The Longest Table: Join this massive dinner party on a Dayton bridge

A Dayton native and his crew wants you to get to know each other over dinner.

The Longest Table, a winning project from this year's UpDayton Summit led by City of Dayton Legislative Aide Bryan Stewart, will have local residents sit and talk in the name of community betterment.

"We want to challenge citizens to engage in meaningful conversation," Stewart told Dayton.com. "We want them to rethink their assumptions of other parts of town."

Tables with room for at least 500 will stretch across Third Street Bridge (The Peace Bridge) serpentine-style during the giant dinner party, which will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.

A rain day location is being arranged for the day.

A free hot meal will be served, and participants will be asked to sit with strangers. Stewart said the conversation is really is the center of the dinner, not the actual meal.

"We want to connect people, neighborhoods and ideas," said Stewart, a South Park resident raised in Oakwood and Dayton's Belmont and Five Oaks neighborhoods. "We want to jump start a positive narrative about Dayton."

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Stewart’s idea for the The Longest Table Dayton was given a $1,000 prize after being selected at the UpDayton Summit last April. Stewart's was one of three projects that received funding at the event. UpDayton aims to keep those age 40 and younger in the region, but the age and backgrounds of volunteers and summit participants vary.

About 160 people have already registered to participate in the Longest Table. Click here to register, and for more information. 

A group of conversation starters questions will be be printed on tablecloth during the Longest Table.

Questions haven't been finalized, but may include some like this: 

Share a decision you or your neighborhood is facing today.
How does what people say about your neighborhood match your experience?
What is a challenge facing the Dayton community you are most interested in?
What are your hopes for the Dayton area?
What will need to happen to get there?

Dayton's Longest Table project was patterned after a similar project in Tallahassee, Florida in October.

Dayton native Bryan Stewart patterned his UpDayton Summit-winning idea after a similar project in Tallahassee, Fla. (Photo: Longest Table in Tallahassee)

One hundred people agreed to host small, intimate dinner parties following the project in that city. About 800 people in all attended those small parties.

Stewart hopes the conversations continue after Longest Table Dayton as well. 

"We want this to be the starting point," he said. "This is something we want to be more than a single event."  

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