This article is cross-posted with permission from The Telegraph. This week a finale celebration was held atop Coleman Hill to recognize the impact of the Knight Neighborhood Challenge. Since 2009, this community-driven grant program invested $3 million in the College Hill Corridor by funding ideas that would make the area thrive.

What made the program so successful is how the people of Macon embraced it. We dreamed big. We embraced creativity. We applied innovation. We rolled up our sleeves and invested the time to not just talk the talk of, “You know what would be great?” but to walk the walk of, “Let’s do this.”

Our resulting projects ranged from the simple with a complex purpose to the downright funky, quirky and completely, uniquely Macon.

There were simple tasks such as requesting a few hundred dollars to distribute light bulbs with sensor cells so neighborhood homes would automatically have a friendly front-porch light turn on as day turned to dusk. Not only did this enhance the sense of safety, but it encouraged neighbors to be neighborly. If you received a light bulb, you also received an extra to pass along to someone else on your block who could use it.

There were giant undertakings such as requesting six figures to tackle the revitalization of Tattnall Square Park. This wasn’t a governmental department doing so; this was a group of Macon residents, committed to being the best stewards of this funding by committing just as many hours of their time to overseeing these monumental improvements.

Have you seen Tattnall Square Park lately? You’ll almost always see a few neighborhood volunteers out there taking on tasks from watering trees to meeting forklifts full of bricks and mortar that will make legacy entryways and plazas possible.

Macon’s arts and culture scene did just that — created a scene — through the Knight Neighborhood Challenge. The Second Sunday Concert Series rose from 45 people in Washington Park listening to an acoustic performance on a wobbly platform to thousands of people from all over taking in a free concert by Clarence Carter just last week.

It also installed public art, like our colorful series of life-size bear statues, the “I Love Macon” monument, the Little Free Libraries and a bright mural on an abandoned building. A few weeks ago, light installations created a pop-up art show with a big city vibe on the walls and columns of the Bell House, now the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.

It even spun off an annual soap box derby, where racing cars of all sorts are created, teams are made, crowds line the hill and the people of Magnolia Street host one of the most exciting events and block parties Macon’s ever seen.

From grassroots ideas to great undertakings, the Knight Neighborhood Challenge transformed the landscape of the College Hill Corridor. But it was a challenge to do more than that. Could you make Macon the place you want to call home? Could you see its potential and turn it into reality? The challenge was answered — and surpassed.

The Knight Neighborhood Challenge made us look closely at our potential, give reality a pep talk and empowered us residents to not wait around for someone else to make it happen. The Knight Neighborhood Challenge didn’t just do this — we did.

Jessica Walden is the director of communications for the College Hill Alliance and co-owner of Rock Candy Tours, Macon’s music history tour company. Contact her at [email protected].