Spring 2024 Newsletter
Join us as we celebrate our final year!
|
|
You read that correctly β 2024 will be our final year as an organization. After thirteen busy, immersive, rewarding years of volunteer work, the Board of the Friends of Glen Providence Park is retiring. As we move into other chapters in our lives, we no longer have the hours each week required for the behind-the-scenes work to run the organization with all the care and attention it deserves. We plan to close Friends of Glen Providence Park as an organization later this year, after we take time to celebrate this beautiful county park and the work we have done to preserve and enhance it.
It is with a mixture of sadness, pride, and gratitude that we do this. Sadness to bring these wonderful, hard-working years to a close, pride in the renewed attention and appreciation we have brought to Glen Providence Park in the local community and in Delaware County, and gratitude for all of our volunteers, allies, and supporters⦠without YOU we would have accomplished nothing.
We invite you to join us as we celebrate our history with a final round of seasonal events, including park stewardship, a nature walk, a concert, and our year-round Friday morning Conservation Crew, all detailed at the end of this newsletter.
|
|
There are still ways to volunteer with Friends of Glen Providence Park this year β just reply to this email to get involved!
|
|
|
Looking Back…
Our efforts started in July 2011 in response to the threat from the proposed replacement of a high-hazard dam and vehicular road at Third Street, which would have destroyed 1.1 serene and wooded acres of the park, including wetlands and 76 mature trees. We advocated extensively both to minimize harm to the glenβs woods, wetlands, plants, and wildlife, and for a community conversation about the proposed project β a conversation which repeatedly endorsed dam removal and a pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge.
Our activities quickly expanded to nature walks, volunteer days, Citizen Science projects, historical research, native tree plantings, summer concerts, and much more, with free and family-Βfriendly monthly events for over a decade!
Perhaps most importantly, we worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the ecological and historical importance of this hidden gem, singing its praises from the rooftops to elected officials, state regulatory agencies, and area residents. We engaged community volunteers, Scouts troops, naturalists, sister organizations, and the County in working with us to preserve and enhance the historic and natural resource of Delaware Countyβs oldest park β which was founded in 1935 as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum. It is with the help of innumerable individuals like you that we were able to make a difference!
This is just skimming the surface β we encourage you to look through our 10th Anniversary Report, with concise bulleted summaries and photographs capturing the essence of the park, its history, and our first decade of work in it! (sample page at end of email)
|
|
… Looking Ahead
It is our intention to thoughtfully transfer programming and stewardship of the park to appropriate parties. We plan to preserve the extensive historical and ecological information about Glen Providence Park we have gathered so it can be accessed and referenced in the future.
We hope the hundreds of native trees and shrubs we planted continue to provide food and habitat for birds, caterpillars, and pollinators. It is also our hope that in 50 and 100 years, some of those trees have grown to majestic heights.
We believe that Glen Providence Park is a treasure worth protecting β for wildlife habitat, plant diversity, and water quality β and for the enjoyment and respite it provides us today and for future generations. Our children and grandchildren deserve to enjoy “the beauty, the quietness, and the nameless charm” of this valley that T. Chalkley Palmer wrote about in 1889.
We hope the community continues to value
and take care of Glen Providence Park
in the decades and centuries to come!
Please reply to this email with any questions, to share your favorite memories of the park, or to volunteer!
|
|
Volunteers at the CRC Streams Cleanup on Saturday, March 16
|
|
2024 Events
Our final round of seasonal events, starting with last month’s CRC Cleanup, shown above!
Winter: At the CRC Streams Cleanup in March, we demonstrated the cumulative impact our dedicated volunteers have made through the years. At our early cleanups, we tended to get over 10 bags of trash, with a wide variety of large items from tires to barrels to baseball bats. Our 24 volunteers found nothing like that this year, and we collected just 4 bags of trash!
Spring: Join us on Saturday, May 11, for a Spring Flora & Fauna Walk with Samantha Nestory! That’s 10:00-11:30am, rain or shine. Registration is required, with a limit of 20 people β just reply to this email to register!
Summer: Celebrate with us at our final concert on Saturday, September 14! It will be our last call to “Bring a blanket or chair, and relax on the lawn by the historical stage for a late afternoon concert…” We’re planning a festive affair β we hope you can join us!
Fall: At our final National Public Lands Day on Saturday, October 5, we’ll continue our care and maintenance of the hundreds(!) of trees and shrubs we have planted over the past 13 years, and free from deer fencing those plants that have grown large enough.
YEAR-ROUND: On Friday mornings, our fabulous Conservation Crew removes invasive plants and works on other projects to support native plants and wildlife in the park. Just reply to this email to join us!
βββ
Other wonderful organizations and commissions do great work around town! Here are two upcoming examples:
- Next Saturday, April 20, Media Borough’s Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) and Media Recreation Board (Media Rec) are holding an Earth Day Cleanup. Click here for the flyer with more information!
- On Saturday, May 18, there will be a Pollinator Fest to kick off the Media Garden Tour. This is an amazing collaboration of the EAC, Media Rec, Transition Town Greater Media, Media Bee City, and the Green Wagon Project. Stay tuned for more information!
|
|
We’ll share more about our events in our final newsletters. You can continue to find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and our website.
We hope to see you this year β and in future years β in Glen Providence Park!
In gratitude,
Stephanie Gaboriault, Marcia Tate, Holly Hoffmann,
Lisa Johnson, Linda Emory & Charles Randall
|
|
Sample from our 10th Anniversary Report β click here to read the rest!
|
|
|
|
|
My name is Paul Hewes, Director of Delaware County Historical Society (DCHS). I am sorry to hear that this group is dissolving, you all have done such great work in maintaining this wonderful park! I hope that the park is going into good hands, and I hope that there will still be an opportunity for programming. I was hoping that DCHS could collaborate on an event in the future, I just hope we work with a group as dedicated as yours. Glen Providence has been an important part of my life for so many years, especially growing up in Upper Providence. Thank you for your service to this park, and here’s to bright future for Glen Providence, thank you!