GreenUP has received a gift of $50,000 — its largest single donation — from a private anonymous donor.
The donation was made to the environmental organization’s Growing Ecology Park Five-Year Investment Campaign for the redevelopment of Ecology Park, a five-acre site located at 1899 Ashburnham Drive beside the Beavermead Campground.
Ecology Park is a key location for GreenUP’s work on environmental education, sustainability, and stewardship. Each year, more than 1,000 students visit the park with their classes, their families, or as part of a camp program.
The Ecology Park tree nursery and garden market is a trusted source for healthy and locally grown plant stock. The park is also a location for GreenUP’s educational workshops.
Along with the anonymous donation of $50,000, GreenUP has also received major gifts from Susan Sauvé and Ian Attridge, the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough, and Laurie and Bonnie Dawe. In addition, more than 100 individual donors have contributed to GreenUP’s Nest Fund.
The donations mean that GreenUP can now begin building key facilities at Ecology Park. Planned development in 2018 will include the reconstruction of the open-air teaching shelter, as well as indoor office and storage space.
“The generosity demonstrated by our donors during the first year of the campaign has been heart-warming,” says GreenUP Executive Director Brianna Salmon.
“The redevelopment and expansion of the existing Ecology Park Children’s Education Centre will create a beautiful outdoor classroom and teaching space at Ecology Park, and will support programming for the next generation of students.”
GreenUP will make an official Ecology Park fundraising announcement and recognize local award winners at its 25th annual general meeting, to be held from 3 to 5 p.m. today (March 28th) at the Peterborough Public Library.
The event will also feature guest speakers Chris Magwood and Jen Feigin, co-directors at the Endeavour Centre for Sustainable Building, who will be sharing designs for the new facilities being constructed at GreenUP Ecology Park in 2018.
They will also provide highlights of Endeavour’s innovative programming, including new research on the embodied carbon of building materials and the role of sequestration in drastically reducing the climate change impacts of our built environment.
An awards presentation will also recognize GreenUP’s current Chair of the Board of Directors, Ivan Bateman, who has given 20 years of volunteer service to the GreenUP Board. St. Alphonsus Catholic Elementary School will also be honoured as the 2017 winner of the GreenUP School Engagement Award, recognizing the school with the highest program participation last year.
GreenUP is still fundraising for other phases of the Ecology Park redevelopment, including the installation of the supporting infrastructure to make the facility accessible and to connect it to the Trans Canada Trail, and to integrate a solar photovoltaic system and to support utilities servicing.
For more information and to donate, visit www.greenup.on.ca/growing-ecology-park.
