The Leopold Neighborhood business and faith communities, along with faith-based nonprofit Selfless Ambition, will host the fourth annual Leopold Neighborhood Community Picnic at Aldo Leopold Park from noon until 3 pm on Saturday, July 28. Several hundred local residents attended on a beautiful, sunny day last summer.
The event will include food, a clothing drive giveaway, music, dancing, sporting activities, bounce houses, and more, said Scott Haumersen of Wegner CPAs, one of the event’s sponsors.
“IIt’s not people coming in from the outside trying to do things but neighborhood businesses and neighborhood churches working together,” Haumersen said. “That’s what a neighborhood picnic is all about.”
Other neighborhood-based businesses that sponsor the event with both financial resources as well as volunteers include Park Bank, Preferred Title, Foster Funeral Home and Graceworkz. Haumersen said it’s important for the people who work in the neighborhood to connect with those who live there, and the picnic is one way to make that connection.
“To our businesses, building relationships with the people in the neighborhood is very important,” Haumersen said. “The thing that I notice is that when my staff volunteer there, when they meet the people who live there, their perceptions of the neighborhood and the people who live there change dramatically. Will a backpack and a meal really make a big difference? Maybe, maybe not, but the relationships you build in the community really matter.”
Photos by Robert Chappell
