By Chris Spruell
The new year gives us all a chance to prioritize community, charity, and volunteerism in our neighborhood.
Greetings, and welcome (back) to the monthly Presidential Briefing! I was remiss in not doing these last year, but I think it’s important to get back to what used to be a staple of the printed Messenger. They will be a part of each of our digital Messengers going forward.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Chris Spruell, and I’ve lived in the Candler Park neighborhood since December of 2000, although I frequented older Little 5 Points staples while I was at Georgia Tech back in the ‘90s. I started off as a resident in Candler Park at the Laurea Condominiums (behind what is now Pizza Verdura Sincera, formerly Zesto’s) when they went condo in 2000, then moved around the corner to Josephine St. in 2003, where I still reside with my girlfriend/partner, Michelle. I spent many years between 2000 and 2020 traveling for work, which left me with very little time to be involved in CPNO meetings and activities due to their in-person nature.
That all changed with the introduction of virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, affording me an opportunity both to participate in the proceedings and to give back to the community where I’d lived for so long. In 2023, I volunteered as the External Affairs officer for CPNO, learning a lot about zoning and how Candler Park fits into our Neighborhood Planning Organization (NPU-N) and the City of Atlanta as a whole. When our former CPNO President, Christina Hodgen, ended her tenure, I was lucky enough to be elected to the role and re-elected this year. I’m delighted to have a chance to work with our fantastic CPNO Board, committee members, and general members to try to make Candler Park an even better place than it already is.
With that in mind, the new year gives us all a chance to prioritize community, charity, and volunteerism in our neighborhood. Thanks to all of you who have already renewed your CPNO membership or joined for the first time (go to https://candlerpark.org/renew-membership/ if you haven’t!), and if you were in a position to donate to CPNO and did so, we greatly appreciate your generosity. If you have free time to share with the neighborhood, I (and our Bylaws) strongly encourage you to join one of our committees or activities. Volunteer opportunities include, but are not limited to, the Fall Fest, Easter Egg Hunt, Education, Zoning, Fundraising, Communications, Membership, and Infrastructure. Contact information for the committee chairs is on the website, but don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly at president@candlerpark.org if you’re looking for a volunteer opportunity or have ideas about how we can improve our neighborhood together.
In the coming months, I’ll write more about what we are prioritizing this year, share additional information on our challenges and successes, and keep you apprised on what the Board and the committee leads have been doing behind the scenes. Keep an eye out for an e-mail this week with the proposal for our 2026 CPNO Budget. We’ll be voting on it at our next meeting. Hope to see you there!