OEVA thinks ahead, to upcoming events

Posted by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 1:09 am

Chil­dren col­lect candy at last year’s Safewalk.

Two things were on the agenda at last night’s meet­ing of the Old Engle­wood Vil­lage Association.

Elaine Miller and Dawn Kennedy wanted to stretch the hours of the annual Hal­loween Safe Walk by adding a cos­tume con­test before it starts. Janet Lan­dis wanted to dis­cuss the arrange­ments of the Win­ter Arts Fes­ti­val, which OEVA has taken over from the Engle­wood Rotary Club.

Miller, OEVA’s pres­i­dent, said the idea of mak­ing the Safe­walk longer was gen­er­ated by the suc­cess of last year’s event.

OEVA thought the fact that Hal­loween fell on a Sat­ur­day might be a problem.

“We really didn’t expect there’d be a good turnout last year and it was great,” Miller said.

Rather than dis­cour­ag­ing turnout, the Sat­ur­day Safe­walk encour­aged turnout, appar­ently because par­ents weren’t bring­ing their chil­dren after school or after work. Since Hal­loween is on Sun­day this year, Miller advo­cated extend­ing the hours. Kennedy, who is co-owner of Cafe de la Bay, wanted to have a cos­tume con­test for kids who come early.

The idea got a good recep­tion, until Lan­dis pointed out that there should be candy for the early-birds. She pre­dicted trou­ble if the kids showed up and had to wait for treats.

It was even­tu­ally decided that Kennedy would hold the con­test, and the hours would shift this year to 4 to 6 p.m. Usu­ally the Safe­walk starts at 5 p.m., but since it is a Sun­day there is no need to make an allowance for kids get­ting out of school.

Miller said there will be boxes in stores by Oct. 1, which will allow peo­ple to donate candy.

As for the arts fes­ti­val, Lan­dis said she and her hus­band have already been bankrolling the ini­tial orga­niz­ing activ­i­ties. She has mailed out appli­ca­tions to 690 artists.

“In order to make money you have to spend money,” she said. “So Don­ald and I are fund­ing that pre­lim­i­nary expense.”

She pointed out that she was respon­si­ble for bring­ing the fes­ti­val to West Dear­born Street years ago, so she has plenty of expe­ri­ence at mak­ing it work, and a data­base to draw upon.

Vis­i­tors stroll along West Dear­born Street at December’s Win­ter Fine Arts Festival.

The arts fes­ti­val will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Dec. 4–5. Lan­dis said there is space for 108 artists, who will be selected by a jury.

“Our goal is to get good artists,” she said. “When you get good fine artists peo­ple will come.”

There was talk of poten­tial ven­dors for the fes­ti­val — one of the 15 mem­bers present even sug­gested Chi­nese food. But noth­ing was decided.

Mem­bers each got a chance to speak as the meet­ing ended; most talked of upcom­ing events. Those included a Latin dance class start­ing Oct. 9 at Mango Bistro and, on Oct. 23 a 1-year anniver­sary rib­bon cut­ting at Cafe de la Bay.

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