Jokes chalked on sidewalks, teddy bears in windows, nightly noise, and front porch concerts, Sioux Falls' neighbors are doing their part to maintain community in a time of social distancing.
Katrina Lehr-McKinney lives in the All Saints Neighborhood near downtown Sioux Falls.
“We are all the same. We're all humans. We're all struggling,” says Lehr-McKinney.
Katrina Lehr-McKinney also serves as president of the All Saints Neighborhood Association. She helped organize a front porch concert stroll. It was held nearly seven weeks after the Mayor of Sioux Falls asked citizens to do their part to flatten the curve by maintaining social distancing.
“I think that human-to-human connection really shine through music and art. So, whenever we can lift up our humanity through the arts it will just helps all of us out,” she says.
Even though it was raining when the music stroll began, neighbors showed up for the event. Musician Jim Burzynski says the music helped everyone take their minds off the virus.
“It's moving to kind of have that kind of feeling the music brings you. [04:33-4:40] the feeling that you don't have to think about everything going on at that moment. You just can, you can just listen and enjoy,” says Burzynski.
Home to nearly 800 residents and Lyon Park, All Saints Neighborhood is one of Sioux Falls’ seven historic districts. And it is one of 20 organized neighborhood associations within the city. Diane de Koeyer is the neighborhood and historic preservation planner for the City of Sioux Falls. She says the associations are volunteer-run groups, organized to promote safety and community
“It's really to help bring people together. And it gives them more of a sense of community and really a sense of safety. Because I think when you know your neighbors and you're all looking out for each other, people do feel safer,” she says.
In her role, de Koeyer helps neighborhood associations get established and serves as a liaison between neighborhoods and the city.
“When you have that many strong and organized neighborhoods, it strengthens the city in the long run.”
Year-round, many neighborhood associations, like All Saints, maintain communication with neighbors through meetings, neighborhood Facebook pages, or like the Cathedral Historic District, an electronic newsletter. For nearly 15 years, Gail Cain and her husband, Sam have sent out a monthly newsletter to keep residents of Sioux Falls’ oldest neighborhood connected to each other and neighborhood happenings.
“Community is a group of people that care about each other and feel they belong together, and that's what I feel about this neighborhood. And it's sort of like we're all in this together - good times and bad,” Cain says.
And although neighbors can’t get together for potlucks or monthly book club or woodworker’s meetings, Cain still had information to publish. She collected ideas from neighbors for ways to safely stay connected. Ideas like putting teddy bears in the window for families to enjoy while walking, and even a nightly noise making session to show appreciation for essential workers.
The e-publication also features a neighborhood newspaper launched by two remote-schooling neighbors 9-year-old Parker Roti and 10-year-old Ophelia Ridout-Norris.
Both girls are students at Sonia Sotomayor. That’s the Sioux Falls’ public Spanish immersion school. The idea for Neighborhood News sprouted through a remote messaging conversation and features the girls’ observations from daily walks with their families.
“Obviously I want to be with my friends and my teacher…I feel like I'm doing something with someone with the community and that just and it helps me feel a part of something with other people.”
Feeling connected to her neighbors, a community outside the family she’s sheltering at home with, also means a lot to Cathedral neighbor, Leah Pidde.
“We can't have Grandmas and Grandpas over. We can't go to their homes and see cousins and aunts for holidays or anything like that. So this, becomes kind of our most immediate and most needed connection is seeing the people that we get to see all year round but now just their voices and their faces, even if it's from afar it means a lot more because they can't see so many of the other people that we love.”
And staying connected is more important today according to All Saints neighbor and musician Rick Weiland.
“When there's all that uncertainty about it, you know our healthy, our economy, and just to take a little break, you know on a Saturday afternoon from 4 to 5 to sing some songs. And to have people, you know, enjoy it as much as we did singing them and playing them - it was pretty uplifting,” he says.