Meet Soumyo, a Friend of the Parks & Planned Gift Donor
National Estate Planning Awareness Week took place in October and to celebrate, we interviewed one of our planned gift donors, Soumyo, to learn what motivates him to include us in his estate planning. This blog post is a beautiful glimpse into one donor’s admiration for the impact of parks on our lives. Learn more about Souymo, and planned gifts on our blog!
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Welcome to the Parks Foundation Staff, Jess!
We are thrilled to announce that we have hired a Development Coordinator. Join us in welcoming Jess Kaplan to the Allegheny County Parks Foundation team! Jess is excited to join the Parks Foundation and facilitate ways for everyone to support and connect with our county parks. She previously worked as an environmental educator at various organizations across Southwest PA and West Virginia, most recently for WVU’s Science Adventure School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Boston University and a master’s degree in Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources from West Virginia University. She’ll take any opportunity to get outside and particularly loves hiking, playing disc golf, and birdwatching with friends.
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Round Hill Park Ribbon Cuttings
On October 30, we hosted two ribbon cuttings in Round Hill Park, in partnership with Allegheny County, for the restoration of the Allée and the creation of the Visitors Center Demonstration Rain Garden. The iconic Allée was replanted with a variety of species that are both resilient to verticillium wilt and safe for the surrounding farm animals. Funding was provided by FedEx for this work and remarks were given during the ceremony by their Vice President Litigation, Joe Milcoff. We also introduced the new Visitors Center Demonstration Rain Garden, designed to capture and filter up to 31,200 gallons of rainwater annually while educating visitors about sustainable stormwater practices. Funding was provided by the EQT Foundation and remarks were given by their President, Ellen Rossi. Both projects were inspired by the Ecological Assessment and Action Plan for Round Hill Park. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the ribbon cutting, farm tours, and refreshments! Learn about the projects and ceremony on our blog and view pictures on our Facebook.
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Tree Planting in North Park
On October 23, we had a great riparian tree planting near the Avalon Shelter in North Park with volunteers from RoadRunner: Modern Waste and Recycling. We extend a huge thank you to the Allegheny County Parks Rangers for leading the event, to Ten Million Trees for PA for donating the trees and to all our dedicated volunteers who spent time making an impact in North Park!
Together we planted 175 trees, including River Birch, Swamp White Oak, Sycamore, Nine Bark, Button Bush, Elderberry, Allegheny Serviceberry, Flowering Dogwood, Silky Willow and Sandbar Willow.
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Tree Planting in South Park
On October 3, we organized a tree planting in South Park near Silent Brook with volunteers from Nicholson Construction Company and a dedicated park user, Mike. All the volunteers worked hard to plant 200 trees, including native Maple, Buckeye, Alder, Serviceberry, Hickory, Birch, Redbud, Pine, Oak, Cherry, and Poplar. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all the volunteers for their hard work and to the Allegheny County Parks Rangers for leading the project! Additionally, we would like to thank the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Tree Pittsburgh and all the donors of our Tree Fund whose support came together to purchase the trees for this planting.
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Park 'til Dark & Pour at the Park | North Park | |
Thank you to everyone who came out and attended our recent Park 'til Dark and Pour at the Park events in North Park, along with our partners and sponsors! | |
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Park 'til Dark
On a beautiful fall day in North Park, we enjoyed a variety of fun activities during Park 'til Dark. Together we:
- Planted 100 trees
- Toured and crafted at the Arboretum with Pine Creek Land Conservation Trust
- Enjoyed a Spooktacular Costume Bike Ride
- Discovered how to nature journal with Latodami and toured their barn
- Learned about our projects in North Park
- Participated in a mindful meditation with Awaken Pittsburgh
- Sweated during a power hike with Beat the Blues Wellness Community
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Pour at the Park
This year's Pour at the Park was warm and full of community under the evening's bright moon. Together we:
- Snacked on food tastings from 4 local restaurants and desserts from a local bakery
- Tasted 14 unique beverage vendor samples including beers, ciders, wines, spirits and nonalcoholic drinks and mocktails.
- Waited in suspense for 9 amazing raffle baskets full of goodies from friends and local businesses to be handed out to the winners.
- Enjoyed live music by Paging Doctor Moon
- Let our kids run around with Coach Dave's games and activities under the tents and lights outdoors.
- Helped to save the environment with our ZeroWaste services by PA Resources Council.
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North Park's Bluebird Monitor Program has a Successful 5th Season!
Since 2020, Latodami Nature Center has been collaborating with local Eastern Bluebird enthusiast, Ken Knapp, to create a program with the goal of increasing populations of Eastern Bluebirds throughout North Park. Ken has worked hard to erect new bluebird nesting boxes and replace dilapidated ones to reach a total of 396 nesting boxes throughout North Park! This program has led to some incredible results for North Park’s cavity-nesting species, such as Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, House Wrens, Black-Capped Chickadees, and more. Over 5 seasons, there have been 6,254 eggs laid, 4,672 birds born and 4,092 fledglings. Here’s a special note from Ken about the 2024 season: “Our season is now officially concluded, and it was a great one. We fledged more bluebirds and tree swallows than ever before. This is without much change in the total number of boxes in the program. What was great about our fledged bluebird increase is that it came with 54 fewer eggs laid than last year. This was because we had our best success rate ever in eggs making it to fledging at 81%. We still want to improve on this number but are happy with this year's increase. We also had several cool firsts. We had a nest of 7 bluebird eggs in one box which all fledged without incident. We also had the first tufted titmouse nesting in our program. It was a great season.”
Because of Ken’s incredible efforts, he was awarded Bluebirder of the Year in 2021 from the Bluebird Society of Pennsylvania. THANK YOU to Ken Knapp for helping with this incredible program, and to the 92 volunteers who make this possible!
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PRC's Upcoming Collections In Your Parks
The Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) will be hosting a glass collection in South Park from November 9 - November 14 from 7 am - sunset. Learn more!
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November Park Ranger
Featured Event
This November, join the Park Rangers for a Guided Hike in honor of National Hiking Day. The hikes both take place on November 17, are free and are being offered in Hartwood Acres Park or South Park. Learn more about these events or discover all of Allegheny County events HERE!
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Giving Tuesday Support Starts Now! |
Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is a day to celebrate generosity and kindness. But this year, you don't have to wait for December 3 to have your gift matched dollar-for-dollar. Thanks to generous Parks Foundation supporters, the first $10,000 of donations will be matched 100% from now until 12/3 at midnight. We hope you will consider making your Giving Tuesday gift to the Allegheny County Parks Foundation, which will ripple through your parks and communities, creating a brighter and greener region for us all!
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Boyce Park | Deer Lakes Park | Harrison Hills Park | Hartwood Acres Park
North Park | Round Hill Park | Settlers Cabin Park | South Park | White Oak Park
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Allegheny County Parks Foundation | 675 Old Frankstown Road | Pittsburgh, PA 15239
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