The typically-quiet Laurel Shade neighborhood was filled with local music, fun activities, and food and drink during a recent Sunday afternoon as residents came together for the inaugural Porch Fest fundraiser.

Organized by Olympic Neighbors, the event brought a wide range of musical acts, a silent auction, corn hole contest, and more as the local nonprofit raised funds for Jefferson County’s adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Local favorites The Elderberries, Unexpected Brass Band, Lowire, Cosmiphonics, and others performed on differing front yard stages throughout the event.

“We’ve got eight different bands playing at five different stages,” said Claudia Coppola, executive director of Olympic Neighbors. “We’ve got a cash raffle with a $1,000 dollar prize, a silent auction, beer and wine garden, some different food venders, and a corn hole tournament.”

Best of all, every penny raised from Porch Fest went to Olympic Neighbors to help the organization to continue offering housing, services, and support for the IDD population involved in their programs.

“We operate an adult family home that is the only one of its kind in the county that provides affordable rent and 24-hour staff support, so that our friends with special needs can live really good and meaningful lives,” Coppola said. “We fundraise a little bit over $100,000 per year in order to stay open, pay for utilities, get food, staffing costs, as well as rent at the house.”

Considering that this is the biggest fundraising event Olympic Neighbors has put on since pre-COVID times, a lot of time and effort was put into making Porch Fest a success.

“We normally had been running a sort of summer bash, we [hosted] it at the Pourhouse … because of COVID they kind of shut that down so we’ve been really shut down for a few years,” said Bob Wheeler, president of Olympic Neighbors.

“Somebody said, ‘Let’s try a neighborhood thing here. Let’s just do that and see if that will work out,’ and it got named Porch Fest,” Wheeler explained.

As simple as it sounds, there was plenty of work to prepare for the fest starting with bringing the Laurel Shade residents on board with the idea.

“We checked with all these neighbors on these two streets (Rosencrans and Logan streets) and 25th here and they said, ‘We’re up for it,’” said Wheeler, a Laurel Shade resident himself. “This is the biggest and most complex thing we’ve ever done in terms of a fundraiser; there’s just so many things to put together on this.”

Organizers set up a festival-esque event style with modular sections for each activity or musical act, and the approach gave attendees cozy, nook-like spots to listen to music, enjoy beer, play games, or whatever else at their own pace.

“I’m just really excited to see our community come out and support us, but I’m specifically excited to hear the Elderberries, who played a little earlier, and to get some fancy ice cream,” Coppola said of what she was looking forward to most at Porch Fest.

“It is a nice, cozy sort of atmosphere … that was really what we wanted to have,” Wheeler said.

Organizers for Porch Fest were somewhat concerned about the turnout prior to the event, but by the time an hour rolled past, streets in the neighborhood were teaming with pedestrians partaking in the event.

“I’m really excited; it seems like people are showing up and coming to this, so that’s really great,” Wheeler said. “Who knows, we may continue this. We’ll have to see and think about it [because] it takes a lot to organize.”

While a second Porch Fest is on Olympic Neighbors’ radar, organizers said they’ll have to take an overall look at how the first one turned out before making any plans for another.

“I think we’ll seriously think about it. We’ll assess how this went and the amount of work we put into it,” he said.