College Park Meeting Monday, March 24th

Dear Friends and Neighbors, The College Park Neighborhood Association will hold it's quarterly meeting next Monday, March 24th at the First Congregational Church, 1415 North K Street. The meeting begins at 6:30 pm. Everyone is welcome. In addition to our regular report from PBSO on activity in the neighborhood, we will also be discussing the College Park entry in this years' 4th of July Raft Race. The theme for this year's race is "Art on the Water". Entries are asked to choose any well known artist or work of art to decorate their raft. This is a pretty big category with so many great ideas to choose from ... please bring your best ideas to the meeting and let's get started.

The raft we have used for the last two years is safely stored, stripped of decor and ready to be re-decorated for this year. However, no matter how we decorate it, we will never be able to fit more than 4 paddlers on the raft unless we build a bigger and hopefully faster one. The raft race is July 4th and our next meeting after this one is not until June 23rd, so we should make all these decisions at this meeting on Monday.

A reminder that there are some great events coming up - This weekend on Saturday, March 22nd, the Downtown Jewel Neighborhood Association hosts their 3rd Annual "Flolfing Tournament". Flolfing is a sport invented by the "Jewel" and it's a kind of cross between neighborhood home tour and mini putt putt golf. Players travel from home to home and try hard to make par on the 9 mini golf holes constructed on each one. Everyone ends up at the 10th hole for a great party and award ceremony where the Flolfing Green Jacket is awarded to the winner. As it happens (ahem) College Park is the defending champion this year having won the Tournament last year with the help of many and legally purchased mulligans. We hope to retain our Championship title this year without the help of mulligans using raw talent only and therefore we are putting out a call for College Park's most talented golfers to enter this tournament.

The fun begins this Saturday at Hole #1 located at 207 South M Street. Tee off time is from 11am until 2pm. A score sheet and map will be provided at the first hole. Tickets are $20 and all proceeds go to benefit the Downtown Jewel Neighborhood Association.

On Sunday, March 23rd, "A Celebration of Love" will be held on the steps of City Hall at 7 North Dixie Hwy to demonstrate support for equal rights for our LGBT friends and neighbors to legally marry in the State of Florida. The press release with all the details is right here.The Neighborhood Association Presidents' Council will be speaking in support of this effort at the event.

A reminder that PrideFest begins the following weekend, Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 3oth with music, vendors and loads of fun in Bryant Park from Noon until 6pm both days. The PrideFest Parade will be Sunday, March 30th starting at 11:30 am. The theme this year is "Fanta-Sea". Everyone is invited to march in the parade along with the Neighborhood Association Presidents' Council float. Line up to march in the parade will be on Lucerne Avenue around M Street (look for the NAPC float) starting around 10:30 or so. The parade will travel west on Lucerne to J Street then South on J Street to Lake Avenue and finally East on Lake Avenue to Bryant Park.

Hope to see you all this coming Monday at 6:30. Please feel free to share this information with friends and neighbors who may not be on our email distribution list.

Mary Lindsey, President
College Park Neighborhood Association