LPNA: Wrap up of 2024
2024 started with newly elected officers: Adam Rustige as President, replacing Pat Acquisto who stepped down after 6 years of great leadership – thank you Pat! Lisa Roggeman as Vice-President, replacing Adam Rustige. Jenna Stout as Secretary, replacing Lisa Roggeman. Carol Hofer retained her position as Treasurer. The LPNA Board of Directors is made up entirely of volunteers who step up to organize our many events throughout the year. Our current Board of Directors consists of: Adam Rustige, Lisa Roggeman, Jenna Stout, Carol Hofer, Tim Nowell, Greg Roggeman, Milton Murry, Pat Acquisto, Emily Yale, John Harris, Sara Davis and Greg Todd.
We had a packed year of events this year, including:
Meetups (formally Tweetups) are organized each month by Lisa Roggeman, and they take place at a different bar/restaurant in or around our neighborhood. Meetups are happy hours where neighbors have the opportunity to meet new people, chat to visitors and try out a favorite restaurant or visit a new one. They are typically held on the 4th Tuesday (or Wednesday) of a month and it’s a great way to support our local businesses. This year we had Meetup’s at LoRusso’s (January), Ari’s (February), Afghan Kabob House (March), El Paisano (April), Biggie’s (May), Pietro’s (June), Chilanguita (July), Babe’s/Vinnies/Pizza-A-Go-Go (August), Aya Sofia (September), Picadilly at Manhattan (October) and Trattoria Marcella (November). There is no Meetup scheduled in December.
Our 4 Neighborhood Meetings were held on the first Mondays in March, June and December, with the September one held the Monday after Labor Day. We had great turnouts for all meetings, and we try to cram as much Lindenwood Park feedback as possible into them. We have feedback from our Alderman Bret Narayan and NIS Karen Clifford (and formally Brian Kolde), our State Representative, Donna Baringer, who we wish well, as she has reached her term limit, but we greatly appreciate all her hard work on our behalf. We will welcome Nick Kimble in her place next year. Molly Pfeiffer from Machacek Library always has excellent info for us about exciting happenings at the library, and Katie Weintraub from Lindenwood Area Senior Ministry gives us amazing feedback about the wonderful programs available to seniors in our neighborhood. We had some amazing guest speakers such as Gabe Gore (prosecuting attorney for the City), a guest from Animal Control, Neighborhood Foresters and Sophia Garcia of SLDC.
The Flea Market organized by Lisa Roggeman, took place at Watson Terrace Christian Church on May 26th. We had a great response from vendors renting tables and then a huge response from the neighborhood, with people donating items to the LPNA tables for resale. There were 26 tables full of wonderful items. Anything that wasn’t sold was donated to various charities. Our net profit was a little over $1,000. The flea market is a fun event, held inside during the spring and thank you to all our volunteers who made this event possible!
Lindenwood Live is organized by Tim Nowell and Greg Roggeman. This year we had planned on having 4 concerts, but the inclement weather caused us to cancel the first one in May. Neil Salsich and his band performed in June, The Tremendous Slouches in August, and Klose Kuarters in September. They were great and we, once again, had a very generous turnout. T-shirts and flags were sold from the LPNA booth as well as info handed out and membership dues collected. Food trucks were a huge hit – we had some old favorites as well as several new ones. We said a fond farewell to New York Tom’s as he is retiring. He’s been a great supporter of LPNA!
Our Lawn and Garden contest was organized by Miriam Moynihan and her team of judges. Various gardens were nominated and the judges visited all of them and then made the decisions amongst themselves. Congratulations to the winners: Ryan Stewart & Mollie Neil – 31xx Tamm, Charles Northcutt & Brian Duggan – 60xx Marquette, Joseph Mueller & Rodney Bequette – 60xx Arthur, David Meyerkord – 66xx Winona, Deborah Lavelle – 69xx Hancock, Mary Safron – 65xx Scanlan, Christine Milfeld – 66xx Lindenwood, William Hetzler & Adam Sears – 66xx Marquette and Lisa & Greg Roggeman – 70xx Pernod. Thank you to all the nominees for making a wonderful effort to spotlight your gardens.
The LPNA Trivia Night was organized by Pat Acquisto and was very well attended and a great success. The theme this year was Space Odyssey. People dressed up, decorated their tables and had a great time. Local businesses were once again, exceptionally generous with their donations towards attendance prizes, raffle baskets etc. There were 14 tables sold and a profit of around $2,700 was made. Volunteers helped by collecting money, providing snacks, organizing the questions, decorating, setting up tables and cleaning up afterwards.
LinFest is held every other year, and this year was held on October 5th and was organized by Lisa Roggeman and Emily Rogier and their team of volunteers. It was another big success with 14 fantastic sponsors and 48 vendors, including talented artisans, local businesses, food trucks, food vendors, and a beverage vendor! The weather was perfect! Kids were entertained by the Bubble Van, a Video Game truck, a balloon artist, local churches and the library providing crafts, GSA’s choir and orchestra, and dance moves from Tapping with Tina. Needy Paws Rescue organized a great Pup Parade with prizes for the best dressed dog and best dressed owner and dog! Our LinFest band, Swipe Right, provided the perfect ambiance for the day and were most generous in allowing us to make many announcements. There were 25 raffle baskets stuffed full of items, again, so generously donated by local businesses – we were totally in awe of the generosity and a huge thank you to Amy Rustige for putting together the baskets so beautifully. We had an amazing group of volunteers helping us all day with set up, and tear down and ensuring that everything ran smoothly. We are so incredibly thankful for all their help. Our profit from LinFest was around $7,800.
The Holiday Lighting Contest is headed up by Matt Walbaum. Every December a group of people travel around the neighborhood looking for the best or most unique display of lights and holiday decorations. Winners are rewarded with a winning sign in their yards.
Our Block Captains group is run by Laurie Klein. There were 4 meetings held throughout the year with block captains sharing what is happening on their blocks. Our guests this year were both of our Neighborhood Improvement Specialists, Brian Kolde and Karen Clifford. Brian guided us for the first part of the year and then Karen came back to our neighborhood after a brief stint away. Paul Dischert, THE Block Captain of the Century, spoke to us about our roles as Block Captains and all he does to keep his neighbors engaged and happy. Molly Pfeiffer of Machacek Library had oodles of information for us to peruse about the many opportunities that the library offers. The items we can borrow, the programs they host and of course there are the books. Katie Weintraub showed a lovely video about LASM then spoke about all they do for the seniors in our neighborhood. Aaron Dohogne, tree planter extraordinaire, shared his passion for trees and taught us the proper way to water and support a new addition to your yard. Then Mary Lou Green, Director of Brightside STL stepped in and answered our questions about their many programs to beautify St. Louis and the conversation even turned into recycling and trash. The 2025 Block Captain’s meetings will be held on February 11th, April 8th, July 8th and October 14th at Timothy Lutheran Church at 6pm. Thanks again to Rev. Dinger who has been so gracious in letting us borrow one of the rooms in his church for our meetings.
Our Membership committee is run by Lisa Roggeman. We have several thousand households in Lindenwood Park and currently have 307 paid-up members. Dues are $15 per household per year and can be paid online or by check at any of our events. The membership committee also handles putting together welcome packs for all new residents who move into our neighborhood. Welcome packs are partly delivered by Block Captains.
The Safety Committee is run by Adam Rustige. It had a slow year in 2024. In the first couple years, we started with promoting the 9PM Routine, gave away 911 magnets, reported weekly crime data from SLMPD on Facebook. Our elected leaders continue to promote a decrease in crime and, looking at what is being reported in our neighborhood, that seems to be true. Recently we received over 50 responses to our survey on what our neighborhood is interested in from a safety perspective. We will be using that data to help guide us in 2025.
The Beautification team, run by Milton Murry and Sharon Panian. They head up the community garden and the Wabash native flower garden. The community garden is located behind St. Michael’s Universal Church at Leola & Smiley. Seed St. Louis (formally Gateway Greening) provided seed packets and seedlings at low prices. Some raised beds and the compost container were repaired. Vegetables and flowers were grown in the beds, with some excess veggies being donated to the Senior Center on Arsenal. Garden members currently pay an annual fee of $10 for the growing season. Responsibilities include maintaining their raised bed plot and contributing to the community garden maintenance, as well as helping to keep the church property clean. We appreciate the church allowing us to use their land free of charge. The Wabash Flower Garden consists of native perennials and is located across from 7080 Oleatha, backing onto Wabash. We spread mulch, weeded and watered throughout the season.
MODOT is no longer supporting the highway cleanups, but our Green Team, headed by Tim Nowell, decided to continue to keep the entrance to our neighborhood clean. 4 highway cleanups were completed this year, with an average of 8-10 volunteers helping to pick up trash and debris along I-44E. An incredible amount of trash (and some weird stuff) is collected each time, and we dispose of it ourselves now that MODOT won’t collect it. LPNA pays for a company to cut the grass at the I-44E exit at Jamieson (the triangle) to try and keep the weeds and long grass in check. We also take care of the weeds in the median area too.
Our Park Chairperson, Emily Yale, with the help of Aaron Dohogne, organized 2 big Park Cleanups in the Spring and early Fall. It was well attended by volunteers who mulched, weeded, planted, collected trash, picked up downed limbs and did a general tidy up of the park. Several seniors from local schools earned community service hours by helping us! During the Fall cleanup we also were able to empty the office building of all our stored items and move them to a smaller storage room in anticipation of the office being renovated.
Our Communications team do a great job of keeping neighbors updated with current events. Our website is constantly updated by our Webmaster, Greg Roggeman, who is assisted by Wendy Barnes and Greg Todd. They do a great job of keeping things current. Pat Acquisto keeps a watchful eye on the Facebook group and Lisa Roggeman is constantly posting information to keep everyone in the loop.
Our Century Homes program is run by Jenna Stout, Kay Campbell and Miriam Moynihan. We are proud to have our over 100-year-old houses recognized throughout the neighborhood with a Century Homes plaque. This year we have sold 22 plaques. There are now 106 Century Home plaques in the neighborhood!
We were thrilled to welcome back Karen Clifford to our neighborhood as our Neighborhood Improvement Specialist (NIS). Karen has been instrumental in helping us take care of so many neighborhood issues and we value her dedication to Lindenwood Park! Thanks to Brian Kolde who served our neighborhood for the first part of the year.
We would like to thank everyone who participated, volunteered and attended any of our events throughout the year. The LPNA Board members are all volunteers who donate an immense amount of time and energy to the neighborhood, from attending many meetings, writing up and posting info on social medial, keeping the website up to date, finding people to participate in events, soliciting sponsorship, setting up chairs for meetings, providing snacks, giving up weekends and various other days to be present, and so much more. We appreciate all the help and involvement that is given. If you are interested in volunteering for any of our events or would just like to help with anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
When people ask, “what do I get for my membership dues?” THIS is where your $15 per year per household goes. Events don’t just happen. Flowers don’t plant themselves. Trash doesn’t miraculously disappear. Bands don’t play for free. We appreciate our members who diligently renew their membership every year. You can sign up to become a member, or renew your membership to the Lindenwood Park Neighborhood Association. All monies received are put back into our neighborhood. Sign up today at www.lindenwoodpark.org/join.
On behalf of the LPNA Board, we would like to wish you and your family’s happy holidays and a peaceful, joyful and healthy 2025. We look forward to seeing you at our events next year!
Sincerely,
Lisa Roggeman, Vice-President
Lindenwood Park Neighborhood Association