Lake Park SACE Community Activities

THE SOCIETY HAS HAD A BANNER FIRST YEAR, JUNE 2024-2025

A partial list of our achievements this last year include: 

2024-2025
Credentialing for all federal, state, county and local licensing requirements to start a nonprofit and today are a fully legal 501 (c) (3). We filed our 2024 first tax return to the IRS.


We participated in the first Lake Park Multi-Cultural event and had a booth, educating residents on our mission and offering an attractive raffle. (October 2024).


We raised donations for a Thanksgiving 500 Turkeys give-away at the Lake Park Elementary School (November, 2024).


We raised donations for 1000 toys to support Santa at the Rusk Market. The Society had a booth. (December 2024).


The Society had a booth at the Lake Park Community Church during their BBQ. (December 2024).


We crafted the language that would later be adopted by Ordinance for a Lake Park "Civility and Decorum" standard when residents appear before the Town Commission.


We purchased golf shirts with our entire organization name embroided for all board members. These shirts help us become immediately recognizable to town Commissioners, town staff, and Lake Park residents when we are a part of an advocacy movement. 


We testified dozens of times at Town Commission Meetings on the current issues of the day. Town staff, the town Mayor and Commissioners and more and more residents are learning of our mission. We enjoy a positive reputation with Commissioners and town staff. They perceive us to be of good faith, organized, capable of leading a small army of advocates on an issue, and to create new ideas to address the problems of Lake Park. 


We network with Lake Park News, a local media outlet, who will now help to broadcast information about the mission of the Society and current updates on the issues we are leading.


We successfully worked on behalf of 40 homeowners around the sudden enforcement of an old gravel driveway ordinance prohibition. In large part due to our advocacy, the ordinance from the 1970s has now been updated, so residents are not burdened with the costs of upgrading their driveways. A long and protracted class action suit against the town was avoided. 


We established a business nonprofit bank account with Flagler Credit Union, invested half our financial assets into a dividend producing CD, and then raised $2000 from a donation from Flager for 2024. 


We are producing monthly/quarterly financial statements on QuickBooks every month, carefully accounting for our monies.


We purchased a pop up tent, cover and side signage and a table banner hawking our LPSACE.ORG website. We also have active accounts in social media in FaceBook and NextDoor. We plan on starting an InstaGram account in 2025. 


We have produced Society brochures, business cards for board members, and board member lanyards so we are easily identifiable at Lake Park events and meetings. 


We led 2 mass resident workshops for those objecting to any more high rise construction in Lake Park. It was reported that our town has rarely ever seen such advocacy that brought out so many residents unified behind a common goal. 


One of our Society Board officers was elected as a Town Commissioner, thus successfully adding to the town's legislative body a person who is resident engagement centered and supportive of our mission and activities.  Having a friend on the town Commission helps us to be well-positioned to continue successful resident engagement experiences.   


2025-2026 Lake Park SACE Initiatives (as funds allow)


We established our current initiatives to impact on the quality of life in Lake Park: a) culturally sensitive growth and development construction; b) resident participation in establishing the town budget; c) resident participation in all traffic calming proposals; d) resident participation in the upcoming town Strategic Vision and Plan; and e) partnering with the town to create awareness of a resident-driven volunteer call to participate in potentially 3 public safety programs (Neighborhood Watch, Civilians on Patrol, and Community Emergency Response Teams. Further, we are introducing the notion of Resident Advisory Committees or Task Forces, that would be established on an issue by issue basis, composed of vetted volunteers who share an interest in aspects of the business of the town. Finally, we have already started developing an AI-based software program that would provide high technology searches of Lake Park town public records including all emails, ordinances, notices, public comments, Commission minutes, legal opinions, consultant reports, and other business records. This will help us to develop advocacy strategies based on historical and current documents produced or received by the town. 


Get involved!! Contact us to discuss resident engagement opportunities!

 

The Society participated in the Lake Park Rust Market, a large monthly market of vendors who have saved older and antique collectables. We shared our booth with other non profits, like Change My Community and we provided virtually all of the 1000 toys that Santa distributed to the kids in attendance. Santa is ably played by none other than Society founding board member John Linden, a past Lake Park Commissioner. It was a beautiful day with many hundreds of shoppers going up and down Park Avenue in downtown Lake Park.  Pictured is Santa with Society board member Marie Lourdes Rosemberg, a Haitian community organizer, and her dear friend and Society volunteer Guerly who always comes out to support Society activities. December, 2024

In an effort to bring public awareness to the work of the Society, we participated in the first annual, "Lake Park Multicultural Event" held at Kelsey Park. We had information to distribute, a raffle prize for the participants,  and met with the Mayor of Lake Park about our concerns of the day. Pictured are Michael Steinhauer and 

Ralph Moscoso meeting with Mayor Michaud. Society Board member Marie Lourdes Rosemberg, a community organizer in the Haitian community, always participates in our events and always is able to coordinate volunteers to help staff the Society booth. 

 The Society was so proud to be one of only 2 or 3 non profits to participate in a free community BBQ event, sponsored by the Lake Park Community Church. The church is in a rebuilding stage to attract more members, and they have appreciated the mission and intentions of the Lake Park Society to Advance Civic Engagement. They have been a good partner, offering us meeting space and other amenities so we can also reach out to Lake Park residents. And the BBQ was delicious!