Last night I attended the Evergreen Volunteer Appreciation Party held at Magic Oven on 798 Danforth Avenue. Even though I was an hour late, thanks to the traffic returning to downtown Toronto from another work day in Hamilton, I arrived just in time to catch a video and slideshow all about the Evergreen vision, projects in the works, and plans for the Brickworks. It was truly fascinating and awe-inspiring to see what Evergreen have done and are in the process of doing to the historical space right by the Don Valley ravines.

To give a brief about the location here’s a summary from the Evergreen website:

A site that has known constant transformation—first by two million years of glacial action, later by 100 years of brick making—is being transformed yet again. This time, Evergreen leads an 18-month construction process that will turn an abandoned industrial site into a lively and engaging environmental community centre.

What really stood out during the slideshow was the sense of community and participation involved in turning the space into what it is. Evergreen doesn’t want it to be just another green space, they want it to be a place where the community are involved in the transformation process. That’s powerful!

So being an appreciation party there was yummy food:

There were fun table activities including butter making on one table, six degrees of Brickworks separation on another, and “my green city” collage being created at another. Here was the final result:

I volunteered as a photographer for the Evergreen Brickworks Saturday Farmers’ Market a few times during the Fall. One of my photos was selected for display by the photography volunteer coordinator. It was a rewarding moment for me to see my work there amongst the others. I also had a chance to talk to the coordinator and it was really nice to have had that opportunity to connect with her in person instead of our usual emails.

Some of my other photos are on Evergreen’s blog thanks to my lovely supporter (and Evergreen blogger & former program assistant) Michelle. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get involved and the pleasure was really mine.

If you’re in Toronto, enjoy meeting people and participating in a great community and project, then I would encourage you to head over to the Evergreen website and register as a volunteer for next season.

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