LEDC Update

Linden is making great progress as we move into this year’s holiday season!

The powder coating process on the historic water tower is moving along on pace with expectation. If the weather continues to maintain its favorability, we’re anticipating a completion date within the first week of December.

Speaking of the oncoming holidays, mark your calendar for December 5th if you haven’t already as it will be a jam-packed day for our little city.

Linden Lion’s Club will be putting on their annual Chicken Pot Stew fundraiser outside of City Hall starting in the morning and going through the early afternoon. This is a fundraiser that the Lion’s Club holds to raise money for scholarships that will be awarded to Linden-Kildare high school students as well as sponsorships to send said students to Girl’s State and Boy’s State. So, consider buying a cup or bowl of some delicious stew that day to help support the futures of our local student body.

The evening of December 5th will feature the Christmas tree lighting on the square as well as our annual Christmas parade. The tree lighting alone is easily one of the most exciting events we have all year, so having both on the same night will be twice the fun! There will be music, shopping, and more holiday spirit than you can shake a candy cane at.

Finally, December 5th will serve as the kick-off to the annual Linden Main Street Pop-Up Vendor event. If you have a passion that you want to try putting a retail spin on, consider picking up a vendor application either at City Hall or at the LEDC office. Many of the shops we have downtown today participated in Pop-Up events in years past, so you never know what might come of your small business idea!

Speaking of small business, two other key dates to keep in mind are November 20th and 30th. The LEDC’s first Small Business Workshop is taking place on the 20th (be sure to read my interview on that elsewhere in this week’s paper) and the 30th marks Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday is the national shopping holiday taking place immediately following Black Friday and put on to encourage shoppers to utilize small businesses in their early holiday shopping in addition to the big chain stores that they might already frequent.

Looking at this calendar of events we have coming up, I’m happy to see so many opportunities for Lindenites to come out, participate in the community, and enjoy one another’s company. Our organizations work hard to make events like these happen, and (contrary to what I would have ever thought before diving headfirst into this kind of thing) event planning is an incredibly difficult task to pull off.

If you don’t already, please consider volunteering with a local organization like Linden Lion’s Club, the Linden Area Chamber of Commerce, or Linden Main Street. These organizations are driven by their volunteer base and they are always extremely grateful to welcome new community members into their folds. Having a community as vivacious and wonderful as ours is a constant effort that calls for no small amount of human resources. Take it from one who has frequently participated as a volunteer, the sense of accomplishment and pride in your work that you get from volunteering is more than worth its weight in gold.