City of Neighborhoods: Tank

GREEN BAY – On Sunday, Aug. 17, a citywide talent show for children under 18 titled “Talent in Tank” will be held at Tank Pavilion from 5-8 p.m.

Tank Neighborhood Association (NA) President Rylee Osterberg said that she is hoping to get the event judged by local business owners.
“We also have a pretty sweet selection of prizes that we’re kind of collecting right now,” said Osterberg.

Some of these prizes will include a free scoop of ice cream and gift cards for the top three places, as well as a trophy and a feature in an upcoming issue of City Pages for the winner.

“We want to shoot for a really fun day in the sun with a bunch of the neighborhood and city children just kind of showing us what they got,” Osterberg added.

For those interested in participating in Talent in Tank, find “Tank Neighborhood Association” on Facebook and scan the QR code.

Refueling the Tank

Before they reformed this past January, Tank NA was inactive for two years, and since becoming reactive, they have done multiple trash cleanup walks throughout their neighborhood.
“That’s something that people are really happy to participate in, because, you know, an hour spent walking outside is just good for everybody and it gives the neighborhood just a little bit of facelift,” said Osterberg.

The next cleanup walk will be held on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14, and is open to all.

Tank was also involved in this year’s Keys to the City event, which was in partnership with a handful of other NA’s and the Tarlton Theatre, and what Osterberg said to be one of her favorite events so far.

“Keys to the City” was held to distribute pianos throughout local neighborhoods, which then gave area artists an opportunity to decorate the unique, interactive art installations.

“We had a local artist (Megan Jane) paint the donated piano and she also did a really cool tile mosaic, which was really fun… She actually allowed everybody to grab a paint marker, and she did kind of like a psychedelic sunset space theme. So we were all allowed to draw little planets on her piano and she incorporated a lot of the local kids, as well as people who were present at the event into the piano itself, which I thought was just amazing,” shared Osterberg.
Along with her appreciation for local artists like Jane, Osterberg has plenty of “thank yous” for the individuals who have helped rebuild their NA for the past eight months.

“Kathy Charles was one of the original founding members of the neighborhood association… She has been working with the neighborhood associations for almost 30 years, so she really knows her stuff. She’s really kind of a pillar within the Tank neighborhood, not even just the association, just the neighborhood itself… She’s just such a wealth of information and has worked in conjunction with a lot of other neighborhoods… We are really quite lucky to have her on our team,” said Osterberg.

Along with Charles, Osterberg also thanked Tarl Knight.

“He’s the one with a lot of the connections and his work with the Tarlton theater has kind of aided us to make events much larger and much more put together than what we would be able to do just on our own. So it’s really nice to have that business sponsorship relationship that we have with him, because he does sit on our board, but also he’s just so willing to go the extra mile for us and it’s just so appreciated.”

Finally, Osterberg made sure to thank Rachel Quintas and the Brown County Extension Community Gardens for their partnership with Tank NA.

Osterberg has much to be proud of with the work that Tank NA has done in less than a year, and her and her board have no plans on slowing down.

“The Tank neighborhood is a neighborhood that is so rich in history. It is a family friendly, walkable area with a lot of things to do. I personally think that it is kind of an underutilized area and potentially can sometimes get a bit of a bad rap. But if you spend time here and you live here, you know that it’s probably one of the best areas in the city to be just simply because of our diversity, as well as the cultural impact of everybody living here has on each other. There’s lots of kids who basically live in the park in the summertime, and it’s kind of like a community collective of just making sure that everybody you know is acting as good neighbors to each other. And we all love living here and we’re just very, very proud of where we come from.”

To learn more or become involved with Tank NA, visit “Tank Neighborhood Association” on Facebook, or contact tankparkna@gmail.com (subject to an upcoming change.)
And for any additional information regarding Green Bay Neighborhoods and their mission, visit gbneighborhoods.org.