Share your playground ideas May 31

Photo of Charles G. Williams Park, looking north to the wading pool from Wright Avenue

The survey results are in! Thank you to everyone for sharing your comments and ideas for the Charles G. Williams Park playground (Sorauren playground).

Friends of Charles G. Williams received over a hundred responses to the recent survey and will be sharing some of the feedback at a special May 31 meeting. The next step is to get together interested community members to meet in person as a group. Neighborhood business owner and Landscape Architect, Eric Gordon, will be leading a guided brainstorming session to come up with exciting opportunities and solutions to some of our park issues. This is a great chance to share with other parents, grandparents and friends of the park.

When: Wednesday, May 31st at 8 p.m.
Where: Sorauren Park Fieldhouse (50 Wabash Ave.), Main Floor

Please RSVP to friendsofcharlesg@gmail.com to let us know if you are planning to attend.

Beautiful new drinking fountain thanks to donations

The new drinking fountain and water bottle filling station thanks to the FitzGerald family and friends

Thirsty? Check out the new water fountain and water bottle filling station by the Sorauren Fieldhouse. Thanks to the FitzGerald family and friends, who raised $20,000 in donations in honour of Owen FitzGerald. It’s a wonderful addition to the park and a memorial the whole community can enjoy for many years to come.

The concrete pad poured for the fountain was specially designed to also accommodate the new bake oven, to be constructed this summer… watch for notices.

Thanks also to Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation and Parks, Forestry and Recreation for making this legacy a reality.

Ages 4 – 5 Summer Camps at Sorauren

Parks, Forestry and Recreation operates Activity Camps out of the Sorauren Fieldhouse during the summer for the younger set, ages 4 – 5. Morning and afternoon programs are available.

To register, you’ll need a Family Number and Client Number with the City. Then you’ll need to know the barcodes for the programs you want. Barcodes and details here.

PFR also operates Activity Camps for ages 6 – 12 at Parkdale Community Recreation Centre on Lansdowne Avenue, in Parkdale Public School.

Have a great summer!

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

Sorauren Sports Meet the Coach May 13

It’s that time of year again for players and parents of Sorauren Park children’s Soccer and Baseball:

Meet the Coach
Saturday May 13
11 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Parkdale Community Recreation Centre
75 Lansdowne Ave.

Sorauren Park Sports also needs volunteer coaches for this 2017 season. If you can help out please contact:
Liz Leason
Volunteer Convenor, Sorauren Park Sports Association
416-697-5902
Liz.leason@rogers.com

Gardening Day and t-shirt sales May 13

Join the Friends of Sorauren Park and volunteers for the annual Gardening Day on Saturday, May 13 starting at 10 a.m. by the Sorauren Fieldhouse.

We’ll spruce up the gardens around the Fieldhouse, around the park, and make preparations for the new tool shed that will accompany the new pizza bake oven coming this summer.

No experience necessary. Bring gardening gloves and simple garden tools if you have them.

Photo of blue t-shirt with Friends of Sorauren Park logoThis is also your chance to purchase a cool Friends of Sorauren Park t-shirt, $10 each. All proceeds support the non-profit Friends and free programming at the park including movie nights.

To volunteer for other Sorauren Park activities, use our handy volunteer form and we’ll be in touch.

Take the playground survey

Have your say in planned improvements to the playground at Charles G. Williams Park, otherwise known as the Sorauren playground.

The Friends of the Playground invite you to complete a quick online survey. The purpose of this survey is to get a better understanding of the community’s use of the playground.

The park is slated for renovation in 2020 and the Friends will be working with the City to help design the park to best meet the needs of the community. The possibility to complete smaller improvement projects before the larger redesign exist as well, so please complete the survey with that in mind.

Please also note that the park includes the basketball court, wading pool and surrounding grassy areas.

Take the survey online. You can also sign-up for the playground-specific newsletter produced by the Friends of the Playground.

History note: Charles Gower Williams, a local resident who raised his family with wife Mary Williams on Wright Avenue, died 100 years ago this year while fighting in the First World War.