On Sunday, Oct. 3, Berkeley Partners for Parks invites you to enjoy
• A leisurely afternoon stroll or bike ride
• A progressive picnic
• Music, food, fun for all ages
Celebrate great green spaces! See how Berkeley volunteers have transformed neglected scraps of city!
We’ll start at 1 PM at Presentation Park, Allston Way and California, where residents have turned thickets into a butterfly garden and more.
At 2 PM we’ll make our way to Schoolhouse Creek Common, Virginia and Curtis. Neighbors have turned an old parking lot behind Berkeley Adult School into a flowery oasis where neighbors gather, children play, and students take breaks and relax.
At 3 PM we’ll follow the old Santa Fe Railroad route, now the Ohlone Greenway, to Westbrae Commons (along the greenway between Hopkins and Gilman). There we’ll join the annual harvest-time celebration of three community gardens, restored native coastal prairie, and whimsical to spectacular public art along the old rail corridor.
Free, all welcome! (The distance is a level 1.5 mi. one way.) Information at www.bpfp.org, Charlie_Paths@comcast.net, 540 7223.
Berkeley Path Wanderers Annual Meeting
Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St.
Our keynote speaker will be Karin Tuxen-Bettman, from Google. She will discuss using Google Earth & Google Maps to plan, track, and map your path hikes and wanderings, including viewing historical imagery of the area, finding the elevation profile of your walk, and uploading your photos and GPS paths to Google Earth. Our honorary host will be Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who gave up his car two years ago in favor of walking and riding the bus. A short business meeting, including the election of officers and slides of our recent path building efforts will precede the program, which is free and open to the public. We will also vote on adopting amendments to the existing Association bylaws. For more information visit the Berkeley Path Wanderers website.
BPFP welcomes “Every Kid 2 Swim” as an affiliate
Every Kid 2 Swim’s current project is to help finance swimming lessons for low income kids in Berkeley. Complete details about the Every Kid 2 Swim Program can be found here.
National & International Teen Programs Volunteer with Friends of Five Creeks
Friends of Five Creeks’ restoration projects took giant steps forward this summer thanks to many teen volunteers. They ranged from individuals to international exchange students — like the 50 high-school student from Mexico who cleared the mountain of invasives shown in the photo. The students, many from areas plagued by drugs and violence, stayed at UC Berkeley as part of a program aimed at developing leaders from non-elite groups. The Jovenes in Accion (Youth in Action) program is run by AYUSA Global Youth Exchange. Other volunteers came from the Civic Leadership Institute, a Northwestern University-based program for outstanding high-school students nationwide, and from local teen programs including Camp Kee Tov.
New Grants further BPFP Partner Groups’ Projects
Two grants from the 2010 round of University of California Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Community Partnership Grants will further BPFP Partner Groups’ projects. These annual grants support projects in which Berkeley nonprofit groups partner with UC students, faculty, or staff. For 2010, grants focused on safety.
The LeRoy Steps Safety Project received $7,160 to improve pedestrian lighting on historic LeRoy Steps, a heavily used shortcut north of the UC Berkeley campus. With an additional recent $1500 grant from PG&E for the project, the neighborhood group will be able to make this busy shortcut north of the UC Berkeley campus more attractive and safer.
The Greening Berkeley Coalition received $5000 to continue their partnership with UC Berkeley’s CalCorps. The partnership brings student volunteers into the community to work hands-on on outdoor “greening” projects, while helping to pay for materials. The Coalition in 2010 includes Aquatic Park EGRET, Berkeley Path Wanderers, CHIA, East Bay GPA, Friends of Five Creeks, Friends of Grotto Rock Park, Presentation Park Partners, and Schoolhouse Creek Common.