This is a sincere thank you to the nearly 200 neighbors who joined us on a very sunny day for this year’s Fall Festival! In addition to getting a healthy dose of Vitamin D, it was fun to see neighbors coming together and meeting for the first time, enjoying some great music, and playing games with their kids.
As a board, organizing events like EcoDay and Fall Festival are central to our mission of building community. Considering that nearly 50% more people attended this year’s festival, it’s clear to us that homeowners at Todd Creek Farms both love being left alone AND meeting neighbors and having fun together.
This was our second year in a row organizing a community-wide event (last year’s event had a Halloween theme). When organizing this year’s event, we first tapped into the helpful feedback from last year’s participants and then actively incorporated every piece of feedback we could. Please click here if you’d like to share your feedback with us.
We also wanted to be really intentional in planning this year’s event. Most importantly, we wanted this year’s Fall Festival to be kid-friendly, with more activities and games. Second, we wanted it to be accessible to our entire community. Third, we wanted to have more music, more food, and more time to connect with neighbors. And, we wanted to make sure we weren’t going to compete with a freak snowstorm (which is what happened last year).
I also wanted to share my three favorite experiences from Fall Festival. Together, I think they perfectly encapsulate why we organize events like this in the first place.
- Neighbors helping neighbors. As I mentioned, it was pretty hot when you weren’t in the shade. This was especially true for one of the bluegrass bands. Not only did someone lend them their stage tent for added shade, one of our neighbors offered to bring in a battery-powered mister and cooler. And to make it even better, another neighbor offered to help out by driving his golf cart to get the cooler. No one knew each other, but everyone came together to help out – and it was just lovely to see.
- Meeting new neighbors. More than a dozen new families have moved into Todd Creek Farms this year, and we loved being able to welcome them to our community face-to-face. Just as important, we spoke with a lot of homeowners who had never joined an in-person experience with the community before – and some of them have lived here for more than twenty years!
- Everyone LOVES elephant toothpaste!!! Creating games and activities for kids was one of our priorities, and I loved helping out at the STEM station. Some of the activities included helping kids make their own slime, a bubble pool, morse code bracelets, and elephant toothpaste! We had a steady stream of kids all day, and it was wonderful to see that we completely used up all our supplies.
This year’s event wasn’t just about the music, the food trucks, or the activities – though they were all fantastic! It was about creating a space where we can connect outside on our private open space and remind ourselves what a strong and vibrant community Todd Creek Farms is.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who attended and made this festival our best one yet! Here’s to continuing to build a community where every family feels connected, welcomed, and part of something bigger. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Wendi Setchfield is a member of the HOA Board and led the Planning Committee for this year’s Fall Festival.
