Saying hello to neighbors: Community-building goal at this weekend’s Front Porch Days | News, Sports, Jobs

Photo provided to the Times Observer Front Porch Day in Warren County is this weekend. And here at Suites at Rouse, it’s proven that you don’t need a traditional front porch to participate in the event.

Warren County’s fifth annual Front Porch Days is scheduled for this weekend.

It is a very informal event with a noble objective: to bring neighbors together.

It does not require participants to purchase anything.

It also does not have clearly defined start and end times.

But it’s about providing a forum to encourage people to spend time on their porches, walking around their neighborhoods and saying hello to each other.

“We found that in some places people believed it,” Gary Lester, one of the event organizers, said.

Some have played music on the porch, others have brought out games like cornhole.

“Some people moved it to the entrance of their house and organised a street party.” Lester said. “Some people did that on their back porch.”

People who live in apartments on Pennsylvania Ave. were sitting outside on the sidewalk.

“We’re going to keep all these little things as under the radar as we can,” said.

Some years the event included a group singing session, but this year it is not part of the activity.

What has been the response from the people who have participated?

Lester said some people told him they never thought about doing something like this.

“It is something discreet” He acknowledged, for those “who find it interesting and worth trying. I’m not sure who they are, older people, younger people. We really need a vibe like that among younger people.”

“Today’s generations are not sure they have ever experienced anything like it.”

For about 30 years, Front Porch Days was just an idea. Organizers had attended an event where a musician sang and spoke, lamenting the increasing use of backyards and the loss of community spirit that accompanied the decline in time spent on front porches.

When asked for more details, he didn’t have any, Lester said. He had made them up on the spot.

The idea remained dormant until a few years ago.

Many years later, and a few years ago, Doug Hearn was walking home from work. Marge and Pete Smith were sitting on the front porch, just off the path back to Hearn’s house. They invited him to sit with them.

It has its roots in the changes that have been observed in the community.

Lester said that when he was growing up in Warren in the 1950s and 1960s, parents in a neighborhood knew each other and the children would play together.

“We were a little closer back then,” said. “I don’t know if we can change that… We have to make the neighborhood work. We shouldn’t be sedentary and lonely.”

Are you interested in this weekend and don’t have a porch?

“They are not just porches,” Lester said. “It can be anywhere you are.”