Southside Place Fire Truck Park Fund

The 9h Annual Southside Place Winter Wonderland Carnival was held on Saturday, December 3rd. Despite an incredibly wet start to the morning, (shout out to everyone that helped to urgently tarp the field so “the show could go on”) this much anticipated event was very well attended and a smash hit!

Families and friends enjoyed fun for all ages with carnival games and rides, bounce houses, face painting, a balloon artist, an impressive shopping bazaar, a silent auction, confetti eggs and of course photos with Santa and SNOW! Lunch tickets were included with every entry so carnival goers enjoyed Chick-fil-a or pizza plus chips and holiday cookies between the constant activities.

Hat’s off to this year’s chairs, Jessica Blackmon-Rychlicki, Melissa Goodman and Rebecca Pritchard. We are so appreciative of their time and efforts spent planning and preparing for this year’s event. In addition to the months of preparation, they shared their smiles, enthusiastic energy and positive attitudes with the vendors, volunteers and carnival attendees from the early morning, cold and wet set-up through to the end-of-the day clean-up. Thank you, Jessie, Melissa and Rebecca!

This year’s Winter Wonderland Carnival raised over $15,000 for the Southside Place Fire Truck Park Fund. The Fire Truck Park Fund raises funds for improvements to Fire Truck Park and green spaces in our community.

A very special thank you to our Corporate sponsors; Greenwood King-Heidi Dugan; Hacienda Brokerage LPG; Greater Houston Orthodontics; Goodsmith Home Care and Repair; Adair Concepts; Glow Medical Aesthetics; Shop Cos; Vinglace; NukeBat; Dentini Pediatric Dentistry, Greenwood King – Kathleen Graf; Greenwood King- Alexa Burrow; Murphy Oil – Kelly Whitley; Goldman Sachs – Kaitlin Pickard; Fletcher Bike Studio; and Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty, NOHO SOHO agents.

In addition, we are so grateful for our family sponsors! Thank you to the Droubi; Blackmon-Rychlicki; Goodman; Pritchard; Roe; McClaren; Dewitt; Frantz; Greaser; McDowell; Matthiesen; Walsh; Stanley; Steen; Economou; Mey-Sun; Luktas; Tilton; Leyendecker; Botros-Hamilton; and Chan-Woo families for their generosity. A huge thank you to all of the families who attended this lovely SSP annual tradition. The amazing support of our wonderful community each year helps make the Winter Wonderland Carnival a remarkable success!

See you in December 2023 for the 10th Anniversary Winter Wonderland Carnival!

The Splash Dash 2022 was a huge success!  Thank you to the over 145 participants who joined us for a fun and wet 2k fun run/walk through the streets of Southside Place.  Runners, walkers and strollers made their way through the route and by special “water stations” where they had the chance to run through fun inflatable sprinklers and not much of an opportunity to escape the volunteers with super-soakers!  We loved seeing the smiles from start to finish.  The Splash Dash ended with a jump in the pool of course and a lively pool party complete with DJ, cannon ball contests and prizes.

The event raised over $11,000 for the Fire Truck Park Fund!

Thank you to event chairs Alexa Burrow and Kristine Martinez and volunteer coordinator Rebecca Pritchard.  The chairs would like to thank Andrew Deavers, Parks and Rec Director for all of his assistance before, during and after the event as well as the SSP Police Department and Fire Department who ensured everyone was happy and safe throughout the morning and went above and beyond to help in anyway needed.

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors, Kristine Martinez, Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty; The Droubi family; Debbie Crow, Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty; Adair Kitchen; Avenu Fitness; Greenwood King Properties; Dentini Pediatic Dentistry; Vinglace; Alexa Burrow, Greenwood King Properties and Agency Yu.  Thank you to the FIDO Store Van that was on hand to provide tasty treats to our participants.

We hope you will join us next year!  It is fun you definitely do not want to miss!

We had a great summer in Southside Place! Over 210 families purchased Season Passes and enjoyed the pool all summer long.  As a reminder, Season Passes can be purchased on the city website and give you access to the pool and tennis courts, as well as a discount on clubhouse, pool and pavilion rental fees.  A Season Pass is also required to participate in Summer Camp or Swim Team.

We were so happy that Southside Summer Camp was back in session with over 100 neighborhood campers.  Southside kids of all ages had a blast and participated in lots of fun activities during the June and July sessions.  Favorites included an awesome animal visit and presentation, fun Friday lunches, Kona Ice, scooter races, cool art projects, foosball, park visits, board games and everyone’s favorite dodgeball game, Survival!  Southside Camp provides such a great opportunity for kids to reunite with their old friends and make new ones.

The Southside All-Stars Swim Team, led by resident Head Coach AJ Bradshaw, was a huge success with 120 children participating on swim team.  Swimmers had a ton of fun and improved their swimming through daily practices.  The All-Stars participated in three swim meets, including hosting the West U Piranhas for some friendly neighborhood competition!  The season ended with a celebratory banquet where the kids took home trophies for their efforts.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make the summer a success – we can’t wait to see everyone back again for Summer 2022!

All are invited to the SSP Civic Club Fall Kick-Off on Thursday, September 23^rd on the Southside Clubhouse Deck. Civic Club dues are $40/household for the year and can be paid with check, cash or credit card. Dues contribute to the Civic Club events September thru May. If you have any questions about Civic Club or would like to receive the Evite invitation to each event, please contact Jen Fink at jenfink@ymail.com.

The mission of the Southside Place Community Garden is to create a beautiful, shared, public space for growing organic fruits and vegetables to provide healthy organic foods to residents of Southside Place and nearby neighbors.

If you are interested in learning more about the Southside Place Community Garden, please visit our website at http://southsideplacecommunitygarden.org  or join us for a working meeting in the garden on the first and third Saturday of each month at 9 am in the summer and 2:30 pm in the winter.  Membership is free and no gardening experience is necessary. Email sspcgarden@gmail.com to join!

Be on the lookout for a flyer with details about our next music event in the garden!

We’re all lucky to live in such a wonderful place with amazing neighbors.  If you’d like to get more involved with one or more of the community groups in Southside Place, please email us at firetruckparkfund.org@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to put you in touch.  Thank you!