That is a wonderful thing to have done! Has it had lasting effects, in your opinion?
Yes, it changed the community but not to the degree that I desired.
I don’t like that sort of thing and the entire time I was doing the first one entirely by myself, I kept thinking that some people would take over and I could get back to my reading and privacy, but I ended up having to finish it alone,
The second year people did step in but they are happy with any bodies they can get, which means people from other communities and parts of town, outsiders, and not those hard to drag out of their homes people whose doors I kept going to until I could see them in person and give them my flier and sell them on attending, it is better than nothing, but not as good, focused, and purposeful as it could be.
My real purpose was to focus on the loners living alone, the drinkers and stoners who come home and flip on the TV, I knew the normal family people would show up and I wanted everyone to see each other’s faces so that they would nod or wave at each other in the future, the first year did work but it took a lot of door knocking and selling on my part, and other people don’t understand that sort of intimate and labor intensive effort, and don’t even seem to understand the reason for it.
At least the community event still takes place every year now, and it did stir a lot of volunteerism and connections for some of the more social people, people are a touch more aware of each other.
Something else I did when I saw there were no Christmas lights here was to start making a big deal with outdoor Christmas lights, it worked, and now I see a lot of houses with Christmas lights, and more every year, it started spreading, this year I made a huge production with outside July 4th lights and led flags for July 4th, trying to get people to get ready for the national birthday next year.
It is amazing how people start expressing themselves when someone steps in to break the ice and clear the path, the good people start living freer and bolder.