The MLNA Ice Cream Social is our biggest social event of the year. Photos of the ICS on Sunday, August 27, 2023, are here. The event drew over 400 people and enabled them to:
Visit the ice cream table for a free individually wrapped ice cream treat.
Ask Gizmo Gary for a balloon creation.
Make a name tag so their neighbors could meet them, and pick up a copy of the ice-breaker game.
Visit the Newcomer Welcome Team’s table for information for new residents (and their neighbors).
Meet Mountain View Whisman School District Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph and Chief Business Officer Rebecca Westover, and examine the exhibit about the school-fence options.
Pick up copies of City information on the Parks Strategic Plan, Safe Routes to School, and Sustainability Initiatives and Programs.
Learn about the city’s new Multicultural Engagement Program that offers information in Spanish, Chinese, and Russian.
Learn more about the city’s Recycling and Zero Waste program brought recycling information.
Examine equipment and discuss information to help us stay safe during a disaster with our neighborhood’s CERT members.
See Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly chrysalises, and learn about their and Monarch butterflies‘ host plants at Alan Whitaker’s table.
Visit Tom Purcell’s display of Monta Loma history items, and Robert Cox’s offerings of books and stationery from the Mountain View Historical Association.
Learn about and volunteer to help at our school. The Monta Loma PTA offered information and membership signups, as did the Crittenden Middle School’s PTA.
Visit the Mountain View Educational Foundation (MVEF), which helps our schools, and the Living Classroom displays.
Bring their tree questions and sign up for a free tree at the Canopy table.
Learn about CHAC, the Community Health Awareness Council.
Discuss whether the 9-month Leadership Mountain View program that begins each September might be right for them.
Visit with a Fire Department crew, who brought an engine and created a rainbow with the hose, and the Police Department, which sent an officer and also a K-9 team with a “very friendly” dog.
Learn about Girl Scouts at Marilyn Nourse’s table.
Taste MLN homegrown organic apples and vote for your favorite variety at Elaine Lou’s table.
Ride in the robot-horse-drawn buggy that Wouter Suverkropp brought again this year.
Pick up free COVID test kits brought by the Community Action Team (CAT).
Taste cotton-candy from Gloria Jackson’s machine.
As in past years, plants remaining at the plant-exchange table during the latter part of the afternoon were given away with no exchange required.
The city manager, members of the City Council, and the members of the boards of trustees of the Mountain View Whisman School District and the Mountain View Los Altos High School District were invited. Five city council members attended, as well as the city manager and the assistant city manager.
Photos of past years’ ice cream socials and other neighborhood events are here.