Hope United Church
(2550 Danforth @ Main)
7:00 – 8:30pm
Send questions in advance to decadiaries@gmail.com
For more info visit our Facebook event
Candidates invited / attending:
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal Party of Canada
Sean Manners, Green Party of Canada
Mae J. Nam, NDP
Nadirah Nazeer, Conservative Party of Canada
Last week DECA Diaries got an exclusive preview of lost + found (ahem, we spied an open door and invited ourselves in). We’ve been counting down the days until opening day ever since.
Thankfully the wait is over! lost + found opened its doors Oct. 3 in the space at the front of The Healing Collective at 2005 Danforth, between East Lynn and Moberly. Here are some reasons why you should check them out this weekend and see why they’re “first aid for the modern soul.”
The lovely spot is full of stuff that can contribute to wellness in ways you might expect, such as their curated selection of self help books. But there’s also a great selection of things that might not immediately come to mind when you think “mental wellness.” Maybe it’s a piece of bling that sparks some joy, or some fun notes for your kids’ lunches to remind them you think they’re awesome. One of the four co-owners, Sarah explains that lost + found is all about “redefining what it means to be mentally well.” And their philosophy, based on three pillars of self-care, connection, and community, is evident all around the store.
Sarah shares that between the four co-founders, Janice, Shannon, Alexie, and herself, there’s a quite a bit of experience navigating mental well-being. The group met from their shared experience of losing their partners at a young age. They’ve road tested many of the products themselves.
Getting back to that third pillar of wellness–community–they also plan to host workshops and be a Danforth East hub, promoting wellness through learning and social connection. Welcome to the hood, lost + found!
Hours: Tues, Wed 11-6 pm, Thurs-Fri 11-8 pm, Sat 11-6 pm, Sun 12-5 pm, closed Mon.
As we look forward to the Danforth East Arts Fair this coming weekend – September 14 & 15 in East Lynn Park – we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the wonderful community sponsors and volunteers who make #DECAF possible!
We asked our sponsors: what does our #DanforthEast community mean to you?
Melissa of Melissa Peretti Imagination + Design is an award-winning interior designer specializing in unique and practical interior design for families:
“Our community is incredible about supporting local business, shops, and talents. Art and art-making have always been a part of my life. It was the arts fair that first clicked for me as an event I wanted to be involved in after joining DECA. Making the fair even more family-focused by adding the kids’ activities is one of the additions to the fair I am most proud of spearheading. Animating our neighbourhood through these wonderful volunteer-led initiatives has been incredibly important and effective in transforming the area.”
Common Threads is a home economics studio offering classes in sewing, cooking, money and time management:
“We have a vibrant and engaged community. I see our residents as people who work hard, are open to new ideas. As a past participant of the fair, I was amazed to at how much local talent there was hiding along our quiet residential streets. A supported community is a vibrant community and I’m happy this one is in my backyard.”
Juliette Fergus of Trust Realty Group is a Real Estate Broker who focuses on our vibrant Danforth East Community:
“This community is the very heart of not only my business, but my life. Being a neighbour, I love our local businesses, DECA and our BIA. It sounds cheesy I know, but I love walking down the street and getting caught up in numerous conversations with fellow business owners, staff, parents, and neighbours who I have crossed paths with. Community keeps us all connected, and nowhere have I experienced connections as heartfelt as in Danforth East.
DeSerres is a veteran sponsor to the fair and a fixture in our community.
DeSerres is a family-owned art and craft supply business, and ours supplies our neighborhood with all the fixings to cook up something creative. Need to frame a picture? Learn to scrapbook? Pick up some kids’ crafting supplies? Our local DeSerres has you covered and we thank them for their ongoing support of the fair. Why do it? In their words: “Because life is a canvas.”
Create Art Studio is a welcoming community art school in Toronto that encourages positive development through creative exploration:
“Create Art Studio was started by local mom, Jennifer Thompson, who wanted to start a business that would allow her to spend more time with her young children. In early 2017, she put her idea into motion – bringing her vision for an inclusive and welcoming space for children, teens, and adults to gather and learn, about art and themselves, in the vibrant community of Danforth East.”
Small Business People Inc. creates and delivers personalized, simple bookkeeping plans for small business owners:
“In this neighbourhood our children go to school, know the local shop owners by name and experience a family community within a large city. It is also a neighbourhood of small business owners and the self-employed who support each other. In short, the neighbourhood represents our values: Family, Community, People, Service and Time. Much of what makes a community, to us, is its social and cultural fabric – the arts fair is a great place to contribute.”
The Danforth East Community Association is the parent association behind DECAF19. 
DECA formed over twelve years ago with the goal of making #DanforthEast a more vibrant, walkable, and safe neighbourhood. Thanks to our all-volunteer board and the many contributions of our community, we have brought that vision to life, helping to revitalize local businesses through our Pop-Up Shop program, animating East Lynn Park through our various events, advocating for smart city planning and safe streets, and fundraising for important initiatives like refugee resettlement and our annual scholarship. There is nowhere else in the city quite like our community, and we are so proud to be able to continue to put on the Danforth East Arts Fair!
BIG #DECAF19 THANK YOU!!
Danforth East Arts Fair (DECAF19) takes place Saturday and Sunday September 14-15 in East Lynn Park. Follow us on social media up to and during the fair on Facebook and Instagram.
Volunteers needed! Sign up here to help out for a couple of hours and help make the tenth year of our annual fair a success!
Check out what’s on at the East Lynn Farmers’ Market this Thursday, September 5th, 3-7pm:
On top of our farmers and local food vendors this week we have:
32 Spokes doing bike repairs and simple tune ups
This Week’s Scheduled Vendors
The East Lynn Farmers’ Market runs every Thursday from 3:00-7:00 p.m. between June 6 – October 17 at East Lynn Park, located on the south side of Danforth Ave, just west of Woodbine Ave. Stay up to date by visiting the East Lynn Market Facebook page or by following us on Twitter.
It’s that time of year again: when the nights get a bit cooler, school starts again, and we prepare for all things fall. Here at DECA, when we reflect on all that we accomplished over the summer months with the help of our fabulous #DanforthEast community (Farmers’ Market, 880 Streets event, Arts Fair prep), one thing that stands out is the awarding of our Young Leaders Scholarship to local resident Rayne Fisher-Quann.
We want to tell you all about Rayne (because she is all kinds of awesome!), but first, a brief bit of background on both the scholarship and DECA in general. When DECA formed in 2007, our express goal was to build, rather than fight against, something. Over the past 12 years, we’ve gathered around kitchen tables and in local businesses to advocate for and work towards #DanforthEast being a more vibrant, safe, and inclusive space for all its residents. An ambitious goal, to be sure, and with much still to be done — but we are proud of the efforts of our all-volunteer board and all the community members that have contributed.
The Young Leaders Scholarship was born out of our core desire to build. Building for our #DanforthEast community of the future means enabling community-minded and socially conscious young people to pursue their educational goals, and allowing their experiences to help shape community, social, and governmental initiatives. Our scholarship awards $2,000 to a high school student entering post-secondary studies or training who is involved in supporting and/or improving their communities. To be eligible for application, a young person must be entering their first year of post-secondary education or training in fall of the application year; live or go to school within DECA boundaries (Main Street east, Lumsden/Mortimer north, Monarch Park west, and the train tracks to the south); and be actively working to improve their school and/or neighbourhood in some demonstrable way. The proceeds of the scholarship is the result of funds raised by DECA through our assorted community events, principally our annual Retro Dance Party.
Now to introduce 2019’s winner. Rayne Fisher-Quann graduated this June from William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute in the MACS program for advanced math, science, and computer science, and is heading to the University of British Columbia for a planned major in physics and a planned minor in political science or international relations. In the years leading up to her graduation, Rayne worked as a prominent education and gender equality activist in our community, across Canada, and beyond. Most recently, Rayne helped lead March for Our Education and StudentsSayNo — student advocacy groups that were formed in response to recent changes to the Ontario educational system — as they organized 200,000 students in a mass walkout, the single largest student protest in Canadian history. Rayne was invited to speak at various universities and conferences, and was also approached by the United Nations, who asked her to join a team of a select few activists from around the world to lead the Girls’ Education Initiative, for which she co-wrote a global call to action and contributed a video lecture.
Rayne also serves as Vice President of Define! youth, a registered non-profit with the goal of allowing young people of all social, economic, and cultural backgrounds to achieve the same footing in the professional world, and to create spaces where everyone can have an equal opportunity. To date, Define! youth has held three conferences that offered workshops on scholarship application, youth activism, networking, resume-building, and more. For her work in these and many other capacities, Rayne was named Toronto’s LGBT Youth of theYear at the INSPIRE Awards, a Woman of the Year by Chatelaine Magazine, and one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women of 2018 by Refinery29.
To say we are inspired by this amazing young person is an understatement, and it has been a great privilege to help her pursue her educational dreams!!
If you are interested in volunteering with DECA for this initiative and/or have ideas about how we can make our #DanforthEast neighbourhood an even more amazing place, get in touch with us by email at info@deca.to.
Danforth East Community Arts Fair is back for its 11th year at East Lynn Park the weekend of September 14-15, and you won’t want to miss it!
Join us for this annual community gathering where you can enjoy the talent of dozens of local artisans, listen to some live music, savour some of the neighborhood’s most delicious food, and have your kids take part in some fun and creative activities.
Here is the rundown for what to expect during your visit:
Stay tuned to the blog, Facebook, and Instagram, for more on the Arts Fair as the weeks count down.
See you at the Fair!
