DECA’s 6th Annual Cocktail Party & Annual General Meeting – Nov 24

Please join us on Monday, November 24 for our party/AGM!

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Candidates for Election to DECA’s Board of Directors

Sheri Hebdon (Chair) – current Treasurer

Anita Schretlen (Treasurer) – current Chair

Alison McMurray (Secretary) – current Secretary

Amanda Olson (Member-at-Large) current Member-at-Large

Jane Davis-Munro (Member-at-Large) current Member-at-Large

Melissa Peretti (Member-at-Large) current Member-at-Large

Shelley Darling (Member-at-Large) current Member-at-Large

Stephen Wickens (Member-at-Large) current Member-at-Large

Catherine Porter (Member-at-Large) returning Member-at-Large

Audrey Kvedaras (Member-at-Large) new

Corinne McCabe (Member-at-Large) new

David Del Grande (Member-at-Large) new

Jodi Shanoff (Member-at-Large) new

Linda Ballantyne (Member-at-Large) new

Mark Rullo (Member-at-Large) new

Call for vendors, library talk and local t-shirts

Calls for Artists and Vendors – Artisans at Work

(check out Artisans at Work for more information)

Open Call
December’s monthly exhibition is open for anyone to display their artwork! Subject matter is open to anything! We are looking for all mediums. Please submit up to 3 pieces of artwork preferably as part of a series.

Artisans at Work hosts an opening every first friday of the month with a live band, cash bar and food provided by the showing artists. 

Vendor Call
December is also the season for craft shows at Artisans at Work. Every Sat & Sun in December, we will be opening our gallery up to guest artists for a craft show in the gallery! Applications accepted until spaces are filled! Join our craft show for 75$ a table.

Proposal Call for 2015
Artisans at Work is looking for proposals for 2015! Program a group/ solo exhibition with us for reasonable rates. Please submit your proposals at artisansatwork@yahoo.com.

To submit artwork: Please provide up to 3 images of your submissions (preferably a small series of similar works), and a short artist statement (up to 100 words). 

Library Talk – Wednesday, November 19

Come to the Danforth/Coxwell library on Wed Nov 19, 2014 for a talk on:

The Toronto Anti-Greek Riot of 1918: War, Intolerance and Identity
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
1675 Danforth Ave

The August 1918 anti-Greek riot, led by returning war veterans, was one of the largest instances of violence in Toronto’s history. This presentation by Chris Grafos (York University) charts the lasting legacy and broader consequences of intolerance towards Canada’s immigrants. Free. No registration required.

For more information, please call 416-393-7783.

Announcing…Neighbourhood Kids Clothing!

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Announcement from local entrepreneur Gary Sappleton…

After a year of working on weekends and evenings, we just launched our children’s apparel company called Neighbourhood Kids – which proudly celebrates children and neighbourhoods while donating 10% of our profits to the national charity, Breakfast for Learning. We are literally a Canadian ma and pa company and we live in the East Danforth.

Our T-shirts are carried by Silly Goose (who have featured us in one of their stunning window displays) and Fab Baby Gear on the West Danforth.

Please check out our neighbourhood collections at neighbourhoodkids.com

And the Danforth Dinosaur T-shirt can be found here: http://neighbourhoodkids.com/collections/toronto/products/danforth-dinosaurs

You can also get an idea of what we’re about via facebook: FB.com/NeighbourhoodKids, and Twitter: @NKclothing

Upcoming DECA Events – Posters coming soon!

DECA’s AGM will be on November 24 from 6:30-9:30 at Hirut.

AND

DECA’s 3rd Annual Festival of Lights at East Lynn Park will be held from 4:00-6:00pm on November 29.

Construction Update: The home stretch

Thanks to Corrine McCabe for representing DECA at the Danforth Construction update meetings and for providing this update on the work currently being completed between Woodbine and Victoria Park.

As you have likely seen, we are into the home stretch.  According to the City, we are a week or so from completion of construction.

The street grinding on the south side of the Danforth just started last week.  They scheduled two to three days for grinding, then adjustments, then the final paving will be underway.

The date for the street sign re-installations is still TBD as they are looking at newly designed black poles with multiple signs on each so the street is not cluttered with different poles.

Street furniture will go back, with the addition of perhaps more benches on the strip.

ATTENTION BIKE ENTHUSIASTS! Bike rings will be re-installed–look for the spray painted circles with a line on the side walk for where they’ll be placed. There are no plans to increase the number of bike rings at present, but if any resident feels they would like more, they are to contact the City at streetfurniture@toronto.ca and request the location.  There’s budget for bike poles every year, so get your request in ASAP.  The City will review the request, and look at the area to see if another bike ring is indeed required.

All the trees have now been planted.  In a previous post we shared that the City planned on planting Norway Maples (among other species of trees).  A few readers questioned this choice given it is an invasive species.  We asked about that choice, however never got a real answer other than those trees have done well in Toronto street plantings.

The one and only existing tree railing on the south side of Danforth just East of Woodbine is just an idea. It will not be the final look.  This one is black, and realistically they will be looking at something that is not painted nor aluminium (paint chips and aluminium rusts).  The ground cover you see planted in that one example is also just an idea… it is often used on green roofs, so it may be used in further plantings. Final dates for the installation are not confirmed.

Placemaking – this Sunday @ Coxwell Station laneway

If you want to be part of something that is truly transformational for this neighbourhood, mark your calendars for this Sunday!  Here’s a message from the University of Toronto graduate students who are leading this very cool project.

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What: Placemaking

Where: Coxwell Station laneway

When: Sunday November 16, 11AM-3PM

As part of a class taught by former chief planner Paul Bedford, a team of graduate students have been tasked with developing a vision and action plan for the Danforth East. We are grounding our vision in the community’s plans, as we wish to avoid imposing an outside vision on the area. One of the community plans we are building on is the vision for the Coxwell Laneway, and the ideas generated during the laneway design charrette this past May. The team will temporarily put these ideas into action, and is hoping that the community wants to join in!

On Sunday, November 16th, the team will be working on the laneway from 11 AM to 3 PM. Please come and join us! We’ll start off by performing some general maintenance on the area, like cleaning up garbage and leaves. We will supply the garbage bags and containers, but feel free to bring your own gloves if you feel like helping out! Once we have the place spic n span, we’ll start some decorating. This will involve plenty of sidewalk chalk, installing some temporary wayfinding signs, mirrors for blind corners, and general decoration of the area. One of our main targets is the chain link fence. After we clean out the garbage from behind it, we’d really like to hang up some art. If you have some old art work that you wouldn’t mind being exposed to the elements or if it happens to go missing, bring it out! (we can even drop it off at the local value village for you after the event!) We’re also exploring the possibility of using the fence itself as our palette. If you happen to be particularly artistic and feel you can pull something creative and fun off, let us know. For example:

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During this activity we’ll also be engaging with laneway users, letting them know what we’re up to, gauging what their vision for the area is, and whether they approve of the temporary improvements we’ve made. Feel free to bring lawn chairs or temporary seating.

If you have any additional ideas or concerns, please engage with us in the comments section.

Holiday market this Thursday

Fly Girl Fitness is hosting a holiday shopping event on Thursday in their space at 85 Cedarvale Ave (above Relish Bar and Grill). Come and check it out!

Holiday Shopping NightFor more information about the event or about Fly Girl Fitness – check out the website: flygirlfitness.com

 

Props to the Pumpkin Parade People

Once again the Pumpkin Parade’s Chief Organizing Officer, Heather Bean, deserves a huge DECA thank you for her role in coordinating the whole event this year.  She was the mastermind behind everything from permitting to promotion and from candles to clean up.  We are all very grateful for her to taking on this work!

Here is a special shout out from Heather to all those involved in making the night happen:

A big thank you to all the volunteers and city staff who helped us with the Pumpkin Parade on November 1. Tak Bui’s poster art was cheerfully spooky, and Jeff Kraemer was our postering champ. We’re grateful to Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon for helping with permitting and the local businesses who offered social media promos, as well.

Our pumpkin haulers were the stuff of pumpkin parade legend–done in half an hour; that team included Paul Haines, Mark Rullo, Elaine Biagi Turner, Chris Bond, Jevon Vandenberg and his father-in-law Mr. Vandermeer, Corinne McCabe, Stephen Wickens, Matt Bickerton, Judah Hetinger, and Andrew Duffy. Thanks to Tyran, our youngest volunteer. And extra thanks to Molly Donovan and Tanya Koivusalo for lighting pumpkins throughout the parade *and* staying on for cleanup.

And finally, I want to thank whoever brought those two beautiful big pumpkins at the west end of the walk to welcome everyone to the parade! They were admired all night long.

Here are a few pictures courtesy of Stephen Rabjohn.  Enjoy!

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