Who are you calling chicken?!

Ever wonder what kind of event you can plan to start making inroads with your neighbours that isn't too scary?

Read this story from Jim & Jeanne:

In response to Howardʼs recent email about neighbourhood block parties, I thought I would share some info about our neighbourhood event from last night. A flyer was put in neighbours mailboxes about three weeks ago and this event is open to both neighbours and friends.

Our neighborhood had our 5th annual Chicken Wing Cook-off last night. In spite of the cool weather (only 9C when we started at 4PM) it was well attended with over 60 people in attendance. The idea is that everyone brings their favorite recipe of chicken wings both “regular” and “hot wings” and then everyone votes on their favorite wings. We have two categories with trophies for the best Regular wings and the best Hot wings. We had 22 entries of wings so needless to say we ate well. One Filipino lady who was not able to attend cooked up about 50 spring rolls as an appetizer for us and a neighborhood family from Pakistan made us up samosas even though they were not able to attend due to a prior commitment. People also bring a salad or chips and there are usually some desserts as well. People bring their own beverages.

We live in a cul-de-sac and this event is held on my and my neighborʼs driveways and front lawns. We set up tables for the food, and then set up chairs and picnic tables on the lawns and driveways.

These three boys won the trophy for the best Hot Wings and they were pretty pumped to win. It was their own recipe and they cooked the wings themselves!

My next-door neighbour who heads this event up has a full sound system with music linked from his computer. As part of this we also have some Karaoke with both kids and adults joining in. We have a neighbor who does face painting for all our events and both kids and adults alike get their faces painted.

We have street hockey and a portable fire pit (which was a big attraction last night due to the cold weather).

We did open up our home for bathroom facilities as there were those that did not live nearby.

We did not get a permit from the City for this particular event although we probably should have. We do get one every year for the block party that we usually have in August.

The event started at 4pm and ended at 11pm. We provide all the paper plates, cups and garbage bins for both garbage and recyclables.

Needless to say it was a wonderful event. Blessings from Jim and Jeanne