This is a wonderful initiative and thanks to DECA member Diana Gibbs for sending this along:
The New Circles’ annual Prom Boutique Clothing Drive is now in high gear and they need your fancy clothes! The boutique is the largest in the city serving girls and boys and expects over 500 youth this year. Working with schools across the city, the program ensures that the financial barriers do not prevent students participating in the big day.
In This Closet (1765 Danforth) is kindly offering to be a drop-off site for east-enders and will accept your donations until April 17th. Don’t leave your fancy clothes to languish in your closet. Bring them to In This Closet and put them to work. Let’s make sure all our graduating youth can celebrate this milestone event in style.
Looking for:
New or gently used suits, shirts, ties/bow-ties, shoes
New or gently used formal or cocktail dresses, shoes, evening bags and jewelry
Free Creative Writing Workshop for 9-11 yr olds beginning April 25 (registration required)
Beauty Now April Promotion – 20% off April 14-30th
DECA Board Meeting
Sounds kind of boring, right? But it’s not! Our meetings are the main way that we regularly engage with members and guests and we’d love to see you there if you want to come. We’re meeting Monday, April 13 @ 7:30pm
The only bad thing about the melting of snow is the reveal of months worth of hidden litter. Fortunately the City of Toronto Community Clean-up Days are just around the corner. On Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19 join your neighbours in beautifying our streets, laneways and parks.
Various parks groups have organized clean-ups you can be a part of or feel free to grab a bag and some gloves and clean up your own street. Garbage and recycling bags are available NOW at Pizza Pizza locations throughout the city and at the East York Civic Centre.
Regardless of where you’re cleaning up, all cleaners are welcome to stop by Arthur Potts’s Constituency Office at 1821 Danforth Avenue on Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. for some hot chocolate and snacks.
If you know of another clean-up happening in the DECA boundaries, let us know in the comments and we’ll include it in our reminder post next week. And to see if there are community clean-ups organized for other parks in East Toronto that may not be in the DECA boundary, check out the City of Toronto’s sign up page.
Well, it seems our little introductory sketches of new board members were popular… at least with our veteran board members, who pleaded to be interviewed too. Okay, that might be a small exaggeration. But, they liked the bios and they wanted them to continue…
The good thing about that: DECA’s veteran board members are just as interesting and talented as our new board members.
Take, for instance, Steve Wickens. You might know him as the Jane Jacobs aficionado who leads our local Jane’s Walk, called “The Death and Life of the Upper Midway.” If you haven’t been on this guided historical walk along the Danforth, be sure to sign up for one of this year’s walks on May 2 and May 3 at 10 am. You’ll soon see why.
Steve Wickens leading his Jane Jacob’s walk along the Danforth. Photo courtesy of Gay Stephenson.
Here is Steve, in his own words….
My name and age is… Stephen Wickens, age 57 (until April 25).
One thing people don’t know about me is … I’ve been fascinated by the Danforth for more 50 years. Unlike the sleepy Beach area, where I was raised, the Danforth seemed like an exotic real-world place, often in the news, and with a subway under construction. John’s Hobbies (yep, the same one) was exciting for a small boy and Stan Lane Sports (on the south side at Cedarvale) was the first place I knew of where you could buy a curved hockey stick. When I saw My Fair Lady at the once-grand Prince of Wales, (now known as Valu-mart), I remembered the theatre more than the movie. No wonder I like hanging out at the archives and leading an annual Jane’s Walk.
I moved to Danforth East because … In late 2001, my wife and I decided we wanted a house walking distance to a subway station that wouldn’t require an onerous mortgage. At first we weren’t sure how long we’d stay; now we know the East Danforth is where we want to be, even if we downsize for retirement.
One change I’ve seen over the years … There’s energy and optimism now. Twice in the early 2000s I attended meetings aimed at getting a community association going. Both groups failed. Somehow, I missed out on the start of DECA, but it seems that the people who founded it also kickstarted a momentum that’s still building.
The thing I love most about the East Danforth is … I have great neighbours and it’s already a walkable, unpretentious commercial strip on the rise after a half century of decline.
My biggest local pet peeve is… Litter pigs: Whether it’s fast-food detritus or cigarette butts, it tells me too many people don’t care. Let’s make this a part of town where you’re more likely to get odd looks from people for dropping litter, rather than for picking it up.
My neighbourhood secret is… We have a largely overlooked history as a rural zone within the city until the 1920s, then with a diverse local economy when it was a blue-collar industrial area into the 1950s. The Canada Bread plant east of Greenwood bestowed a wonderful aroma, and it’s employees packed the Linsmore on shift changes. Shoppers World was once Ford’s main assembly plant and the eastbound streetcars were packed in the morning as people arrived for jobs in our area. There were brickyards, quarries, small factories, coal and lumber yards and car dealerships. The John Wood plant on the south side of Hanson was Canada’s biggest producer of hot water tanks. When we had lots of jobs, lots of people were on the sidewalks at different times of the day, and the shops and restaurants thrived.
A place you might not have visited on the Danforth is … Len Duckworth’s (just east of Main and the DECA boundary) may be the oldest fish and chips shop in the city. It has thrived since 1930s, in part because halibut in their crisp, decadent batter is unbeatable. The gritty old Linsmore Tavern (1298 Danforth Ave) has new life and brings in great bands on Friday and Saturday nights (some such as the Neil Young’uns are so popular they sell out a week in advance). If you like my haircut (and, really, who doesn’t?), it’s “the poeta,” courtesy of No. 1 Sam (Sam’s Hair Styling, 1696 Danforth Ave).
My dream plan for the next year as a DECA board member is…. Working with our visioning committee to ensure the neighbourhood is well represented when the city launches its Danforth Planning Studies. We need to make the place more pedestrian friendly, in part by ensuring that when density comes, it includes office jobs to replace some of the industry we lost after World War II. We need to ensure that when sites such as the Coxwell TTC lands and the parking lot behind Valu-mart are redeveloped (and they will be) that they add to the livability of the area.
Please read this message from Karen Ingham, Gledhill Breakfast Club Co-ordinator. This is such an important program for our community – hope you can help!
We have been overwhelmed by the financial support the Gledhill Community has offered this year. From proceeds from the movie night to a portion of sales of tickets to the Marlies. Go Gledhill!
However, the program needs are a combination of financial requirements and volunteers. We have had a substantial drop in volunteers over the last month. We need some more volunteers and I know there are some of you out there that can help this program continue.
We need one or two people to help clean up Tuesdays and Thursdays after breakfast. Working with one or two of the breakfast time volunteers, you can be out the door and off to the rest of your day by about 9:00 or 9:10. Come in after the second bell, help wipe tables and wash dishes (we even have a dishwasher), and be on your way, knowing you have helped with something good.
We also need a couple of more volunteers to help with breakfast prep and serve. You would start at 7:30, start putting away food at 8:40, and either help clean up or be on your way if we have clean-up crews.
These days we are often down to one person completing the whole morning routine. This is a huge concern, from an efficiency point of view to a safety point of view. The kids are great but really, we are outnumbered (in a good way). The concern is that if we don’t have more volunteers we will have to make some hard decisions, whether it is cutting back or cutting out the Breakfast Club. Please don’t let that happen.
If you can help, or know someone who can, please email me, kingham.gledhill@gmail.com. You have to have a current police check and be willing to pitch in and do whatever needs to be done to keep this going.
Spring has sprung and although the weather hasn’t quite caught up to the calendar, who cares!? Get outside. Walk the strip. Rediscover your neighbourhood!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been introducing you to DECA’s new board members. These are people who volunteer their time and energy to help build our neighborhood. You should buy them a beer if you see them in the bar!
Or, if it’s DAVID DEL GRANDE, perhaps carry the beer to his porch.
David is our sixth and last installment. But, it seems the not-so-new board members would like you to meet them too. So, in the coming weeks, we’ll be reintroducing them, in the same style.
David Del Grande in front of his childhood dentist’s office on the Danforth.
My name and age is….
David Del Grande, 32
One thing people don’t know about me is….
Though my wife and I moved into this area around 6 years ago, I’ve been connected to this stretch of the Danforth my entire life.
I was born at our local hospital, Toronto East General, and briefly lived on a nearby street before my family moved out to northern Scarborough. But, throughout my childhood I frequently came back here to visit my grandparents (who live just beside the hospital) and for checkups with our family dentist located beside East Lynn Park. As a child, those car rides to the dentist seems like we were heading to the ends of the Earth!
I moved to Danforth East because…
My wife and I are committed city-folk who wanted to find an affordable neighbourhood, with good bones (i.e., public amenities, mix of housing stock, a retail strip), but most importantly we also don’t own a car, so we needed a place with a variety of transit options. We take the subway to work, the bus to grocery shop and to head down to the Beach, and the streetcars from Broadview when we want to have a leisurely Sunday brunch in Leslieville. Of course, we also walk to the local shops, and ride our bikes in the warmer months if we’re heading somewhere a little further away.
I was dying to join the DECA board because…
I don’t want to be a passenger in life, I want to enact positive change and being a part of a local, already successful, and widely admired neighbourhood board is a great place to step up.
The thing I love most about the neighborhood is…
The convenience! I walk out my door and within a few minutes I can be picking up food, browsing books at the library, seated for brunch, or relaxing in a local park. What’s not to love?
My biggest local pet peeve is…
The McDonalds parking lot. Prime real estate just going to waste!
My neighborhood secret is… Often in the summer my wife and I enjoy sitting on our porch with the paper as the sidewalk traffic go by. There’s no shortage of pedestrians on our street – the constant stream (and kids running around) make for a good backdrop with a cold beverage in hand.
The place I go to on the Danforth that you’ve likely never frequented is…. Retro Burger (1684 Danforth Ave). Avoid the big name across the street and treat yourself to a juicy burger (try the Greek Feta) and crispy fries. It has a distinctive character and decoration, friendly staff, and it’s a great place to grab a bite before or after a trip to the nearby library.
My dream plan for this year as a DECA board member is….
to find one big project to execute that engages and excites the community!
