Kara Sundlun and I had the great pleasure to emcee an event near and dear to us, Big Mo’ 2017. The Mo’ is short for momentum, and is a fundraiser for the fantastic organization that is Riverfront Recapture.

Every year, Big Mo’ is held at a construction site, and this year the venue was the new UConn Hartford campus at the old Hartford Times building. The site is selected to show off the newest project in the capital city.  It’s really a fun party with a lot of moving around.   Attire is construction casual, and you can’t help but leave with a great feeling about your capital city.

The new UConn is one of the last pieces of the massive Adriaen’s Landing project that has transformed downtown Hartford. Proposed in the 1990s, it called for a convention center, hotel, housing, shops, restaurants, and the Connecticut Science Center. The next groundbreaking in the Landing will be for some apartments on Arch Street.

And Riverfront Recapture is at the heart of all of it. Decades ago, the organization sought to reconnect the Connecticut River with the city on its riverbanks. You can now grab lunch at Adriaen’s Landing, check out the exhibits at the Science Center or at the Convention Center, walk along the river, go rowing, grab dinner, catch a live show or a movie, and even spend the night in a high rise hotel room overlooking the river.

Here are some pictures from Big Mo’ 2017 courtesy Alex Syphers of the Hartford Courant and a few lousy ones I had taken with my iPhone.

More of Alex’s photos here: http://www.courant.com/java/hc-pictures-the-big-mo-2017-20170521-photogallery.html

Learn more about Riverfront Recapture here: http://www.riverfront.org

Watch a quick tour of the new UConn with Kara and me: https://www.facebook.com/dennishouse3/videos/vb.113467232042528/1340718725984033/?type=2&theater