FUN WITH DRUID HILLS FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS

DRUID HILLS 4th of July Parade 2023...No raining on this parade!

Thank you to everyone who turned out despite the iffy conditions - we were all grateful that the rain stopped just in time for us to march through the neighborhood. 🤩 A big thanks to Phil and Caroline Moise for once again sharing your front yard and the lemonade. And, of course, we appreciate our membership committee for organizing this wonderful community event!

✨ Druid Hills Holiday House Decorating Contest✨

January 2023

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fun community event, brought to you by the DHCA membership committee! We heard from many neighbors that they enjoyed not only nominating their favorite homes, but also driving around to see ALL of the nominations before picking their favorites and voting.

EVA did a wonderful job of bringing different community organizations together to host the annual Emory Village Open Streets Event.

The Druid Hills Civic Association once again hosted the Halloween Costume contest and Parade. It was a smashing success with our local resident drummers, Van Biesel and Barry Zipperman leading the community parade along with our elected officials. And a big special thank you to the Cutts Family who designed and produced our fantastic Parade signs!

DHCA events are brought to you by our membership committee. We'd love more hands as we plan and execute more community activities like these! Email our membership director, Thea Roeser, to join this great committee.

Enjoy photos of the event at druidhills.org, thanks to Tina Hart.

DRUID HILLS 4th of July Parade 2022...what fun, what a turnout!

It was wonderful to see hundreds of neighbors of all ages join our annual Druid Hills 4th of July parade. What a treasured Druid Hills tradition, started by Juanita Edwards in 1976. Thank you, Phil and Caroline Moise, for once again sharing your front yard and the lemonade! We would also like to thank our wonderful community partners for helping the DHCA provide all of the fun giveaways and goodies.

A special thank you is owed to Kit Eisterhold for providing and distributing all of the small flags around the neighborhood, the Boy Scouts for leading the parade, the DeKalb Fire Department for providing the fire truck, and our neighborhood marching band for the patriotic tunes  Of course, we can't forget to thank the fabulous DHCA volunteers who planned and executed this fantastic event!

Your DHCA membership helped us provide funding for the police escort, cookies, bottled water, ice, and ice pops. Thank you for being a part of our organization. Not a member? Join the DHCA today!

THE HISTORY OF THE DRUID HILLS FOURTH OF JULY PARADE

By Claudia Edwards, as told to her by husband Louis Edwards

(from the November 2016 Druid Hills News - reprinted from a 2007 Druid Hills News)

Juanita Edwards, my mother-in-law who lived in Druid Hills, started the Fourth of July Parade. In the early 1970’s, Juanita had been taking her children to the WSB (Channel 2) Parade downtown and wished there was a neighborhood parade instead. In 1976, the Bicentennial year, she decided she would organize a parade. She put up a couple of signs and started the parade at The By Way and Oakdale.

At 2 p.m., on that cloudy and drizzly July 4th, the first parade had 20 participants (five of those being the Edwards family). They paraded, without a police escort, up Th e By Way to Oxford to N. Decatur and down Oakdale. On N. Decatur, the 20 patriotic souls just walked down the sidewalk to Oakdale since they did not have an escort. Ward Edwards and Dick Hubert played trombone. John Freeman played clarinet. Laura and Marianne Mayer played the flute and piccolo. Louis Edwards played the snare drum and did the cadences. Donald Mayer played the bass drum that Ward (Louis’s dad) made from a collection barrel of a shop vac. Louis recalls it being a lot of fun and Juanita was either carrying the flag or playing a tambourine.

The next year, she put out a couple more signs and called a couple of people to increase attendance. She arranged a police escort and she moved up the time of the parade so people who were running the Peachtree Road Race could participate. She also talked to Bucky Johnson, the band director at DHHS, who provided old band sheet music parts for patriotic songs. Juanita decided the band needed a name and she did not want to insult or compete with the DHHS band so she called this band the Lesser Druid Hills Marching Band. Th at year, the band had a practice and as Louis recalls, there was hardly anyone there.

When the Edwards family arrived at the parade that year, they could not believe the number of people: 75+. Th e following year it was much bigger and Louis does think that it grows every year. Now, Juanita’s grandchildren are in the parade. Her first grandchild made her debut a decade ago at 3 months old in a Baby Bjorn (baby carrier).

Louis says that his mother thought it was a lot of fun and was happy people enjoyed it. Th e neighborhood parade was perfect because it was fun and involved everyone. Juanita would love the way the tradition has carried on. It is exactly what she had hoped might become of it. So, make your way to the parade next year in honor of Juanita Edwards who passed away in 1996, and as she would want—HAVE FUN!

 The Historic Druid Hills Home & Garden Tour was back this year after missing two seasons due to the pandemic. What a wonderful return we had with the most perfect weather! We couldn’t have asked for better. We featured twelve stunning homes, all of which are situated on streets on Olmsted's original plan for Druid Hills. Many meandered through our Olmsted Linear Park as they walked the tour - Olmsted himself would have been thrilled to see it! 

A HUGE thank you to our gracious hosts who opened their jaw-dropping homes to us and all of the amazing volunteers that pulled this tour off. And, of course, none of it would have been possible without such wonderful support from our generous sponsors

We can’t forget to thank Kit Eisterhold who not only orchestrated the tour but also sponsored it. WOW! What a wonderful job you and the tour committee did! We're already planning for next year. If you are interested in being a part of this very special event, reach out to us!

Hundreds of music lovers of all ages converged on the grassy field in Emory Village on Saturday, April 30 to enjoy a balmy night and the music starring Atlanta folksinger Shawn Mullins and John Willingham and Friends. 

Singer-songwriter Mullins is best known for “Lullaby,” his 1998 chart-topping, Grammy-nominated hit from the platinum album Soul’s Core.

John Willingham & Friends, an acoustic trio with John, Nelson Nolen, and Mark Jones, opened the show with an eclectic mix of well-known songs from the past five decades.

Sponsors for the evening were Coca Cola, Engel and Voelkers, Acadia Shutters. Kit Eisterhold, Strategic Construction Services, Sunbeam Capital Management, Pogo Pictures, and Peggy Hibbert/Sotheby’s, and Tilting Windmill.

After the spirited Olmsted 200 Tennis Tournament, which was hosted at Druid Hills Golf Club on Monday, friends and neighbors got the chance to get spiffed up in their finest for the beautiful Olmsted 200th Birthday Gala at Callanwolde on Tuesday! We celebrated more than just Olmsted's birthday - we celebrated having the chance to be together at a special event, once again.

Lots of delicious food by Zest, signature drinks, dancing to Joe Grandsden, seeing old friends and meeting new ones was the name of the evening. It couldn't have been more beautiful.

Our Shredding Event was a Huge Success! 

February 2022