Boston Flora

Tag: Urban Wilds Initiative

  • 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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  • Saturday, January 29, 9:15 am – 1:30 pm – Growing a Friends Group

    Organizing your group and keeping it energized can be challenging for both new and experienced advocates. Join other park/open space advocates in this workshop with Paul Sutton, Urban Wilds Initiative Program Manager, Boston Parks and Recreation; Conrad Crawford, Director of Partnerships, DCR; and leaders from established park friends groups in Boston. Presenters will share advice and experience about creating and building an effective friends group. There will be opportunities to ask questions, and following the workshop there will be a networking lunch at a restaurant in Chinatown for those interested.

    Where: The Metropolitan Community Room, 38 Oak Street, Chinatown (pictured below)
    When: Saturday January 29, 2011
    Time: 9:15am Coffee
    9:30am -12:00pm Workshop
    12:30pm Networking lunch
    RSVP: nina@bostonparks.org

    The Metropolitan is two blocks from the Orange Line’s New England Medical Center station, and a 10 minute walk from the Boylston Station on the Green Line.
    Hourly parking is available in the Metropolitan’s public garage.

    The workshop will cover topics relevant to newer groups and more established groups:

    * How to structure your friends group
    * Whether or not to incorporate
    * Recruiting key stakeholders in your community: individuals, youth, churches, businesses
    * Putting volunteers to work
    * Organizing activities and events
    * Relationships with park agencies
    * Advocating for your park