Event organizers Karen Friend Smith, left, and Faye Capps take a break from taking care of business.
It was all about sharing as San Elijo Hills was alive withe sound of neighborhood networking recently. The San Elijo Hills foundation and its neighborhood Share Magazine hosted a grand gathering on the big lawn featuring 80 vendors with local community ties.
Free to attend, the Saturday Business Expo made for a fun afternoon of connection and community building at the Town Square. The aim was to encourage a buy local culture in the community, according to event organizers.
Along with business vendors and their popup tents and tables, the event featured food trucks, and fun activities for the entire family.
San Elijo Hills has gone from zero in 2001 to about 10,000 residents in 3,400 homes today. The master-planned community now under the direction of HomeFed Corp. is firmly planted on San Marcos’ southwestern border with Carlsbad.
As for the expo per se, “It was time to get everybody together,” said Karen Friend Smith, publisher of San Elijo’s Share Magazine, a publication that also aims to do just that.
“We had a really good turnout today,” Smith continued. “We want people to buy local and get to know each other.”
A business writer, Smith moved to the community from the Lake San Marcos neighborhood in 2003. She started publishing the magazine-style newspaper in 2011 because “We wanted to get involved,” she said at the verdant scene.
Dr. Jenna Khoury from The Brush Stop Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics let neighbors know about their community dental home for infants, children, teens and kids with special needs.
Event co-organizer Faye Capps of the San Elijo Hills Foundation pitched in on the great lawn, adding, “This is always a great event. Vendors always are approaching us wanting to get out the word.”
Tiffany Golden and Stacey Hoy, San Elijo residents, of course, displayed their jewelry line that was started by a 16-year-old girl power entrepreneur and now graces local wrists and necks through word-of-mouth, events and online presentations.
“Everybody here is from the neighborhood,” Golden said. “It’s almost like a farmer’s market for local vendors. There are so many families here who have their own businesses.”
Hoy added, “There were lots of people here and lots of people looking for holiday gifts.”
DJ services were provided by DonJuan’s Mobile DJ Service, presented by Don Etheridge, who DJs on the weekends when he isn’t teaching AP English at Oceanside’s brand new Mission Vista High School. Etheridge had a busy schedule. Following the event, he was off to coach his Mission Vista debate team in a competition.
And that’s the way it was, all day, one fine Saturday in November, as the San Elijo Hills Business Expo came to town. It promises to return again next year, organizers said as they bid a fond farewell.
Tiffany Golden, left, and Stacey Hoy acquainted neighbors with their unique jewelry line.
