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Clean Up! Clean Up! Everybody do their share!

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.

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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.

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Lace Up Locally & Stadium Singers

Skate Your Heart Out

Join your neighbours at Monarch Park this weekend for the Friends of Monarch Park Community Skating Party.  Fun runs Sunday from 3:00-5:00 p.m with hot chocolate, music and more.  Check out the poster below or the FoMP Facebook page for all the details.

And a huge thank you to our many hard-working, cold-loving, ice-flooding neighbours for creating rinks in other local parks as well.  The Friends of Stephenson Park have had smooth ice for a few days now and the East Lynn Park volunteers are expecting to have their ice smooth by the weekend.

FoMP

Stadium Singers: A Community Singing Club 

Warm up your vocal chords by joining the Stadium Singers at Monarch Park Stadium.  This non-profit group practices on Sunday afternoons.  Contact Carolyn for more info at stadiumsingers(at)outlook.com.

Stadium Singers Jan 2015

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Festival of Lights: Pictures & Thank You!

A HUGE thank you to Angela Matich and her crew of volunteers for putting together Nov. 29th’s wonderful Festival of Lights. Thanks too to the approximately 1000 (!) of you who came out to East Lynn Park to help celebrate the season and light up the park Danforth East-style! The amazing turnout blew our estimates out of the water, so the hundreds of loots bags (courtesty of Art Cave, Kids Fun Town, Oaks & Acorns, Pegasus Studio & Silly Goose Kids–be sure to check out Silly Goose’s author event with Helaine Becker this Sunday at 10:30. Free cider!) went mighty quickly. So did the 300 cups of delicious hot chocolate donated  by Melanie’s Bistro and the yummy treats provided by Celena’s Bakery. Next year we’ll have more supplies on hand so no one goes empty-handed.

Thank you to the Pegasus Studio Dancers, the East End Music Project Choir for entertaining us, and to Show Pro for the sound equipment. The Zero Gravity Circus Fire Artist and LED Hula Hooper lit up the night spectacularly.

A big special thanks to our key sponsors who made this event happen: Sugarmoon (Catch their open house tomorrow, Dec. 10, 11-8pm!) and Corinne McCabe – Bosley Real Estate Broker.

Here are some beautiful shots of the festivities courtesy of local shutterbug Bruce Reeve and DECA’s Sheri Hebdon so you can relive the fun or see what you missed (and mark your calendars for next year!).

Zero Gravity Circus Fire Artist wowing the crowds.
Zero Gravity Circus Fire Artist wowing the crowds.
Pegasus Dancers kick the party off.
Pegasus Dancers kick things off.
Crowds gather to sing along with the East End Music Project.
Crowds gather to sing along with the East End Music Project.
Organizer Angela Matich handing out free treats.
Organizer Angela Matich handing out free treats.
Zero Gravity Circus' LED Hula Hooper lit up the night.
Zero Gravity Circus’ LED Hula Hooper lit up the night.
Fire artistry at its finest.
Fire artistry at its finest.
Hooray for Hula Hoops!
Hooray for Hula Hoops!

 

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Festival of Lights | East Lynn Park | Saturday, Nov 29

Please join DECA for our 3rd Annual Festival of Lights at East Lynn Park this Saturday!  A celebration of the festive season, community, and our local businesses.

Play. Shop. Dine. Keep it local this holiday!

DECA Festiv Lights POSTER

Our FREE kids loot bags with donations from some of our amazing local businesses:

Free hot chocolate provided by Melanie’s Bistro
Free yummy treats provided by Celena’s Bakery
Free pizza provided by Danforth Sandwich
More Christmas lights from Canadian Tire
Event sound equipment provided by Show Pro
Poster design – Angela Wagner UmlautDesign.ca 
Big special thanks to our two key sponsors who made this event happen: Sugarmoon and Corinne McCabe – Bosley Real Estate Broker.

Schedule of Events

4:00 pm – Start time
4:15 pm – Pegasus Studio Dancers
4:30 pm – Zero Gravity Circus Fire Artist
4:45 pm – East End Music Project Choir
5:00 pm – Zero Gravity Circus LED Hula Hooper
5:15 pm – Zero Gravity Circus Fire Artist
5:30 pm – East End Music Project Choir – Public Sing Along
5:45 pm – Zero Gravity Circus LED Hula Hooper
6:00 pm – Tree-lighting

Can you volunteer?

DECA needs a few more volunteers for this event to help set up, serve hot chocolate and treats, and help clean up after the event. If you could spare an hour, please sign up by clicking the link: http://vols.pt/KHSKWu

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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!

 Pumpkin_06 Pumpkin_08 Pumpkin_09 Pumpkin_00 Pumpkin_02 Pumpkin_03 Pumpkin_01 Pumpkin_10 Pumpkin_05 IMG_0432 Pumpkin_07

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local biz news and call for volunteers

The holidays are right around the corner, and DECA’s third annual tree lighting holiday festival will be held in East Lynn Park (date TBD) and we need help hanging the lights!

Sign up for shifts this weekend, Saturday or Sunday (November 8 & 9) for an hour between 10:00am and 2:00pm by clicking here: http://vols.pt/LM9C1Q – thank you!!

And while we’re on the topic of the holidays, if you are thinking about starting your shopping early this year, start with our amazing local shops along the Danforth. Most of us heard the sad news that McCormick’s Imports is closing down after 13 months on Danforth, west of Coxwell.  It’s a loss for the neighbourhood and one that we do not want to repeat. Our dollars matter, and choosing local businesses makes a real difference in our community.

On that note – a few announcements…

Neighbourhood Toy Store Day – November 8

Celebrate Neighbourhood Toy Store Day this Saturday, November 8 at our favourite neighbourhood toy store! Silly Goose Kids will have events, games and prizes and no tax all day long.

NTSD-SaturdayEvents14

Big News from LEN – November 6

What is the news?  We don’t know but we’re dying to find out. This is the message that Christal and David sent out this afternoon:

LEN has a big announcement and would love to have you join us for some sparking beverages THIS Thursday (TOMORROW) between 5 and 7 PM.
We can’t say anymore right now- but sincerely hope you can make it to help us celebrate!
LEN is located at 698 Coxwell Ave (just north of Danforth).  Like them on Facebook to keep up with all of their news, contests and specials and hopefully to find out what the big news is!!