It all started with a story in the local newspaper. A few years back, longtime Burnaby resident Lindy McQueen had came across a news story about the plan to replace the Edmonds Value Village with more high rises.
"And I thought: 'No, no more isolation. We've got to start building community and connecting neighbours,'" she recalls.
With all the schools in the area and the diverse demographics, McQueen saw the opportunity to create a really strong community - the neighbourhood just needed a little push.
"I'm retired and I love organizing things, and my husband said run with it," she says.
So in spring, 2013, Lindy and her husband started EPIC - Edmonds People In Community, a new residents' association for the Edmonds neighbourhood - but that was just the beginning.
McQueen got talking with her friend and fellow churchgoer Jeff Neufeld about hosting some kind of music event in Edmonds and hosted a show last fall. It went so well, they decided to expand it this year into a series, which kicks off June 29 in the Edmonds Park Plaza, just outside of the new community centre. Neufeld, who sings and plays guitar, will be performing.
"It's going to be fun. We want to build community, and if you have a free concert, where people bring their own chairs and blanket and listens to music, it's going to be awesome," McQueen says.
Neufeld also hosts an open mike session at the Blenz coffee shop on Sixth and Sixth in uptown New Westminster, which doubles as a venue to audition new talent for Music in the Park. People who do well on open mike night could be invited to perform in the park.
Given that Edmonds is known for its high numbers of refugees and new Canadians, Lindy is hoping to draw people out with the universality of music.
"Music is international. It's not like it's a Sudanese thing or a French thing or an Albania thing - everybody loves music," she says. "If we could do music and people just come and sit and listen, and they bump into someone and realize they live a block away from each other, we just don't know what can come out of it."
What's she's hoping for is the classic formula of building community by connecting neighbours.
"That's what it's all about," she adds.
The EPIC Music in the Park series runs the last Sunday of June, July and August, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Edmonds Park Plaza, just outside the community centre at 7433 Edmonds St. People can bring their own chairs, or spread out a blanket on the grassy area, and listen to local talent with their neighbours.
For more information on Music in the Park, or to arrange an audition, contact McQueen via email at [email protected].
