photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me all that
I have all these to Remember You
people who've lived here wouldn't be a
bit surprised to hear me say I've spent
my best days living working learning and
playing right here in Bexley
when I think about my own kids and
grandkids
I want them to have the good things I've
had living here
my point is it's it's an experience
worth preserving and passing on
could wrap a fancy ribbon around it or
maybe make a movie about it
they could call it something like the
Bexley experience
play it every day at the Drexel free
you can't hit everyone over the head
with it but I I think it helps to hear
some of our resonance talk about their
experience
growing up in Bexley is but it was a
great experience for me I witnessed a
culture that is hard to find anywhere
not just Ohio but anywhere really in
America I've had the privilege of
traveling this country and I have found
that there are very few communities that
have the richness that Bexley has
growing up in Bexley with a large family
is that there was always someone around
whether it was a cousin to play with
cookouts at my grandmother's around the
corner or someone to help guide you
through school with classes to take or
teachers to have it was very comforting
and I'm hoping for something similar for
my daughters this is a community that
you want to be a part of well I mean for
us I mean everything is here the schools
the banks the post office us the movie
theater ice cream
Capitol University it's all
it's all here one of the things that
really impressed me about the community
was the role of the neighborhood and the
value that neighbors place on taking
care of each other
it was also very clear that
intrinsically they valued the
educational institutions that they
valued the ability to become civically
engaged in the community to make it a
better place to make it a sustainable
Community one of the things that's
that's really unique and special about
this community and you kind of see it
back here as is is people have an
opportunity to experience a number of
different things part of that is the
volunteerism that I do that my family
does my parents my husband his family
and now we have children who are in the
school system here and we hope that
they'll grow up here and feel that one
day they can give back in the same way
that we have I'm a third generation
Bexley resident and and Mom ran into
somebody today older than she who said
oh and referred to her by her maiden
name so just to see that depth of
tradition that depth of those
relationships is has been really
heartening we support each other in a
way that allows us
um to for example in my life I grew up
here I participated in programs just
like this in our youth sports in our
summer camps so in 15 years we've
watched
people get married babies grow up kids
from Little move on to college
um you know Giuseppe said something
recently where he said it's not my
kitchen anymore it's
it's everyone's kitchen and they're not
our clients anymore they're our friends
we provide a number of programs and it
starts all the way with our youth
programs and our preschool and summer
camp programs all the way up through our
senior programs and everything in
between and everybody comes to Capital
University and ends the evening
a community of 5 000 people listening to
music watching fireworks at the end of
the night enjoying the vendors who are
all a part of this community as well and
having fun with the music and the crafts
and the children and the family
activities so it's a great night to not
only transform a university but to
really transform the entire Community as
as one entity it's been a awful good
ride for me and always have been told
that it's very difficult to do business
in this community I've found that that
has been absolutely contrary I would
encourage anybody to start a business in
Bexley you know you are in a small
community but you're living in a big
city your freeway your downtown is only
10 minutes away and anywhere else you
want to go it's one step away in the
meantime you're living on a great small
community where everybody know you
everybody know you are you got great
restaurants in the neighborhood a movie
theater
I mean what else you want yeah we have a
great Thursday night activities here
we've got a little group that plays and
they have a following that enjoys coming
in and listening to to the music and
that's really grown we have a group of
probably 70 to 80 people sitting around
here listening to music enjoying ice
cream so part of what's so great about
the city are its events when you think
about the Fourth of July it transforms
this city from being individuals to
being a community just the sense of you
know this is a place where you can be
and it supports you in a way that allows
you to really meet the goals and and
dreams that you want to have
I was a kid the way communities rally
around each other the way they support
each other's businesses that has been
probably the most pleasing part one of
the things that I feel most grateful for
is the ability to work in an institution
that can support that
foreign
we're lucky we have people who want to
help preserve our Bexley experience
they've come together and formed a new
organization called the Bexley Community
Foundation
I'm excited about their work and that
something so important in my life will
be here for my children and
grandchildren
way back when
morning walks and bedroom talks so how I
loved you then