You can get me to do pretty much anything for free eggs and sausages, so this past Saturday’s free pancake breakfast hosted by non-profit We Love Long Beach at Livingston Park was right up my alley.
In just over a year of existence, We Love Long Beach has hosted several community events, barbeques and breakfasts like this one with the goal of uniting neighbors and bringing fellow Long Beachians together from all over the city.
We spoke with WLLB director Scott Jones back in May, as his organization was gearing up to host one of their many barbeques. The vision that he, his sister Robin and friend Adam Ferry have put together is beginning to pay dividends – in the form of community bonding. That May barbeque drew a huge crowd, and this weekend’s breakfast brought out hundreds – not just from the surrounding Belmont Shore area, but all over Long Beach. Robin told me that before I arrived, they’d run out of eggs and had to make a run to the store for more. As their public recognition has increased (the group also writes a weekly piece in The District), so has the popularity of their events. Because of the success of the breakfast and other events, WLLB is getting serious about another barbeque in September and possibly another breakfast in Bixby Knolls sometime after that.
For anyone interested in connecting with their community and its residents, that’s good news. I struck up random conversations with plenty of people during breakfast that I otherwise would never have met (one even convinced me to go to Mardi Gras next year). These are the types of experiences that a community like Long Beach is capable of creating, and that WLLB is dedicated to promoting.
It’s all about getting to know your neighbors and feeling connected with your community – something that seems very… I don’t know… Long Beach, I think. Don’t you?