NSNA News & Updates

North Street Neighborhood Secretary Uncategorized

Learn More About the Festival Educational Series

Matt here with a little different topic than usual. While helping out with Eken Park Fest, I noticed there were some questions our dedicated festival committee volunteers would ask that would best be answered by other festivals. In order to create an environment to help ask and answer questions about organizing events, the NSNA submitted for and received a grant for a Festival Planning Educational Series grant. The hope is to meet on 5 topics this coming fall and early winter featuring speakers that professionally do day in day out what we volunteer to do annually.

Interested in a topic, or know someone that is? Register your interest here to help me plan the events. Thanks!

North Street Neighborhood Secretary Uncategorized

July NSNA meeting Wed 7/1 6:30 PM & Future Meeting Dates

July NSNA Meeting

Wed July 1, 6:30 PM at Hawthorne Public Library, or you can call-in virtually.

Note the day change to Wednesday.

Google Meet call-in link

Meeting agenda

Future Meeting Dates Update

When Bashford Church was closed for renovations, the NSNA meeting continued to be held on the first Thursday of the month at Hawthorne Library. The library has a new reoccurring event scheduled that same night, and there was just enough of a conflict often enough to warrant moving our meeting cadence off of Thursday to Wednesday. This new routine will start with our July meeting on Wednesday, July 1st.

Looking ahead to August, however, the community room was already reserved the first Wednesday that month, so the August NSNA meeting will be Monday, August 3rd instead.

We will continue to post the meeting time, location, and agenda on the home page blog and update the Google Calendar meeting. If you miss our meeting and come to Hawthorne on the wrong day, you’re still at a library and that’s pretty cool too.

North Street Neighborhood Secretary festival

Volunteer to Help Make Eken Park Fest Possible!

Transforming Eken Park from a wonderful green space into a rockin’ party feels like a magic trick. The magicians at the Festival Committee are looking for some assistants to help make this year’s Eken Park Festival appear and disappear again on Saturday, August 15th. Sign up here to help make the magic happen!

Volunteer shifts on the day are two hours long, and include setting up and taking down, selling beers, pouring beers, helping at the kids section, or keeping our lovely park clean. Not sure if you can commit to a specific time that day? Help get the word out about the festival by dropping flyers off around our neighborhood to make sure everyone knows about the party.

Volunteers receive a drink ticket, a discounted festival t-shirt, and an invite to the appreciation party in October. But the biggest reward for volunteering at Eken Park Fest is getting to know your neighbors and feel a sense of community. You aren’t just showing up for the party, you’re helping put on the show. Pick your volunteer shift here and have another reason to be excited for Saturday, August 15th!

North Street Neighborhood Secretary events, transportation committee

Join NSNA on Wed, June 3rd for Madison Bike Week

Celebrate living in a Platinum-level bike friendly city and join your neighbors at two North Street Neighborhood Association events on Wednesday, June 3rd during this year’s Madison Bike Week!

Wednesday morning, the Transportation Committee will be helping you fuel up for the day at Emerson East Park, on the corner of 2nd Street and Johnson. Come by, say hi, and enjoy coffee from Moka and pastries from Bloom Bake Shop from 7 AM to 10 AM.

Not a morning person? Then at 6:30 PM, join us for a family friendly bike ride. Emerson East riders will meet on the bike path on 4th Street behind El Sabor, and Eken Park bikers will meet outside the North Street Caberet. The two groups will meet where Hoard Street hits the Starkweather Creek path, and together we will take the Capital City Trail to Ohio Street. There, enjoy ice cream at Chocolate Shoppe with a free waffle cone upgrade or beers and bingo at the Ohio Tavern. Everyone will depart on their own.

For more bike events this week, check out the full Madison Bike Week Agenda.

North Street Neighborhood Secretary Greenspace

Earth Day Cleanup Saturday 4/25

Has the recent weather made you yearn even harder for summer in Madison? Do you want a way to enjoy the outdoors with friends and neighbors soon? Invest in future enjoyment in the sun for the entire neighborhood this Saturday, April 25th, for the NSNA Earth Day Neighborhood Cleanup!

Hosted by our Greenspace Committee, the Earth Day Neighborhood Cleanup is our part in a city-wide effort to take care of our public spaces by picking up trash. From 10 AM to noon on Saturday, swing by the butterfly gardens on the corner of North and Commercial to pick up supplies and help prepare our parks for their summer glow-up. Cafe Domestique has graciously donated the most important supply in getting work done, aka coffee, so bring your reusable mug to fuel up before you head out.

If you’re going to spend time at Demetral Park, the City of Madison has an Earth Day Challenge to see how many people volunteered. Get your work counted and submit photos to show off how great our parks can look.

For more details about our Greenspace Committee, check out their recent newsletter or the Greenspace Committee page.

cochairs3d9c9460f2 Uncategorized

April NSNA meeting tomorrow Thu 4/2 and grant applications reminder

April NSNA General Meeting

Thu April 2nd, 6:30-7:30 PM at Hawthorne Public Library, or you can call-in virtually.

Grant applications

NSNA’s annual Giving Committee grant application window is underway! Applications will be accepted through Sun April 26th. Please share with anyone you know that might be interested in applying!

To learn more about our annual giving process, or if you would like to be more involved, you can visit our Giving Committee page here. You can see the full details about the process in our policies [PDF].

Curious about our 2025 NSNA Grant Awardees? Check out this post from Jun 2025