I think it's a great idea, but unfortunately we won't be in town and in fact, rarely are during the 4th. What about a community picnic at one of the larger playground sites?

This subject comes up a lot at the monthly meetings - how to generate a spirit of community at Beckett Ridge. The owners who live by VC1 (the playground at the end of Crossbridge) are planning a Party in the Park on June 28th. There will be games and refreshments. It is being planned by a group of neighbors who are excited about the new playground equipment and want to get to know their neighbors. This same idea could be done at one of the other three playgrounds - the one off of Windbrook, the one between St. Andrews and Sawgrass plus the one at Saratoga Farms. The involvement does not have to be limited to just those owners who live in the neighborhood adjacent to a village center. A parade down BR Blvd on Fourth of July would be great but as with all plans it takes a group of people committed to working together and planning the event. I know the BR Board of Trustees is very supportive of these ideas and welcome any and all suggestions from the BR owners on how to achieve the goal of bringing together the different neighborhoods.

I feel that the best way to develop a stronger sense of community, is to make the residents feel like living here is something special.  Like if gold at the BR country club were cheaper for residents, or if there was a community fitness center, etc.  I think about places like Blue Ash, where people seem to love their neighborhood, and they have a lot of things like this.  Their own fireworks, their own fitness center, etc.

Block parties would help as well, but the goal should be to make everyone feel like living in BR gives them something special.  It helps make the community more desireable, and that itself creates a bond.  You want people to have the reaction of "Oh!  you live in Beckett Ridge, you're so Lucky!!"

With amount of people in our community, something as simple as increasing the HOA dues by a dollar or two should be able to do a lot of good in this regard. 

Those are good ideas and we're talked about some of them at Vision Committee meetings. 

Beckett Ridge has 2,089 properties. If we get organized we could make deals local businesses and organizations for deals or special offers. I'm sure a lot of us would be happy to support local businesses... some of them probably live in Beckett Ridge!

It probably won't take much to get things going. Steve and Dave have already done a lot of great things with the Vision Committee. Hopefully we can eventually work something out to make better use of resources like the Country Club and Swim Club.