The Farmers' Market is Back!

One of the best days at Withrow Park is the opening day of the Farmers' Market.  Join us in welcoming the market back to our park on Saturday May 19th from 9 am to 1pm. 

Bring your bike and get a free tune up from special market attendees BikeSauce. 

Drop by the Friends of Withrow Park table to say hello, talk about tree adoptions, and share ideas about park events and improvements (with a special heads up that we are planning a meeting on June 3rd).

And most importantly...pick up some yummy food.  There are prepared meals and snacks available (even for your dog!) and early season veggies to take home to cook. 

What a great way to celebrate the holiday long weekend.  See you there!

Calling all Park People- That's You

Park People is hosting an exciting event on Saturday May 12th.
If you're a park person, you need to be at the Second Annual Toronto Park Summit. The Summit brings park advocates, city staff, and experts together with community groups, city councillors, and concerned Torontonians to network, brainstorm, and work together to build momentum for better parks in Toronto. The theme for the 2012 Summit is Connecting Toronto's People and Parks. Learn how other Toronto residents are engaging in and improving their local parks, and help us generate ideas and create opportunities for better citizen engagement in our parks. The input we receive at the Summit will form the basis of a Solutions Paper that Park People is going to release in the fall with our ideas for how the City of Toronto can better work with local residents in our parks.

The agenda for the afternoon of May 12th is:

12:30	Registration
1:30	Opening & Introduction: Dave Harvey, Executive Director of Toronto Park People
2:00	Keynote presentation: Robert Hammond, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Friends of the High Line, New York City
3:00	Local park leaders' stories of successes and challenges of engaging in their local park (moderated by Jane Farrow)
4:00 – 5:30	Social mixer and party: Continue the discussion and meet fellow park people
5:30	Optional walk through Brick Works' trails and ponds: discussion of successful park greening and naturalization projects

The keynote speaker, Robert Hammond, co-founded the Friends of the High Line in 1999, spearheading a process to save the High Line structure from being torn down and driving a community effort to turn the structure into a park. The High Line is now one of the world's greatest public spaces. Learn more about Robert and the park here.

For this year's Summit,Park People are asking for a suggested contribution of $20 to help us offset the cost of the event. Park People is a project of Tides Canada, a registered charity, and they rely on donations to undertake their work.

The Toronto Park Summit is sponsored by TD Bank Group and supported by Mitchell Cohen and Janice Lewis

New Waterfountains! At last!

We finally have a water fountain at the north end of the park!  What other improvements would you like to see made in the park?