When I woke up on Sunday, July 16th I couldn't wait to get over to Herbert Von King Park for the Steem Park Dedication celebration!

What made it even more amazing is that the dedication fell on my Steemit first year birthday! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the enormous change that's happened in my life over the last year through Steemit than to be with other Steemians who are changing their lives and the lives of the communities around them.

One of the most fun aspects of the entire day was learning about the different ways many of us Steemians are connected!

What's a Steem Park, You Ask?

If you aren't yet aware, Steem Park is an effort to revitalize a corner of the Herbert Von King Park in Brooklyn. The project is led by @voronoi and @hansikhouse who work collectively under the @hitheryon handle.

While the beautification of the community is a clear priority for all involved, this project was also an example of the power of communities like Steemit. Because of the participation of the community through upvoting, engaging, or donating and sponsoring, Steem Park was able to be manifested into reality!

The day was full of great conversation, bursting enthusiasm and some of the most effective marketing I've seen in a long time, courtesy of @roychoi

So what was it like?

At first, empty and lonely for me and @drbaker86

We arrived about an hour early and saw the video production crew setting up for the day's shoot. Walking around, we got a feel for the whole park and soaked in some of the sun. When we got back to the site, there were suddenly more people!

I got to meet up again with @andrarchy - who, coincidentally, had a video last year that was the first post I ever commented on! Fun connection #1!

Since most of the team was out getting the materials for the park moved there weren't many Steemians around, but there were people who knew what Steemit was and wanted to discuss Steemit and blockchain. A lovely Bushwick couple stopped by to talk about blockchain voting models and how the technology could be leveraged to launch "worker-owned" businesses.

Clearly, Steemit ain't your ordinary, purely topical social network.

The Awesome @roychoi

@roychoi flew in from Korea to be a part of the dedication, and that alone is enough to validate his hardcore Steemit credentials. But this Steemian took branding and marketing to that next level, and brought gifts and novelty items for us to play with and enjoy.

These plastic scrolls and furl and unfurl and, with a dry erase marker, we were able to put our usernames on them. I really loved these items.

@roelandp Steemfest should consider acquiring these for tours and events, it's easy to carry and very easy to spot from far away. It could help keep groups together in Portugal... Steemians can be like a herd of cats when in foreign cities ;)

So after we lavished our praise on these awesome little signs, we took dry erase markers and started filling them out. For the rest of the day, there'd always be someone opening and closing their sign... usually me.

But they turned out amazing!

From left to right: @andrarchy - @nickytothenines - @roychoi - @drbaker86 - @prufarchy

After we finished our signs we were handed wristbands and we put our hands together in a circle to form Steemitron!

picture above: a bunch of sexy Steemian wrists

When we were all high on cool Steemit-branded items, @roychoi pounced with another awesome gift, his business card.

This is hands-down one of the coolest business cards I've ever seen!

It's clear that @roychoi came to NYC prepared to network and despite the language barrier he succeeded brilliantly. He really brought fun and life to the party and it made me realize that by simply thinking ahead and bringing relevant gifts that help create group cohesion you can really leave a lasting impact with people you've never met.

@roychoi is YUNK and is deserving of the pizzas

A Steem Park is Born

While we waited for the park to arrive, the production crew interviewed people and took footage of the communion happening between the platform members.

When @voronoi @hanskihouse and team arrived they pulled the moving truck into the park and unloaded the equipment onto the grounds. There were planters, benches, name plates, plants, flags, and soil everywhere!

But in no time, the planters and benches were positioned and set and the nameplates were attached to the fronts.

Once enough had been set up, the team took a few minutes to speak to the assembled crowd.

Steem Park is more than just an installation of benches, planters and flora. It's a proof-of-concept that shows how a decentralized social network can utilize the resources of the entire community virtually to manifest community projects here in the meat-space.

A Day at Steem Park

I really loved getting to spend time just speaking with all of these Steemians and getting to experience this event with them.

Fun connection #2: Before @voronoi became well known as part of the @hitheryon team that makes community-driven dreams come true, his handle was @lgm-1 and he was wetting his feet in this wild world of Steemit just like the rest of us.

Now I had absolutely no idea that he used to be @lgm-1 but when he first mentioned it at the park I thought it was odd how familiar that name was.

Apparently, one day about 10 months ago he decided to enter a random poetry contest and wound up winning 150 SBD! Here was his post that day:

LINEWORK

And this was the poetry contest he entered (and won):

I was completely blown away by how awesome this fun connection was! My poetry slam was the first time he published a poem on Steemit. I went there thinking I would blend into the tree lines and instead I'm getting nostalgic with one of Steem Park's creators about the time he won my first poetry slam haha!

This is the kind of thing that's possible when you manifest a Steem Park into reality.

@hansikhouse serving a community-driven smoldering model stare

me and @drbaker86 before the signs were screwed in

showing off my favorite sign-toy and also showing love for the KR community

Community Creates Perception, Reality

Steemit is a blockchain-based social network. Alone, it isn't anything worth any value because it is people and their relationships that create value. By coming together under Steemit to donate, participate, congratulate or just lurk appreciatively, we are empowering each other and ourselves to reach for goals we might not otherwise approach.

Steem Park is the first of its kind but hopefully it won't be the last. It's now been proven that communities from around the world can fund and help create physical spaces just by sharing their attention (and upvotes and crypto too!).

These are spaces for Steemians and non-Steemians alike to enjoy. Perhaps some day soon we'll be seeing the Steem Park BBQ or Steem Park Picnic Day Posts where we can watch the park built from a decentralized social network of people serve its purpose for everyone in the surrounding community.

I was, and will always be honored to be a part of the group that donated for this groundbreaking project.

Oh, and I had a lot a lot of fun :)

This is Steem Park

Don't worry, I'm sure some friends will be by shortly to hang!

Welcome to Steem Park

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@prufarchy