West End Block Party Gives to Local Non-Profits

The New Britain West End Block Party Committee has announced that it is making donations of $800 to four local non-profit organizations from the proceeds of the 2017 New Britain West End Block Party, held on August 19th.

The West End Block Party is an event hosted in the historical, turn-of-the-century neighborhood for the benefit and fun of residents on Forest, Vine, Lincoln, Liberty, Murray, Adams, Woodbine streets and the surrounding area. The party has been a long-standing tradition in the neighborhood dating back to the 1980s.

Residents at the 2017 party enjoyed children’s games, a bike parade, a pet parade, a campfire, plentiful potluck food, a raffle of donated items, and a sampling of local foods from Avery’s Soda, Alvarium Beer Brewery, Martin Rosol and Bugnacki Kielbasa. It also featured a silent auction offering handcrafted items as well as a shirt signed and worn by actor Mario Lopez, who was in the neighborhood filming the movie, “A Very Merry Toy Store,” in August.

The non-profits benefiting from the donations from the New Britain West End Block Party Committee are:

• The Prudence Crandall Center
• New Britain Youth Theatre
• The Friendship Service Center
• The Lincoln School Green Team

Each will receive a donation of $200.

New Britain West End Block Party Committee members included Dave Coles, Eileen D’Agostino, Marianne Hebenstreit, Elizabeth Kourtidou, Tony Palmieri, Maria Paschoudi, Bobbie Renshaw, Molly Sherman, Margaret Wilson and Ewa Wolynska. Committee chair, Ms. Hebenstreit expressed her appreciation for the support from local businesses and Public Safety.

Other activities of the residents of the historic West End include:

• A Fall Soup Party.
• An Emergency Cookie effort, which involves residents preparing hundreds of homemade holiday cookies, packaging and distributing them to the four branches of the city’s first responders, Fire, Police, Dispatch and Ambulance Services.
• A Movable Feast Night, in which residents get a glimpse inside their neighbor’s homes, appreciating the historical architecture of the unique homes in the neighborhood.
• An ongoing Block Watch.

The historic West End neighborhood has been an active and organized neighborhood for years, and neighbors take pride in activities that help create a deep and uncommon sense of community in a neighborhood with many homes of historic significance to New Britain.

In the late 1990s the neighborhood came together to successfully place nearly 100 homes on the National Register of Historic Places, helping to further the preservation of this unique New Britain neighborhood.