Community Brought Together with a Meet and Greet

What began as an idea in the mind of Grand Terrace local Michelle Matuszak quickly spread through the community of Grand Terrace. Her idea: a community meet and greet. Originally intended to be an event hosted at the Matuszak, for active adult members of the social media group “92313” to connect with one another, transformed into two events; one afternoon family-friendly event hosted by Laila Christian at Richard Rollins Park, and another evening adult-intended event hosted by Michelle Matuszak at her Grand Terrace home. Christian, who has lived in Grand Terrace with her family since 2008, is currently a stay-at-home mom for her four children, ages 3-10. Christian’s husband, Chad, works as an operator at California Steel in Fontana. Christian shares that in the everyday hustle and bustle of life, it’s easy to get caught up and not slow down long enough to meet and build relationships with your neighbors. This though, partnered with her desire to help create a tighter bond between neighbors throughout the community was her driving force behind volunteering to coordinate the event. Christian shares that one of her biggest concerns within the community is safety. “If everyone knew their neighbors, then we would be easy to spot someone out of place; my kids would know who to turn to and wouldn’t have to run home to tell someone about something that was happening.” Over 35 Grand Terrace residents, business owners, and community advocates came out for the event, hosted at Rollins Park, to meet their neighbors. Christian shares that before the event she only knew one of her neighbors, and now she shares that she knows over 40. Tim Lunstrum, Grand Terrace resident since 1988 and long-time business owner came out to the event with his wife Louise. “It was a blast! The kids had fun. It was an opportunity to get out and meet some of the neighbors,” Lunstrum shared. One by one attendees stood and introduced themselves to their neighbors. A bake sale put on by the Rec Center’s Teen Advisory Board followed the community introductions. A raffle was held at the event offering two movie packages, each containing two movie tickets, dinner gift certificates (donated by Food Connection), and movie snacks to go along with the evening. Raffle winners were Paula and Tony Howard and Trina Borecha. Attending community members, as well as residents who were unable to attend the event donated to help pay the rental fee for the park’s use during the event. Jennifer Araiza, advisor for the Rec Center Teen Advisory Board, has lived in Grand Terrace for nearly 10 years and has four children: two at Terrace View Elementary School and the other in pre kindergarten. Araiza said that the meet and greet was “A really encouraging event that provided them the inspiration to continue on their path of achieving their goals.” Araiza shared that the teen board will put the funds raised towards a few of their major concerns regarding the community: “Put it Forward” which is an encouraging movement of kindness with a goal of reducing negativity and increasing positivity, and the fight against cyber bullying. Teens and their families helped make the bake sale possible through both baking efforts and manning the booth at the event. The adult meet and greet also yielded a strong turnout full of contributing potluckers and interested and engaged community members. Together the meet and greet events succeeded in its goal of bringing community members together.