CTOP Christmas Party Photos

The annual Park Circle Christmas Party, hosted by the Cameron Terrace/Oak Park Civic Club, was a very joyous event. About a hundred of our friends and neighbors gathered to share food, fun and festivities.

After Mayor Summey said a few words and blessed the meal, Miriam Allen and her trio entertained us while we ate. The show was interrupted briefly to let Zabrina Robinson of the Carolina Youth Development Center talk to us about the families that we donated to for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Everyone seemed to have a good time eating and socializing with their neighbors. For a slideshow of the party, click here.

CTOP Christmas Party

Monday, December 14, 7pm-9pm at the Felix C. Davis Community Center

It's the annual neighborhood Christmas party!

Please join us for an evening of food, music, and socializing. This is a great way to get a jump start on getting involved in the neighborhood activities and to meet more of your neighbors... and we'd really like to get to know you better!

Also, if you know of someone who's not on the invite list, please don't hesitate to invite him or her! Everyone in Park Circle is invited.

{FOOD}
This is a potluck-style get together. Please bring a dish to share with your neighbors. Drinks will be provided.

{MUSIC}
Our musical guest this year is Miriam Allen. Miriam is a dancer/singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist whose influences come from having lived and traveled for years in South America and from having performed in Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, and Mexico. Want a preview of her music? Check out: http://www.miriamallen.com/
http://www.myspace.com/miriamallen

In addition to being a talented musician, Miriam is also active in the sustainability community. She writes a blog on sustainability issues that can be found at http://www.littlefishblog.com

Yard of the Month for November

Congratulations to Ms. Maria Carpenter. Her house at 5227 Parkside Drive was selected Yard of the Month for November.

October CTOP Meeting

Sorry for the less than flowing style in this month's post. In the future, I may post each item separately, writing a little more about each.

Code enforcement issued a ticket regarding a dead tree on Braddock Avenue.

As mentioned last month, Daniel Nadeau is heading up a committee to clean up right-of-ways in problem areas. It was stressed that our approach should be more neighborly, making people feel like we're helping them, rather than punitive. A few areas that were mentioned were the sidewalks on the back side of Hartford Circle and low-hanging trees on Parkside Drive.

Councilman King was asked about the Victoria Avenue Sidewalk Project. He told us that the project is scheduled to begin by the end of the year. For more info, click the previous link, or click here for a summary of the public meeting and comments.

Zone officer Cpl. Heather Walker from the North Charleston Police will be replacing S.P.E.E.D. Team Officer Malone at our meetings. Cpl. Walker is assigned the evening shift in the Central Bureau, which includes Park Circle. On nights that she cannot attend meetings, Cpl. Humphries will take her place. There were numerous complaints about speeding. so an officer ran radar, but no one was caught speeding. There were also a few recent auto break-ins in the neighborhood. Please see the police blotter at right for more information.

"Build Day" for the Kaboom playground in Palmetto Gardens Park is Thursday. November 5th from 6am to 2pm. The surrounding communities are encouraged to come out between 2pm and 5pm for the closing ceremonies to show their support for this effort. The Tuesday before is a prep day for the playground. All of the pieces will be unpacked and prepared for assembly. They are looking for volunteers who would be able to provide breakfast or lunch for volunteers on Tuesday. If interested, please contact Ben Leigh at 452-7610.

The CTOP Christmas party will be held Monday, December 14, at 7pm at the Felix C. Davis Community Center in Park Circle. We plan to have the St. Thomas Episcopal Church Choir and possibly raffles or door prizes. Please bring a covered dish and as always, the meat will be provided. Also, annual dues of $15 will be collected.

We need a committee to set up and decorate for the Christmas party. There were only three people doing this last year and it is agreed that there needs to be a few more people.

Last year the civic club provided Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to needy families in our community. Carolina Youth Development Center gave us recommendations and they will be doing the same this year. At our November meeting, Ben will have information on families that we will be providing holiday dinners for.

Yard of the Month for October

Congratulations to Mr. Smiley Corbin. His house at 5033 Poole Street was selected Yard of the Month for October.

September CTOP Meeting

Tommy Long from Code Enforcement spoke about their canvas of the Charleston Farms neighborhood. He estimates that they issued approximately 80 tickets. Bob King pointed out that even though the right-of-way in front of your house may begin at the sidewalk, you are responsible for maintaining the property all the way to the street, including edging the sidewalk. Daniel Nadeau is forming a committee to address the cleanup of the right-of-ways in our neighborhood. If interested in helping out, please contact Daniel at 912-695-4225 or daniel@danielnadeau.com.

Ben spoke about about a woman fleeing an abusive husband - her story follows: "Our nanny, Silvana, works closely with a small local church. They are trying to help a woman who has recently moved here from Myrtle Beach with her five children. Apparently, very sad story, she found out that her husband was sexually abusing her children, and so she left him in the middle of the night with no clothes or money. She is trying to get set up here, but she has nothing and no family in the area. They are currently living in a womans' shelter but will be moving into a small apt soon with help from the church. Silvana is trying to round up some items to get them started. Do any of you have any furniture, kitchen items, clothes, or anything that you don't need, maybe were planning to give away?"
Mother: Age 28, petite (size 8)
Girls: Ages 10, 8, 4, and 2
Boy: Age 6
Please contact Kate Besta if you are able to help with donations.

Bryan Cordell, Executive Director of the Sustainability Institute, spoke about the grant they received to build a neighborhood playground. "The Sustainability Institute, Noisette Foundation and City of North Charleston have been awarded a KaBoom Playground, valued at over $75,000, that will be installed in Palmetto Gardens Park this fall season directly behind the Institute's GreenHouse facility. This is a result of a partnership that we have built this year with the Home Depot Foundation.

"This playground will become a significant asset to our community. It will be a high-quality and cutting-edge, playground facility for physical activity for our families and their children living in the Park Circle area. In addition, it will become South Carolina's first, sustainably-designed playground (and one of the first in the country) that utilizes 100% low-impact, earth and people - friendly materials. We are very excited to bring this opportunity to our community.

"One of the special aspects of this project is that the playground facility is to be designed by the community -- everything from the materials to be used, to the specific pieces of equipment, to the educational "side projects" that are to be installed -- all to be designed by you and the children that will be playing on it. There is also an opportunity to build in equipment into the design that will support physical exercise for adults.

"Design Day" was held on September 10th. A mock-up of the design will be on display at the Sustainability Institute's temporary home on Storehouse Row for anyone who would like to see it. "Build Day" will be on November 10 and the community is encouraged to come show their support for this project.

Also, the Sustainability Institute will be working with Americorps to weatherize the homes of lower income residents. The Energy Conservation Corps program will train Americorps volunteers through Trident Tech's weatherization technician training and they will go out into the community to begin weatherizing neighborhood homes.

There is a neighborhood plant swap, Saturday, September 26 at 10am at the gazebo in Park Circle. For more information please click here.

Yard of the Month for June was John McCants at 5227 Braddock Avenue.
Yard of the Month for July was Sarah Gordon at 5044 Victoria Avenue.
Yard of the Month for August was Helena Russell at 5060 Poole Street.

Jewel Hayes won $9 in the 50-50, which she donated back to the club.

Yard of the Month for September

Congratulations to Bob and Jean King. Their house at 1408 Hartford Circle was selected Yard of the Month for September.

July Neighborhood Cleanup

About a dozen CTOP residents gathered near Filbin Creek on the morning of July 21 for a neighborhood cleanup. This event was organized by Hall West, an Americorps VISTA working for the Michaux Conservancy, a part of the Noisette Foundation. Through Palmetto Pride, she applied for and received a Community Pride Grant for two neighborhood cleanups – the other was in Chicora-Cherokee. Grant money was used to purchase everything from signs and koozies promoting the event, to gloves, trash bags, and safety vests used on the day of the cleanup.

Numerous bags of trash and recyclables were collected in the hour and a half volunteers worked and were taken away by the City of North Charleston trash collection and Charleston County Recycling. Some of the items retrieved were: tires, bags of yard waste, a door and a shopping cart. This was an inspiring event and it is something our community should continue to do to keep Attaway Street and Filbin Creek a neighborhood gateway to be proud of.