Great Parks

Totals do not include Extreme Park Makeover results

 

Students from Holy Name of Jesus School and community volunteers participated in this one day makeover of Belview Park. Students from the school were very engaged in the planning of this makeover. The theme for the Extreme Park Makeover was Super-Here-O’s.

Students, staff and volunteers joined in helping to refresh this park. A large mural was added to the fence and the utility building as a graffiti prevention strategy. The park features new trees, benches, enhanced walkways and a splash pad. Several butterfly gardens were added, and an outdoor classroom was created by students from Cathedral High School.

The play structure was painted and new “Dino” spring equipment was added to the existing play structure. To aid in the enhancement of literacy a community member constructed an outdoor library box that was placed near the new seating area.

The highlights were the Super-Here-O’s created by the students. Large wood cut-outs of each character were painted and attached to the chain link fence. The Super-Here-O’s included:

• Stretch Monkey is skilled at overcoming challenges and crossing unknown spaces. With the virtue of determination Stretch Monkey can defeat even the laws of gravity.
   
• Thing No Thing represents simultaneously ‘something and nothing’ and reminds us of the perfect beauty of what is right now. As a court-jester, Thing No Thing plays a powerful role on the playground though is never fully seen.
   
• Slider the Penguin is the gracefully grounded Super-Here-O who teaches us that patience is a means of trusting yourself with the faith that you will get where you are going if you can be where you are.
   
• Grasshopper-Stopper moves, plays, runs and relaxes in the grass of the playground. With the ability to be both low in the grass and high in the sky, Grasshopper represents the importance of going fast and slowing down.
   
• Airclasher is a motivator and supporter of inspiration. Airclasher helps give you that initial blast off to really get started on fulfilling your dreams.
   
• Matrix is a puzzling geodesic space that teaches the virtues of honesty and fairness. Sometimes within the matrix, and sometimes outside it, this Super-Here-O teaches us that logic and creativity go hand in hand.
   
• Tartaris the Tortoise teaches playful respect on the black-top of the playground. Tartaris’ hard shell is used to run and play on, providing a solid foundation, while the soft belly underneath represents the nature of play as connected to spirit. 

 

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company awarded the City of Hamilton a national grant focused on improving cities through the development of community gardens and green spaces. The 2014 GRO1000 Gardens and Green Spaces Grant helped to build an outdoor classroom, teaching garden and garden/nature areas at the Norman Pinky Lewis Parkette and Cathy Wever School. The project featured raised beds and container gardens, compost bins, barrels for rain water harvesting, an outdoor classroom, butterfly gardens and reading/music space.

The City of Hamilton received the award in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Hamilton, Wever CORE and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

“This grant allows us to build more gardens and green space at Cathy Wever School and Norman Pinky Lewis Parkette which aligns with the City’s goals of being a cleaner and greener city,” said Alex Moroz, Community Liaison Coordinator with the City of Hamilton. “The project will teach children and families gardening practices and the importance of nutrition, while providing access to fresh, local produce and green space in a beautiful natural setting. We are very thankful to Scotts Miracle-Gro and their partners for this support."

“We are thrilled to be working with the City of Hamilton as our latest GRO1000 partner,” said Karen Stephenson, Director, Regulatory Affairs and Stakeholder Relations for Scotts Canada. “It is our hope that development of this space will give the community an opportunity to come together and offer local young people somewhere to play and learn.”

In 2014, more than 150 grants have been awarded throughout the world. Scotts Canada Ltd. – a subsidiary of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company – has partnered with Communities in Bloom, Plant a Row – Grow a Row and the Nutrients for Life Foundation with the aim of bringing together national and local groups to collectively advocate for and demonstrate the benefits of gardening and green space development.

GRO1000; a community outreach initiative that Scotts Canada launched in 2011, will result in the creation of 1,000 community gardens and green spaces by 2018 – the company’s 150th anniversary. 

The winning cities were chosen from a competitive field of applicants and were selected based on their desire to create new, innovative greenscapes while recognizing a commitment to urban renewal and beautification.

The Hamilton project engaged volunteers from the Gibson and Landsdale Neighbourhood Association (GLNA), Wever CORE, members of the Rotary Club of Hamilton, Team Orange from ArcelorMittal Dofasco and children and families of Cathy Wever School.

This exciting project created a rejuvenated parkette with benches and murals, a new Show Case Garden Area, a pumpkin patch for the daycare children and two outdoor classrooms with teaching gardens. In addition, there were many beautification projects in front of the school and recreation centre. Over 700 people participated in this one day Makeover. A community BBQ was held to celebrate the success of the project.

Filming for the TV show “GIVER” (Season 3) on TVO took place at Hamilton’s Powell Park in September 2014. The inner city park was selected by Sinking Ship Entertainment to receive a facelift. The series engages children aged seven to thirteen who work together with their community to reclaim and enhance their playground spaces. They have just three days to revitalize their park.

Alongside a group of 200+ volunteers, TV crew members and City of Hamilton staff, six local kids helped to design a new playground for their park. The children envisioned a hammertown theme and thus created a play structure representative of the theme. In addition to the new play structure, revitalization of the park included new trees, an enhanced shrub bed area, a freshly painted basketball court, new muskoka chairs around the pool and an art mural on the storage building. 

Powell Park is utilized by children, adults and families from the Gibson & Landsdale neighbourhoods. This project provided an opportunity to implement a much needed improvement to this inner city park. Graffiti and litter was removed; shrub beds planted and mulched and new trees and amenities were all incorporated as part of the Extreme Park Makeover.

The engagement of children, youth and community members has had a significant impact in our parks. The addition of amenities, trees, and beautification projects along with the reduction of vandalism, litter and graffiti have helped to create great parks…and great parks make great neighbourhoods. Thank you to all the volunteers, partners and sponsors who helped make the Extreme Park Makeover Program a huge success. The results are amazing!