What You Need to Know About Missouri Good Neighbor Week 2024



This is a running blog to keep track of some of the great activities happening in the state focused on neighboring as part of Missouri Good Neighbor Week (Sept. 28-Oct. 4).

MAKE YOUR OWN IMPACT

You should check out the website for Missouri Good Neighbor Week to report your own activity or make a nomination. In addition, this blog is a collection of interesting examples of efforts from around the state with updated reports about the week!

Plan and report your own event and be entered in our drawing for prizes. We will also showcase a few of the fantastic efforts across our state.

PROCLAMATIONS

Several Missouri cities have made their own proclamations about Missouri Good Neighbor Week. They all have something in common: encouraging their towns to participate in the week! The locations where the city council or Mayor has made a good neighbor proclamation to date include:



CITIES INVOLVED

The City of Butler created a great webpage to communicate about the big week with their residents.

The City of Sikeston planned its own Good Neighbor Week one week early due to the college homecoming being Sept. 28 - Oct. 4. Even though Good Neighbor Week in Sikeston happened a week early, it looks awesome! See the story and information here. And here is a blog that summarizes their programs and the result.

Wow! The City of Ferguson, Missouri, is planning a week of activities, events, clean-ups, and opportunities to engage with your neighbor. See the announcement for Ferguson here. Check out the page and give Ferguson some much deserved love!

The City of Excelsior Springs is encouraging residents to celebrate all week, hosting activities and promoting the idea of being an engaged neighbor. Here is an article from the local newspaper, and another. Laura Mize is doing a great job win Excelsior Springs.

This is the first year that the City of Lee's Summit has participated and they got some nice coverage from the local television station. See story here.

I received late word about the city of Webster Groves, which activated its own local good neighbor nomination process and recognized seven neighbors as part of some weekend activities in support of neighbors. Unfortunately, none of that got reported to Missouri Good Neighbor Week in time for the city competition, but if it had, Webster Grove would be getting recognized this year!

BLOCK PARTIES

The City of Springfield is challenging its residents to do 100 driveway or block parties during the week. There is a fun promotional video making the announcement and you can read more about that Mayor's Challenge in the Queen City in this blog post.

New Doling Park Neighborhood Association held its first block party during Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Television story here.

In Republic, one neighborhood planned a coffee gathering in the morning and a cookout at noon on Sept. 28. And then welcomed October with a pizza party on Oct. 1 that garnered a television story on KY3. (Go Stoney Creek Estates!)

In Springfield, Culture Fest kicked off the afternoon of Sept. 28 as a two-block party with new residents to Springfield on Historic C-Street and as a way to celebrate the rich diversity and heritage of southwest Missouri with a variety of vendors, performers, and local businesses. This event was from 10 am to 6 pm on September 28. Learn more online.

The folks in the Doling Park Neighborhood Association in Springfield held there first block party and KY3 did a nice story on the effort!

We have a blog about the importance of blog parties. If you are interested you can read it here.

SPECIAL EVENTS

David Burton hosted a movie screening at the public library in Republic on Saturday, Sept. 28 of the movie "Join or Die" at 12 noon and at 3 p.m. University of Missouri Extension purchased the screening rights to show this movie in a town that needs increased citizen participation and volunteering. Learn how to show the movie in your community here.

AWARDS AND MORE

Yes, awards are coming for the week but that will be announced elsewhere. We have already had 115 people nominated as the most engaged neighbor! What wonderful examples. They are so good we will have to share some.

NATIONAL EFFORT

There is also a growing effort around National Good Neighbor Day. Over 1700 people have downloaded idea packets from our national website. Over 500 have added a pin our map showing they did something to celebrate the day and there have been at least 20 media stories about the special holiday!

We got a shout-out from Citrus Heights, California this year too. That city started its own Good Neighbor Week, and modeled it after Missouri. Here is the story.

And Holland, Michigan, celebrated the day took. Our friend Jake Norris organized some events in the city and the Mayor issued a proclamation for the day!

Our Missouri celebration also got statewide attention from NextDoor, the social media company, whose leadership team worked with us to create a post that went out to every  NextDoor in Missouri on Sept. 27. You can access it here.


MORE INFORMATION

Are you interested in taking the Engaged Neighbor pledge? The pledge outlines five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge online at http://engagedneighbor.com. Individuals who take the pledge do get special privilides and get invited to future events online and in person. Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.

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