Environment Day April 28 on Wabash Avenue

Round up those old paint cans and broken electronics. The annual Community Environment Day, hosted by the City of Toronto, takes place Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wabash Avenue by Sorauren Park.

Car traffic on Wabash will be modified during these times to accommodate the event.

The annual event is a great way to properly dispose of household hazardous waste including old batteries, solvents, fluorescent bulbs, expired medications and more. Crews also accept old electronics including cell phones, computers, printers and TVs.

The City publishes a full list of accepted material, including supplies that will be reused such as arts and crafts materials, clothing in good condition, and much more.

You can also buy kitchen green bins, pick up free compost, and learn more about City environmental efforts.

Advertisements

Registration starts March 7 for soccer, baseball, tennis

Photo of kids and parents playing soccer at Sorauren Park

Soccer action at Sorauren Park

Get those barcodes ready… registration starts March 7 for the 2018 Sorauren Park children’s soccer and baseball/t-ball programs, kids and adults tennis, and early-year adventure day camps.

Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, in partnership with the all-volunteer Sorauren Park Sports Association, runs the soccer and baseball (t-ball) leagues at the park starting every May.  The City runs the tennis programs, and also runs age 4-5 Adventure Day Camps at the Sorauren Fieldhouse.

Make sure you have your City Client number and Family number prior to registering. This web page provides all the information you need to know to register. Call a customer service representative from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday to Friday, at 416-338-4386 to set up your account today if you don’t already have one.

To search the FunGuide for Sorauren Park programs, type “Sorauren Avenue Park” in the location bar on this page. You’ll need each program’s barcode number to register.

Soccer and baseball/t-ball programs range from age 4 to 13. The tone is fun and friendly, with an emphasis on building sportsmanship, skills, team play and exercise. Volunteer parents serve as coaches and fundraisers (for the t-shirt uniforms and trophies), while the City provides the equipment, referees, and registration system.

Contact Sorauren Park Sports Association if you’d like to volunteer!

City Council votes YES to Wabash Community Centre

Birds-eye view drawing of the old brick linseed oil mill building, re-imagined as the Wabash Community Centre

2009 concept plan for Wabash Community Centre by Oleson Worland_Taylor Smyth architects, in joint venture. The plan would use the footprint and exterior of the old linseed oil mill

Toronto City Council has voted to start work this year on the Wabash Community Centre at Sorauren Park.

Work will begin with a modest $50,000 budgeted for pre-engineering. That will be followed by design in 2018 and 2019, with shovels in the ground planned for 2020, towards a 2022 or 2023 opening. Total project budget is $32.4 million.

“After 17 years on the books and many years of community advocacy before that, this is wonderful news,” said Joël Campbell, chair of the all-volunteer Friends of Sorauren Park. “This is a milestone.”

The Friends of Sorauren Park recently concluded its “Unlock the Community Centre” awareness campaign, the latest in a long series of actions to advocate for the centre.

The project is included in Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s capital budget and plan, which City Council approved Wednesday, February 15, 2017, as part of the overall City budget.

The most recent plans for the community centre, prepared as part of a 2009 feasibility study, would convert the abandoned Canada Linseed Oil Mills building next to the park into a 40,000 sq. ft. community hub with a gym (shown above), multipurpose rooms, studios and fitness rooms, youth space, kitchen and third-floor event space with a rooftop terrace.

Follow us on social media @SoraurenPark, our website and this newsletter for updates and news on design consultations.

Friends of Sorauren Park would like to thank Councillor Gord Perks, along with previous Ward 14 councillors Sylvia Watson and Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, who all moved the project along at various stages at City Council.

Most of all, thanks to the community, which has advocated ceaselessly for the community centre since the early 1990s. Never stop believing.

Illustration showing a gym and hallways with light streaming from the top

Artist’s rendering of gym and first floor of community centre

Special Family Day at the park Feb. 19

Come to Sorauren Park on Family Day, Monday February 19, for a special Farmers Market, 3 – 7 p.m. The pizza oven will be fired up, there will be free hot cider, and delicious hot chocolate will be sold from an outdoor booth.

If the weather cooperates, the natural ice rink will be open for pleasure skating and shinny. Plus, all the winter Market vendors will be open in the Fieldhouse.

The Market will also be offering a family portrait service and board games. See you at the park!

Better weather ahead for the rink

Painting of skaters at Sorauren Park by Larissa Mattwich. Monochromatic, snow and pines and ice and skakers

Thanks to Larissa Mattwich for the wonderful painting of skaters at Sorauren Park.

The Sorauren Park Hosers have nursed the rink through a few weeks of up-and-down. Now the patient is looking to make a strong recovery thanks to the tender loving care and a more promising forecast for below-zero temperatures.

Rink conditions are posted more frequently on our SoraurenPark social media feeds, so check often. The rink is closed to protect the surface when temperatures rise above zero.

The new boards this year have done a much better job holding in the water during thaws. That said, the rink does need remedial work to get it back to the excellent conditions we experienced just before and after New Year’s.

Volunteer Hosers flood every night at 9 p.m. when temperatures are below zero and when it is not snowing hard.

Big thanks to our sponsors Scooter Girl Toys, Snap Fitness High Park and Chander Chaddah, whose support enabled the purchase of the new boards. To learn more about the rink and how you can get involved, visit our Ice Rink page.