EVA President’s Message

by Mary Szpur

What a pleasure it was to see the wonderful turnout at East Village Association’s August barbecue at Happy Village! Thanks to all our neighbors and friends who came out to enjoy good food, to mingle, and to learn about your local community group. I hope that some of you came away with a sense of what EVA has accomplished in the past, and why it continues to exist today. I also hope that if you didn’t join as a member that night, that you will do so soon. Our strength lies in numbers.

EVA’s mission statement is printed in every newsletter, but to summarize:

• We are a civic group working together for the common good of the community.


• We exist to assemble and disseminate information about the community.


• We serve as a forum for education about and discussion of community issues.

I would like to thank a number of people to whom we can attribute the success of the EVA barbecue:

• Dominick’s for donating the food.


• Julie and Guy Rudloff for organizing and purchasing the food and supplies, transporting them to Happy Village, and for setup and cleanup. Great job!


• Greg Nagel for securing the donation of food from Dominick’s, for organizing the flyers and the flyer distribution (those flyers are surely why we had such a good turnout), and for inviting Alderman Waguespack to attend the barbecue.


• Adam Morton for bringing his grill to Happy Village, then grilling all night long.


• Phil McFarland of Café Piccolo for donating the printing of the attractive laminated flyers that advertised the event.


• Carolina Cartagena for creating a most attractive flyer.


• Brian Roman for printing off extra newsletters in color for distribution at the barbecue.


• Marjorie Isaacson for bringing gift bags courtesy of Center for Neighborhood Technology.


• ohn Scheer for signing up new members.


• Deb Milkowski for helping to set up the food.


• All the EVA members who helped to distribute flyers.