What an amazing block party South Silver Spring held on Sunday!

We estimate that over 1,500 people walked down Kennett Street to shop, eat delicacies from our local restaurants, listen to the wide range of musical bands and most importantly celebrate our strong community.

The day started out with the ceremonial planting of a pink dogwood tree in Acorn Park to symbolize our neighborhood’s growth. Joining David Fogel and I in the ceremony were Montgomery Councilwoman Valerie Ervin and Delegate Heather Mizeur, the South Silver Spring Merchant’s Association, the Silver Spring Historical Society and representatives from County Executive Ike Leggett’s office and the county’s parks services. Later in the day State Senator Jamie Raskin and Councilman Marc Elrich were also seen enjoying the event.

With all the enthusiasm and momentum we now have in our community, the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association will be holding a meeting in the middle of June to discuss what issues and projects we want to address next. We’ll be creating a social committee, a safety committee and also a redevelopment committee— but more about those later. Stay tuned for the meeting date.

If you walked by the SSSNA table at the block party, you may have noticed that the association is growing an official registry of members. A $10 annual membership (per household) will help pay for our www.southsilverspring.org website, subsidize future social activities and also pay for things that we as an organization choose (beautification projects, etc).You’ll be able to register at our next meeting, but if you don’t want to wait until then, send me an email.

Lastly, we all need to thank our neighbors who helped make this event possible. If you see any of these amazing South Silver Spring’ers in your building, please say “thank you.” The block party’s success is the direct result of their hard work over the last few months:

Eastern Village: David Fogel, Suzy Lane, Daniel Barash, Paul Mackie
Aurora: Jason Gedeik, Jimmy Obomsawin
Gramax: Henry Odenarian
Silverton: Dana Beam, John Murphy

I’m already looking forward to next year’s block party where our goal is to have more than 2,000 people attend. In the meantime, I invite you to work together with us in continuing to build a diverse, active and safe community to thrive in.

Thank you so much for your continued support!!

Your neighbor,

Evan Glass
President, South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association