Archive for December, 2009
Celebrate the New Year downtown!
Atlanta has their peach, Raleigh has an acorn and now we can watch as our beloved Fayetteville Dogwood helps us bring in the New Year. A new tradition that will hopefully continue for years to come, this is yet another reason that Fayetteville has it all!
Make your plans now to celebrate the New Year in Downtown Fayetteville with the new “Party in the Park,” brought to you by the folks behind our award winning Dogwood Festival. This festive event will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Festival Park and will feature bands such as Hot Sauce and Nantucket, which are definite crowd pleasers. Other activities include a wing and chili cook-off, a live feed from Times Square on large screens and even an early countdown event for children. A fireworks display will accompany our long awaited Dogwood Drop! Admission to this event is free.
For more information, please visit www.faydogwoodfestival.com.
Lifestyle/Philanthropy
Recently, the Fayetteville Young Professionals (FYP) gathered to celebrate a holiday social. This is a recently formed group, of which I am a member, of 21-40 year old professionals in Fayetteville, NC with the following mission.
“To create a network of young professionals in the greater Fayetteville area that fosters personal and professional development through relationship building, skill enhancement, community enrichment, and career advancement opportunities; to engage them to take ownership in the future success of our community.”
The goals of this group include:
- Increased interaction with peer group
- Keep young professionals in Fayetteville
- Enhance career development
- Increase career opportunities
- Contribute to the community
I want to discuss the first and last goals. On December 10, approximately 60 FYP members gathered for a holiday social. Guests were asked to contribute a minimum $10 to the FYP toy drive for the Salvation Army. More than $650 was raised that evening as young professionals mingled, exchanged business cards, discussed business within their respective sectors, dined on hors d’oeurves, and danced.
During the following days, a couple of the members volunteered to collect angels from the local shopping mall’s Angel Tree, which indicated the child’s name and desired gift. Afterwards, they shopped until every wish was granted, and some.
Today, a few of those members gathered to donate the toys for needy children at one of Santa’s workshops, better known as the Salvation Army warehouse. Volunteers were busy packing the gifts to distribute in time for Christmas.
A local restaurant, New Deli, donated the food for the evening. A local night club, the Speakeasy, provided the venue, and FYP volunteers worked to create a festive party. The increased interaction of this peer group is leading to greater community contributions, beyond financial donations. The collaboration of vendors, businesses, and volunteers is leading to a more cohesive community where we are increasingly more socially alert and progressively active in caring for our neighbors.
http://fayettevillencchamber.org/fayettevilleyoungprofessionals.php
What’s Special About Greater Fayetteville
A local blogger wrote a piece about a special visit to the Airborne & Special Operations Museum today. Her comment encapsulates EXACTLY what I think is so special about this place I call home. She says “only in Fayetteville could I stuble across such a momentous reunion.”
Here’s a link to Rebekah Sanderlin’s Operation Marriage blog from today A Rare Treat.