Boston Flora

Tag: Friends of the Public Garden

  • Thursday, August 15, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Boston Park Advocates Mayoral Candidates’ Forum

    We have received a letter from our good friends at Boston Park Advocates which we wish to share with our readers:

    Help make parks and open spaces a priority for Boston’s candidates. The Boston Park Advocates is a network of people and organizations who champion our city’s parks and open spaces. You may have been involved in the past, attending a workshop, as sponsor of a candidates’ forum, or by testifying at a city budget hearing.

    We’re jumping into this exciting campaign season. Will you join us? Here’s what’s happening:

    Mayoral Candidates’ Forum on Thursday, August 15th 7-9pm at the Franklin Park Golf Clubhouse.
    Survey on parks & open space sent to all the candidates.
    Updated www.bostonparks.org – check it out!
    Follow Twitter and facebook activity to get the candidates talking about greenspace.
    Calendar of events so park advocates can make sure candidates hear about open space issues.

    What can you do?

    First, join. Go to the sponsorship link on the website to add your organization to the growing list of groups that care about parks and open space. Let’s show candidates that Boston park advocates are from many disciplines: youth, sports, public safety, arts, bikes, health, CDC, and more.

    Second, link to www.bostonparks.org from your organization’s website to get more people educated about parks and open space.

    Third, get involved, go to candidate events, ask about their experiences with parks and let them know what you think is needed from a new mayor to make our greenspace even more spectacular. There are lots of ways to get involved, look at www.bostonparks.org to learn how.

    We’re not supporting a candidate, we’re supporting parks! Please join us.

    For Boston Park Advocates,

    Christine Poff, Franklin Park Coalition
    Valerie Burns, Boston Natural Areas Network
    Julie Crockford, Emerald Necklace Conservancy
    Liz Vizza, Friends of the Public Garden

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  • The Friends of the Public Garden Brewer Fountain Plaza Project

    The Friends of the Public Garden has received several major matching challenge pledges that will spearhead a campaign to raise the additional $200,000 it needs to complete its Brewer Fountain Plaza Project on historic Boston Common.

    Anne Brooke, President of the Friends, said challenge pledges of $200,000 each have been made by the Lynch Foundation and Barbara and Amos Hostetter. An additional $250,000 has been pledged by the Friends’ Green and White Ball Committee.

    “We are enormously grateful to the Lynch Foundation, the Hostetters and the Ball Committee,” Ms. Brooke said. “Thanks to their leadership and generosity every dollar contributed by will generate matching gifts totaling more than three dollars. It’s a three-to-one match.”

    Phase one of the $4 million Brewer Plaza Fountain Project was completed in 2012. It transformed the southeast corner of the Common at Park and Tremont Streets, creating a vibrant downtown gathering spot with café tables and chairs, quality food, lunchtime piano music, chess and checkers, a reading area, and summer jazz concerts.  The final phase will include restoring the historic iron fence along Tremont Street, creating a landscaped edge to separate the park from the busy street and further enhancing this green oasis in the heart of the city.

    Founded in 1970, the nonprofit Friends of the Public Garden works with the City of Boston to preserve and enhance Boston’s first public parks – the Boston Common, Public Garden, and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. For additional information about the Friends and how you can support its work go to friendsofthepublicgarden.org.

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  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces 2013 Grants

    At the Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, members voted to approve the grant recommendations proposed by its Co-Presidents Jackie Blombach and Jolinda Taylor and by the Executive Committee of the Club.

    Our major focus in the coming year will be the completion of the Linden Project on Beacon Street.  Over 60 historic linden trees will be professionally pruned, at a cost of $35,000.  $5,000 of the total will be paid with a grant received from the City of Boston, with The Garden Club of the Back Bay contributing the balance.  In addition to our tree care project, we will give $5,000 to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee for its tree, turf and soil project on the Charlesgate block of the Mall, and another $5,000 to the Friends of the Public Garden to continue the inoculation of elms against Dutch elm disease.

    Other organizations receiving Garden Club of the Back Bay grants this June are the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society – $2,000 to support scholarships for its summer camp for children aged 5 – 14, $2,000 to City Roots/Urban Ecology Institute for a project in partnership with Roslindale Wetlands and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Wilds Initiative, $2,500 to the Esplanade Association for the Eliot Garden Project, and $1,000 each to the Charles River Cleanup Boat and The Friends of Copley Square, and $500 to The Boston Committee of the GCA, in support of a grant made by the Blossom Fund to The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park for a landscape design plan to beautify a neglected circle adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park.

    Finally, $1,000 has been set aside to honor the victims of the Marathon bombing through a donation to a healing garden at one of the area’s hospitals or rehabilitation centers. In the next few weeks members of the Club will visit potential grantees and assess where the donation will have the most impact.  We will report back when a decision is made.

    Thanks go to all our supporters, those of you who buy a ticket to our Twilight Garden Party on June 4, or a holiday wreath in December, for without your generosity, these worthy expenditures of $56,000 could not be made.

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  • Wednesday, May 22, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – History of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and its Unique Role as the Green Axis of the Back Bay

    Join Garden Club of the Back Bay Past President Margaret Pokorny, who is also, incidentally, the Chair of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, on Wednesday, May 22, beginning at 6:30 pm, for a lecture and discussion about the replanting, preservation, and maintenance of “The Grandest Boulevard.”  The event will take place at the French Cultural Center, 53 Marlborough Street, and is free and open to the public.  Contact 617-247-3961 or email info@nabbonline.com for more information.  The evening is presented by NABB.

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  • Monday, April 22 – 5% for Earth Day

    Boston has long been known for its commitment to preserving green space. The Boston Common, The Public Garden, the Emerald Necklace, the creation of the Charles River Basin, the clean-up of Boston Harbor, the revitalization of the Waterfront, the completion of Big Dig and the opening of the Rose Kennedy Greenway are but a few examples of the Commonwealth and the City’s dedication to public, open space throughout the years. All of these improvements were made possible through the commitment of a number of non-profit organizations that work hand in hand with our local, state and national government to keep our parks and open spaces in shape.

    For Earth Day 2013, five of these non-profits (the Charles River Conservancy, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Esplanade Association, the Friends of Public Garden, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy) are joining forces to bring 5% for Earth Day to Boston. The campaign, which has seen three years of success in Austin, TX and expanded to the Houston, TX area in 2012, will ask Boston-area retailers to donate 5% of their gross proceeds on Monday April 22, 2013 to a coalition of non-profits that support projects in Boston’s parks and open spaces.

    Kickass Cupcakes, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Momogoose, Mei Mei Street Kitchen, Henrietta’s Table, SkinHealth Centers, Shuckin Truck, and The Chubby Chickpea are among the participating businesses. Go to www.give5Boston.org for a complete list.

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  • Thursday, April 25, 5:00 pm – 43rd Annual Meeting of Friends of the Public Garden

    You are cordially invited to the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Public Garden on Thursday, April 25, beginning at 5 pm at First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street.  The featured speakers will be Tobias Wolf and Deborah Lighthall Howe of Wolf Lighthall Landscape Architecture, speaking on Evolution of an Edge.  Hear about the Friends’ plans to rejuvenate the Boylston Street border of the Public Garden.  A reception will follow the meeting.  Please respond no later than April 18 to 617-723-8144, or email info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org.  You may also request a copy of the 2012 Annual Meeting minutes and the Board of Directors nominating slate.

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  • Thursday, March 14, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park

    Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park, is a lecture by Nate Trevethan, Senior Associate at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and senior design team member for Brooklyn Bridge Park, sponsored by the Friends of Fairsted, to take place March 14, 2013, with reception at 6:00 pm, lecture at 7:00 pm, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline. Free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Reservations are requested: e-mail friendsoffairsted@gmail.com or leave a message at 617-566-1689, ext. 265.

    Ambitious and visionary goals guide the creative team in their transformation of Brooklyn’s former industrial waterfront into a new public landscape of diverse recreational, economic, ecological and social possibilities: to preserve the historic urban context and the way it is experienced in this dramatic waterfront site. The award-winning design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates gives voice to physical history, geography, industry, urbanity and evolving recreational needs as it transforms a challenging waterfront into a sustainable public park of monumental vistas and diverse landscape experiences.

    Friends of Fairsted gratefully acknowledges the support of the following co-sponsors: National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site; Wheelock College; Arnold Arboretum; Boston Society of Landscape Architects; Brookline GreenSpace Alliance; Brookline Historical Society; Charles River Conservancy; Emerald Necklace Conservancy; The Fenway Alliance; Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery; Friends of the Muddy River; Friends of the Public Garden; High Street Hill Association; Historic New England; The Landscape Institute of the Boston Architectural College; Library of American Landscape History; Massachusetts Historical Society; Muddy River Restoration Project Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee; National Association for Olmsted Parks; New England Landscape Design and History Association; Society of Architectural Historians, New England Chapter; The Trustees of Reservations.

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  • Anne Brooke Begins Presidency of Friends of the Public Garden

    The board of directors of the Friends of the Public Garden has elected Anne Brooke as president. Brooke has been on the Friends board for more than six years, serving as co-chair of the Development and Membership Committees and as a member of the Executive Committee. She and her husband, Peter, live in the Back Bay.

    The Friends of the Public Garden, founded in 1970, works with the City of Boston to protect and enhance Boston’s first public parks–-the Boston Common, Public Garden, and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. Brooke is only its second president, succeeding founder Henry Lee.

    President Emeritus Henry Lee said, “The Friends is enormously fortunate to have someone of the intelligence, nonprofit experience, and sound judgment as Anne Brooke assuming the presidency at this important time in the organization’s life. Under her leadership I know the Friends will continue to prosper.”

    Anne Brooke said, “It is an honor for me to serve as the president of the Friends of the Public Garden. We all at the Friends look forward to continuing our work with the Parks Department. This wonderful organization has done so much for the Boston community by providing hundreds of thousands of dollars, each year, to assist the city in the care of our parks. I sincerely encourage all of our friends and neighbors here in the city to join the Friends in supporting the Boston Common, Public Garden and Commonwealth Avenue Mall so that we are able to continue to maintain, preserve and improve the quality of care for our three historic green spaces.”

    Brooke has long and varied experience as a leader in nonprofit organizations. She is active with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, where she served as a board member for twenty years and as vice-president for ten of those years. She was instrumental in establishing the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan, at the end of the Emerald Necklace. Currently she is an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and of the Museum of Fine Arts, a Visitor to the Harvard Art Museums, and a member of the Council of Overseers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.  While living in Concord, Massachusetts, where she and her husband raised three sons, Brooke served as president of the Concord Garden Club, chairman of the Historic Districts Commission, and president of the board of the Concord Museum.

    Brooke takes the helm at an exciting time for the Friends. Last spring, the organization completed the first phase of the most ambitious project in its 42 year history, renovation of Brewer Fountain Plaza and its adjacent landscape at the southeast corner of the Common. Last year, thousands of park users enjoyed the revitalized space animated with a food truck, tables and chairs, a reading room and piano music at lunchtime. The Friends will complete this $4 million revitalization effort over the next year. Its campaign to raise funds for the project is well underway, attracting gifts of all sizes from across the community. The final project phase includes more landscaping and restoration of the historic iron fence along Tremont Street.

    The Friends continues its primary mission of funding the expert care of trees and sculpture in all three parks. This month a first phase of new tree labels in the Garden is being installed. A second major turf restoration project will be implemented on the Mall in 2013, and planning for landscape improvements to the Boylston Street boundary of the Garden has begun.

  • Thursday and Friday, December 20 and 21, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Back Bay Ringers

    The Friends of the Public Garden is happy to sponsor the Back Bay Ringers this holiday season.  Come hear these performers play hand-bells on Thursday, December 20 from 5 – 6 at the entrance to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall on Arlington Street, and again on Friday, December 21 at the Brewer Fountain on the Boston Common near Park Street Station.  For more information visit www.friendsofthepublicgarden.org.

  • Join Team Friends of the Public Garden for the 2013 Boston Marathon

    The Friends of the Public Garden has been invited to participate in the John Hancock Non-Profit Marathon Program which enables organizations to offer athletes marathon race entries in exchange for fundraising. Team Friends of the Public Garden has FOUR guaranteed entries for the 2013 Boston Marathon® scheduled for April 15, 2013. Athletes are required to raise a minimum of $5,000 to support the mission of the Friends to preserve, protect and enhance the Public Garden, the Boston Common and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

    Interested athletes should submit an application form as soon as possible. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and prospective team members will be contacted.

    The Friends of the Public Garden will offer the benefits below to the athletes in exchange for raising a guaranteed minimum amount to support the work of the Friends.

    Athlete Benefits:

    Guaranteed Entry into the 2013 Boston Marathon®

    Expert marathon training provided by Fitcorp and weekend training runs.

    Individual fundraising website for each runner on Crowdrise.com

    Ongoing fundraising support from Team Friends program staff

    Monthly Team meetings to share fundraising tips and successes and important race information.

    A Team Friends branded race day singlet and training shirt

    Pre-race pasta dinner

    For more information, and to receive an application, contact: TeamFriends@friendsofthepublicgarden.org