Skip to main content

Earth Day at the Park


 

On this day in 2017, the Chrysalis made its official debut as a community space for the arts and the first component of Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods. I believe it has changed our community for the better. It has certainly changed my life for the better. 

The program from opening day:



 
It was a great honor for me to have my writing included on the program that day. But that was only the beginning of the joy I have had in the park: attending all sorts of concerts, enjoying holiday lights and decorations, exploring the Mini-Maker Faire and the Fantasywood Festival, and, best of all, leading preschool dance parties on the Chrysalis stage.

After a year of quiet due to the pandemic, the park is coming back to life. This season's performance events are shaping up. I’ll have more on that in a future post.

In honor of Earth Day, I want to focus on the work of the Trust as environmental stewards of the land. In this piece on the Inner Arbor Trust website, they describe Going for a Walk in the Woods. 

...our work is not all playing in the woods and creating events -it is preserving and protecting this piece of open space for the community.  To protect the land we need to deal with the runoff issues and repair the stream.

Luckily, solutions exist, and we are thrilled to be working with great local partners to work through these issues.   

And here’s more from President and CEO of the Trust, Nina Basu:

...we are the stewards of the land.  And the land needs help.  I can rail about the impact of climate change later, but for now, know that we are raising money to install conservation landscaping in this public park.  In other words - awesome native plants that will make the land more durable by helping to manage water, but also containing and treating run off.  

I am most excited that we are working with Howard EcoWorks on this project.  Not only are we improving the land and watershed  - we are working to create green job training.  We are working to try to raise $50K to fully fund 10 trainees this summer in the READY program - trainees earn a wage AND leave with marketable skills that can be turned into a career.  

Your investment improves the watershed, creates beauty, and also funds real-world job training.  

There’s a lot going on in the park right now. They’re getting ready for the 2021 concert season, and they continue to spread the word about the new concept plan for the park, created in collaboration wth members of the community. And, while all that is going on, they’re raising funds to care for the land and make the park enjoyable by future generations.

If you’d like to help, I think it would make a great Earth Day gift:


Meanwhile, if you want to stay up to date on upcoming performances, make sure to follow the park on Facebook.


It’s going to be a wonderful summer. I’ll meet you at the Chrysalis.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more