Happy Thursday, North Chatt! 👋🏻

It’s Logan, your Roundabout Community Steward, with another weekly roundup of what’s happening in the community!

It’s Thursday, which means that sweet, sweet Memorial Day Weekend is within our reach! If you’re looking for something to get into before your family’s traditional family cookout (or rather instead of? No judgement here! 😅) then we’ve got you covered this weekend. Scroll on through for the full rundown!

In this week's edition: celebrate graduation week, check out the return of two summer staples, volunteer for mental health, and meet Chattanooga's ultimate outdoor explorer

TALK OF THE TOWN

It’s Graduation Week! 🎓 If you’ve walked across a stage, or had the privilege of celebrating this milestone with a loved one, congratulations on your journey! Feel free to share your graduation photos with the community (or even drop some photos from previous years if you want to take a trip down memory lane like I did 👀).

Hamilton County Mayor candidate Mark Herndon and District 1 Commission candidate Mona Petro hosted a meet-and-greet on Tuesday evening at the Soddy-Daisy Community Center. Neighbors talked about conserving Soddy-Daisy and Sale Creek’s natural beauty and supporting mental health in our school systems. After the gathering, attendees canvassed in the community and wrote postcards to engage voters after only a 5% early ballot turnout in Hamilton County. What’s important to you as a resident that our local leaders should consider?

Two Northshore restaurants are sadly closing their doors, Bela Lisboa and Stevarino’s Italian Eatery & Pub. They've cited increased operating costs cutting into profitability.

THINGS TO DO

Memorial Day weekend right after grad week makes this summer's unofficial launch party. The pools are opening, and something is happening everyday from Thursday through Sunday.

We’ve got two big summer staples returning this weekend:

🌊 NoogaSplash kicks off the season at Chester Park Frost Beach in Hixson this Friday from 11am to 8pm with an expanded aqua park and a brand new rock tower slide. They’ll be open all summer long, making it the perfect addition to a beach day or your weekend camping plans. 

🎸 On Saturday evening, TVFCU returns for their weekly summer concert series, Riverfront Nights at Ross's Landing starting at 6pm. This free event features several local musicians every Saturday through September. Who are you excited to see?

What else is happening in North Chatt?

🍕 If you're trying to satisfy your inner foodie, this weekend has you covered. Pedestrian Wine and Cheese Shop is throwing a Pizza & Wine Pairing Party on Friday featuring YES WHEY sourdough, curated wines, and cocktails.

The Soddy-Daisy Farmer's Market also opens for the season at Poe's Tavern on Saturday morning with local produce, handcrafted goods, and home-cooked finds worth the drive, and the Chattanooga Street Food Festival closes out the weekend at First Horizon Pavilion on Sunday from 11am–4pm with free admission and everything from burgers to beignets to munch on.

📚 For a quieter close to the weekend, Bookanooga's Fiction Book Club meets Sunday morning at Drip Kitchen and Coffee at 10am (reading The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah), and HART Gallery's Ink & Imagination Workshop Sunday afternoon continues its three-part Mental Health Awareness Month series. A $10 donation is suggested, but any amount is appreciated.

You can find all of these events and more in our community calendar! If there's anything we missed, you can easily add to it with a quick photo or link to an existing event on your website/socials. 🙂

HELP A NEIGHBOR

Want to help provide mental health resources and prevent suicide? Aside from stewarding Roundabout, I’m also the Board Chair for our local AFSP Chapter! I’m putting out feelers for volunteer and vendor interest for this year’s Out of the Darkness Walk on November 1st. Chime in here if that’s you! 

Hear ye, hear ye! 📯 The inaugural Chattanooga Renaissance Fair is still looking for volunteers to help out with things next week! Fill out their volunteer form if you’re interested! 

Need help with something? People have signed up for Roundabout North Chatt because they actively want to build community and help each other out. If you have a question, opportunity, or are looking for support in some way, post about it in Roundabout’s Help & Recs channel and we’ll include it in this roundup next week. Don’t be shy!

COOL LOCAL PEOPLE

Meet Amanda Collins: the Chattanooga-based creator behind Exploring Chatt, who's spent over 12 years turning her genuine love of local exploration into one of the area's most practical outdoor resources.

You may have already crossed paths with her work if you’ve joined Roundabout in the past couple of months, as she curated our Beginner's Hiking Guide to North Chattanooga, handpicking six accessible trails from her website with maps, parking tips, and personalized recommendations that you may not always get from official Parks & Rec resources.

Hop in and say hello to Amanda in Roundabout, and also take this opportunity to ask any questions about Chattanooga’s outdoor and recreation scene from a seasoned adventurer’s perspective!

GET INVOLVED

Roundabout is a project for and by the North Chattanooga community.

You can contribute by sharing updates in the space, adding events to the calendar (even if you’re not the host!), or answering other people’s questions or requests for help.

If you liked this email, forward it to any friends, family, or neighbors who you think might also benefit from it.

They can quickly sign up at https://joinroundabout.com/northchatt and will get it straight in their inbox next week!