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Hysterically Historical #11

By Pete Jacobsen
Posted: 05/23/2025

   When Eastside Village first launched, most of the members were service members, most often looking for rides. It took a while to get the social side going well. Early on, a Book group was formed, followed by a movie group. Another early group was the Sunshine Group, which is still around but now called Rain or Shine. The Sunshine group kept an eye out for Members who needed special help - maybe meals or visits, or maybe just a card letting them know there fellow Members were thinking of them.

   Once we had established a web presence using Club Express, there were multiple classes on using the features of the website. For a while, they held monthly work parties at a Member's home. At one point, they partnered with two other villages, North Star and Northeast, to hold an event with Atul Gawande.

   There were also bi-monthly Volunteer trainings, and they began holding monthly Eastside Village 101 classes, introducing our village to potential members. There were also several all-member meetings.

   During these first few years, as membership grew from the original 25 Members to almost 100, many of the new members joined as social members, bringing the balance between service and social members closer to even.

   Then, in early 2020, we all remember what happened!