The meeting served as an announcement for the fifth annual "Summer Evenings in the Park" event in Fall River, Massachusetts. The event, which originated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to foster community connection, is coordinated by Pat Norton from The Narrows. It features music, hot dogs, hamburgers, free ice cream, and bags of groceries for families, attracting an average of 250 people per event and nearly 10,000 over five years. Mayor Paul Coogan commended the event's success and the commitment of its sponsors. Bristol County Savings Bank, a five-year sponsor, was represented by Roger Cabrell, Joan Mader, Christine, and Genesis, who presented a check to The Narrows Center. Other key partners include the Greater Fall River Food Bank, Citizens for Citizens, Angels Anonymous, and Community Recreation. Patty Rigo of Viva Fall River spoke about the event's role in community building, and Tracy Barbosza, the new Executive Director of the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition (FRACC), announced that local artists would lead engaging art activities, funded by the city of Fall River and ARPA funds.
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First of all, thanks for everybody for coming out on this wonderfully hot uh summer afternoon. It's a Wednesday and I can tell you we got lucky when I I'll just give you a brief history. This is the fifth year of uh summer evenings in the park. And this first started coming out of 2020, which is a co year. I happen to bump into Paul uh at a bakery, a wonderful bakery in Fall River, as
0:27there are many wonderful bakeries in Fall River. and he was looking to do something to help these neighborhoods out and trying to connect people a little bit more because you know during co people stayed in their houses and we have found that this summer summer evenings in the park event which is again is in its fifth year has really accomplished that. It's really an event where so many people in the
0:47neighborhood multithnic multilingual black, brown, white, you name it. People come from all over the neighborhoods to get together to enjoy great music, great art, and great food. And it really takes a village to put these uh events on. And I don't mean to sound, you know, that's a hokey line. We've heard it a million times. But Bristol County Savings Bank has been with us uh since our first
1:11year. This is their fifth year sponsoring the event and these events cost money. Again, every I just want to go over what happens. So, we we got music, we have hot dogs and hamburgers, we have free ice cream for the for the kids and the adults. Um, and every family or mostly every family goes home with a bag of groceries. So, it's kind of a holistic event. And the people who
1:32provide the groceries, I want to make sure I credit them. The greater for food bank has been an amazing partner.
1:37Citizens for Citizens has been an amazing partner. Angels Anonymous and everything is done in a very I want to say tasteful way. I think people really enjoy this. They bring their families and all these events. I think my numbers tell me that we're averaging about 250 people event. So I think we've had about almost 10,000 people have come to these events over the last five years. Again,
2:00not a not a lot of advertising. It's a word of mouth kind of thing. And I really think it's something that's been great for Fall River. And uh I want to turn it over to Mayor Paul Coogan.
2:12Yeah.
2:14Okay. Uh, first of all, I too have to thank Bristol County Savings. They're a great partner with us. They're they step up on every event we do. And it's because they have a great staff that doesn't just push paper around. They care about the community and they do things like this summer in the park. And when we have their breakfast every year and they announce their uh commitment to communities all across uh Bristol
2:36County, it is truly truly something special to see. But with that, I want to also acknowledge Pat Norton who does kind of coordinate these summer evenings in the park along with recreation and and the city of Fall River. When you come, if you get an opportunity to go to one of our parks and the the 4x8 signs will be up all over the city. You'll see kids doing spray painting for the first
2:59time while they're eating a hamburger, while they're um sitting there with a bag of groceries to go home. It is truly truly something special to see. And it's a constant flow of people in and out.
3:10You know, if you want to come, come by for a half hour, come by for an hour, come by for two hours, but there's a flow of people that pass through these events. not only to see what's going on, but to spend time with the kids from the city of Fall River and their parents and see what it's like in these different smaller pocket parks in many cases like Griffin or Lafayette. We bounce around
3:31from week to week to week. Please join us. It's something very very unique and special and I want to tip my hat to both the people that I think are primarily responsible. uh Pat Norton from the Narrows and uh Bristol County Savings Bank represented by uh um Roger and uh Joan Mader as friends of mine. So I really appreciate you giving us a plug and we need to see you at these events.
3:52Thank you.
3:59Hi, good morning all. I'm Roger Cabrell with Bristol County Savings Bank here with my colleagues uh Christine and Joan and Genesis representing the bank and pleased to be part of this for five years in a row. Um it's a nice event.
4:12It's an important community event and you know Bristol County Savings Bank's been named number of times but there are a lot of organizations that are that are part of this and the names are listed AC across the bottom. Um I know Viva Fall Rivers here um in other organizations.
4:27So Fall River Arts and Co. Fall River Arts and Co. Yep. Frack is frack is here as well. So this it takes a lot of organizations to bring this together.
4:34Bristol County Savings Bank is part of this. We've got a branch in the city.
4:37We're part of the city. I've worked in Fall River for 30 years. Jones lived here all of her life. It's more than 30 years. I'm not going to tell you how long it is. I I do know it's more than 30 years, but but but we're we're invested in this city and and very pleased to be a part of this and bring this to the residents of the community.
4:54So, thank you very much. We have a check. Let's present the check. We've got a fake check. Here's the fake check able to the narrow center. Here's he gets to keep this one. He gets in in and the real check um as well presented to the narrow center in support of this great summer event. So appreciate you all being here and happy to be a part of this event. Thank you. Thank you. I
5:18don't I do want to mention two of three of our other partners. Uh community recreation are fabulous. They serve all of hot dogs and hamburgers. And I want to give a shout out to Patty Rigo Viva Fall River. Would you like to say something, Patty? Sure. Never met a microphone I didn't like. Um I am uh this is I tell to everybody this is my favorite event of the year every year.
5:37Um you know Viva Fall River is all about community and culture and connection and this event um and the fact that we go to different parks and neighbors seeing neighbors and people going to parks that they had never been to before. This is what the real Fall River community is about and this is what community looks like. So um we're always so happy um to be a part of this and thank you to the
5:55Narrows for asking us every year.
5:58I'd also like to introduce our newest member of our coalition, Tracy Barbosza.
6:02She's the new executive director of the For Arts and Culture Coalition. Tracy, thank you very much, Patrick.
6:12Hi, it's an honor to be here. I'm the new executive director of Frack, the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition, and we're very happy to be part of this event. Uh we have uh local Far River artists showing up to these events and having an engagement uh art activity for anyone who attends and that is uh graciously sponsored by the city of Fall River and ARPA funds and we are so
6:36excited to have the artists engage with the community and be part of this as a whole. Thank you.