Greater Lauraville Gazette

Hamilton Hills Joins as Our Seventh Member Neighborhood!

On September 4, 2007 the board of directors unanimously votes to accept the Hamilton Hills community as our seventh member neighborhood. The following excerpt is from the document presented to the board for their consideration of the proposed expansion:

Hamilton Hills Neighborhood Association (HHNA) is a well-organized, active and progressive community association in Northeast Baltimore. HHNA was formerly known as HEPP (Harford Echodale Perring Parkway Community Association), founded in 1949. The name of the organization was changed to Hamilton Hills in 2003. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, incorporated and the Bylaws updated by the general membership in 2000. Since the 90s, the organization has increased its presence in the community and initiated neighborhood improvement events and projects within our boundaries (roughly Harford Road and Old Harford Road to the East, Echodale Avenue to the South, Perring Parkway to the West and the Baltimore City line to the North). Because this area is geographically large and housing stock diverse, the association focuses primarily on the residential needs. We do not deal with the apartment complexes in the Northern end, nor do we have much interaction with north of Northern Parkway. Our finances are secure and we generate income through membership dues, advertisements, and grants. We have a strong membership rate and for the past four years, paid memberships average around 150 households. This year, we broke the mark with 200 paid voluntary dues of $10 per household. In recent years, the Steering Committee (our board members) has led the organization on a strategic and aggressive promotion of our community.

HHNA's energetic volunteers provide countless hours to improve the community and make Hamilton Hills an attractive place to live. We offer a variety of monthly, bi- monthly, or annual events to our residents. Every month, we arrange for a DPW dumpster for neighborhood clean ups. Seasonally, we organize Community Clean Ups by working with Hamilton Elementary/Middle School students to help clean up area parks. We have volunteers participating on C.O.P each weekend. HHNA has organized annual Block Parties (also know as Fall Picnic), Community-Wide Yard Sales, Community Art Projects (Students painted a mural on Westfield and students designed our current bumper sticker and gateway sign), annual Home and Garden Tour, and other events. These events have been graciously supported by grants from HARBEL/BCF and Baltimore Office for Promotion and the Arts. Our first annual Hamilton Art Crawl, a six-day extravaganza celebrating the arts, music, and businesses in Hamilton took place May 2007, was a success. The Hamilton Art Crawl was an amazing collaboration between Herring Run Artists' Network, Hamilton Arts Collective, Hamilton Business Association, Baltimore Development Corporation, and Hamilton Hills Neighborhood Association. We are pleased to announce that we have early commitments from our sponsors for Hamilton Art Crawl 2008!

In addition to all these special events, we hold meetings every month and distribute paper newsletters to all the homes within our boundaries and businesses along Harford Road. Our bi-monthly newsletter is our primary source of information disbursement to our residents. Although we are awaiting redesign on the website (http://www.hamilton- hills.org/) and creating a new list-serve, we continue to print 2400 copies of the newsletter that are distributed door to door using 21 of our dedicated newsletter distribution volunteers. Our general meetings are open to all and are held on the third Wednesday of odd number months at 7:30pm at Faith Community Church. Depending on the agenda or guest speakers we have been averaging 40-50 attendees for the past two years, a steady 50% increase year after year. Our Steering Committee Meetings are also held bi- monthly (on the even months) at 7pm at volunteers' homes. We have 16 diverse residents on our Steering Committee that work as a team and support one another's ideas and projects; they are the most devoted and hard working volunteers varying in ages, backgrounds, professional experiences, and years of residence. In addition to our busy Steering Committee, we also have 20 other volunteers that support our special events and 9 members in the newly formed Community Improvement Committee.

We have liaison volunteers who help include Hamilton Elementary/Middle and WEB Dubois High School Students and Staff in clean ups, community art projects, and block parties. In past years, we have made it priority to increase communication and collaborative activities with Hamilton Business Association, Baltimore Development Corporation, Department of Planning, Live Baltimore, Herring Run Watershed Association, HARBEL, Faith Community Church, St. Dominic, Hamilton Arts Collective, and Herring Run Artist Network. By being an active organization, we hope to inform residents of important issues and to promote camaraderie among neighbors.