2020 was a year unlike any other. Here’s what the ANA did in our community:
2020 kicked off with a fabulous Chili Cook-off at Armatage Park’s Fire & Ice Skating Party on January 24. A guest chef from Colita joined us and neighbors sampled seven fabulous chilis and voted for their favorites.
When COVID-19 hit, community meetings and Neighborhood Happy Hours shifted to Zoom.
When our community went into a stay-at-home order due to COVID-19, the ANA decided to put together an Art Journal to help document this moment of time in Armatage and show how neighbors were expressing themselves creatively. Submissions were collected during May and June of 2020 after months of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the midst of weeks of civil unrest in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd in police custody. The final journal is available to download as a PDF or EPUB book.
The ANA shifted our Annual Meeting and Board Election to online formats. David Rubedor, Director of the City of Mpls’ Department of Neighborhood & Community Relations spoke over Zoom about the importance of the 2020 Census and elected representatives shared updates. We held our community’s first-ever online board election and had fabulous new board members join the ANA.
We gathered for two Community Conversations on Zoom in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and the civil unrest in Minneapolis. Our new Safety, Equity & Outreach Committee grew out of these meetings.
The Green Team again led a low-cost Rain & Native Garden program in partnership with Metro Blooms. 15 rain or native gardens were installed throughout the neighborhood as part of the program and the ANA offered additional assistance to residents who met income guidelines and renters.
The ANA held two Food Truck Nights to bring community members together safely and at a distance. Food trucks came to Armatage Park, attendees masked and distanced, and it was a great way for neighbors to gather safely.
- Sweet Treats in the Park was held on August 23, 2020
- Our Fall Food Truck Night was held Sunday, October 18, 2020
The Green Team partnered with the City of Minneapolis to offer a distanced Fall Neighborhood Clean-up. Twelve teams of volunteers covered the boulevards, parks and commerical areas of Armatage to collect 18 bags of trash and 10 bags of recycling.
We partnered with Danger Boat Productions (which runs the Theater of Public Policy) to host a Let’s Get Uncomfortable workshop to help neighbors talk about racism and bias.
With Halloween and the holidays looking very different due to the pandemic, the ANA organized two decoration tours. Neighbors registered their home or apartment for the tour and we published lists of addresses. Visitors from all over the Twin Cities were able to vote for their favorites and the three addresses with the most votes got a $50 gift card to an Armatage business.