Participating in and creating community is central to Coastside Leadership Academy’s mission, and this week we hosted a booth at Make It Main Street in Half Moon Bay. Make it Main Street is a street fair featuring local small businesses and it is one of our favorite events to participate in. Local artists, nonprofits, and public services, like the library, set up booths in downtown Half Moon Bay to raise awareness and help the local economy. The event is once per month and usually highlights happenings on the coast like Pride Month or the back to school season. It is always a lively atmosphere with music, a poetry open mic, food trucks, and people walking in the street.
This year we were invited to take part in Make It Main Street’s Back to School Block Party. The Block Party is sponsored by the Cabrillo Education Foundation, a nonprofit who works to help fundraise for the local school district. There were a wide range of schools and education programs featured and it was fun to network with them and learn about other programs in town. Most schools in Half Moon Bay start in a few days, and the event aimed to help everyone feel excited for the upcoming school year and build connections.
We set up our booth with all of our information about CLA, but the highlight for us was the doodling square we drew on the ground with sidewalk chalk. People of all ages doodled with chalk and we got to meet a lot of new community members and share CLA with them. We connected with rangers from the California State Parks and also Vice Mayor Joaquin Jimenez. We hope to partner them this year with our students. We have learned that all networking is good networking at Make it Main Street because we are in a small town and everyone is connected somehow.
My favorite part of being in a community is the more you participate, the richer your experience. Thank you to Make It Main Street and the Cabrillo Education Foundation for bringing the Coastside community together to deepen our connections with each other. We are already excited for next year.