a very diverse community on the north side of Madison. We’re a community that really comes together when our children are in need. They’ve really shown that through the support of this event. Willy Street Co-op, for example, is brand-new to the north side and they jumped right in to ask how they can help out and be a part of this celebration.”
“This will be a family-friendly event and everybody from the north side will be there. The whole Mendota family will be there along with other community members,” adds Stacy Broach, Mendota Elementary’s community school coordinator. “It’s going to be a pretty big event. There will be lots of great food.”
Mendota Elementary School, 4002 School Rd., and Madison365 will be the hosts for this back-to-school block party. Plenty of the Mendota-area community will be at the event, but all of Madison is invited for the community BBQ that will feature music, dancing, a live DJ, a bounce house, family fun activities, and a dunk tank.
“We’re going to try and get some staff in that dunk tank,” Broach smiles. “We’re also going to have various culturally relative things. It will be a very welcoming and open event for everybody no matter if they’ve never participated with anything in the school or if they have participated a lot. We want everybody to feel welcome.”
There will be a live performance at the Mendota Back to School Block Party by the Handphibians, a Madison-based community percussion ensemble dedicated to promoting the music and cultural traditions of Brazil. There will also be performances by Ballet De Maria Diaz, X-clusive Movement, and Trend N. Food carts will be available from Taste of Africa, Uncle Jimmy’s, Mercardo Marimar, and Bahn Thai.
“It’s all about north side pride. We really wanted to have an event that would bring everybody together from the north side and the east side to celebrate Mendota [Elementary School] becoming a community school,” Broach says. “It’s a positive, family-friendly event and we just want to let the community know that we are here and that we want to be the hub of the community. We want to welcome everybody in and start looking forward to that first day of school.”
The block party will be a chance for the community to be heard and to talk about what they need. The event will be a true community resource with information available from agencies and non-profits.
“The day will be an opportunity for the community to come together in celebration but also a chance for us to listen to the community as far as what they want to see in the community schools,” Stanford says.
Mendota Elementary School (along with Leopold Elementary School) has been selected to become Community Schools for the 2016-17 school year, providing coordinated services and supports to students and families in the schools’ neighborhoods. Thanks to a grant from the Madison Community Foundation, the school district has been exploring the community schools model and gathering feedback from the community.
“We do really want to create a hub in the community with community schools and we want to welcome community partners and business organizations in and find a way to collaborate in a way that is beneficial to the families in the community,” Broach says. “We want to make sure that the people have a voice.”
A community school is a welcoming and inclusive place that builds on the assets of the community to help serve the identified needs of the students, families and community through well-integrated and coordinated, strategic partnerships.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the summer and held community school meetings. We’ve been doing a lot of talking about and looking at our assets as a school and then looking at those things that we want to bring in to service the families and the northside community,” Stanford adds. “It’s an exciting thing to bring to Mendota … to have this hub. We are looking forward to it.”
