By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Monday, June 30 (4:30 p.m.): Wendy Markel said Peacock Plaza is an ideal setting for Rossmoor’s clubs to set up informational tables during the Friday morning Farmers’ Market. The plaza is roomy and bright, and there are plenty of places to sit.

The problem is that, despite signs placed in two locations at the Farmers’ Market, relatively few people know those club tables are there, she said – or are motivated to venture there.

“We think (the plaza) is great, but it’s hard to get people who are there to buy groceries to haul them all the way over to the plaza,” said Markel, president of the Rossmoor Ceramic Arts Club, whose studio off the plaza will be open Friday, June 27.

Until this summer, the informational club tables had been set up in front of Gateway Clubhouse but were moved onto the plaza this season, largely for safety reasons.

The folks at Rossmoor are considering several ways to coax more people to visit the plaza, and the eight club tables there, which provide information about their organizations (rotating each week) and, in some cases like the Ceramics Arts Club, offer members’ art pieces for sale.

Zee Deleon, RWC’s recreation manager, said one such measure is already on tap – a bingo-type game. Starting Friday, June 27, Farmers’ Market shoppers (or anyone else) can come to the Neighbors 4 Safer Streets table at Peacock Plaza and get a card, get it stamped by people manning each of the other seven tables, and return it to Neighbors 4 Safer Streets.

At noon Friday at the end of each month of the Farmers’ Market season (July 25, Aug. 29, Sept. 26 and Oct. 31), a drawing will be held for prizes, including Recreation Department concert tickets; free hot dog, chips and drink at a Spotlight performance in the Fireside Room at Gateway; a gift certificate of $20 toward the cost of an RWC excursion; or covering the cost of an arts and craft class.

“We’re trying to get more foot traffic at the plaza and get residents to check in with the clubs,” Deleon said.

While the plaza is a more open meeting location than was the sidewalk in front of the clubhouse, Deleon said, he conceded it’s also farther from the Farmers’ Market action.

“Every Friday, I send a follow-up (email) to the clubs that had tables about the foot traffic, and 90% of them tell us they need more of it,” Deleon said.

Alex Baccaro, president of the Rossmoor LGBTQ+ Alliance, agrees that the plaza is a friendlier environment for the club tables … and that it needs to draw more people. The sort of prize arrangement Deleon has planned is a good start, Baccaro said.

“It would be great to have several signs at all the entrances and exits of the (Farmers’) Market,” he said.

Markel said balloons could be affixed to some of those signs in a way people could then “follow the balloons” to the plaza.

Or maybe, a food truck could be rolled onto the plaza; there are always one or two at the market itself.

“People always come for the food,” Markel said.