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A Busy Weekend Ahead! Summer has arrived…

With warm weather arriving, it’s a great time to get out and enjoy everything that’s happening in the neighbourhood this weekend…

 

FRIDAY NIGHT…

 

Live Music @ PRESS books. coffee. vinyl

For live tunes, empanadas, ice cream bars and the best coffee in the hood…head to Press books. coffee. vinyl this Friday, June 23rd.  Lowfills will be playing at 7:30 p.m.

 

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SATURDAY…

 

Hop on your bike and join a group riding from Castle Frank to Danforth Road!  

If you arrive early, Velofix will be on-site performing light tune-ups. We’ll also be giving away commemorative items!  And at the finish, The Crossroads of the Danforth BIA will be throwing us a party when we arrive. Hang out, visit one of the local restaurants with a coupon, or sit for a picnic lunch in the nearby park.

All of the details you need to know about where to go and when to be there are on the 2017 ride page.

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Enjoy Drag Queen Storytime at the Library!

Walter Stewart Library is hosting a special storytime in celebration of PRIDE
Saturday, June 24th from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.  

Drag queens in full costume and makeup will share in an hour of storytelling and fun! Children will have the opportunity to learn about different gender expression in a safe space, increasing acceptance for LGBTQ+ people.

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For you animal lovers out there, WAG is hosting a Toronto Cat Rescue Adopt-a-Thon this Saturday, June 24th from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Visit the WAG Facebook page or call for further details.

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Join in for the opening of the Kiwanis Pool

& NEW SLIDE!

Help kick off the summer outdoor pool season.

Enjoy family fun, cake and ribbon cutting!

Saturday, June 24

Starts at 12 noon

375 Cedarvale Ave.

 

 

Global Water Dances at East Lynn Park @ 3 p.m.

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Join Pegasus Dance Studios at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24th at East Lynn Park and be a part of the International Global Water Dances project!

Watch this biannual event that takes place at over 80 sites around the world to inspire international collaboration for environmental water solutions through the universal language of dance.  You can even participate in the final section of the dance!

If you can’t make it to the park, all of the Global Water Dances sites will be live streaming their performances. https://www.facebook.com/GlobalWaterDances

For more information about the Toronto performance contact: Janice Pomer jpomer@look.ca

For more information about Global Water Dances go to: http://globalwaterdances.org

 

 

SUNDAY

Celebrate with Melanie’s Bistro!

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Celebrate Pride at the East Lynn Farmers’ Market – June 22

Join DECA Pride for our 2nd Annual Pride celebration on June 22 at the East Lynn Farmers’ Market! All are welcome.

In addition to our amazing farmers, food vendors and face painting, we’re planning:

Live Music featuring the Coe Hill Girls: 4:45-5:45

Kids sing-a-long with Christina W: 5:45-6:30

Arts & Crafts:
Silly Goose Kids: 4:15-5:15
Art Cave: 5:30-6:30

(times are estimates)

Plus a few other surprises! 

Brought to you by DECA Pride, an east-end LGBTQ+ group under the Danforth East Community Association (DECA).
This event is generously sponsored by Steve’s Quality Meats and Deli at 1938 Danforth.
Thanks also to Corbin Creative for the poster!

As with all events at the market, please remember to come and support the farmers – without them we have no market!


Table Tennis 4 Tuition #TT4T

Also happening at East Lynn Park on June 22 is the #TT4T finals happening at 6:00pm on the ping pong table! Come and cheer on your neighbours as they battle it out for a great cause: DECA’s Young Leaders Scholarship. 

The East Lynn Farmers’ Market runs every Thursday from 3-7:00 p.m. between June 1 – October 19 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.

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Birthday Party Essentials

Recently we discovered many amazing places to host a kid’s birthday party right here in our ‘hood. Undoubtedly, the next party you host will be a ton of fun, but to be a true success all kids’ birthday parties need decorations, loot bags, balloons, and, most importantly, CAKE! Luckily, you can find everything you need right here in our DECA community.

Cake is essential for a birthday party. In fact, sometimes a good cake is all you need.

birthday candles

 

 

 

 

Whether you want cakes or cupcakes, Sweet Serendipity offers a variety of flavors including vanilla bean, carrot, and red velvet, with frosting options to match and deliciousness with every bite. For a beautiful hand decorated cake with buttercream frosting that will be the highlight of the party Celena’s Bakery is the place to go. Cake Town Café has a good selection of decoration options and you can choose vanilla or chocolate cake.  If you are hosting a party in the summer months try the ice cream cakes from Carter’s Ice Cream for a cool delicious treat your guests will love. Last, Sobeys near Main and Danforth is always a good option if you want a yummy sheet cake with a custom image on top.

party

Once you decide where to get your cake, all you need are loot bags, balloons, and decorations. Let Silly Goose Kids take care of the loot bags and they will provide you with personalized, age appropriate, bags of fun for all your guests. Helium balloons are available at both Kids Fun Town and It’s My Party in a variety of shapes and colors. Also, It’s My Party carries decorations, hats, tableware, and all your other party supply needs. Last, but not least, the Dollarama is always a good place to find decorations, balloons, party games (glow stick dance party anyone?!?!?), and loot bag stuffers.

Now that you know everything you need for birthday party planning is right here in the ‘hood, think and shop local next time it’s your turn to host!

Cakes:

Celena’s Bakery, 2036 Danforth Ave, www.celenasbakery.com/

Sweet Serendipity, 1335 Danforth Ave, www.sweetserendipitybakeshop.com/

Cake Town Café, 2039 Danforth Ave, www.facebook.com/pages/Cake-Town-Cafe/266736310061914

Sobeys, 2451 Danforth Ave, http://www.sobeys.com/en/stores/sobeys-danforth/?f=766

Carter’s Ice Cream, 3 Woodmount Ave, http://www.cartersicecream.com

Party supplies:

It’s my party, 2208 Danforth Ave, www.itsmyparty.com/

Silly Goose Kids, 2054 Danforth Ave, www.sillygoosekids.tumblr.com/

Kids Fun Town, 2040 Danforth Ave, www.kidsfuntown.ca

Dollarama, 2064 Danforth Ave, www.dollarama.com/store-locator/

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The Market this Week

Thank you to everyone who attended, shopped, ate and enjoyed the activities at the Grand Opening of the market last week!  Every week in June we add more farmers to the mix as their produce becomes available, so be on the lookout for a few new vendors this week.

This week, Toronto Public Library are coming to the market with a 3D printing demonstration. And the Michael Garron Hospital will at the community booth sharing both health information and information on their upcoming (major) construction project.

If you are looking to get involved in the market we have two weekly volunteer gigs that we could use some help with.  The DECA Booth volunteer and cooks.  Check out the links provided to find out more about the roles and to sign up for a date!

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The East Lynn Farmers’ Market runs every Thursday from 3-7:00 p.m. between June 1 – October 19 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.

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Marking our #DECAde, Part 3: Making change 

For this series of blog posts marking our #DECAde, we are looking back on where DECA started, how far we’ve come and where the next 10 years might take us and our neighbourhood. We are including interviews with some of DECA’s founders and other info and tidbits from DECA’s “archives”

2014 DECA Board

Making Change

Parts 1 and 2 of series described what the neighbourhood was like 10 years ago and how a group of people came together to start DECA. This post is about what  happened next. As you know, fair reader, the DECA Diaries blog was our only communication tool for many years before Facebook, Twitter and Instagram helped us expand our reach. Lovingly written by DECA’s founding Chair, Natasha Granatstein from 2008-2011 when every post was written on an actual computer (not on an iPhone like this one) and event posters were still actual pieces of paper and not JPEG files so the words that Natasha wrote had to be crafted carefully – and they were.

In the past nine years of the blog (it began as an email newsletter), we have posted 1160 times. Each post takes anywhere from 20ish minutes to a few hours of someone’s spare time, to help get the word out about our community. More than 1200 people subscribe to the blog and many more read it via Facebook and Twitter. The blog is now managed by a small team of volunteer bloggers and a volunteer editor (yours truly). Turns out, the blog is also our unofficial archive.

Here’s a look back courtesy of the blog at some of what we’ve done to change the neighbourhood over the past #DECAde. 

January 2009: First Store Makeover  

The store did so well after this makeover, the owners bought their own building and moved a bit west where they remain today.

July 2009: Square Dancing at the Market

Our weekly market posts didn’t start until a few years in, but this post was a sweet reminder of a wonderful night at the market (in its third year by 2009) where people of all ages came to square dance! 

September 2009: First Danforth East Arts Fair

November 2009: Our first annual cocktail party (that was secretly also our AGM)  at Melanie’s Bistro. No e-version of the poster back then so the blog post is our only proof!

November 2010: First Pumpkin Parade


December 2012: First Tree Lighting at East Lynn Park 

January 2012 – blog post about Australian  Marcus Westbury’s innovative “pop-up shop” model to deal with high commercial vacancy

March 7, 2012 – Marcus Westbury was in town so we hosted an event with him!

May 2012 – carrot gets a buddy: the birth of the broccoli costume!

What shows a deeper commitment to improving one’s own community than dressing as vegetables to promote our local farmers’ market during rush hour?!

Veggies promoting our Farmers’ Market

October 2012: First Pop-Up Shops

This was back when it was solely run by a team of DECA volunteers, based on the Renew Newcastle model we learned about earlier that year. Incredible!


June 2013: First #DanforthEast Yard Sale

April 2014: #DanforthEast Dreams event

We asked you what you wanted for our neighbourhood and mapped it and made a video found in this follow-up blog post. (The post also shows our first laneway revitalization effort more than three years ago!)


April 2015: DECA Gems neighbourhood competition

It was a total love-in and so many people learned of new places to shop, eat, play, get their car fixed, hem a skirt, get a haircut, buy flowers and on and on. Search the hashtag #DECAGems on our fb page or blog to look back. Anyone remember who won?

December 2015: First DECA Connects fundraiser – Sleep Out for Syrians

DECA’s social justice group launched with this fundraiser where participants slept outside (in December!) to simulate what Syrian refugees were experiencing for months in camps. The goal was $10k. In the end, we raised $28,500, helping  several Syrian families come to Canada.



June 2016: First DECA Pride LGBTQ+ event 

We have a thriving LGBTQ+ community in the east end but no groups or events. DECA Pride changed that!


June 2016: First Table Tennis for Tuition 

To raise money to support the $2000 DECA Young Leaders Scholarship established in 2016. 

This has been an amazing decade-long experiment in being positive and making changes that many people say have transformed our neighbourhood. 
Want to join us?

DECA memberships are $10/household to support our community initiatives including our weekly Farmers’ Market, Diversity Scholarship, annual Arts Fair, Pumpkin Parade, Tree Lighting Festival, #DanforthEast Yard Sale, DECA Pride LGBTQ+ group and more! Sign up here. 

If you want to get in touch, send us an email. 

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Hosting birthdays in the ‘hood

youre invitedIt’s that time again when you realize how short years really are and you desperately need an idea for a birthday party. Never fear! Our little neighborhood hosts a large variety of creative and exciting birthday party options for kids. Whether you are hosting a large or small group, young or old kids, a theme or standard party, you can find what you need in the ‘hood.

If you want to host a birthday party, but don’t have room for a crowd, you might want to try one of the multi-purpose rooms at the Main Community Centre or rent out The Nooks Community Roomparty for a few hours. Not quite in the DECA boundaries, but close enough to be in the ‘hood, you can rent space at the Kaza Family Centre, a meeting room overlooking the ice at Ted Reeves Community Arena, or the lounge and auditorium at Stan Wadlow Clubhouse.

For a party that includes challenge and adventure, experience an escape game hosted by Looking Glass Adventures, play Pokémon with Face to Face Games, choose between board games and cooperative story telling at Game Masters Table, or play any games you want at Time Capsule Board Games Café. If games aren’t your thing, but you still want to get the creative juices flowing, perhaps your kids will enjoy a making activity with Toronto Tool Library, a painting party at Fresh Paint Cafe, or arts and crafts at Artcave.

Sometimes it’s best for kids to be active and burn off all the cake before they go home. birthday candlesThe ball pit and bouncy castle at Kids Fun Town or the play area at Oaks ‘N Acorns are both great places for younger kids to play. For a more active theme party, try glow-in-the-dark bowling at Danforth Bowl, a dance party with Pegasus Studios, a sports party at Monarch Park Stadium, or a martial arts party with either Dargonz Martial Arts Centre or DeSantos Premier Martial Arts.

Last but not least, don’t forget about our beautiful parks! East Lynn Park, Stephenson Park, Gledhill Park, and Oakcrest Parkette all have picnic tables for parties, and Stephenson Park even has a fire pit! You can apply for a permit here, but don’t forget, balloons aren’t allowed in the park.

Addresses

Artcave, 155 Lamb Ave, www.art-cave.ca

Danforth Bowl, 1554 Danforth Ave, www.danforthbowl.com

DeSantos Premier Martial Arts, 210 Main St, www.desantos.ca

Dragonz Martial Arts Centre, 1998 Danforth Ave, www.dragonz.ca

Face to Face Games, 2077a Danforth Ave, www.facebook.com/FaceToFaceGamesToronto/

Fresh Paint Café, 1849 Danforth Ave, www.freshpaintstudio.ca

Game Masters Table, 5 Woodmount Ave, www.gamemasterstable.com

Kaza Family Centre, 1386 Danforth Ave, www.kazafamilycentre.com

Kids Fun Town, 2040 Danforth Ave, www.kidsfuntown.ca

Looking Glass Adventures, 2200 Danforth Ave, www.lookingglassadventures.com

Main Community Centre, 245 Main St, www.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/85/

­Monarch Park Stadium, 1 Parkmount Rd, www.monarchparkstadium.com

The Nooks Community Room, 2005 Danforth Ave, www.thenooks.ca/community-room

Pegasus Studios, 361 Glebeholme Blvd, www.pegasusstudios.com

Oaks ‘N Acorns, 1856 Danforth Ave, www.oaksnacorns.com

Stan Wadlow Clubhouse, 373 Cedarvale Ave, www.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/297

Ted Reeves Community Arena, 175 Main St, www.tedreevearena.com/meeting-facility/

Time Capsule Board Game Café, 2183 Danforth Ave, www.timecapsulebgc.com

Toronto Tool Library – Kids, 1803 Danforth Ave, www.torontotoollibrary.com