According to a March 2025 survey from the Pew Research Center, only one-fourth of adults say they know most of their neighbors, and less than half say they trust all of the people in their immediate community. Couple that with the recent pandemic, popularity of social media, and any number of other reasons people have to for staying home, and it can be easy to see why some may be feeling alone or isolated even when they live in a robust community.
That’s why it’s heartening to learn about local neighborhoods that are making an effort to connect and strengthen the bonds among people who live next door to each other. Claudia Wilson is trying to do just that with an event she started in January named Soup and Sustenance.
“My thought was at that particular moment right after the election, a lot of people were feeling a lot of anxiety and different feelings of disappointment and perhaps some fear about how things might change,” says Wilson. “I felt that it was important to develop some kind of support system to get to know people in your neighborhood or in your town.”
She lives on North Wilson Street in Bellefonte, and though she doesn’t live in a named community, she considers the surrounding streets and even beyond to be part of her neighborhood.
“Neighborhood can mean a lot of things. Your neighborhood can be bigger depending on what your perspective is,” Wilson says. “I wanted to get to know more people in my immediate neighborhood but also farther out in town. So I wrote up a little flyer and I went around and put it up at people’s houses. Some people I knew, some were friends, and then other people that I didn’t know at all. I hoped for the best.”
Wilson made soup while others brought snacks, salads, and drinks. Around 30 people showed up for the first event, and most of them were people she had never met before.
“There was no agenda. I did not have anything planned for how it was going to go. We sat in a circle and people talked about how they were feeling and why they were here. We had some really quality conversation about personal situations, including people coming to a new town and asking, ‘Where do I fit in? How do I find my place? Who can I talk to?’”
The event was such a success that Wilson hosted a second one the following month. The turnout was smaller, but that led to an even more intimate and personal atmosphere. Although the gatherings were intended to be monthly, Wilson took a break from planning them while running for a borough council seat this past spring. Now that she has more time on her hands, more events are in the works.
“I’m going to have another one this summer but I’m thinking of calling it Sweets and Social because it’s too hot for soup. And social just in the sense of trying to get people together to talk, to meet some new people, and put your hands out across the aisle. I think we need to do more of that.”
While Wilson’s gatherings have only just started this year, other neighborhoods in the area have had long traditions of different events, including the East Highlands neighborhood in State College. Mark Bergstrom has been involved in throwing an annual block party that evolved from a small backyard gathering that began in the early 2000s.
“I think 2004 was the first official time we got a permit and blocked off part of the street and initially called it the Foster 500 Block Party, focusing on just that block of Foster and the immediate surrounding area,” says Bergstrom. “And it ended up being such a good time we decided to continue doing it every August or September. Part of it was getting to know our neighbors and a little bit of an informal neighborhood watch to help people keep an eye on things when someone’s going on vacation or whatever else people feel comfortable asking each other.”
Some of the East Highlands block parties in the past have included live music and even a croquet tournament with a course that went from one yard to another. One particularly memorable moment in recent years involved quick thinking from a neighbor when apples started falling on the party.
“There was a tree that was dropping apples near where we had things set up and someone at the block party had an apple press, so he went home, brought the press back, and we were making apple juice while we were having this little party, so people really enjoyed that.”
Nearby Holmes-Foster has also held an annual picnic for several decades. Ron Madrid, president of the Holmes-Foster Neighborhood Association, said the community uses the picnic as an opportunity to both get people together and address any pressing issues or concerns residents may have.
“During the picnic, right before we have our election of officers, we usually go over issues of common interest,” says Madrid. “It might be something about security, going over an incident within the neighborhood that the police have been involved in, which is usually intoxicated people knocking on doors on the weekend or speeding along Westerly Parkway. A real common interest this year is going to be the zoning rewrite, which has the potential of severely impacting the look of the neighborhood in the future.”
Toward the end of each year, Harris Acres has a fairly unusual and popular gathering called the Luminary that has even attracted onlookers from outside the neighborhood, which is located off South Atherton Street. What began many years ago by Randy Hendrick, affectionately known as the “mayor of Harris Acres,” is now co-hosted by the Allatt and Davis families.
“We all spend the afternoon filling bags with sand and then driving around with a lot of the neighborhood children and laying all the bags out on both sides of the road,” says Josh Davis. “Throughout the evening, we light all those bags up, and then the whole community spends time walking around and looking at those lights and seeing everyone’s Christmas decorations as well.”
Paije Davis highlights how the gathering is a nice way for younger members of the neighborhood to help out and get involved.
“I think it really connects everyone from the youngest kids to some of the people who have been living here for years and years. It’s really a multi-age, generational event, and something that our community is very proud of,” she says. “Some of the same kids each year have come and helped out since they were in elementary school or younger, and now a lot of them are in high school or even in college. You really see it in how the kids have grown, and it’s a good milestone for the end of the year.”
Because Harris Acres is a fairly large development, Josh points out that many residents don’t know each other, especially people who have recently moved in, making the Luminary event an ideal time to make introductions.
“They were very happy and thankful for that opportunity,” he says of some new residents.
In addition to the Luminary, in the past Harris Acres has had a variety of community events including movie nights, Easter egg hunts, and block parties, some of which had fallen off in recent years. But this past September the movie night was brought back with a twist thanks to two local musicians and residents, Kate Twoey and Julian Allatt, who are members of the Skoal Brothers band. They played music during the day, before the movie, but there was also a surprise attraction.
“The historian from our development brought all of these artifacts dating back before even Meyer Dairy was here next to our development and just set everything out on a table,” Paije says. “People were obviously listening to music and hanging out, but then very much gravitated towards that table. It was so much fun to look through the history of when Harris Acres was just a field. We had kids that were starting to create this timeline of our actual community. So the event just turned out to be so impactful in so many ways.”
For anyone who is unsure if their own neighborhood hosts any events like these, a great place to start is asking your immediate neighbors or checking in with the neighborhood or homeowners association, if there is one. If there aren’t any events currently in the works, it’s never too late to plan a gathering of your own. Josh has some advice for anyone who is just getting started.
“Keep in mind that your first year or two it might be small, but it starts to become a tradition, and people start to look forward to going to it, and then it just continues to grow from there. In some cases, it does take a community, but often you just need one or two people who have an idea.” T&G
Matt Farley is a freelance writer in State College.
