Block party to be held in Valleywood 

By Zachary Roman 

This Saturday, there's a party at the park in Valleywood. 

Valleywood residents Sonia D'Alimonte, Abhiraj Kumar, and Prashant Upreti have worked together to organize the Valleywood Block Party, which is being held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on August 27 at Lina Marino Park. 

Kumar and Upreti are real estate agents, and the presenting sponsors for the event. 

Many other local businesses got involved with the event as sponsors or as vendors, and have been highlighted on an Instagram page D'Alimonte created: @valleywoodcommunityevents. There's a full day of events planned for the party, and the event organizers are excited to be bringing the Valleywood community together. 

“The main point is that we wanted the community to come out and reconnect, especially after COVID,” said D'Alimonte. “We're fundraising for Caledon Meals on Wheels, and we're going to have food vendors, product vendors and a full Kids Zone. We're going to have a family yoga in the park session at 11:30 a.m. that's free and drop in; we're going have a dog trick show at two o'clock; and we have a young singer-songwriter performing, she'll be performing from 12:30 until 1:30 p.m.” 

There's three ways the block party will be fundraising for Caledon Meals on Wheels. 

The first is by a direct internet link that residents can find on the Instagram mentioned above. 

The second is by a silent auction, where residents can bid on items donated by local businesses and residents. 

The third and perhaps most fun way is the dunk tank that's going to be at the park. 

Residents can donate $2 to get three chances to try and dunk some of the brave Valleywood Block Party volunteers and get them soaked. 

Last October, Kumar and Upreti held a “Pick a Pumpkin” event in Valleywood that was well-received. D'Alimonte, who is a neighbour of theirs, approached them with the idea of hosting a big, fun party in the summer and they agreed it would be a great idea. From that point on, the planning began. 

“It's supposed to be a nice weekend, so fingers crossed the weather works out for us and it's a good crowd — because ultimately, we want to make it something that's an annual event for Valleywood to look forward to,” said D'Alimonte. “Valleywood, even just Mayfield West as a growing community with all the new subdivisions and stuff going up, we need stuff that's local to us that we can attend… it'd be really nice for South Caledon to have more community events rolling through.”