Newsletters
Spring 2018
Spring 2018 Newsletter
Hi Neighbors,
Only in New England can we plan Earth Day watching for snow reports! Worcester Earth Day 2018 dawned cold and cloudy, but we tough New Englanders showed up anyway to spring-clean the neighborhood. It was cold, but the sun did finally come out and the Dumpster was filled quickly.
The Linda Fay Griffin House is one of our important partners, and showed up in force, ready to work. We had our Worcester Inspectional Services Department partner, Patrick Duggan, show up to help along with a couple of guys from Channing House. Regional Environmental Council members from Holden also helped out. Our Holden helpers found $1.00! Member Robert Howland unearthed a switch from what we think was the old trolley tracks that went down Channing Street. Edith Morgan, one of our association's Leadership Team members, joined the Harlow Safe Streets folks at St. Bernard’s Church along with Robin and Kristin and their family and friends. Green Hill Park Coalition members Becky and Andrew cleaned Green Hill Park. Our association co-founder and co-chair, Winnie Octave won a well- deserved award from the REC as the Earth Day 2018 Neighborhood Organizer 2018. Thanks to the Earth Day sponsors REC and the City of Worcester.
The Linda Fay Griffin House and Channing House have volunteered to do some regular clean-up, and we will supply them with city trash bags, as needed. Thanks to all of them for stepping up!
Leadership Team member Mark Beriau has built a Little Lending Library for Grant Square Park. If you aren’t familiar with LLL, check it out online. There will be free books for anyone to enjoy. You can reither eturn or keep them. We need to work with the Worcester Public Works and Parks Department to identify a place and make sure we have all the necessary steps in place. We will begin with children’s books - and would move forward if there is interest in adult reading. This is a fun way to make sure the kids in our neighborhood read. Thanks to Mark and for our District 2 City Councilor, Candy Mero-Carlson, for talking with Parks for us!
The Worcester Tree Initiative has applied for a grant for fruit trees to compliment the community gardens at Grant Square Park. We are hoping to hear whether the grant request has been approved.
With the assistance of Brittany Legacey, president of Park Spirit Worcester, we are working on our plans for the first series of free summer concerts at Green Hill Park. Sunday afternoons in July will find us all enjoying some free music and the lovely Green Hill Park. Fundraising is continuing, so if you know any organization or company that wants to be a part of this endeavor, let us know.
If you haven’t visited Green Hill Park, do so now that the warm weather is (almost) here. Check out either the Green Hill Park Coalition website or the Park Spirit Worcester website for the trail information. The trails in Green Hill are beautiful, and you can truly enjoy nature the way it should be enjoyed. You can become a member of the Green Hill Park Coalition for only $10.00 a year, and support all the work they do to keep the park beautiful. The World War One Memorial work and tree-planting will continue now that spring is here.
We will soon have new neighbors as the Bridge of Central Massachusetts in collaboration with the Worcester East Side Community Development Corp. open a new apartment building. This former lot, which was once full of trash, is now home to a beautiful building. We welcome them to the neighborhood.
Our most important news is our new website. The website, designed at no charge by Steve Jones-D’Agostino, has been launched. Steve, a longtime Worcester resident and a member of the Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley, has volunteered countless - and we mean countless - for our site. We have Neighborhood Resources inks and long-range plans to open up that page to businesses and organization that may want to pay to advertise there. We are so excited and can’t thank Steve enough for all the work he has done on our behalf. He has been very patient with us as we didn’t always finish our website homework on time!
There is a link on the website to Next Door, which is a community bulletin/message board. Check it out! There is a lot of free information-sharing that is available for our Green Hill and Bell Hill neighborhoods.
Thanks always to St. Bernard’s Church for giving us a home. We meet there the last Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Please join us.
As always, we ask for your input, ideas, suggestions ... We will need help for our picnic, our summer concerts, and any additional clean-ups we plan. Let us know what you would like to see for projects, guest speakers, and any other ideas for the community.
Our neighborhood is a diverse and vibrant one, and we want everyone to feel included.
Think Spring!