Community

New Greenport Community Association in the works

A Greenport Community Association could soon be in the future thanks to residents who want to build a stronger sense of community.

The first official gathering of interested people is happening at Greenport library at 2 p.m. Saturday. Residents will be encouraged to speak about what they love about their hamlet, plus what they are concerned about.

“We’re just really starting to see where it goes. We really don’t know at this point,” resident Randy Wade said. “The point of having this first big open meeting to hear what people really love the most about Greenport and what we really value and want to protect, and what concerns their might be.”

Penelope Rudder, creator of the Little Free Pantry in Greenport, said that she was inspired to start this group while speaking with people at the pantry.

“It felt like there were a lot of feelings expressed where people felt a little disengaged,” she said. “They wanted more of feeling of belonging and acceptance in the community.”

The leaders of this potential group have spoken to East Marion’s Community Association to get tips for starting up.

On Saturday, residents will be broken up into small groups to have conversations, and then bring back bullet points to the larger group to get an idea of what goals can be accomplished through a Greenport Community Association. The goal is for open communication, although if someone would prefer to just listen, that is also allowed.

Ms. Wade has said the community’s reaction so far has been very positive.

“One of the things that we really seem to consistently treasure is the diversity in Greenport and the variety and types of people,” Ms. Wade said. “We are hoping to attract a wide variety of people coming from different perspectives so we can have productive conversations.”

Ms. Rudder added that she speaks some Spanish, and will try to translate as much of the meeting as possible.

There has been no official meeting before this Saturday, but there has been informal meet ups to discuss the possibility of the group.

“To me, the greatest resource in the community is all of its people,” Ms. Rudder said.

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