January/February 2003 Newsletter
In this issue:
- The trouble with crowds
- Arsenic playgrounds
- Rink Safety
- Park Friends
- Rink Schedule or Fun With Snow Shovels
- City-Wide Rink Survey
- Organic Farmer's Market
- Friday Night Supper
- Homeless in the park
- Puppets on Ice
Those people who like to come to the rink with their family on weekends will have noticed that it sometimes gets so busy inside and along the rink walkway that you just about can't move. We have had upwards of 600 people (who has the time to count?) at the rink over the day on some Sundays, and this year on Saturdays too. People say they come because the rink is more comfortable and friendly than many of the other rinks, because of the wood stove, because of the cookies and the hot soup, because it's a good place to meet their friends, because they can skate with a stroller. Whatever the reason, the rink's popularity has begun to give us some problems.
The worst problem is around the food.This sort of snuck up on us. We started making cookies at the park back in the winter of 1995 because we wanted to civilize the rink and we thought the pleasant smell of baking in the change area might help. The cookies made such a difference that we realized that part of the reason for the bad behaviour of some youthful shinny hockey players might have been that they had been skating for three hours and they were HUNGRY. So we added apples and then we added mini-pizzas and fruit juice, and when we started baking bread in the outdoor oven we added the 25-cent slices of organic bread and butter. The mood of the youth at the rink improved hugely.
The food at the park is meant to bring people together, not to annoy and frustrate them. We have to change some things to make it flow better. The park staff are meeting as this newsletter is coming out, to try and put their finger on solvable problems. All suggestions on how to structure the kitchen better are welcome. Please, help out here if you have good ideas! Beyond that, if you, dear reader, live close to another rink and you find that the crowds at Dufferin Rink are getting to you, consider trying to make your own neighbourhood rink work better for you. It's not rocket science, and if you want to know some simple hints about what worked for us, who the city contacts are, and how to groom your rink staff so they work with you instead of against you, we're happy to tell.
ARSENIC PLAYGROUNDS:
In the second week of January, Burkhard Mausberg of Environmental Defense Canada sent Jutta Mason an e-mail giving her a "heads up" about a press conference the following day. And no wonder: it turns out that Dufferin Grove Park is the poster park for arsenic in playground sand. When Mausberg's group measured arsenic levels last summer, they took a sand sample beside our pressure-treated playground structure.
Our playground registered the second-highest arsenic levels in Toronto playground parks - 48.2 parts per million versus 25.3 ppm at Dovercourt Park versus 2.6 ppm at Laughlin Park, at Vaughan and Oakwood). The report can be read online at www.edcanada.org. There are four nice pictures of our playground, as the report's main illustrations.
Arsenic occurs naturally in soil at concentrations from 4.8 to 13.6 ppm, so at 48.2 ppm it would seem we have a problem. Burkhard told us that last summer the Parks Department itself asked the Finance Committee for money to seal the existing pressure-treated playground structures (with an oil-based wood sealant) and to replace the sand. But that would have cost the city $300,000, and evidently Mayor Lastman vetoed the expense. Instead the city commissioned another sand analysis of city playgrounds, a bargain costing tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands.
Environmental Defense released their seven-city study on January 15. Claire Tucker Reid, general manager of Parks and Recreation, put out a press release the following day, saying that 31 Toronto parks playgrounds have been shown to be leaching arsenic and that details will be made known to City Council's budget advisory committee on January 27. (We tried to find out what the city's study shows about Dufferin Park, in time for this newsletter, but the general manager's office did not respond to the question.)
At Friday night supper there were various theories. Most people found the Parks Department's secrecy suspicious. But there were different ideas about what the numbers mean. Someone said they'd heard there's more arsenic in a shrimp stir-fry than in treated wood. More than a few people felt that playground equipment manufacturers might find it useful to promote panic. There certainly seemed to be a near-consensus that the steel-and-plastic playgrounds which are replacing wooden play structures are ugly and prison-like - with all the vertical bars - and hold little interest for children.
It may be that the most straightforward thing for our park is for parents to get together on the first warm day in March and paint the playground structure with sealant themselves. How long can that job take? Then the city can come in with their case loader and trucks and take out the sand, and bring in some fresh low-arsenic sand. (The sand pit needs a top-up anyway - its sand is not contaminated but it's just getting low - so the sand trucks could take care of both areas at once.)
With the immediate danger out of the way, park users could then have some imaginative discussions about the long term equipment replacement, to make sure that the future playground suits our philosophy about children's play. Watch the park bulletin board and the park list serve for more information as it becomes publicly known. Being pro-active may be important here. (The city's information page on pressure-treated wood is at www.toronto.ca/health.)
PARK/RINK SAFETY:
When we first began to try to turn the rink around, Tino DeCastro (our park's supervisor) had to hire a private security company (1996) and that winter there were 21 calls to that company (they came with dogs) or to police, for assistance. Now we're down to one or two calls to police per season. And some of the young folks who worried us in those early years have returned, older now, working at jobs instead of failing at school. They come to the rink to play hockey, not to make trouble. Many of them seem to have grown into fine young men, and it's been wonderful to see them. Maybe we over-reacted, in the early days. But the days of fights, drug deals, tables and chairs flung upside down inside the change rooms, seem to be largely behind us.
Every once in a while we get a reminder of how it used to be. One Wednesday this January a group of students who have been a problem at St.Mary's High School, and an even larger groups of their hangers-on, came onto the rink and started a fight right out on the ice. They were pushed off the rink and went into the rink house, continuing the fight inside. One had a hoe from the bake oven. The (female!) staff grabbed it away and the rink staff booted all of the kids outside. Then there was a stand-off, in front of the rink house and across the street. When rink staff called Tony DeSouza, principal of St.Mary's, he came running with his special camera and all the kids hurried away toward the mall.
Later that day, in an unrelated visit, two mounted police came to the park to let the staff know they were working on the drug squad, and that they would be by the park often from now on. They had very nice horses. However they have not returned since then.
The next day (farmers' market day) when school let out, the groups tried to pick up where they left off, in front of the rink house this time. An extra staff person, Lea Ambros, had been assigned to stand outside and not let those young people come inside: the thought of the farmers' market broccoli and meat pies flying through the air was unattractive to us. When the groups refused to leave the park, police were called. Since no weapons were reported, Fourteen Division sent only one small policewoman, who chased them into the mall.
But then a week later an older man came running into the rink to call 911 and report a fight in front of the school (at the rink corner). We tried to discourage him from calling 911 because it seemed to us the police did not regard these fights as serious. However, the older man was right: a fight involving the same group of rascals turned into an attack with hockey sticks, a baseball bat, and a rake handle. Three youth were sent to hospital - for stitches. (Evidently the attackers used admirable restraint with their weapons.) This time police brought many cars and even a hovering helicopter. Now the issue will perhaps be taken more seriously, maybe even resulting in some expulsions. And the rink staff won't be hearing any more taunts from the rascals, calling staff "white trash." We have many wonderful shinny hockey players from all different cultures, using the rink, but they don't use such words.
Final note: some of this group of troublemakers were the same ones who got the powerful park hoses turned on them by Arie Kamp, the park gardener, last May (see May 2002 newsletter story in the park newsletter archive). Does that mean that trampling petunias may be the first indicator of a rascal?
PARK FRIENDS:
people do extra things for the park, quite often. Here is a partial list (of people whose names we know - there are others who help and are gone before we can ask their names):
Kyla Dixon-Muir and her friend George Moore have brought firewood to the park in George's van three times and are now trying to connect us to a forester friend of theirs. Kyla also brought over the two little stools in the rink house, just the right height for parents to sit on when lacing their kids' skates. And she did another thing: wrote us a (true) winter solstice story for the neighbourhood list serve, a wonderful account of tracking the horses on Toronto Island, which are allowed to run free on the island during the winter. The story is posted on the park web site.
Peter Thillaye has been our other main firewood benefactor, tracking down skids in various locations and bringing them to the park. The staff are getting good at tearing skids apart, and these wood benefactors enable us to keep on baking. (We always love dry wood donations as long as there's no plywood, no paint, no stain, and no pressure-treated wood.)
Liz Martin, who lives near the park (and is the main organizer of the yearly neighbourhood street festival), brought over copies of The Women's Day Book from the press in which she is a partner, Sumach Press. These are being sold for $10 each, of which Liz is donating $4 per book to the park. According to some of the park staff, this is the best day book they've ever seen, and it's been easy to sell.
Jane LowBeer, the illustrator of the park newsletter, has drawn a new home page for the web site, due to be mounted in a week. Go and see - it's a little virtual park.
Larry Lewis arrives before dawn on Saturday mornings and lights the wood oven to bake his famous cinnamon buns, which are sold at the snack bar every weekend. After he covers his costs, Larry donates the rest of the bun money to the park.
Kazimir Krechowicz had concerns about police treatment of youth in the park last summer. So he joined the Community Police Liaison Committee to add his voice. He invites neighbourhood people with police-related concerns or questions to contact him at 416 995-0664. Kazimir has helped to organize the first-ever Fourteen Division Levee on Saturday January 25, from 2 - 5p.m. You can tour the police station (on Dovercourt St. just north of Dundas), including the jail cells, and visit information tables. Kazimir says there will be child care and free food.
Suchada Promchiri came over to the rink on Christmas Day with a container of tasty spiced peanuts that she had made for the rink staff. A couple of weeks later she came with a chair she had bought at the mall. She gave it to the rink because she had noticed that the chairs the kids use to learn to skate were getting in short supply.
Brian Cranley dropped off a giant bag of used pucks. We sell them for 50 cents. Brian has also been a great firewood donor from his carpentry work.
Patrick Stephenson, a talented young photographer from Ojai, California, visiting family here over Christmas, toured a number of outdoor rinks and took a lot of pictures with his digital camera. He sent us a CD with all the pictures, which we can now use in our restore-the-rink-season campaign.
Ana Bailao, Councillor Silva's very friendly assistant at City Hall, got fast results (within 4 - 24 hours) twice when we needed help from city's road crews to remove road obstructions (including huge snow piles on the dead-end road beside the rink house).
Carolyn Berardino and Bill Wright both helped with the printing costs of the first run of this double-issue newsletter.
Kristen Fahrig, the artist who got all those many kids and adults to paint pictures on the two park benches from last summer, was distressed when she saw that the concrete ends of one of the benches were crumbling (not from vandalism but from problems with the concrete castings). She approached Mary Thorne, Dufferin Mall marketing manager, for help over and above the mall's original bench contribution. Mary came through, and Kristen hired artist-carpenter Jim Kuellmer to build extraordinary curvy wooden ends for the crumbling bench. This bench now brightens the inside of the rink house ("dazzles" might be the better word).
Judy Simutis, came by the rink every couple of days during the holidays with rice crispy treats in various wonderful shapes and seasonal colours. The kids at the rink loved them, and at 25 cents each they were affordable and still raised enough money to buy a couple of rink snow shovels.
Richard Sanger, the poet and playwright, who brings his two small sons to play shinny hockey at our rink with Tracy Heffernan's family shinny group, brought us one of his beautiful poems. It's about the joys of the neighbourhood rink for a young person growing up, and it's posted on the entryway bulletin board. The poem helps us not to be so cranky with the teenagers when they're horsing around, showing off to each other.
Ben Figueredo, continues to be the park staff's crisis resource for tricky handy-man problems, weather forecasts, and tough-situations sympathy.
And then there was the support group for Arie Kamp, the park gardener who had to find a new place to live after his landlord sold the house. Robin Craig, Judy Simutis, Ted England, Vivienne Smetana, and Andrew Munger all helped out. For those many people who are wondering what happened: Arie is now well settled - not just in a room, but in his own apartment.
PARK STAFF:
In the years since the park friends became active, there have been so many different park staff, interesting people who contributed to our local-democracy experiment and then moved on to the next part of their life story. Sometimes these folks pass by and tell us their news. Lily Weston, for years the main park staff person, who set the standard for so much that works well at the park, came by on New Year's Day. She is now working with special-needs children at the Separate School Board, at St.Helen's School at College and Brock. Patti Kelly, who worked with some of the most troubled youth in the park during some of the most tricky times (including the scary years of the rink) came to skate in January. She told us that she is now a teacher, and that she still works with kids who are having a tough period in their lives. Margie Rutledge, who helped get the early gardens started and shaped the sand-pit playground, has just seen her second children's book published, called The Busybody Buddha. And Jacqueline Peeters, who pioneered pizza at the rink when she worked there right after the community oven was built, has finished law school now and started to practice. One of the first things Jacqueline did after she finished school was to answer John Dent and Ann Ruetz's ad on our list-serve, and buy their car.
The young people who are working as "casual staff" at the park now, mainly part-time, probably have more credentials between them, both in education and in interests, than we have ever had in the history of the park. They're working here despite wages considerably lower than the park litter-pick staff, because they are all interested in some aspect of public space. Jenny Cook's specialty is environmental: garbage, recycling, and growing food. Anna Beckerman and Dan DeMatteis have a focus on food. Anna also has union connections, and she is the staff scheduler - sort of like playing first violin in an orchestra. Lea Ambros, Kate Cayley and Alex Maclean have a particular interest in outdoor theatre, storytelling, and children's imaginative play. Caitlin Shea supports the Park Friends in their web site renovations with her background as a web author, and is also a gardener. Anna Siddal, finishing Russian studies at the University of Toronto, only works one day a week, but she has a double connection to the park, since she was part of David Anderson's Clay and Paper theatre troupe last summer. York University student Luke Cayley also works only one day a week, but his academic interest in public policy may involve him in some park-related research soon.
All these young staff are using our park as a sort of internship in public space as it affects/ is affected by/ a neighbourhood. A staff group like this one is not common in rinks or playgrounds in the city. Certainly existing job descriptions don't really cover what gets done here - these staff clean toilets and pick up litter but they also shape new programs, help run the farmers' market and make up a bed in the rink house for a homeless person. The Parks department management - at first a bit wary - has shown a very heartening willingness to be open to the new possibilities from such an active staff.
ICE RINK HOURS OF OPERATION:
Rink clubhouse:
Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sundays: 10 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Shinny hockey: same hours as the rink clubhouse except Sundays. There is a (strictly enforced) age schedule. (If you ever see the wrong age group on the shinny ice, do us a favour and notify the rink staff right away.)
Pleasure-skating: always freely available. The gate never closes except during bad weather. After 9 p.m., skating is unsupervised. Then it's like skating on a pond: shinny hockey and pleasure-skating are sometimes happening at the same time and people use the rink on their own responsibility. The large rink lights turn off after 11 p.m., and illumination is only from the small building lights and whatever moonlight/ snow-light happens to be there.
Parking: the best place to park is east of the rink on Dufferin Park Avenue (at the north boundary of the park). You have to walk west a short distance along the pedestrian walkway at the north side of the rink. Or you can park at the Dufferin Mall across the street.
Rink shinny hockey schedule:
Weekday shinny:
9:00am - 3:30pm all ages, ice cleaning about 3 p.m.
3:30pm - 5:30pm Level 2 (about 13 to 17, medium pace)
5:30pm - 6:30pm Level 1 (12 and under and parent or caregiver, or novice adult)
6:30pm - 7:45pm ice cleaning, then all ages
7:45pm - 8:55pm Level 3 (usually 18 and over, fast-paced)
Seasonal or weekly permit follows
Saturday shinny
9:00am - 12:00pm all ages
12:00pm - 1:30pm Level 1 (12 and under and parent or caregiver, or novice adult)
1:30pm - 3:45pm all ages
3:45pm - 5:15pm Level 2 (about 13 to 17, medium pace), then ice cleaning
5:15pm - 7:00pm all ages
7:00pm - 8:45pm Level 3 (usually 18 and over, fast paced)
WEEKLY PERMIT FOLLOWS - CONTACT STAFF
Sunday
10:00am - 6:00pm No shinny hockey. Pleasure skating both sides.
6:00p.m. - 8.30p.m. Ice cleaning, then SEASONAL HOCKEY PERMITS
8.30p.m. - 11.00p.m. all ages shinny hockey, on hockey pad ONLY - no supervision
There are three weekly (booked by the week only) shinny hockey permit times:
Wednesdays: 9p.m. - 11p.m.
Fridays: 9p.m. - 11p.m.
Saturdays: 9p.m. - 11p.m.
For adults the permits cost $64.20. For children and youth, there is no charge. To book a permit, call the rink at 416/392-0913 and leave a message.
IN THE EVENT OF SNOW, IF RINK USERS HELP STAFF IN CLEARING THE ICE, THE RINK OPENS FASTER. WE HAVE LOTS OF SHOVELS, OR BRING YOURS FROM HOME.
NEW HOT LINE FOR WEST-END RINKS:
When the weather is snowy or rainy or unseasonably warm, outdoor rinks are sometimes closed for a few hours or days. People who call the city's rink information line (338-RINK) to find out which west-end rinks have re-opened after winter storms or warm spells, are now being directed to call Dufferin Rink (392-0913). West-end rink operations staff will keep Dufferin Rink staff informed as each west-end rink re-opens. Our staff will put that information on the rink's voice mail. Tell your friends who use any of the west-end rinks. It saves people time and trouble if they can call ahead to make sure they're not bundling up the kids and the skates and the hockey sticks only to find out when they get there that the rink hasn't been plowed out yet.
FUN WITH SNOW SHOVELS:
During the two big snowfalls this winter so far (Christmas Day and Jan.3), rink staff got out the old green rink shovels that have been rusting quietly in the rink's storage breezeway. With the help of rink users, the staff were able to clear enough ice to make skating possible and even to let a hockey permit go on. Both times all rinks in the west end - except Dufferin Rink - were closed. Rink shovellers got a great work-out and then they had the pleasure of the rink.
For hockey players, we have the green rink shovels available when there's too much snow to move the puck (e.g. a sudden snow flurry) and no zamboni. The shovels can only be used with staff working alongside and all the snow MUST be shovelled right off the rink, not left in piles that would obstruct the zamboni when it comes later. But using those big shovels is fun when it's done right. And a successful rink clearing yields a food reward: one mini-pizza, one cookie, and one juice box, free for every shoveller.
THE SHRINKING OF THE RINK SEASON:
In 2001, city council voted to cut the artificial ice rink season in Toronto down to 10 weeks a year (down from the traditional 15 week-season). Rinks are cheap to run but there was some money saved, which was put toward hiring three new parking ticket officers (there is rich revenue from parking tickets in Toronto). Partly because of strong protests by Dufferin Rink users, the Parks Department modified the rink season decision to allow the city's double-pad rinks to be open 12 weeks. Now city council is considering next year's budget, and may decide to shrink the rink season again, to 8 weeks a year. (Hard to believe, yes?)
If you want to help the city councillors make a more sensible decision (returning to the traditional 15-week season for heavily-used rinks), you could participate in our rink survey (see below). Or if you haven't got time to help with the survey but you'd still like to be counted as a concerned rink user when we make the submission to city council, you can get on the list by e-mailing Jutta Mason at dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca or leaving your name and number at the park (416 392-0913).
Rink survey: In order to help the city councillors make better decisions about the duration of the rink season in future winters, it's important to gather information about as many rinks as possible. If you use other outdoor artificial ice rinks in the city, and you'd like to be a "rink researcher" this winter, these are the questions for the rink survey:
First, to set the scene:
1. is the rink you use a single pad or a double pad?
2. about how many years have you been skating there?
3. is the change house comfortable? Are there enough places to sit and change your skates?
4. are there any obvious problems? (e.g. too long a distance between the change area and the rink, such as at Trinity Rink, or an awkward access onto the rink itself, such as at Ramsden Rink, etc.)
5. what's the best thing about your rink? (e.g. beautiful natural setting, great shinny hockey, etc.)
6. what's the worst thing about your rink? (e.g. obnoxious teenagers, unreliable open hours, etc.)
Then: when you use your rink, please report on:
1. how was the ice? (e.g. freshly scraped and flooded, full of snow, down to cement, rough, smooth, etc.)
2. did you see the staff person(s), and did they give you any help/ information you needed?
3. how was the change area? (e.g. clean, messy, scary, friendly, too crowded to find a seat, etc.)
4. was there any special problem during your visit?
5. was there any obvious solution to a problem, that you'd like to suggest?
E-mail your answers to: dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca, or leave Jutta a message at the rink (416-392-0913).
In order to help the city councillors make better decisions about the duration of the rink season in future winters, it's important to gather information about as many rinks as possible. If you use other outdoor artificial ice rinks in the city, and you'd like to be a "rink researcher" this winter, these are the questions for the rink survey:
WEEKLY THURSDAY ORGANIC FARMERS' MARKET:
This market began on Nov.7, inside the rink house. It's closely patterned on the first organic farmers' market that Elizabeth Harris got started at Riverdale Farm two years ago. Elizabeth's blueprint works so well that our market was successful from the first day. The hours are every Thursday from 3.30 to 7 p.m. Except for once in early January, supplies have lasted right until 7 p.m, so there's no need to worry if you can't make it until late. The farmers sell a large variety of vegetables and fruits (their own, except now in the depth of winter), all kinds of meat, organic baked goods (both savoury and sweet), and honey. We sell park bread. At the end of January a local Greek farmer will join the market with his new crop of organic olive oil from his farm back home. In February the organic seed/ bedding plant lady will arrive, and then when the weather warms up and local crops return, the market will move outdoors with even more farmers. Note from Zalia Conde (the pie maker): if your want to order lasagnas or meat pies, call in your order by Tuesday midnight latest, at 705 357-2736. Then it doesn't matter how late you get to the market on Thursdays, your food order will be waiting for you. [Note that we're now buying Zalia's delicious organic meat pies for the rink snack bar as well, and there will be some in the freezer ($10 each) in case people want to take supper home from the rink.]
For the other six days a week, there are three stores in the neighbourhood that sell organic food now as well: Longo's at Bloor just east of Ossington, the Bulk Store across from Long and McQuade at Bloor and Concord, and the Mediterranea at Bloor and Bartlett. Longo's, where we've bought the rink groceries for years, has recently been bought by Steve and Sam Somo, who have maintained the friendly feeling of the store and are stocking much more certified organic food (including a line of really good pasta). Welcome to this newest family of storekeepers in the neighbourhood!
FRIDAY NIGHT SUPPER:
If you find Saturdays and Sundays too crowded at the rink but you like getting out to the park, Friday nights are still pretty peaceful. So if you're coming home from a week of work, all bushed and ready to relax, scoop up the kids or call up your girlfriend, get your skates and come down to the rink.
Dan DeMatteis, our summertime chef from the Clay and Paper play "Gold," is back. On Friday nights, the rink house wood stove has a fire in it, and a couple of long tables are set up nearby. The chess and checkers and the play area are always set up, and now there is this addition: Dan's delicious food. He prepares seasonal food from the Thursday organic farmers' market: $5 a plate. Depending on what's available at the farmers' market, Dan may also offer soup, antipasto, and/or dessert, which will be extra. If you feel like calling the rink the day before or e-mailing us at dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca , we'll put your name down. Prior notice is not essential but it would help Dan know how much food to make.
Open community oven: The smaller bake-oven beside the rink will be heated up on Friday nights too, so if you'd like to bring your own chicken to roast or bread to bake, do it! (Again, it helps to warn us by Friday morning: leave a phone message at the rink.) If you like, bring along a flask of your favourite kind of tea (!) to keep you warm. And drink a toast to Canadian winter.
At the time of this newsletter, we had tried the "Friday night supper" only once. Despite a chilly minus 18 degrees on Jan.17, there were many more people than Dan expected. The people who came were mainly - but not only - families with children, and they told us they intend to come often. So here's a puzzle: if people in this neighbourhood are interested in eating supper at the rink once a week with friends (old or new), how can this be arranged so that it works even if there are many people there? How can we avoid line-ups? Should there be help-yourself soup pots and bread boards set out, to start the supper, hoping that people will be on the honour system and will pay for what they eat to cover the cost? This is something new and none of us are sure what to expect. Ongoing suggestions as Friday night supper develops are very welcome!
HOMELESS IN THE PARK:
This winter there have been two people without a roof of their own who adopted Dufferin Park as their home base. A very nice 38-year-old man from Hong Kong sits outside the rink hose much of the day with his many bags. He has been sitting there for many months. He will accept no food from us nor warm himself in the rink house, but just smiles and apologizes all the time if you talk to him. At the last farmers' market, though, he saw two female staff move a heavy bench and he suddenly jumped up and said, "you want some help?" He helped carry and then went back into his own world. He seems to spend cold nights in a shelter, and he always carries a bag of sandwiches. Walter Brierley, the wonderfully persistent homeless worker who helped us with old Mimo last year (Mimo is now living in a residence in the Beaches), and his colleague Moira Hines from COTA (Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Mental Health Services), come and check on this man from time to time.
The other homeless person is a fine-looking young woman without a name, who was sleeping out on a bench beside the rink, in a sleeping bag, when park staff arrived to open up one morning. She stayed at the rink house for 4 nights and had meals there while rink staff tried to find a shelter for her. Many rink users encountered her because she talked to a lot of people during those days, not always about things that people could understand. Eventually, some rink staff accompanied her to a hospital for assessment. She is now in a shelter but she returns to the rink sometimes because she likes it there. She finds it a warm atmosphere. Everyone who meets her wishes they could figure out who she is and where she came from, but she gives no clues.
PUPPETS ON ICE on the rink season's last day:
Last year, the last-day celebration was marred by unstable weather and unstable staff. This year things may be quite different. The rink maintenance staff have come through for us in every way this rink season, the weather acts like real winter, and David Anderson called to say his Clay and Paper Theatre troupe intends to do a big-puppet pageant on the ice on Sunday March 2. This should be even more fun than this year's rink opening day celebration was (and that's saying something). Some of the plans are still being made. David Anderson says they can use volunteers, so if you are a good skater and you like a masquerade, call David at 416 537-9105. Rewards will be heaped on you, mostly just of high community regard, but every participant this year also gets a loaf of fresh park-oven bread to take home.
TWO FUNDING APPLICATIONS:
We have applied to a city program called 2003 Food and Hunger Action Fund for $20,000 to turn the alcove in the garage into a slightly better community kitchen than the utility closet we use at present. What an improvement that would be! The application was over 50 pages long, filled out with a lot of help from Caitlin Shea, Anna Beckerman, and Jenny Cook. All of them are park casual staff and none of them could believe the amount of sweat you have to put into such an application. The G.H.Wood Foundation have given us a conditional grant of $8,000 to help with the kitchen, provided the city application is successful. We'll hear by the end of February.
The Metcalfe Foundation have shown an interest in funding a 128-page book about our neighbourhood experiment with public space, to be researched by our young park staff and written by Jutta Mason. This grant is not confirmed but we are hopeful, and research has been going on for a while (it is meant to include some general history of parks in Toronto).
For ongoing updates on Dufferin Grove Park, and to share your views on community issues, join our Friends of Dufferin Grove email listserve. Just click here to join.
Newsletter prepared by: Jutta Mason; Illustrations: Jane LowBeer
Technical support: John Culbert
Web site: Joe Adelaars, Henrik Bechmann, Caitlin Shea
Park phone: 416 392-0913; street address: 875 Dufferin Street
E-mail: dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca
List Serve: Emily Visser, Bernard King