And the winner is…

I know you are on the edge of your seat to find out who won the $100 gift card drawing at our neighborhood association annual meeting Thursday night.

But, before the great reveal, some thanks are definitely in order.

First and foremost – to everyone who braved the cold, the dark and the slush to attend – thank you. We had 41 members of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association come – 20 of whom had signed up as members before they arrived, and 21 who became members once they walked through the door. This easily satisfied our 25-member bylaw requirement – and it was fun and gratifying to see so many people turn out. Wish I had had time to chat with each and everyone one of you!

We now have a total of 112 members – nice even number – and I am thrilled that we reached and surpassed my personal goal of 100! Thanks very much to everyone who joined!

Many who attended the meeting paid their annual dues as well. I’m not sure how much $$ we received, but every bit helps and is much appreciated. Our new Treasurer, Morgan Montes, will report on the evening’s take at our next board meeting on Weds, March 13th.

The most truly surprising and wonderful thing of the evening, though, was the interest in serving on the board. We felt pretty good convincing four neighbors to join – in addition to Gerry who agreed to re-up for another term – but then Treacy asked if anyone else wanted to join the board, and five more people stepped up.

It was fun to watch. We clapped and cheered each time a new candidate was added to the slate. It felt a little like a graduation ceremony – without the whistles, cowbells and air horns.

We voted them all in in one big swoop, and now have 17 members on the board – and not all of them white-haired retirees like me. Good times indeed.

Thank you to our new members – Cicely Conway, Morgan Montes, Kevin Rutherford, Gordon White, Scott Freeman, Deirdre Clarke, Nora Hawkins, Kelley Dolan and Tim Davis – for agreeing to serve.

And, last but not least, many thanks to our volunteers who moved tables, set up and stacked chairs, brought drinks and baked goodies, signed people in and handed out raffle tickets. We couldn’t have done it without you.

And the winner of the drawing was Fred MacInnes! We plan to hold another drawing at our barbeque/picnic social in early Fall – more news to come on that!