Friends and neighbors – here’s a sample of what we did together as a board and as a neighborhood in 2019

• Organized our annual BarrieFest, which took place on a picture-perfect Saturday Sept. 7. Bands played throughout the afternoon as approximately 500 neighbors visited our business fair and enjoyed the bounce houses and climbing wall. The Oak Park Fire Department stopped by, as well as representatives from the police department and Legacy Sports. Carnivore and Opportunity Knocks catering were busy throughout the day selling delicious sandwiches. It was a wonderful afternoon to visit with friends and meet neighbors!

• Informed our neighborhood about local events, communicating via Facebook, our email list and Twitter.

• Worked with our Neighborhood Resource Officer, Derrick Verge as he hosted monthly meetings at Barrie Center. Each month Officers Verge and Rumoro gather to discuss how to increase safety in South East Oak Park.

• Participated in the Art’s District’s What’s Blooming on Harrison fest in May, passing out some cool highlighters and spreading the message about our organization.

• Partnered with Park District of Oak Park to bring “Movies in the Park” to our neighborhood, with an evening showing of Paddington 2. This same event was shared with Washington Irving Elementary for their Back to School event.

• Monitored developments on the Eisenhower Transportation Corridor. There was no significant movement this year, but SEOPCO continues to stay in touch with this important issue, with the help of Citizens for Appropriate Transportation.

• Assisted local business It’s A Sign in their efforts to move from Madison Street to a new space on Roosevelt Road. 

• Publicized the first season of Oak Park Porchfest and contributed safety equipment for their excellent concert series.

• Initiated a collaborative partnership with Oak Park Friends School, who will have an ongoing presence on our board. We’re also making plans to hold an event at OP Friends in early 2020.

• Partnered with the Rotary Club of Oak Park and River Forest to make donuts for the Oak Park Farmer’s Market. It’s a fun morning and a great way to raise funds for Pilgrim Congregational and both of our organizations.

South East Oak Park Community Organization will be holding a forum for candidates running for the District 200 OPRF High School Board. The forum will be held on Wednesday, February 27 starting at 7:00pm at Irving School.

Six candidates are running for three open positions on the board. We’ve compiled some information from the candidates on their background and positions, available at this link:

http://www.seopco.org/wp-uploads/2019/02/D200-Candidate-packet.pdf

SEOPCO will be hosting three candidate forums prior to the 2019 Village election. We will host forums for District 200 OPRF High School, District 97 Elementary School and the Village Board of Trustees.

District 200: Wednesday February 27

Village Trustees: Tuesday March 19

District 97: Wednesday March 20

All forums will be held at Irving Elementary School, 1125 South Cuyler. Forums will also be streamed and archived on our Facebook page, @SEOPCO. The event will start at 7:00pm. All are invited to attend.

Neighbors,

Here’s a look at some of SEOPCO’s 2018 accomplishments.

 

• Organized our annual BarrieFest, which took place on September 8.  The Fest was held on Lombard due to wet conditions in the park. Bands played throughout the afternoon as approximately 400 neighbors visited our business fair and enjoyed the bounce houses and climbing wall. The Oak Park Fire Department stopped by, as well as the Oak Park Library’s Book Bike and Legacy Sports. Carnivore was busy throughout the day selling delicious sandwiches, and Happy Apple took care of delicious desserts. It was a wonderful afternoon to visit with friends and meet neighbors!
• Collaborated with the Plan Commission’s effort to propose plan design guidelines for existing homes and new development in Oak Park. In order to help the Commission understand local issues, a tour of the South East Oak Park neighborhood was arranged, with both positive and problematic examples of rehabs and new construction.
• Held a successful organization retreat on Saturday, April 14, with facilitator Gloria Cox at Community Bank’s south branch. During the session we identified gaps and opportunities to improve the impact of our activities and discussed organizational focus for the future.
• Informed our neighborhood about local events, communicating via Facebook, our email list and Twitter.
• Worked with our Neighborhood Resource Officer, Derrick Verge as he hosted monthly meetings at Barrie Center. Each month Officers Verge and Rumoro gather to discuss how to increase safety in South East Oak Park.
• Partnered with Culvers for an Election Day fundraiser to help raise money for the Irving PTO.
• Joined the Rotary to make donuts for the Oak Park Farmer’s Market. It’s a fun morning and a great way to raise funds for Pilgrim Lutheran and both of our organizations.
• Monitored developments on the Eisenhower Transportation Corridor. There was no significant movement this year, but SEOPCO continues to stay in touch with this important issue, with the help of Citizens for Appropriate Transportation.
• Held a successful fall membership campaign with contributions from about 30 neighbors.