Back in March we asked for volunteers to lead the organisation of a Street BBQ. Eight residents replied. When the committee members are included it brought the number to 14 and covering 9 roads within the estate.
The group of volunteers met on Wednesday 15 May. The volunteers agreed to hold multiple small Street BBQs on Saturday 22 June.
How it will work
At the meeting the resident from Riverwood Place described how they run their annual Street BBQ:
- Each household which expressed a willingness to attend paid €20. This paid for burgers, sausages, chicken, kid’s nibbles, soft drinks, plastic plates, cutlery, ketchup, mustard, ice and some beers.
- Residents bring salads and desserts (with some co-ordination so there wasn’t too many of one).
- People bring their own beer and wine (and glasses if needed).
- Residents provided gas barbeques (please check your gas tank), garden tables & chairs, chimeneas (it often gets cold as the night progresses). This would be set up in a small area on the road, ideally at the end of a cul de sac.
- The BBQ owners cook the food (chicken being pre-cooked).
- Children are fed first.
- They start to set up about 4pm and finish late into the night. Generally a communal tidy up on Sunday morning.
We ask residents to consider bringing some games out to the BBQ area, to entertain the children e.g. foosball table, table tennis, face paints and other outdoor games.
One of the other volunteers has a Musgraves card so can bulk buy some of the supplies.
Halal meats can be accommodated – they will be cooked separately from the non-halal meat.
Next Steps
The local volunteer will call around to each house on their road to determine the level of interest.
The volunteer can explain how the BBQ will work and where it will be held (ideally a cul de sac portion of the road that can be closed off to traffic with minimal impact on residents in that section of the road).
The volunteer will also ask interested households to contribute €20 towards the meats, soft drinks and other supplies. YOU WILL RECEIVE A TICKET/RECEIPT.
Please tell the volunteer how many adults and children will attend and whether any of them has any allergies. Depending on the allergy, the purchased food may not be able to avoid the allergens.
Security
We fully understand that handing over money to a neighbour you may never have met before has the potential for abuse by someone posing as the neighbour.
We are taking a number of steps to counter this.
- The flyers will have your road name on it (it is intentionally omitted from the sample above).
- You will be given a GREEN raffle ticket receipt. The second half of the security number is 2Q62.
- You can text local Riverwood Aware subscribers when the local volunteer is planning to call around.
- You can contact Riverwood Aware if you have an queries or want to verify that the local volunteer is legitimate.
Roads with no volunteer
We did not hear from residents in the following roads. If residents in these roads wishes to volunteer please contact us and we will help you out as best we can.
- Riverwood Close
- Riverwood Dale
- Riverwood Dene
- Riverwood Drive
- Riverwood Gardens
- Riverwood Glebe
- Riverwood Green
- Riverwood Vale
- Riverwood Way
Note
The Riverwood Residents Association is not organising these Street BBQs. The residents association is simply a facilitator to bring the volunteers together.