November 2015 Active Members Thank You Party

friends of west mill creek park

On November 15, we celebrated our 2015 Active Members (all those people who donated time, talent, or financial support to Friends of WMC Park, during the current year).  It was a fun time, especially because we all got to meet the significant others of many of our regulars.  Thanks everyone for coming!!  P.S. We made every effort to invite every Active Member — we did have to straighten out a couple of record keeping mistakes, so for future reference, always remember to speak up if need be.

Our Bridlewild Guide, Nysa (far right) and our Friends of WMC hikers

We had a gorgeous day for our hike on the Bridlewild Trail, which took place Sunday, October 11.  Leaving from the Beth David parking lot, we hiked the trail to Rolling Hill.  Elaine and Max, two of our hikers, stayed at the corral while the rest of us hiked down to the creek.  Nysa gave us some fascinating history of the mills and other uses of the old mill buildings (including use as a recording studio used by Bruce Springsteen and other celebrities).  And the dogs had a marvellous time, needless to say.  Thanks Nysa for a great day!

Thanks to all who came out and supported us at our Dog Days of Summer Fundraiser.  We raised about $400 (our Treasurer will do an exact count soon) — but even better, we signed up a dozen new members!  We extend a warm welcome to all our most recent members.  A few pictures from the event: 

Garden workday volunteers–L to R Wendy White, Martha Lombardo, Linda Pitt, Paula Burns, Karen Hinckley with Rocket and Lizzie

A hearty thank you to all the great garden volunteers who participated in our perennial planting blitz.   During our five work days, we planted 620 (yes, six hundred and twenty!) plants and did a bit of weeding besides.  Thirteen planting volunteers–Paula Burns, Michelle Detwiler, Mary Field, Joseph Garrity, Karen Hinckley, Martha Lombardo, Hazel Murphy, Melissa O’Connor,  Linda Pitt, Ellen Reese, Toba Spector,  Wendy White, and Ellen Briggs–donated a total of 48.5 hours to accomplish this feat.

L to R, Michelle Detwiler, Ellen Briggs, Ellen Reese and Melissa O’Connor pause for photo op in May 2015 marathon planting of 450 Blue Wood Sedge.

Chris Bushnell with newly installed garden sign

In addition, Chris Bushnell once again donated his woodworking talents to  frame and install our beautiful Wildlife and Respite Garden sign, which was designed by Ellen Reese and Gary Stein.  Gary  also fixed the gate hardware for us so it is now a pleasure to open and shut those gates.

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One of our Appalachian Spring dogwoods in bloom.

In February of 2014, at our first annual meeting, we announced our plan to create a wildlife garden in the park and offered the chance to dedicate a tree in honor or memory of a person or dog to the first 5 people to donate $150 to the project.  The trees were planted in the fall, made it through a tough winter, and received their dedication plaques at our Meet the Trees event on Friday, June 5.   Member Helene Feinberg Walker provided delicious treats for both person and dog guests and everyone had a great time.

Lee and Tessa enjoy refreshments at our Meet the Trees event

For those who couldn’t be there, we missed you!  Do drop by the wildlife garden and take a look at the 5 trees and their tags:

One of our two Appalachian Spring dogwoods was donated by Hazel Murphy in memory of her sister Avis and her husband Tony; the other was donated by Jon and Janine Weller in honor of their dog Lucy.

Helene, Kent, and Abby in front of a Winter King Hawthorn dedicated to the memory of Cybil and Max, Poodle Girls

Our three Winter King hawthorns were donated by Karen Garbeil in honor of Junior (who needs no introduction);  by Helene Feinberg Walker in memory of Cybil and Max, Poodle Girls; and by Jay and Marya Margolis in memory of Dollie the Collie.

True to the wildlife mission of our garden, the  flowers of both  varieties of trees are especially beneficial to endangered pollinators, and their fruits provide food for over 35 bird species.

e Bench donated by dog park friends of Debby Merker in her memory

Many of you will have noticed that we have a new bench in the park.  It’s been getting a lot of use, so it seems to be a welcome addition.  The bench was donated by a group of Debby Merker’s friends in her memory, and it was expertly assembled by member Joseph Garrity and his brother Patrick.  Debby, with her two yellow Labradors Betsy and Oakley, were beloved park regulars.  Debby’s kindness and generosity were legendary, and she is greatly missed,

The people listed below made donations for the bench.  Excess funds over the cost of the bench will be donated to Main Line Animal Rescue, Debby’s preferred rescue organization where she got Betsy and Oakley.

Bench Donors

Dorthe Andersen, Janice Asher,  Judy Argon, Steve Axelrod, Ellen Briggs, Jill Cooper, Lee Dante, Tom Donohue, Karen Garbeil,  Robin Garrett, Bobby Harmelin, Karen Hinckley, Sarah Johnston, Tessa Lamont Siegel, Jay and Marya Margolis, Linda McConnell, Karl Middleman, Lynn O’Connor, Bob Plotnick, Ellen Reese, Elaine Stern, John Tobias and Rebecca Wells, Helene Feinberg Walker, Kate Williams

In spite of the short notice and the holiday weekend, 10 brave volunteers donated 28 hours of hard labor in our soon-to-be Wildlife and Respite Garden.  Most of the work consisted in:

• digging out the roots of an invasive alien vine, Porcelain Berry, with pickaxes and shovels.  (That’s Ampelopsis brevipedunculata  for all you botanical Latin fans.)
• sifting parking lot gravel out of the soil and returning same to the parking lot
• removing rocks and hunks of asphalt from the garden 

We are proud to report that we have 13 large black contractor bags filled with weeds (mostly porcelain berry roots) waiting to be picked up as trash.

In addition, we signed up 6 new members bringing our total membership to 94 people, and collected $18 in cash donations.

These 2 official work days were preceded by several unofficial work days at which additional volunteers donated their time and expertise transplanting daffodils, unstaking trees in the riparian buffer, and beginning the very challenging weeding process in the garden area.

THANKS A MILLION to all our volunteers, you are the greatest!!

As you may have noticed, the Harriton day of service was cancelled due to heavy rains on their scheduled work day–so we really need our volunteers!  Here are our currently planned work days–and please note you can come and go as you please, no need to stay for the entire session.

Saturday, May 24, 2:00-5:00———–weeding, removal of vine roots and unwanted stones/gravel

Sunday, May 25, 2:00-5:00————-weeding, removal of vine roots and unwanted stones/gravel

Thursday, May 29, 2:00-5:00———-planting, laying down cardboard & mulch

Sunday, June 1, 2:00-5:00————–planting if not finished on Thursday, laying down cardboard & mulch

Please bring water, a shady garden hat, and work gloves.  Also, we will have some extra tools on hand, but we will NOT have access to the Township’s tools so please bring your own tools if you can.  For the two initial weeding days, spades, shovels, pick axes for the vine roots, loppers, and pruning saws should all be helpful.  You may want to put your name on your tools to ensure you get them back at the end of the day.

We’re in luck!  Students serving in a Harriton High School Day of Service will lay out the cardboard and newspapers many have donated, and also mulch that will be provided free by the township, in our Wildlife and Respite Garden on May 16, 2014.  To prepare for the students’ work on May 16, we will weed and mark out the garden path.  The students will be supervised by someone from Harriton and also by a representative of L.M. Township.  After the mulch is laid down, we will begin planting shrubs.   We will plan to start planting around May 22, but stay tuned for more details.  Anyone interested in gardening is invited to help plant, water and weed on an ongoing basis.