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March 20, 2019 Community News, fun stuff, holidays

Spring in Elmira!

Elmira’s Record-Setting Human Shamrock
(Courtesy 4kphotoflight)

Well, it’s official. Spring has sprung! Which means frosty mornings, thawing yards, pink sunrises, and muddy shoes. Oh, and the occasional snow storm. But let’s not talk about that.

As I look outside on this sunny day with an impossibly blue sky, I’m thinking about Spring in all those feel-good, I-read-this-on-a-magnet ways. Spring is new beginnings. A promise of all that is green and wonderful. It’s satisfying breezes reminding us that not only are warmer days yet to come, but that everything exists in a cycle. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Birth. Life. Death. Repeat. Right now, I can’t help but think about how Elmira fits into the cycle. I blame the blue sky.

Surely we have seen our Winter. Shops closed and businesses gone. Declining population. Vacant properties. Poverty. Crime. But now, I like to think that we are at our Spring. Budding businesses popping up downtown like little green shoots in flower beds. Think Downtown Grind and Turtle Leaf Café. New construction for the first time in decades. Look at the development at 100 West Water Street Apartments getting ready to open its doors. People moving here for opportunities like LECOM. Developers taking back long-dormant, vacant properties and turning them in to housing for all different income levels. Institutions and individuals collaboratively addressing poverty and crime. All of us working together as a community toward a better future.

As silly as it was impressive, the giant human shamrock coordinated by Elmira Downtown Development on St. Patrick’s Day was more than a new world record and fantastic PR event. It was proof–green and wonderful–of the unique spirit of this community. Our ability to come together. Bitingly cold, muddy, and with snow flurries dotting the sky, 1200 Elmirans donned thin green ponchos and formed that shamrock; hundreds more came to show their support. That’s crazy! And cool. And not something just any community would or could do. And THAT is Elmira.

I’m ready for Spring, are you?
March 13, 2019 Community News, fun stuff, holidays, winter fun

Who Wants to Help Set a World Record?

Let’s rephrase that … I mean, who DOESN’T want to help set a world record!

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that in our house, we spend a fair amount of time watching YouTube videos in which five bros utilize an exorbitant amount of money and energy breaking Guinness World Records on athletic feats. First of all, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. Second of all, what I’m about to describe is going to be way more fun than watching videos at home. Speaking of lucky, taking part in the revelry below may also bring you good luck.*

*This is not guaranteed.

Elmira Downtown Development (EDD) is organizing–in the most amazing way–an attempt to form the World’s Largest Human Shamrock this Sunday in Eldridge Park. EDD is hoping to attract 1,000 willing participants, wearing kelly green, for a photograph in the shape of a shamrock. What better way to kick off your St. Patrick’s Day? Seriously.

Facebook event link … see you there!