Some pictures I took at teh 10th annivarsary of the College Park Day. Thanks everyone for joining.
Category: College Park Day Page 1 of 2
Last month, College Park Day just had it’s successful 6th year anniversary. We started the first College Park Day back in 2010 and we’re all excited to see the event getting bigger over the years.
A few of us were intimately involved in organizing the first College Park Day back in 2010. We were discussing the idea of starting a small project to preserve the history of the College Park Day. We all hope the event will still be around 100 years from now and even though none of us will be around here in the city, this piece will be helpful for our next generation in College Park.
The content below consists of a collection of emails, which we exchanged among us to start the event. Two City residents (Joe Smith, and me), two senior staff and two Council members were involved in starting the event. I want to thank everyone involved for their efforts in making the event possible.
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From: Fazlul Kabir
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 2:18 PM
To: Peggy Higgins
Subject: Multi Culturalism Event
Hi Peggy,
In the past family summit, I think we talked about having an annual multiculturalism event in College Park. I know other cities, including our neighboring Greenbelt city does that every year. The event would showcase the heritage of different cultures and ethnic foods, off course of different ethnic residents living in our city.
I wonder if you have plan for organizing such event. I’ve contacts with quite a few ethnic groups, such as Latinos, Asian, Middle Eastern and African etc. Please let me know if you’re interested in organizing such an event? We can probably work together on organizing such an event in the coming spring or summer.
Yours truly,
Fazlul Kabir
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From: Peggy Higgins
Date: Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
To: Fazlul Kabir
Hi Fazlul –
Thanks for your interest in getting people together. The City has, in the past, conducted multicultural events but they are through the Public Services department. Bob Ryan is the Director. I’m not sure what the status is of those activities but I do know they have done something to promote multiculturalism several years in a row.
Peggy Higgins
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From: Fazlul Kabir
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 4:08 PM
To: Patrick Wojahn; Bob Ryan
Cc: Joe Smith
Subject: Fwd: Multi Culturalism Event
Patrick and Bob,
I contacted Peggy on the multiculturalism event that we discussed on Joe’s blog last week. Let’s see if we can move things together on this. I can help.
Fazlul
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On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Joe Smith wrote:
Folks,
I’m happy to help in whatever way I can….
– JS (Joseph M. Smith)
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From: Bob Ryan
Date: Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:28 PM
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
To: Fazlul Kabir <faz.kabir@gmail.com>
Cc: Joe Smith, Patrick Wojahn, Peggy Higgins, Joe Nagro, Marrari
Hi Fazlul,
The City Recreation Board has sponsored an International Folk Festival a couple times in the past. It never quite drew a significant attendance. They have since used the fall event venue to sponsor a blues festival the past 2 years, with better attendance. It would be great to get a more diverse membership on the Recreation Board to help plan future events. There are currently vacancies for the City Council to appoint representatives from Districts 4,3, and 2 .
UM has ongoing multicultural events. Perhaps there are opportunities for the City to co-sponsor some of these and promote town/gown inclusiveness.
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On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Patrick Wojahn
Great! Thanks for everyone’s interest in doing this.
Bob – could you say what we’re doing now for multiculturalism events, and we can talk about when we would want to do something?
Maybe it would help for a group of us to meet sometime in the next few weeks to brainstorm what we could get together. What do people’s schedules look like between now and the holidays?
Patrick
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From: Fazlul Kabir
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 10:44 AM
To: Patrick Wojahn
Cc: Joe Smith; Bob Ryan
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
>> What do people’s schedules look like between now and the holidays?
So far, other than 8th, 9th and 10th this month I’m fine with any weekdays after 6:00pm. Thanks.
Fazlul
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From: Bob Ryan
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 11:13 AM
To: ‘Fazlul Kabir’; ‘Patrick Wojahn’
Cc: Joe Smith
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
I would prefer January if possible
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On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Joe Smith
I second that.
Joseph M. Smith
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 3:46 PM
To: Joe Smith
Cc: Bob Ryan; Fazlul Kabir
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
Folks,
I think now might be a good time to work on organizing this event. Would all you be interested in getting together some evening, say the first week in February, to work on organizing this? I could also see if Councilmember Nagle might be interested in helping.
Patrick
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On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Joe Smith wrote:
Sure.
Joseph M. Smith
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On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:47 PM, Fazlul Kabir wrote:
Thanks Patrick. Please let me know when we’re meeting.
Fazlul
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:48 PM
To: Fazlul Kabir
Cc: Joe Smith; Bob Ryan; Chris Nagle
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
Can we meet at 7 pm on Wed. the 3rd, at City Hall?
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On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Joe Smith wrote:
I’m in.
Joseph M. Smith
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 11:12 AM
To: Joe Smith
Cc: Fazlul Kabir; Bob Ryan; Chris Nagle
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
Neither Bob nor Peggy Higgins can come this Wednesday, so how would next Tuesday before the Council meeting look? At this point, we don’t have anything scheduled before the Council meeting, so how would 6:30 at City Hall on the 9th work for you all? Thanks.
Patrick
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On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Joe Smith wrote:
Where are we on this? Is this meeting still on?
– JS
Joseph M. Smith
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
To: “Joe Smith”
Cc: “Fazlul Kabir”, Bob Ryan, “Chris Nagle”, “Peggy Higgins”
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 3:01 PM
Peggy has asked that we postpone again due to the impending snow tomorrow. Given that the forecasters are predicting another 6-10 inches (will it ever end?) I think that’s a wise idea.
How would Wednesday the 17th work for folks? Could we meet at 7 pm at Davis Hall?
Patrick
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On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 8:11 PM, Christine Nagel wrote:
How about the Tues the 16th 6:30 @City Hall?
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On Tue Feb 9 0:35 , Patrick Wojahn sent:
I was hoping to support the College Park swimming pool that night and go to their chili dinner before the Council meeting. How about Friday the 19th at 6:30?
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On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 6:07 AM, Peggy Higgins wrote:
Darn. I’m not available Friday, Feb 19th in the evening. I’m part of the Lakeland Youth Coalition which is hosting a job readiness event for adults and teens that evening. If it works for others, I’d be willing to do Saturday afternoon, Feb 20th.
Peggy Higgins
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On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 7:37 AM, Patrick Wojahn wrote:
I think I’ll be able to do the 20th. I’m planning a trip this weekend that may be postponed until next weekend, depending on the weather. If everyone else is available, let’s set it for next weekend and we can postpone again if we need to.
Patrick
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
To: Peggy Higgins
Cc: “Christine Nagel”, “Joe Smith”, “Fazlul Kabir”, “Bob Ryan”
Date: Friday, February 12, 2010, 6:15 PM
Folks – I’m available on the 20th, if everyone else is.
Patrick
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On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 8:50 AM, Christine Nagel wrote:
Saturday is not my preference
Also think it would be better to have Bob there if his department is going to be involved. So it would make sense to wait till he can attend.
But if you go forth with next Sat I do not have any firm commitments that will prevent my attendance
I haven’t seen anything about time or place – I would hope the plan is to do it in North College Park. I have not been following the schedule this year- sometimes there are basketball games on Sat that would make a trip downtown pretty painful
Christine
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:33:09 -0500
To: Christine Nagel; Fazlul Kabir; Joe Smith
Cc: ; Bob Ryan
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
How would Monday, March 1 work for folks?
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From: Bob Ryan
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
To: “Patrick Wojahn”, “Christine Nagel”, “Fazlul Kabir” , “Joe Smith”
Cc: Peggy Higgins
Date: Monday, February 15, 2010, 12:08 PM
I think Peggy is taking staff lead on this. I will give her my input. I have Rec Bd on first Mondays
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On Mon Feb 15 15:01 , Christine Nagel sent:
Okay with me.
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On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 4:26 PM, Peggy Higgins wrote:
I have a call into Delegate Frush’s office. I believe that March 1st is their 21st Delegation Reception in Annapolis. If that is the case, then I already committed to attending that event.
Peggy
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
To: Peggy Higgins
Cc: “Fazlul Kabir”, “Joe Smith”, Bob Ryan, “Christine Nagel”
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 12:07 PM
Okay. How about the 4th?
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From: Christine Nagel
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:03 PM
To: Peggy Higgins; Patrick Wojahn
Cc: Fazlul Kabir; Joe Smith; Bob Ryan
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
4th is fine w me.
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From: Joe Smith
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
To: “Christine Nagel”, Peggy Higgins”, “Patrick Wojahn”
Cc: “‘Fazlul Kabir”, “Bob Ryan”
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 1:26 PM
Yup.
Although I’m tempted to say no just to see how long we can keep this going….
Joseph M. Smith
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From: Christine Nagel
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:51 PM
To: ‘Peggy Higgins’; ‘Patrick Wojahn’; Joe Smith
Cc: ‘Fazlul Kabir’; Bob Ryan
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
I don’t think we have heard from Peggy yet, so we may still go another round
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Peggy Higgins wrote:
I’m in. March 4th is fine with me. Who believes this?
Peggy
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:51 PM
To: Peggy Higgins
Cc: Christine Nagel; Joe Smith; Fazlul Kabir; Bob Ryan
Subject: Re: Multi Culturalism Event
Great!!! March 4th it is. Can we do 7 pm at Davis Hall? Peggy, can you check if it’s available? Thanks.
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From: Peggy Higgins
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 5:31 PM
Subject: RE: Multi Culturalism Event
To: Patrick Wojahn
Cc: Christine Nagel, Joe Smith, Fazlul Kabir, Bob Ryan
I just submitted a request to the City Clerk’s office for the room. They are pretty quick with a response and should get back to me tomorrow.
Peggy
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On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 7:51 AM, Peggy Higgins wrote:
Hi –
I have reserved Davis Hall at 7 pm on March 4th for the Multi-Cultural Event meeting.
See you there.
Peggy Higgins,
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From: Fazlul Kabir
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 10:05 PM
To: Peggy Higgins
Cc: Patrick Wojahn; Christine Nagel; Joe Smith; Bob Ryan
Subject: Multi Culturalism Event – Ideas
Hi All,
May be I’m too excited, or may be too ambitious; I spent some time thinking on the ideas of the events. I’m sure there could be more, and we may not decide everything what I’ve listed below. To the least, the list below will probably help us in getting started.
(1) Ethnic foods – Hmm, think about dishes from different parts of the world – Latinos, South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern and off course American.
(2) Dresses / Jewelries – Booths selling / showcasing dresses and jewelries from different parts of the world
(3) Poster: Our community is rich with many generations of residents. Many of these residents have old pictures of our neighborhood dating back 50 years or even earlier. How about having a display of posters with these pictures? This should show the evolution of our neighborhood and also will preserve its historical heritage. We can also include culture – related pictures from the recent immigrants / newer generation of residents.
(4) Book Sales / Display: The books in different languages from different countries – for sale and display.
(5) Essay Competition: Get local students involved in this. Challenge them with topics related to improving cultural bridges. Award them with prizes.
(6) Open Forum on multi-ethnic issues: Our neighborhood is changing. New generation of people are moving in and so is widening the gaps between the residents. Let’s have residents talk in an open forum on ideas on how to improve inter-ethnic relationships.
Yours,
Fazlul Kabir
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On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 12:31 PM, Joe Smith <SmithJ@safnet.org> wrote:
Boy, you are excited….
Joseph M. Smith
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Fazlul Kabir 3/3/10, 1:24 PM
Joe,
I thought you’re too.
Fazlul
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From: Patrick Wojahn
Date: Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 8:37 AM
Subject: CP Day
To: Fazlul Kabir, Joe Smith
Fazlul and Joe,
I was wondering if you two would be willing to work together to lead the College Park day efforts. I’ve been thinking that we need someone to steer this effort, and I figured you two – whose idea it originally was to get this going – would be best to head it up. It seems like we have a lot of volunteers who are interested in making this happen and helping out in any number of ways, but we just need one or two people to make sure that it moves forward and coordinate everyone’s efforts.
I appreciate your efforts and work in putting this forward. Let me know if you have any questions!
Patrick
College Park Day 2010
One more reminder, Today is College Park Day, 2012. Here are a top top reasons to attend today’s event
A GREAT AFTERNOON! Over 60 Community & Business Organizations! Come see all the cool things they have to offer!
Bill’s Backyard BBQ, Carmen and Salvador’s Fiesta Foods, Curbside Cupcakes and other vendors will be dishing out great lunchtime options! Come HUNGRY!
FIRETRUCKS, MOUNTED POLICE, and BOMB SQUAD! Plus a robot! Need we say more?
KIDS FUN ZONE! Giant inflatable castle and obstacle course, face painting, tattoo’s and other fun games!
BE PHILANTHROPIC! Make a get well card for sick kids, bring some canned goods for the hungry, see how you can help the organizations who help others!
FREE TENNIS INSTRUCTIONS! Courtesy of the Tennis Center at College Park, one of this year’s sponsors!
GREAT MOMENTS! Winners of the elementary school poster contest will be announced at 2pm! There will be a Grand Prize scholarship account sponsored by Capital One Bank. Come see the great posters that all the kids have made!
[Courtesy of Council member Wojahn]
College Park Day Poster Contest, 2012
The College Park Day organizing Committee is announcing this year’s College Park Day Poster Contest, titled: “The Unique Diversity of Our Community”.
Prizes will be awarded in two classifications Grades 1 – 3 and Grades 4 – 6. Winning student artists will be selected by officials from their school where their entries are submitted. Students going to school outside of the City of College Park or home school students will be selected by a special panel of officials.
Each school / City group will have 2 winning student artists that will receive prizes plus inclusion into the Grand Prize Finalist completion. Two Grand Prize winners will be selected from the field of entrants (one from Grades 1 – 3 and one from Grades 4 – 6) and will receive $125 towards a college scholarship.
The deadline for submission/entry into the College Park Day Poster Contest is Friday, October 5, 2012.
For more information, prizes, and rules please see the flyer (please click on the image).
One Community, One Vision
A few weeks ago, I took a class with a number of my colleagues on our Council and other council members in a few other cities and municipalities across the country. The class was organized by the International Town and Gown Association (ITGA), that mainly focuses its activities to improve relationship between the University and the long time residents in the city.
College Park, being the home of the University of Maryland, is not quite different from any other university town in the country. It has the same kind of challenges, such as noise, public safety, trash / litters and other code enforcement related issues that other college towns are facing.
At the end of the course, we were divided into groups and were assigned to work on real world project that they want to work on. Our group comprised of council members / officials from the City of College Park, Prince George’s County, the University of Maryland and the Prince George’s Property Owners’ Association (PGPOA). After several days of brainstorming and discussion we cam up a project that we named “One Community, One Vision”.
First, we identified the stakeholders in this project. The list is long:
- Long term residents
- Community Associations: Berwyn, North, Wood, Lakeland
- Businesses
- Non profits: MNCPPC
- Associations: PGPOA
- Local, County and State Government
- Public/Private Schools
- Faith Based Organizations
- Local Community Leaders
- Faculty/Staff
- Students on and Off Campus
We also planned to to form small focus groups in order to see input from larger communities from these larger groups.
We also identified programs and Activities to showcase this project. The include
- College Park Day
- Good Neighbor Day
- College Park 101 – A course we proposed new UMd students to take in the Spring Semester. This includes a brief history of College Park, Cultural and Recreational Sites, Services for the community
- Produce a few multimedia (videos) Here and here are two sample YouTube Videos:
We also planned to produce a brochure / pamphlet for the new students, titled “Practical Guide for Living Away from home”. This will include How to find information:
- Where to find the services:
- How to behave and be a member of the community:
- How to serve on the community
We also planned to have an annual survey among the parents, students, and residents.
The group intends to work on this project in the coming weeks and months. I will let you know as we make progress.
In the past two College Park Day events, I had the opportunity to organize a school poster contest involving the city’s 6 school students. The event turned out to be extremely successful with some 70 entries from the students.
A big part of that success is attributed to the principals and staff of our schools. They spent many hours guiding their students on the posters and going out extra miles in getting the information they need.
The title of this year’s poster contest was “My Home, My Community”. In our organizing committee, we wanted to excite our students about the city they call their home.
Just to give you an idea about how this contest helped to achieve that goal, here is an example of one poster, which was beautifully done by a student from Berwyn Christian School in north College Park. Here he presented what he likes and doesn’t like about the city. As can be seen in the image above , this young College Parker likes shopping in the City (IKEA) and thinks traffic is a big problem . It looks like he went out to different parts of the city and took pictures for his project.
A poster contest is a very small effort to instill a sense of attachment with our city. I’m sure there are many other joint activities that can be done to make them active citizens of our community.
At the end, we all want them to become successful in pursuing their careers, but at the same time, we also want them to contribute back to the community where they were raised.
College Park Day 2010
Today is the second College Park Day. Along with a bunch of volunteers, I hope to be at the College Park Community Center early in the morning. I will have to hang some 60 beautifully done school posters inside the walls of the center’s gym. I also plan to be at the reception / information booth in the afternoon.
Before this year’s College Park Day becomes history at the end of the day, here are a few things to remember. This is an event created to celebrate the city’s diverse populations, arts, culture, and history. And this is largely a volunteer effort aims to foster a greater sense of community among city residents and highlight the people, businesses, and community groups that call the city home.
The event will start from 1:00 and end at 5:00 p.m. (rain or shine) at the College Park Community Center, located at 5051 and 5101 Pierce Avenue in College Park.
Free parking and shuttle available at 5240 Paint Branch Parkway, the former location of the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant. Free shuttles also available at Stamp Student Union and the College Park Metro station.
In case you’re not convinced yet to attend the event, here are the top 10 reasons you may want to consider..
- Over 50 Community Organizations!!!!
- See 60 nicely done “My Home, My community” posters by our school children (grades 1 to 6)
- Local Food Vendors! Two food carts from DC will be there as well.
- PG County Police Bomb Squad Robot Demonstrations!
- Fun and entertainment for the families and, specially for the Kids!! There will be a moon bounce, an inflatable jungle gym, and more!
- Green Living Seminars!! Local orgs & businesses, will be on hand to help you and yours go green.
- A Climbing Wall! The Ntnl Guard is bringing a climbing wall—and some info on how it keeps us safe!
- Cupcakes! Come indulge your sweet tooth and try a cupcake from Curbside Cupcakes!
- The Maryland Flying Wizard Turtles will be giving Quidditch demonstrations!
- Air Force ROTC Drill Team, Making Moves Dance Collective, 93 Buick, and much more. See you on 10/22!
More info available at www.collegeparkday.org. Also please check this Patch article
See you all today!
College Park Day, 2010
It’s difficult to think that one year has passed since we had our first College Park Day.
I can still remember that day vividly – how we gathered at the College Park Community Center and started to setup the booths in the early morning. Joe (Smith) helped me in setting up some 70 posters, beautifully done by our school children, inside the community center’s gymnasium.
As the morning passed, things started to come in order – the food area, the central stage, games and kids activities area – everything was ready for the “real” action.
Then folks started to come in – young and old, residents and students, Whites, African American and Latinos, Christian, Jews Hindus and Muslims – you name them. It felt like a little College Park coming together to show its rich diversity and heritage.
What Joe (Smith) and I dreamed several months before last year’s event and a bunch of kind College Park officials later helped us in turning this into reality, we were all witnessing a history in making. It was truly an exciting moment for everyone present on that day, at that momentous event.
Since the first College park Day passed, the organizing committee had some good news to celebrate. The Mayor and Council gave us some money to hire our very own event coordinator, Denise Seifried. Denise has been a very big help in taking care of a lot of work that volunteers had been doing in the past year.
Like last year, a lot will be happening this year. And in fact many more are in store for you this year. Check our website http://CollegeParkDay.org to find more about the event and how to get there.
Not sure yet, if you should be going to this year’s College park Day? Remember you will have to wait one full year to have another chance – to have the opportunity to celebrate the day for the entire College Park.
See you all there tomorrow.