The evening of Friday, May 15th, the Altadena Arts Coalition's North Lake Avenue Open House brought people out in droves to have fun while re-discovering the delights of the area....and what a party it was! I'm so proud of the founding members of the AAC and their efforts in this endeavor - it just goes to show you what a little creativity and a lot of hard work can do. What's surprising is how well it went off with only a few short weeks of planning, due to the combined talents of Ben McGinty, Lance Anderson, Molly Tierney, Chef Jeff Kline, Ms. Dragon and all the other members who pitched in! Extra kudos to to Ms. Dragon, who spent many hours compiling names and addresses of the businesses involved and printing the maps that were handed out for the evening....all your hard work is genuinely appreciated.
Thanks are also in order for those whose contributions made the evening magical. All our Altadena/Pasadena Bloggers: Karen Bugge (AltadenaHiker), Susan Carrier (OpenMouthInsertFork, TheOrangeCat and CancerBanter), Petrea Burchard (PasadenaDailyPhoto), Tim Rutt (Altadenablog) and Bill Westphal (AltadenaWeatherCam)....all of you rock and thanks so much for lending us your expertise for the evening! Readers, you can find links to all these wonderful blogs below in my blogroll. Thanks to Steve Salinas of Altadena Hardware for fashioning and providing the brackets to hold the banners Scott made and also for rockin' the crowd with his band, The Dispositions....you guys were great! Thanks to Karen and Robert Myers of Karen's Hallmark for donating the balloons that marked each participating business - from New York to Altadena Drive, that was a lot of balloons, and we appreciate it. Special thanks also to Pierre Dupuy, who drove his Jitney up, down and around North Lake Avenue for hours, ferrying people to the different activities. Thanks to all the businesses who participated....this was the first of many events to come and they'll just get better with your help. And lastly, thanks to our Altadena residents....you are the ones who attended and made this an evening to remember....we appreciate it and hope you'll spread the good word about your local businesses!
Be sure to check out all our local blogs....there are pictures posted now and more to come, so don't miss out.
5 comments:
It really was fun. The jitney made it easy to get around and the balloons made it easy to tell which businesses were participating. Thanks to everyone, this was a blast.
Thanks, Petrea!
I've been told so many times since we took over the store that it was impossible to get people "up the hill". To that I say balderdash! Give 'em something to come up here for and they will come! I saw more people up here Friday night than I've ever seen before, and I lived in Altadena 12 years before moving away.
So my father-in-law asked me yesterday how much we made on Friday. How much we made, or how much any of the other merchants made, was not the point of the Open House. The point was to re-introduce North Lake shops, galleries and businesses to Altadena residents and residents of the surrounding areas. Judging by the turnout, I think all of us did a darn good job of doing that.
I found stores and other venues in Altadena that I hadn't known about before. I'll be back, and I bet others will, too. I'll bet I'm not the only one.
I'll bet you're not, P. I'm still hearing about that night.
K., I'm still hearing about it, too! I think that's great!
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