About New Castle  Community Partnership

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As 2020 dawned the New Castle Community Partnership (NCCP) stood poised and ready to begin another full year of activities and contributions, having developed an agenda of efforts dedicated to making life better in New Castle through measurable, positive impacts on the community.

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Then came the crisis and disruption felt around the world by the novel coronavirus and its infectious disease COVID-19.

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The impact on the NCCP was wide-ranging throughout the year. Partnership events ranging from the annual A Day in Old New Castle to the inaugural edition of a brand-new event, the New Castle Belgian Beer Festival, all fell by the wayside. And with so many activities cancelled, the NCCP plans for publications and brochures associated with those events had to be put on hold. Even the licensing of New Castle t-shirts and a long-planned New Castle promotional window display at the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau headquarters in Wilmington became aspects put on hold, at least for now.

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Still, despite the threat posed by this global pandemic, the NNCP maintained its focus on taking actions that make life better in and around the New Castle area. While many of the characteristic NCCP personal interactions with the New Castle community were interrupted, a number of initiatives were successfully carried out the last 12 months. Among these actions taken by the NCCP:

 

• The engagement of the respected Wilmington-based design consulting firm Mitchell Associates, Inc. in the creation of new directional signage

• The staging of the Summer Concert series in Battery Park, a socially-distant presentation of musical events that brought a welcome diversion to the community

• Support provided as a sponsor of an online edition of the Chautauqua adult education event, this year focusing on “Women’s Work: Campaigning for Social Change”

• Introduced new branding on New Castle City trash trucks with vibrant logos. Revised markers in various locations along area pathways to display new logos.

• Contributed to the purchase of new trashcans for the City.

• Provided funding for the planting of two community trees

• Offered “recognition of service” lunches for the essential community workers of the Municipal Services Commission and the New Castle Police Department

• Participated in the annual late November “Shop Small” event known as “Small Business Saturday,” calling attention to local businesses, merchants, and retail outlets

 

Contributions in recognition of these NCCP initiatives came through community support that included sponsorships and grants received from The Farmer’s Market, The Garrison, The Trustees of the New Castle Common, The Anthony & Catherine Fusco Foundation, St John’s Lodge #2 A.F. & A.M., and Jeff and Tina Lank, and a variety of donors in support of the “Tree Project” in the historic area.

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 Looking ahead to brighter days in 2021, the NCCP, along with the New Castle Jaycees, will sponsor another series of concerts in the summer months. And though staging the inaugural New Castle Belgian Beer Festival proved to be an impossibility in 2020, the series of groundwork meetings that were held have provided the NCCP with a solid strategy foundation for the event’s delayed inception next year.

 

The NCCP remains vital thanks to the enthusiastic and dedicated participation of board members Kim Burgmuller, Julie Kirk, Kelli Kruger, Dale McDine, Frank Moriarty, Rodney Pratt and Jan Henion, along with President Laura Fontana, Vice President Judie Baldini, Secretary Cindy Snyder, and Treasurer Connie Reese.

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 Throughout the twelve months just passed and on into the days to come, the New Castle Community Partnership will continue to promote, preserve, and enhance historic New Castle by focusing on communications and the cultivation of community relationships. The organization is driven by a single goal: to bring into reality projects and events that enhance the public good in New Castle.