Saturday, January 13 10-2 bring your tree to Riley Park Parking Lot and have your tree chipped by Bartlett Tree Experts. Be sure to share with your friends. A by donation event.
Farmers Market Donation Station Dec. 23 to Benefit Neighbourhood House Immigrants from Middle East
Monthly donation stations at the Nat Bailey Farmers Market to benefit Little Mountain Neighbourhood House Community Kitchens and Drop-In programs for immigrants and newcomers.
Read moreConnecting to Place Dance in the Garden
Thank you to everyone who came out to this event, where choreographer Eleanor Hendricks taught us how to connect to our garden space through dance. Lori Snyder was also there to help us learn about the importance of connecting to plants and the Earth as the First Nations have for centuries.
Special thanks to Anya and her family for preparing hot food for our enthusiastic yet chilly group. We ate pierogies, squash soup, and cabbage rolls in the fieldhouse while chatting and drinking tea.
To round off the end of the day, we began painting on the murals around the fieldhouse, inspired by themes we explored throughout the day through dance.
Our fieldhouse neighbours Merakos Fieldhouse were also hosting an upcycled market and pop-up cafe in Riley Park. The market was a breath of fresh air in this time of consumerism and waste, so congrats to Rebecca and Selina who crafted it. Some highlights of the event were the "Buddy Booth" where you can buddy up with people looking to get involved in similar activities, the florentines at the fieldhouse cafe, and local organization Melt Collective which repurposes disposed-of plastics into objects of use (check out their website here).
Overall, a great wintery day leading up to the holidays!
A Thank-You from Anna of Vancouver Farmer's Markets
Season Wrap-up Celebration!
Gardeners Tamara and Ed animating the space with some fun drawings of the garden.
Wow- what an evening! We had the pleasure of celebrating the inaugural season of the beautiful Riley Park Community Garden- thanks to the Little Mountain Neighbourhood House for hosting our large turnout. There were snowflake decorations, incredible food provided by Chickpea, apple cider pressed in the garden and fermented by gardener Robin, and much more. Read on!
Delicious vegan middle eastern food enjoyed by all- thanks Chickpea!
A line of hungry and happy volunteers with Joanne MacKinnon at the helm!
Happy volunteers Lloyd and Felicia enjoying the meal.
Some festive apple cider bottled by Rob.
MC for the evening and project manager Joanne MacKinnon started off the event proceedings acknowledging key volunteers and introducing Lori Snyder, who spoke in relation to our garden and its connection to First Nation communities.
Lori Snyder speaking to the volunteers.
Then we had a presentation of a slideshow made by Erika, which featured highlights from the 2017 season- and will posted to this website soon!
We also heard from Art and Allan about "Riley Park through the Ages". This project has required a lot of work and is ongoing- so stay tuned where to see more of this topic!
Art and Allan in front of their project.
We also heard from Len who discussed our Shed project, which will be an opportunity for our community to gather even closer.
For the rest of the evening, volunteers contributed to the ongoing "Riley Park storybook" spearheaded by Anya- a visual scrapbook of memories drawn/written/put together in all shapes and forms representing the 2017 season. Guests were also encouraged to share feedback by way of post-it notes on the walls responding to certain questions pertaining to the garden and their experience.
An example of a contribution to the 2017 storybook, done by volunteer Susan.
Thank you so much for everyone's hard work this season. Make sure to check the calendar for more events happening through the winter!
