A Word from the President, 2024 in Review
It has gotten cold and the year is coming to an end. I would like to thank our amazing Executive Committee and neighborhood volunteers for all their efforts and highlight our impressive 2024 accomplishments:
- Created and delivered 4 issues of the paper newsletter with help from volunteer distributors.
- Created and distributed 18 e-messages and e-newsletters.
- Executed a very well run and fun neighborhood yard sale for the whole neighborhood!
- Ran three very successful neighborhood cleanups with 20 to 40 participants. We collected 3 dumpsters of trash.
- Successfully administered 2 major grants from the City and the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, which paid for many of the successes below.
- Created a new neighborhood logo with a volunteer sub-committee and the input of over 100 individuals!
- Designed and purchased new Emerson Heights house signs. (They’re for sale, by the way).
- Designed and purchased Emerson Heights t-shirts (also for sale).
- The grant that allowed us to buy t-shirts and house signs to sell, allows EHCO to keep 100% of the income these items will bring. This will significantly seed our future fund-raising activities!
- Purchased new 18×18 inch signs with the new logo to replace the old ones along the neighborhood border streets.
- Repaired the brick monuments around the edges of the neighborhood having hired a local mason.
- Replaced the sign at 10th and Dequincy. This sign describes the neighborhood’s history and listing on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was originally paid for entirely by community donations. After it was destroyed in 2023, grant money allowed us to replace it.
- Hosted a very successful Emerson Heights day with fun activities, notable guests and free food! It’s been too hot in August for the last couple of years, so the plan is to celebrate Emerson Heights Day in September next year.
- Continued efforts to reach more of our neighbors and encourage participation in the community are ongoing. The Facebook groups are administered by an executive committee member. The website is in construction by another executive officer, and the newsletter and the e-mail newsletter by another officer.
- Hosted a fun house decorating contest for Halloween and are doing another for the Holidays.
- Reaching out to new neighbors, our Welcoming Committee sent almost a dozen letters to new homeowners in the neighborhood.
- Held 10 regular community meetings attended by representatives of the Police, the Health Department, and this past year, the construction company doing the Michigan Street conversion.
- And we continued the Guest Speaker Series with representatives from 11 different organizations that provide services to our neighborhood.
Honestly, with other meetings and committee work, this is not all the organization and executive committee did this year. It is just all I space for in this newsletter. If you see one of the committee members around, please thank them for their efforts this year. Though they might be modest, I can assure you they will appreciate the thanks!
Joe Tucker, President