First Friday Art Walk:
This Friday, April 5th is April’s First Friday Art Walk in the Old Mill! Yes, the First Friday Art Walk festivities take place here too – smaller scale and truly focused on the galleries and maybe less on which shop has the best beer or cocktails – like downtown’s “Art Walk.”

Myself and some Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association (SCNA) committee members will be hanging out at Va Piano Vineyards’ tasting room from 6 – 8 pm to meet anyone who might be interested in finding out a little more about your neighborhood association, while you’re checking out Va Piano and the other shops in the Old Mill during the Art Walk (of course.)

We will be doing this sort of “pop up” meet-n-greet regularly and not just during First Friday. I hope to schedule these outings several days each month at the various business establishments located within our association boundaries. This may include a brewery, winery, coffee shop, bakery and other fun places to visit and hang out. My goal is to make the association more visible and accessible to its residents/members and at the same time find ways to support the businesses in SCNA’s boundary. Hopefully this will end up being beneficial to both the businesses and our members. And yes, I also do hope to grow our membership and volunteer base. HINT, HINT: – I’m in need of socially, outgoing type(s) who might like to be a SNCA host at a “pop-up” session near you 😉 !!

So if you are around this Friday night (weather looks promising in the evening) come check out the Art Walk in the Old Mill and stop in at Va Piano and say “Hi.”

Big Thank You:
A big shout out to the Pine Ridge Inn Hotel and Suites for letting us hold our March monthly board meeting there. Thanks to Todd Wisniewski (General Manager) and MaryAnne Leyen (Director of Sales and Marketing), the hospitality they provided was wonderful.

If any of you haven’t been there, you should make a point of it to at least stop by and check it out. MaryAnn showed us a a very lovely room (she said was a small one – although it seemed like a pretty good sized one to me.) There was quite a lot of space, a fireplace and all the amenities looked  high quality and brand new. They are also a dog friendly hotel! It’s a smaller boutique hotel overlooking the river so no large groups to deal with. Instead you’ll get more personal attention along with local craft beer, wine and/or coffees. Perfect for your own staycation if you want to be pampered for a night away from home without traveling far (something I’m thinking of treating myself to in the very near future.) AND I’ve been told they offer some “locals” specials too so whether its for yourself or out of town guests be sure to check out the Pine Ridge Inn. Certainly do it before checking out all the (many) other new ones that keep popping up in our association boundary.

AND SAVE THE DATE:

August 24th will be our SCNA annual picnic. Details to follow.

Until next time,

Rose Blackburn
Chair
Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association