The Danforth East Community Association started in an unusual way. We didn’t gather together to fight against something — a development or city plan. We gathered to build something. We met around our dining room tables to share dreams of what our little pocket could be and plans to get us there. Our vision, from the start in 2007, was to make Danforth East a more vibrant, walkable, safe place. A few months in, we held our inaugural community association meeting, expecting a couple dozen people to show up. More than 130 arrived.
Since then we’ve launched a number of initiatives, and in 2018 were responsible for:
- our 10th year of weekly Farmers’ Markets from June – October
- our 10th annual Danforth East Arts Fair, boasting over 60 vendors
- our 9th annual Pumpkin Parade was sadly rained out for the first time
- our 6th annual Danforth East Yard Sale, with over 180 participating households and businesses
- our 7th annual Festival of Lights
- our 1st annual Retro Dance Party to fundraise for our DECA Young Leader Scholarship
- a number of neighbourhood visioning initiatives including “Yes, In My Community” jointly with the Toronto Public Library
- continually connecting and informing our neighbours via DECA Diaries, Facebook and Twitter
Every one of our successes started as an idea in someone’s head. If you have a brilliant plan for our hood, let us know! We are only as strong as our members. Please join us.