Edy's to Salute 1,500 Neighborhoods with Ice Cream

I came across this post from Free Is My Life, a Detroit area blog full of fun freebies and thought I'd share with the home owners out there...

Here's a great reason to get together with your neighbors this summer: ice-cream! For the fourth year, Edy's ice cream will award 1,500 neighborhoods ice cream and all the fixings for a block party of up to 100 neighbors. It's the company's way of encouraging you to get to know your neighbor. Last year, 54 neighborhoods in Michigan won ice cream parties. Want to enter this year? Click here for all the details.

Free ice cream? A fabulous opportunity to meet my new neighbors? You bet I'm in. Check out the essay I'm submitting below and cross your fingers for me and my 'hood!

My fiancé and I moved into Mt. Vernon Estates subdivision a month ago. This is our first home and we have just had an absolute ball getting acquainted with our neighborhood of fresh faces and places.

We were fortunate enough to purchase the house due to a slowing housing market in Michigan; however, a lot of folks in our area haven’t been so lucky. Many people have lost jobs due to the declining auto industry and families are struggling to pay bills and purchase groceries. Home foreclosure rates are at an all-time high in the nation, and Michigan – specifically the metro Detroit region, has suffered tremendously.

It breaks my heart to see foreclosure announcements on the front doors of beautiful homes in my neighborhood and families with young children suffering due to tight economic times.

As a passionate citizen of my state and city, I feel like it’s my duty to bring some sunshine to the area. I also know an ice cream block party hosted by Edy’s could be a fantastic opportunity for our local media to focus on something positive happening – one thing our area is in dire need of.

It’s hard to meet people when snow covers the ground and chills the air. I would like to use the ice cream block party as a way to celebrate the much-anticipated summer sun and create a forum where our community can discuss what we can all do to help our neighbors in need.

As a young person, I’m lucky to have found a wonderful place to one day raise a family and happily grow old. Now, I am just in need of making some neighborly friends to grow old with! Can you help bring us together?

Bring on the ice cream, Edy's. Way to be a friendly corporate citizen and kudos to whatever marketing/PR guru thought up this phenomenal idea!