Activities
Yard Sale
The NPNA holds its annual neighborhood-wide yard sale on the first Saturday in June. This year’s yard sale will be on Saturday, June 1, 2024.
The NPNA Yard Sale draws people from near and far and is a great way to get rid of clutter, meet some neighbors and make money. This event is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the NPNA, helping pay for neighborhood projects.
A $10 registration fee will get your home included on a hard copy & electronic neighborhood map with descriptions of your items for sale. For a $30 fee, you can place an ad for an organization or business along the boundary of the map. (Ads do not necessarily have to be regarding the yard sale.) You keep all the money you make at your sale. Your registration fee pays for the advertising and the rest goes into the NPNA fund to help pay for neighborhood projects.
The NPNA provides a newspaper ad (MLIVE), enhanced ads on online garage sale listing sites, posts signs at the boundaries of our neighborhood, and distributes the neighborhood hard copy maps. Use this opportunity to get rid of a lot of cool stuff you no longer need. There are always hundreds of eager customers.
In addition to the $10 fee for registering your sale, you also have the opportunity to pay your $10 annual NPNA household dues at the same time if you’d like. All households in the Normal Park neighborhood are automatically members of the Normal Park Neighborhood Association (NPNA). The NPNA does not require dues from its members, but voluntary dues support NPNA events like the ice cream social, Halloween parade, and general meetings.
Community Gardens
In 2004, with assistance from Growing Hope, residents of the Normal Park and Woods Road neighborhoods in Ypsilanti established the Recreation Park Community Garden (RPCG). This neighborhood growing space located adjacent to the Ypsilanti Senior Center in Recreation Park includes 18 plots maintained by individuals and families, an accessible raised bed for seniors and a plot for the “Plant a Row for the Hungry” program, to raise fresh vegetables for the hungry distributed through Food Gatherers.
The response to the Rec Park garden was so great an additional location was sought. In 2005, West Middle School (now WIMS/WIMHS on Mansfield) offered gardening space for a school and community garden. Construction of the Normal Park Community Garden began in early April 2005.
Also in 2005 the Midtown Neighborhood Association created their own community garden on North Congress Street.
Membership in the community gardens is open to everyone. People of all ages and experience levels are encouraged to participate. We hope to accommodate all who wish to garden at these locations. Participants must register and will be assigned a garden plot in which to grow organic fruits, vegetables, and flowers. If any potential participants have special accessibility needs, Growing Hope may be able to accommodate them with raised beds.
The Normal Park and Midtown Community Gardens are a neighborhood growing space. The long term goals are to:
- increase neighborhood access to fresh, local produce
- provide an opportunity for outdoor physical activity
- increase community cohesion
- strengthen partnerships among organizations in Ypsilanti.
To get involved or to learn more please contact:
Rec Park Community Garden: Lisa Bashert at wombbat@umich.edu
Normal Park Community Garden: Tom Genyk at tgenyk@gmail.com
Midtown Community Garden: Roberta Andrews at robertawandrews@hotmail.com
For more information on Growing Hope please see their website at www.growinghope.net.
Rutherford Pool
975 Congress Street
Office: (734) 482-4401
Website
The pool will reopen Memorial Day weekend. For a full schedule and pricing, check out the pool’s website http://forpool.org/
New Neighbors
Remember moving into Normal Park and wondering, ‘Where is the closest hardware store?’ ‘When is trash day?’ or ‘I wonder if there is anything fun to do around here?’. To help answer these and other questions the Normal Park Neighborhood Association has put together a Welcome to the Neighborhood! bag for new neighbors.
The welcome bag contains information about Normal Park, Ypsilanti, and the surrounding area. Some of the items included in the bag are the Ypsilanti Courier Resource Guide, maps, EMU sports schedules, Ypsilanti Museum listings, Ypsilanti District Library information, coupons, and much more!
The New Neighbor program’s goal is to greet each new neighbor that moves into our neighborhood.
If you live near someone who has moved to our neighborhood recently, or in the future a new neighbor moves in, please contact a board member. We will coordinate getting a welcome bag to our new neighbors as soon as possible.
If you are interested in helping to welcome our new neighbors to Normal Park or have an item you would like included, please contact any NPNA board member.
Welcome to our neighborhood!