Tending Community
We believe community isn’t something you manufacture — it’s something you tend.
Rather than doing we’re aiming to be:
welcoming before being impressive. Everyone belongs here.
present in the moment, not rushing what doesn’t need to be rushed.
thoughtful in the small details — how things feel, how people are greeted, how space is held.
engaged where we are, while staying open to the wider world.
We hope when you walk in, you feel known — or at least like you could be.
Community isn’t built all at once. It’s built season by season, visit by visit, and in the simple act of showing up.
Where we began
Lakeside Kite Shop began in 1984 when a brother and sister started selling kites off the dock — not with a business plan, but with time, imagination, and a mom who told them to get to work. What began as a summer project has become more than a 40 year tradition: opening the doors each year, greeting familiar faces, watching kids grow up, and learning the quiet art of staying.
Over the years, the shop has been shaped by siblings and spouses, neighbors and visitors — all stitched together by place. Shirts folded and refolded. Conversations that start with the weather and end with why people keep coming back.
You see it in kids choosing their first shirt, in friends stopping in just to say hello, in neighbors lingering with morning coffee. Small moments that don’t make headlines, but make a place.
This shop has always been about more than what’s on the racks. It’s about the people who fill it — briefly or for a lifetime — and the way a simple space can hold a community together.
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What happens here doesn’t stay here.
