2025 Annual Picnic and Cornhole Tournament

Sunday, August 17, 2025, will go down in history as the best GHCA picnic ever! The weather cooperated and the crowd was the largest and most congenial ever with old-comers and new-comers mingling and getting acquainted. The food display, from the antipasto and clam cakes… to the wings and wraps… and all the mains and salads in between, leading to the dessert table offering baked fruit, pies and burnt butter chocolate chip cookies satisfied one and all! I hope everyone got a slice of Brian Jackson’s hot out-of-the oven pizza, too! Thanks to the bakers and eaters who made the
afternoon a gustatory success.
And a huge thank you to the Social Committee picnic planners and the incredible gang that showed up to help set up the tables and raise the tents; and then stayed to help put the recreation area back to basics. I think the tent crew is ready to take their show on the road! Picnickers were so busy talking and eating that the corn hole tournament took a back seat until the clouds began showing up, but all was well and the competitors got their chance to challenge last year’s champs.
I’m sure I will forget someone, and I hope we can call it a senior moment, but the picnic wouldn’t have been such a success without the help of Louise Jackson, Joan Jackson, Laurel Lefebvre, Marie DiMauro and Suzanne Werth. See you all next August!
– Maureen Kohl

Click to see photos here: https://greenhillcivic.com/2025-annual-picnic-and-cornhole-tournament/

2025 Bocce Tournament

This year’s Annual GHCA Bocce Tournament, held on August 2nd, was a smashing success!  With mother nature delivering a beautiful day, a wonderful time was had by all.  The event was a great balance of neighborly competitiveness for the contestants and fun for all.  After a close finals match, the winning team this year was Dave Dineno and Rick Topshe, with second place going to Dave and Donna Bennett (all first time tournament players).  Many thanks to our GHCA Social Committee member Marsha Ryler’s, whose great fund raising provided the top finishing teams with generous gift certificates from the General Stanton Inn and the Breachway Grill. 

It was so great to see so many new participants among the full field of 32 players with several teams on a waiting list.  Everyone enjoyed the great coffee, cookies, zucchini bread and watermelon provided by our event organizers.  The bocce court was in pristine condition thanks to the tireless pre-tournament surface preparation as well as manicuring and raking after each match by Massood Abolfazli. 

This fun event was a testament to our GHB community’s spirit, alongside all the other creative and enjoyable GHB social events.   A special thanks to the many event volunteers who made the tournament run smoothly, including Rita Morse, Dawn McCabe, Tim and Linda O’Conner, Joan Jackson, and Tim and Mary Beth Spillane.

– From the GHCA Social Committee Bocce Coordinators: Harry Morse, Maureen Morse and Massood Abolfazli

For photos of the event, click https://greenhillcivic.com/?page_id=3443

2025 PorchFest

GHCA’s 6th annual PorchFest and open mic session was held in Mal and Bonnie O’Connor’s backyard at 17 Border Avenue, on July 19th. With plenty of afternoon shade for comfort and a gorgeous, low-humidity, temperate day, our audience once again topped the record number set the previous year.
The count is unofficial, as people are welcome to come and go, but at peak attendance 123 people were tallied sitting, standing, meandering in the yard enjoying the sounds. The greatest number brought their lawn chairs and snacks with them to settle in for the 2 hour program of folk, pop, rock, singer-songwriter, jazz, bossa nova, blues, and old time music plus a recitation of cowboy poetry. This year’s stars included both returning and first-time-at-PorchFest performers.
We are already looking forward to next year’s event and we invite you to appear on the lineup in 2026. It is a lot of fun, and you won’t find a more forgiving and appreciative audience anywhere outside your own living room. Pick your favorite selections now, and you’ll have plenty of time to hone your performance by next summer. We hope to see you and your friends and family there!

Bonnie & Mal O’Connor

For more photos, click here.

2025 Chalk Day

“It all started in America” was the theme of Chalk Day 2025. Neighborhood children and adults came out to share the pavement on Land and Sea Drive using sidewalk chalk and their imagination to draw everything from vacuum cleaners to McDonald’s and its Golden Arches.

Once again Brickley’s generously donated raffle prizes won by Ava, Connor and Leila. Enjoy that ice cream kids!

Thanks to all the volunteers and artists who make Chalk Day a safe and fun morning for everyone, young and not so young!

For more pictures, check out 2025 Chalk Day

– Linda O’Connor

2025 Fourth of July Parade

This year’s parade was a great success and continues to break attendance records for participation and spectators alike. We did make a few changes this year that we hope helped to improve our beloved parade.

First we added an impressive new sound system courtesy of Phil Percuoco. With the help of Massood Abolfazli and Tim O’Connor the new audio system could easily be heard at both ends of Carpenter Drive. Second we added volunteers in green shirts to help with questions, directions and overall safety. Third we renamed the “Best Family Theme” prize to “The Colonel’s Prize” to honor Colonel Ron Dubois who helped establish and grow our parade.

This year the newly renamed Colonel’s Prize went to the family whose theme was “Del’s”, another beloved Rhode Island tradition. The award for best wagon or bike went to “Melting Pot”. And the best vehicle honor was awarded to “USA Basketball “ which was complete with uniforms, balls and a basketball hoop!

A very special thanks to Tim O’Connor for emceeing and along with his team organizing the event. Tim made sure that the crowd remembered why we celebrate the 4th from his opening remarks to the fun announcement of prizes at the end.

Pictures can be found here

Thank you to everyone, organizers, decorators, marchers and spectators alike!
-Linda O’Conner

Vision 2030 Update

Hello GHCA Members,

Here are the Vision 2030 work presentations we discussed with you at the June 15, 2024 member meeting.  Based on your input and hopefully, as you will see as you look through these presentations, there are some very exciting initiatives underway to enhance our beautiful GHCA community in the future.

Below you will find 5 presentations here:  An overview of the Vision 2030 work to date, and individual summaries of the work of the four Vision 2030 teams:  Beach, Recreation, Pond, and Health and Safety.  

To view each presentation, click on each title below:


Please feel free to reach out to me, or any of the team leaders, if you have any questions or are interested in engaging in this work moving forward. We can use your help and insights. You can find our email addresses on the last slide of the “GHCA Vision 2030 Update” slide deck.

On behalf of the Vision 2030 Work teams,

AJ Emanuel

2024 Annual Picnic

Maureen

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for making this year’s GHCA Annual Picnic the best one yet! From the enthusiastic Social Committee planners to the amazing team who set up tents and tables on Saturday, the Rec Area looked incredibly inviting. A special shoutout to all the attendees and their fantastic array of food, which made the afternoon truly memorable. It was wonderful to see so many new faces and reconnect with old friends, all sharing in the community spirit.

Congratulations to Mike Bird and his brother Tim, who walked away with the Cornhole honors! 

Check out more photos on the Green Hill Civic Association Photo Gallery page.

2024 Horseshoe Tournament

The weather cooperated and everyone had a great time at our 2nd annual Horseshoe Tournament on August 10th!  Eight teams battled it out with the team of Joan Jackson and Suzanne Werth taking first place –  and the 2nd place winners were Jack Grzelak and Harry Morse.  Highlights of the day included many new players both young and old and some highly skilled players as well.  The Tournament winning throw of “double ringers” by Joan Jackson capped off the fun day! Special thanks to Marcia Ryter for once again securing some great prizes!  

Check out more photos on the Green Hill Civic Association Photo Gallery page.

2024 GHCA Porchfest

On Saturday, July 27th, the fifth annual Porchfest open mic session was held in Mal and Bonnie O’Connor’s backyard at 17 Border Avenue. It was a beautiful day for live music outdoors. Approximately 100 people brought their lawn chairs and snacks into the backyard to hear local musicians and the O’Connors’ friends from New Mexico sing and play guitars, banjo, fiddle, drums, and piano.  This year’s offerings included several sing-alongs led by Dawn McCabe and Tim O’Connor, and by Bonnie O’Connor. It was a lot of fun, and we’re looking forward to doing it again next year.  Please come join in Porchfest 2025, on the stage in the yard. You have a whole year to practice!

Check out more photos on the Green Hill Civic Association Photo Gallery page.

Food Truck Night

Marcia Ryter

On July 11, the Civic Association hosted our first “Trucks in the Park” event. We estimate approximately 150 people attended the event, and we received a great deal of unsolicited positive feedback.  It was a big success!

Four food trucks; Alexerod’s Fry Shack, Hot Potato RI,  The Burrito Bowl, and Newport Creamery Ice Cream delivered delicious and generous fare.

Another first was the collective participation of all local associations. GHCA invited all associations in Green Hill to participate in the event, including, The Hill Assoc,  Land ‘n Sea, Mautucket by the Sea, Ocean and Land, and ORCA and others.  Thank you to all associations for promoting the event with their membership, via a flyer developed by the GHCA Social Committee.  In keeping with our long-term goal to create a sense of community, for our Green Hill residents, we are very excited to have delivered such a well-received event. 

A special shout out to Linda O’Connor, Maureen Morse, and Mary Ann Emanuel for their hard work and support along with the many other Social Committee members who helped make this event possible and successful.

Check out more photos on the Green Hill Civic Association Photo Gallery page.