A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the BNMC Block Party at Kaminski Park yesterday! The weather was beautiful and gave us the perfect backdrop to come together, eat, laugh, and dance.
Thanks also to our amazing partners and collaborators who made it all happen.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
University at Buffalo
Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute
Jacobs Institute
Kaleida Health
Special thanks to NFTA, the Buffalo AKG, and all the amazing vendors who came to showcase their businesses and work in our community. Here’s a photo gallery by photographer Jean Rios to enjoy!
The Food Trucks are back for 2024. Beginning May 7th lunch will be available every Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 am – 2 pm at the Pocket Park at 589 Ellicott. The schedule is below and we look forward to seeing everyone!
Today the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) shared its final report to the US Department of Agriculture on a multi-year Farm to Hospital project. Nine years ago, BNMC brought partners Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Kaleida Health together with a shared vision for what a culture of fresh, healthy, local foods in healthcare systems could look like. To advance this vision, BNMC applied for and received three rounds of grant funding from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Together the partners worked to:
update institutional procurement and vending contracts,
implement a Harvest of the Month campaign,
host three Food as Medicine Symposia,
develop the WNY Food as Medicine Coalition,
install five new Farmhouse Fridges across campus.
As a direct result of their efforts, local procurement at Campus hospitals has increased by 333%. This matters, because for every dollar spent on local procurement (small to midsize farms, aggregators & distributors operated by our neighbors), 75-85 cents stays in the local economy when compared to conventionally sourced produce (largescale corporate food chain) where the revenue share to localfarmers hovers around 14.9 cents. More data highlights are included on page 14 of the report.
The increase in local procurement meant that 42 local farmer entrepreneurs directly benefitted from the effort and grew their businesses. A further 10 local producers were able to expand their ability to sell into healthcare food systems by becoming USDA-certified in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). Several other local businesses in processing and procurement also benefitted greatly from this work.
While the impact on local entrepreneurs in our healthcare food system is significant, campus hospitals have been able to greatly improve the quality of their procurement practices for the benefit of patient and visitor health. With new policies and operations templates in place, these practices will continue to grow well into the future.
You can read a full copy of the report here. Meet the partners, growers, and distributors in a short video here.
About Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
For more than twenty years, The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus organization (BNMC) has been a driving force in Buffalo’s economic renaissance. Throughout its management of the growth of Buffalo’s premier innovation district, the BNMC has foregrounded smart economic, social, and environmental development, prioritizing health & well-being and sustainability. Today, the BNMC is focused on the next phase of Buffalo’s ongoing resurgence, cultivating inclusive innovation in partnership with our community, and launching the IC Success (Innovation Community Success) program to support aspiring entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to help them start or grow a business. Program graduates will form the heart of Buffalo’s growing Innovation Community comprised of businesses large and small in an array of disciplines leading the region’s next wave of economic development and growth. www.bnmc.org
Buffalo, New York – Buffalo All Access: In and around BNMC, a new initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) under the ITS4US Deployment Program, will use technology to improve transportation options for travelers in and around the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC), regardless of ability, age, or income. The initiative aims to make it easier for people of all abilities to utilize public transit and access the many essential services and destinations on and around the medical campus. The initiative focuses on providing:
An All Access App: a mobile app, website (https://bnmc.org/allaccess), and call center for people to plan trips based on their unique needs and abilities.
A Shuttle Program: an on-demand community shuttle that includes both human-driven shuttles and a self-driving shuttle.
Smart Infrastructure: wayfinding technologies on the medical campus that assist people who need support with both outdoor navigation and indoor navigation (inside VIA and the Buffalo General Medical Center).
The project is led by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) in partnership with BNMC, the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC), the University at Buffalo (UB), City of Buffalo, NITTEC, Kaleida Health, Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center, VIA, Heart of the City Neighborhoods, and FruitBelt Coalition, Inc. aka Fruit of the City. Consultant partners on the project include ICF, ETCH, RSG, and the Open Doors Organization. The project team has just produced an overview video that showcases more details about this project. For more information, please watch the video on the website (https://bnmc.org/allaccess/).
Speaking about the project, Jamie Hamann-Burney, Director of Planning & Implementation for BNMC, said: “The lack of safe and inclusive trip planning and travel options for people of all abilities can be a major barrier to employment, healthcare, and other quality of life essentials in our community. We’re thrilled to be a part of this initiative that will help break down these barriers.”
The ITS4US Deployment Program (https://its.dot.gov/its4us/) is a $40 million multimodal effort, led by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) and supported by the Office of the Secretary, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration, to identify ways to provide more efficient, affordable, and accessible transportation options for underserved communities that often face greater challenges in accessing essential services.
The U.S. DOT launched Phase 1 of the program in January 2021 and supported the concept development efforts of select sites, including Buffalo All Access. In June 2022, Buffalo All Access was selected to continue Phases 2 and 3 of the program, which includes the design, testing, operation, and evaluation of the deployment.
About Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
For more than twenty years, The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus organization (BNMC) has been a driving force of Buffalo’s economic renaissance. Throughout its management of the growth of Buffalo’s premier innovation district, the BNMC has foregrounded smart economic, social, and environmental development, prioritizing health & well-being and sustainability. Today, the BNMC is focused on the next phase of Buffalo’s ongoing resurgence, cultivating inclusive innovation in partnership with our community. BNMC launched its flagship program, IC Success in 2021 to provide support to aspiring entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to help them start or grow a business. Program graduates form the heart of Buffalo’s growing Innovation Community comprised of businesses large and small in an array of disciplines and leading the region’s next wave of economic development and growth. BNMC www.bnmc.org.
The Food Trucks are back! This year we have partnered with our friends at Roswell Park to have food trucks conveniently located throughout the Campus every Monday through Friday from 11:30 am to 2 pm all summer long.
BUFFALO NY– The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental (IDEA) at the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning, and Touch Graphics, Inc., collaborated to create a multi-sensory interactive 3D touch model to assist with orientation and wayfinding on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC).
The IDEA Center received a generous gift from the Chur Foundation in January 2021 and used the funds to design, develop, and install the model.
The recently unveiled interactive model is located at the BNMC’s Innovation Center, a home base for campus tours, and a site providing services for over 100 start-up companies and serving as a hub for research and knowledge exchange. The touch model allows users to preview the campus layout, locate buildings, and identify travel routes prior to setting out for their destinations. A user-friendly touch interface that includes visual, auditory, and tactile outputs allows visitors to simply hear or see information related to both the campus and individual buildings.
All features of the model are touch responsive, including roads, parks, parking lots, and Metro stations. Additional features for accessibility and legibility include braille labels and aerial photographs of building rooftops printed on the 3D buildings.
Jamie Hamann-Burney, Director of Planning and Implementation at BNMC said “We are so grateful to our colleagues at the IDEA Center for bringing this project to us. The model unites a range of technologies being developed at the Center that will speed the creation of more inclusive environments for everyone.”
The design of the model was developed by first documenting the campus, drawing digital models of the campus’ buildings and landscape, 3D printing the buildings, and laser printing a tactile skin of the landscape. The 3D buildings were treated with a conductive layer and then both tactile skin and the 3D buildings were adhered to the large touch screen. The model works by simple touch commands including tapping once to hear the name of the building and a second time to hear descriptive information. An application was developed to listen to finger touch and provide a corresponding audio description.
“The touch model is an excellent example of how inclusive technology benefits a broad range of users. We’re hoping that this touch model is not only useful for the visitors and staff of the BNMC, but also inspires the thought leaders and tech developers at the Innovation Center to consider the needs of individuals with disabilities in their own work.” Heamchand Subryan, Director of Interaction Design at the IDEA Center.
In addition to the BNMC, similar touch models have been installed at large tech companies, museums, and a national park. The BNMC touch model demonstrates how integrating universal design into wayfinding technology can benefit all visitors and serves as a best practice for similar maps at other medical campuses.
About the IDEA Center
Aside from this project, the IDEA Center, part of the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning, is also collaborating with colleagues at the Toronto Rehab Institute/University Health Network and the U. of Pittsburgh on a National Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Universal Design in the Built Environment and partnering with Carnegie Mellon University on a five-year RERC project to advance public transportation for people with disabilities. Both initiatives are funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
About Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
For more than twenty years, The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus organization (BNMC) has been a driving force of Buffalo’s economic renaissance. Throughout its management of the growth of Buffalo’s premier innovation district, the BNMC has foregrounded smart economic, social, and environmental development, prioritizing health & well-being and sustainability. Today, the BNMC is focused on the next phase of Buffalo’s ongoing resurgence, cultivating inclusive innovation in partnership with our community. In 2021 BNMC spearheaded the initiative to bring the national programs EforAll and Eforever to Buffalo. These proven programs support aspiring entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to help them start or grow a business. Program graduates will form the heart of Buffalo’s growing Innovation Community comprised of businesses large and small in an array of disciplines and leading the region’s next wave of economic development and growth. BNMC www.bnmc.org.
Due to the huge response to our Innovation District Beer Garden events in August and September, we’ve decided to do an OKTOBERFEST in the pop-up Beer Garden for everyone! Please join us on October 21st from 4:30 – 7:00 pm for some food and beer. We’ll have heaters to keep us warm as we gather safely together outside for some festive fall fun!
When: Thursday, October 21st from 4:30 to 7 PM.
Where: The Lot at 589 Ellicott.
Space is limited for this free event, so pre-registration will be required.
On September 30, BNMC will present a second special pop-up event and we invite you to join us. We’ll be transforming the parking lot at 589 Ellicott into an outdoor beer garden and we’ll gather for some food and exceptional brews provided by our friends at Big Ditch. The Leroy Towns Band will provide the tunes. When: Thursday, September 30 from 4:30 to 7 PM.
Where: The Lot at 589 Ellicott.
Space is limited for this free event, so pre-registration will be required.
On August 26, BNMC will present a special pop-up event and we invite you to join us. We’ll be transforming the parking lot at 589 Ellicott into an outdoor beer garden and we’ll gather for some food and exceptional brews provided by our friends at Big Ditch. DJ Mr. Illmatic will provide the tunes. When: Thursday, August 26 from 4:30 to 7 PM.
Where: The Lot at 589 Ellicott.
Space is limited for this free event, so pre-registration will be required.
Stop by and say hi! You can register to join us here.
Welcome to summer 2021! After everything we have been through this past year, we are delighted to invite you to join our BNMC Summer of Wellness, our healthy, fun program of events and hwp-contentenings that will help all of us reinvigorate and recharge. We have an array of events that will allow us to safely gather together to bike, walk, or practice restorative yoga. Join us for one, for some, or for all. These programs are open FREE to all who live and work in our community and on our campus. They will be safely socially distant, and facemasks are recommended. You can register for everything here. Here’s what’s on the schedule this year:
Once again this year, every Monday – Friday during the summer we will feature a variety of Buffalo’s best food truck vendors. The trucks will be located on the lawn at the corner of Washington and Carlton Streets. Lunch begins at 11:30 am every day and runs until 2 pm.
Here’s what’s on the menu for 2021:
Mondays: Mad Sauces
Tuesdays: The Cheesy Chick, House of Munch, Fat Bob’s, Street Café, and The Blend
Wednesdays: Rob’s Kabobs, Thai Me Up, Carnivorous, and Andersons (Beginning in June)
Thursdays: Eat Greek, Maria’s Bene Cibo, Dirty Bird Chicken & Waffles, and Kona Ice
Fridays: The Polish Villa, The Great Foodini, Mineo & Sapio, and Loose Cannon
Masks and social distancing will be required to ensure a healthy and safe environment for everyone.
Many thanks to all of you for helping ensure a safe and delicious Food Truck Rodeo this summer. We will be wrwp-contenting up the FTR at Washington & Carlton this season on Friday, October 2nd. We look forward to seeing everyone back again next year!
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Previous post:
Having our favorite food trucks on the Campus have provided some sense of normalcy – and delicious food offerings! – this summer. We are so hwp-contenty that our daily food truck rodeo continues to draw employees in a safe & physically distant way. For those of you planning to stop by the food trucks on the Medical Campus, please note the following changes to ensure we are able to keep this Rodeo going well into the fall.
Food Truck Rodeo Details:
Please wear a mask and practice physical distancing.
Only 4 trucks are allowed daily to provide enough room.
Unfortunately, there will not be any outdoor seating. Food trucks will package all food to go. Please do not linger on the lawn after getting your food.
Please be respectful.
Despite these precautions, we are looking forward to another wonderful 2020 season. Thank you for supporting our local food trucks!
New Portable E-Bike Upgrade is Coming to Campus – Take Survey For A Chance To Be a Part of the Pilot!
BNMC is committed to expanding access to healthy and green transportation options. To that end, we are excited to be working with CLIP, an electric-assist bicycle start-up company coming to town through the Launch NY Clean-Tech ECO incubator. CLIP is on a mission to make getting around by bicycle effortless, safer, and faster.
The company is ready to pilot its e-bike device – and you can be among the first to try it out for yourself! Complete this short 2-3 minute survey for a chance to participate in an upcoming pilot program exclusively for members of the BNMC community.
If you have any questions, please contact the project lead, James La Vela at james@clip.bike. Selected participants who complete the survey will also be given a $25 gift card to the Neighborhood Explorer Business of their choice.
If you’re like us, you are constantly getting barraged with information – emails, social media, texts, and constant news alerts about the COVID-19 pandemic and the resources available to businesses and individuals. We have started this page as a place for you to find accurate, timely information that can help your business today. Many of our colleagues and partners are doing a great job collecting this information – we are going to link to their resources as opposed to recreating the wheel. Please let us know of resources or information that you think should be added.
Upcoming Webinars
In our final IC Success Zooms, Kyria features home schooling tips and resources on Tuesday, May 5th, and grants, loans and business resources on Thursday, May 7th. RSVP for these free community conversations today!
Additional Resources
The BNMC team is available to help make connections and provide information. Contact Sam Marrazzo at smarrazzo@bnmc-old.local.
For nearly 20 years, the BNMC Inc. has been an organization built around the concept that bringing diverse groups of people together drives innovation and builds community. Throughout that time, “together” has meant in person. Moving to a remote workplace may have challenged our work, but it definitely hasn’t stopped our dedication to leveraging opportunities to solve problems, strengthen partnerships, and continuously learn from each other.
How are we doing this? We’ve shifted all of our work councils to virtual meetings, ensuring that our partners are still able to “see” each other and benefit from longstanding relationships. We continue to manage and monitor the parking and transportation system across the Campus, and continue to keep the grounds clean and safe for the essential staff, patients, and visitors that are on the Medical Campus each day. Our team is also still advancing planning efforts around infrastructure, healthy food access, building operations and management, and community-building on and around the Campus.
We will never get used to seeing the Innovation Center empty, our usually bustling building stilled as our friends and colleagues adhere to social distancing and working from home, but we continue to engage with our tenants and partners. We have moved some of our programming and social gatherings online, and our next series of IC Success begins virtually tomorrow. We are also offering a small business seminar for our Neighborhood Explorer business this week in partnership with Lumsden & McCormick.
We continue to join our peer districts around the globe through the Global Institute for Innovation Districts for regular video calls to stay in touch. It is sobering to hear from our European colleagues, especially those in Switzerland, just 10 minutes from the Italian border, but encouraging to see the research and discovery around COVID-19 also coming from these districts. We discuss how this pandemic makes all of our focus on innovating and strengthening transportation and energy systems, building healthy communities, integrating technology, and encouraging creativity even more necessary, and wonder what it will look like moving forward. Some of the work being done in Buffalo to fight COVID-19 was featured in GIID’s recent blog.
We’ve also recently partnered with Mission:Ignite and Say Yes Buffalo to provide home computers for students in the Buffalo Public School district, creating a connection that helps increase access to technology and education for students who did not otherwise have that opportunity. We are looking for individuals and companies to support this effort to ensure even more kids have access to computers at home – for $150 Mission:Ignite can refurbish and certify a computer.
We are proud to have helped launch a telemedicine platform for sleep apnea with partner and longtime Innovation Center tenant Dr. Dan Rifkin. We have been working on this together since last year in partnership with Topcoder, UB School of Business MIS students, and Buffalo State’s International Center for Studies in Creativity, but the timeliness and importance given today’s landscape of effective telemedicine makes last week’s launch especially gratifying.
We share all of this to say that, like most of you, we continue to do what we can to grow and improve our little corner of the world, while taking care of ourselves, our families, and our community.
We will get through this in the same way we have all worked to rebuild Buffalo – together.
Jennifer Stanonis, award-winning [former] local TV meteorologist, is releasing her first ever children’s book focused on the science of weather, and the Hauptman-Woodward Institute (HWI) is proud to be a part of the launch events! Willy and Lilly’s Adventures with Weather will make its international debut on March 19, 2020 — the same day as the Spring Equinox. To celebrate the book release, Stanonis will be at HWI on Friday, March 20th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm for a book signing and meet and greet (light refreshments provided).
HWI looks forward to seeing everyone who can stop by, meet the author and get a book signed! Thank you for your support!
On Tuesday February 14th , the BNMC Healthy Workplace Initiative hosted a Mental Health First Aid training for its client companies. There were 22 people in attendance from 11 companies, including Walsh Duffield, United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Lawley, and Pegula Sports Entertainment.
This nationally recognized training was provided locally by Compeer Buffalo, a non-profit that takes a friendship wp-contentroach to Mental Health. Its model is nationally recognized and has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the American Psychiatric Association.
Mental Health First Aid training aims to educate the public on how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. Upon completion of the training, participants received a certificate, identifying them as Mental Health First Aiders, equipped with the skills needed to reach out, offer help, and support someone who may be experiencing a crisis. Participants also walk away with a simple 5-step action plan in hand to help a colleague, loved one, or neighbor in dealing with a crisis until professional treatment is obtained.
Mental health is the most frequently requested topic among companies in the Healthy Workplace Initiative, and it is unfortunate the depth of local data available that supports this trend. According to the Economic Impact of Poor Health on Our WNY Community, depression alone is 19% prevalent in the Buffalo-Niagara region and costs our local workforce $170 million per year in medical spending and $415.7 million productivity losses each year. These data, combined with the existing stigma surrounding mental health, demonstrate the immediate need for further action to address the well-being of our region. BNMC hosted this training to not only improve mental health literacy among the local workforce, but to also empower collective urgency in combating mental health stigma through harnessing a proactive wp-contentroach.
In addition to being highly informative and educational on a variety of mental health challenges, the training featured a series of interactive activities to further reinforce course content. One of the most impactful activities involved comparing various mental health challenges with physical health illnesses. Based on a study by the World Health Organization, the rankings demonstrated how mental health challenges can be equally or even more compromising to activities of daily life as physical health challenges, such as vision loss.
Thank you to Walsh Duffield for sponsoring the event!
The University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) provides seed grants that support the planning of community-based participatory research projects and engagement of communities in research.
The goal of these awards is to increase the number of community-academic partnerships that are prepared to collaborate on the design and implementation of research projects, specifically those that address health disparities, aim to improve health equity, and generate preliminary data for submission of larger grants to intramural and extramural sources. Seed grants not exceeding $5,000 will be awarded to academic-community teams for:
Development of community-engaged research partnerships
Collaboration on the design of pilot research
Development of community-engaged research proposals for external funding
Letters of Intent are due by March 9, 2020. Selected LOIs will be invited to submit full proposals based on criteria outlined in the RFP.
Big things are hwp-contentening on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus! As REDDY BikeShare celebrates 2019 being its fourth and most successful season – including its bike fleet hitting 200 and expanding to Niagara Falls – the Innovation Center tenant gears up for another successful season with even more in store for the 2020! (Not to mention handing out some free REDDY memberships to some lucky Buffalo bikers!) CLICK HERE to read REDDY’s full Buffalo Rising feature and learn more about what they have going on!
If you’re thinking about making the switch to an electric car, you might be nervous about winter driving. Not to worry! Here are some quick truths and tips about driving your electric vehicle (EV) through a New York winter, with tons more info here. TRUTHS
Your range will decrease in the winter. Because batteries operate less efficiently when they’re cold, your EV will get fewer miles per kilowatt-hour in the winter. However, the range for gas powered cars also decreases by as much as 22% in the winter!
Snow and ice are not usually a problem for EVs. Because the battery often makes up the floorboard of the vehicle, EVs have a low center of gravity and evenly distributed weight, which makes them stable and easy to maneuver, and increases traction on snow or icy terrain.
TIPS
Precondition your vehicle. Warm up your car while it’s still plugged in so that you don’t deplete your battery’s reserves. Getting into a warm car also means you don’t have to crank the heat as much once it’s unplugged!
Use the special heating features for your vehicle. If your car offers heated seats and steering wheels, use them! They will use less energy and allow you to comfortably keep the cabin temperature slightly lower.
Drive efficiently. Use regenerative breaking to capture any energy that might otherwise be lost and avoid speeding as it increases drag, which decreases mileage.
Park and charge somewhere warm. If you must park outside, try to find a sunny spot to keep your battery warm.
Hello Buffalo! Beakers & Beer is back and better than ever! Join us every 3rd Thursday of the month, February through May 2020, for BNMC’s signature networking event. Featuring food, booze and making great connections, we are sure that you’ll not only have a great time but also leave with an expanded network (which ultimately expands your net worth)! This series of Beakers & Beer will take place on February 20th, March 19th, April 16th, and May 21st. They all will take place in dig @ the Innovation Center (640 Ellicott Street, 14203) except for April’s, which will be hosted by Big Ditch Brewing Company (55 E. Huron Street, 14203). A very huge shout out goes to Beakers & Beer beverage sponsor Big Ditch Brewing Company! For more information, or to register for Beakers & Beer, please visit our Events page at www.bnmc-old.local/events. We can’t wait to see you there!
Celebrating Community at our 3rd Annual Summer Block Party
OK! Normally I have a more formal writing style, but we are fam so I’m going to just hit you with this info. I’m not trying to give you FOMO or anything, but… if you missed BNMC’s 3rd Annual Summer Block Party, you missed a lot! People are saying that it was the best one yet. It had everything that makes a great party. View our Facebook photo album to see all the smiling faces!
Great venue: The weather was a perfect 73 degrees with a slight breeze on August 22nd at Kaminski Park & Gardens at Roswell Park.
Great food: Frank Gourmet Hot Dogs served up nearly 1,000 hot dogs at the event! Aunt Connie’s Ed-U- Kitchen brought her iconic smoothie bike (you know, the one that you get on and it powers the blender to make the smoothie), plus delicious watermelon and salad. James the Ice Cream Dude with his ice cream bike. There is nothing like a Bomb Pop on a summer day!
Great music: DJ P was on the 1’s and 2’s spinning some upbeat tunes. His energy and presence on the mic keep the party going. We also had the A-Team Band who hopped on the instruments and played some hits from the 90s and early 2000s.
Dancing: With music like that you can’t help but dance! We did all the line dances, but Zumba was clearly the biggest hit. Thanks to Kelly Patton for helping us dance some of those calories off.
Games: We had Clown Around Entertainment provide our Carnival Games, face painting, and a dunk tank which the kids and families loved!
The best part of all was the GREAT people. There were almost 1,000 people who attended this year, including employees, patients, students, and neighbors who all came together to create an amazing family-friendly event.
Next year we plan to do it even bigger and better!
Celebrating Community at our 3rd Annual Summer Block Party
OK! Normally I have a more formal writing style, but we are fam so I’m going to just hit you with this info. I’m not trying to give you FOMO or anything, but… if you missed BNMC’s 3rd Annual Summer Block Party, you missed a lot! People are saying that it was the best one yet. It had everything that makes a great party. View our Facebook photo album to see all the smiling faces!
Great venue: The weather was a perfect 73 degrees with a slight breeze on August 22nd at Kaminski Park & Gardens at Roswell Park.
Great food: Frank Gourmet Hot Dogs served up nearly 1,000 hot dogs at the event! Aunt Connie’s Ed-U- Kitchen brought her iconic smoothie bike (you know, the one that you get on and it powers the blender to make the smoothie), plus delicious watermelon and salad. James the Ice Cream Dude with his ice cream bike. There is nothing like a Bomb Pop on a summer day!
Great music: DJ P was on the 1’s and 2’s spinning some upbeat tunes. His energy and presence on the mic keep the party going. We also had the A-Team Band who hopped on the instruments and played some hits from the 90s and early 2000s.
Dancing: With music like that you can’t help but dance! We did all the line dances, but Zumba was clearly the biggest hit. Thanks to Kelly Patton for helping us dance some of those calories off.
Games: We had Clown Around Entertainment provide our Carnival Games, face painting, and a dunk tank which the kids and families loved!
The best part of all was the GREAT people. There were almost 1,000 people who attended this year, including employees, patients, students, and neighbors who all came together to create an amazing family-friendly event.
Next year we plan to do it even bigger and better!
Update on the BNMC Inc.
