We have busy lives. Sometimes it seems we don’t have a spare minute anywhere. The truth is that everyone has 24 hours each day, that’s 1,440 minutes.

How we prioritize those minutes determines whether we have any to share. Even the busiest person can squeeze a few minutes out occasionally. And being a neighbor is much more that living on the same street. It’s about working together and helping one another. Unfortunately, planning and carrying out events falls to board members, and we are really tired! It’s your neighborhood, and we need your help with these items and the annual events listed below.

So, if you do find a few minutes now and then, here are a few opportunities to make our neighborhood a better place. If we all work together, volunteering in our neighborhood won’t take a lot of time, but will make a big difference!

Plogging

Doctors tell us that walking is an excellent exercise to keep the heart and body healthy. OK, so maybe you are a jogger or runner. Either way, why not spend that time in our neighborhood instead of some other walking trail. And while you are doing that, carry along a bag and pick up cast off items along the road, like cups and papers, to make the neighborhood look better. It’s called plogging!

Adopt-a-Street

The Adopt-a-Street program, sponsored by the City, recruits groups to clean a designated area at least three times a year. Doling Neighborhood agreed to adopt Talmage Street from Broadway to Kansas Expressway, and your current board has been continuing that work. This past year we have included Livingston from Fort to Kansas Expressway, where trash from the parking lots and the road above collect.

Will you help us keep those roads clean and make Doling shine? Also, if there is an area in your part of Doling that you and your neighbors want to sponsor, and which you will coordinate, contact a board member and let’s talk to the city.

Block Party/Block Watch

Want a safe neighborhood? Talk to your neighbors about starting a block watch. A great way is to host a block party with DNA’s Block Party Tool Kit! It has everything you need to pull it off, including some hamburgers and hot dogs. The Block Party handout is available on Nextdoor and on Facebook under files on the Doling Neighborhood Association page. We need drivers to haul the trailer to the block party site and bring it back.

Building relationships

Do you know your neighbors? Take a few minutes each week to stop and say hello to one or more of your neighbors. Get to know them, especially those who are elderly and don’t have family nearby. When we know what to expect, we can help one another.

Signs

Volunteers in well-traveled locations in the neighborhood to display yard signs on the week before the monthly meeting. Contact Christina Dicken.

Fundraising

Making contact with businesses in our area to get business memberships, donations, and sponsorships to support our programs and newsletter. contact Mary Kay Glunt.

Neighborhood meetings

On the second Tuesday of each month (the third Tuesday in April), join us at Hillcrest Presbyterian Church, 818 E. Norton Road, for a monthly potluck at 6 p.m., with meeting at 6:45. Bring your favorite side or dessert to share, and learn more about what is happening in our neighborhood. We need help setting up and cleaning up after the meeting. Contact Christina Dicken.

As Mister Rogers taught us: “Let’s make the most of this beautiful day, since we’re together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor!”

More ways to help

ST. PAT’S DAY PARADE

Help plan and decorate the float and ride/walk the parade route with your neighbors. This year we won the award for best float!

DOLING GARAGE SALE

Even if you aren’t having a sale, why not contact your neighbors and consider helping someone who doesn’t have anyone to help them? Mary Kay Glunt, coordinator.

KEARNEY STREET CRUISE

As a part of the Kearney Street Cruise events, we sponsor a food truck/child activity lot near BBC. We need helpers at least an hour prior to the event to set up (tables, chairs, games, bounce house, etc.) and to help tear everything down afterward.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

A free, city-wide event that brings together law enforcement, health and safety organizations, and neighborhood groups to bring you a night of safety education and fun activities for the whole family! We will need people to help plan and staff our booth, provide items to hand out, and to oversee games and the bounce house.

DUMPSTER DAY

Each year CPO and the city provide dumpsters for us to clean up our neighborhood. We NEED your help! Prior to the event, we need help with registrations for people needing items picked up. We need people on site to register neighbors as they arrive, collect money for donations and for recycling paid items, to guide traffic through Christ the King’s parking lot, to help unload trucks and cars, and to clean up afterward. Also, we need teams with trucks to drive to preregistered homes of our elderly and disabled neighbors to pick up their items and bring them back to the site. Mary Kay Glunt, coordinator.

MONARCH WAYSTATION

We are working with the city to build a Monarch butterfly waystation at the Talmage Dip to provide more pollinators in our area. We need help planting, picking up trash, and more. Also, we are negotiating with the city about making the area from there to Livingston into a urban meadow. Like working with dirt? Let us know. Jean Ackley, coordinator.

ADOPT-A-STREET

Help us pick up trash periodically throughout the year along Talmage between Broadway and Kansas Expressway. Mary Kay Glunt, coordinator.

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Instead of having a neighborhood night out, we are switching gears this year and throwing a Halloween party. Help with planning, publicizing, staffing, etc. Brandy Ecton, coordinator.

BASS PRO MARATHON

The first Sunday in November we gather at near the end of the Bass Pro Marathon to cheer on the runners. We compete against other neighborhood for the most spirited cheering section. It involves picking a theme, planning our presentation, set up, and attending the race all or part of the morning. Bass Pro gives cash awards to the best groups, which helps DNA fund our other events throughout the year.

CHRISTMAS CONTEST

A new program that will offer prizes for the best outdoor Christmas decorations in our neighborhood. We want you to help plan the guidelines, publicize, and to work on registrations for the event.

CONCERT AT THE CAVE

Our annual concert in Doling Park, bringing great music and fun to the park. We need helpers with setup, planning, tear down and cleanup, fundraising, food preparation for the hospitality tent, publicity, etc. We need your help for this to continue to be a great event. Grady Cooper and Christina Dicken, coordinators.

Contact us at: dolingna@gmail.com or facebook.com/groups/DolingNeighborhoodAssociation.