South Clinton Goes Batty Update

We lucked out. October 25th was a windy, but warm autumn day. And our first ever “South Clinton Goes Batty” event was a big success.

OVERVIEW OF EVENTS

The event was organized by the South Clinton Avenue Merchants Association. It included a spook house for kids, a hayride, crafts, four movies at the Cinema Theatre, promotions at many of the stores on South Clinton, and free donuts and cider at Crossroads Coffee. Highland Planning’s role was to manage the event logistics. We hired a graphic designer to develop a logo and marketing materials, organized the promotions and activities, raised sponsorships, distributed advertising materials, managed the Facebook page, created the map of activities, and, of course, gathered all the scary decorations we could find.

The spook house was very scary. But not too scary.

My good pal Comet (on the left) from the Rochester Police Department Mounted Patrol came to hang out.

The Rochester Fire Department brought their safety trailer. That is my son, on the ladder, finally emerging from the second floor after 45 minutes.

The hayride was a big hit.
Everyone had a great time with the arts and crafts activities at MGOS Dance: painted pumpkins, pumpkin fist prints, thumb print spiders, and handprint puppet monsters.
OUTCOMES

Many of the South Clinton Avenue stores had promotions. Stuart’s Spices said they saw more foot traffic, which was definitely the point of the event.

The best part for me was that there were so many people out on the street.

Most of us ended up at the Cinema Theatre for the kids’ double feature. A few of us enjoyed dinner at the South Wedge Diner. There were also evening activities with music and drink specials at the Angry Goat and the Firehouse Saloon. The Cinema had an evening double feature for adults as well.

All in all, it was a great event. I am grateful to my colleagues Jen Topa and Anna Liisa Keller for their hard work on the event planning.

NEXT YEAR WILL BE BATTIER

It was our first year, and we organized all the details in six short weeks. We had representation from the South Wedge, Highland Park, Swillburg, the Neighborhood Service Center, the Rochester Police Department and the Rochester Fire Department. Our sponsors are listed in the posted below. The fact that it was successful shows that our district is a rich community of people who are excited to celebrate city living. And Halloween.

Related Posts