What started as a passion project to connect people in the North Langley communities of Walnut Grove, Fort Langley and Willoughby has spurred into a large social networking success.
The My North Langley community group, established through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, has been serving as an online hub for events, fundraisers and promotions for just over a year now. With 530 followers on Twitter, 754 “likes” on Facebook and 2,679 channel views on YouTube, founders Michael Thorne and Tyler McClendon are blown away with the success of their project.
“We never, ever imagined this,” said Thorne, a local real estate agent who was born and raised in North Langley. “Originally when we started it we had to look for things to post on the page. But now people are coming to us to promote things. We get emails all the time about bottle drives and fundraisers happening in the area. People are now turning to us as a way to get the word out in the community.
“It’s just grown into an amazing water cooler or online town square. We don’t really have a town square in North Langley so it has gone online and has become a place where people can talk and share about their community.”
The purpose of the page is to “inspire” and “nurture” community through the promotion of local events and fundraisers. Thorne wants it to be a central place for people to connect and get to know their neighbourhood.
“It has become a resource for people in the community where they can bounce ideas off of each other,” he said.
“If there is a fundraiser, we will do a quick video about it and put it out there. Or if there is a fisheries release or a cool little craft fair coming to Fort Langley, we will put it out there. Residents can also post stuff on there, we re-post stuff, and people ask questions such as ‘can someone recommend a good tailor in the area?’
“That goes up on the page, and there will be 10 comments within an hour or so.”
Thorne and McClendon also hold monthly “meetups” to give residents a chance to connect in person as well. Open to the public, the evenings often feature guest speakers on issues in their community.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and maybe it’s the Facebook page that has drawn my attention to it, but it seems like there are more things happening in our community now and there’s more need for people to engage with our neighbours,” Thorne said. “We are so isolated, and we need to learn to engage more. That’s what this is all about.”
This past Christmas, the group sponsored families through donations from their online members. Thorne posted the family’s wish list on the My North Langley Facebook page and was shocked when the entire list was sponsored in just one day.
“That’s when we started to realize ‘wow if you put something out there, people will get involved if they know how to get involved and it is easy for them,” he said.
Now My North Langley’s latest venture is a blood donation competition with rival online community group Not Quite South Surrey.
For the month of May both groups will try to rally as many supporters as possible to donate under their group names.
“It’s always kind of fun to have a tongue-in-cheek rivalry with someone. It’s just having fun for a good cause,” Thorne said.
The competition was spurred when the Surrey group, which has 100 more “likes” on Facebook than My North Langley, challenged the Langley page to the blood drive in an effort to create a fun competition and bring the community together for a good cause.
Guest speaker Jeffrey O’Brien from Canadian Blood Services discussed the donation process at last week’s My North Langley April meeting.
To participate in the blood drive, click here and fill in your information using My North Langley’s partner ID number, MYNR012763 or fill in your information using Not Quite South Surrey partner ID number NOTQ012728
If you already give blood under another organization, you can still donate under My North Langley as well and it will count for both groups.
Check out My North Langley on Facebook, their brand new sister page My Langley BC or their rivalry page.
For more on the My North Langley monthly Meetups click here.