Spring Activities are just around the Corner!

Spring Activities are just around the Corner!

Spring Activities are just around the Corner

A colorful hot air balloon rises between trees along the waterfront

Photo by Tracey Lynn Myers

It's been a mild winter on the waterfront, and while we’re still likely to have a snow day, it’s hard to deny that spring is coming our way. Bulbs are poking up from the ground and the sunshine is bringing everyone out to play. Read on to learn about spring updates and events happening with Friends of Stewart Park and our friends along the waterfront!

FSP’s Rick Manning wins Tompkins Weekly’s first Hometown Heroes Award

Rick Manning, co-founder and executive director of Friends of Stewart Park at the Stewart Park playground.
Photo by Jaime Cone Hughes

We are pleased to announce that FSP’s own Rick Manning has been named as the first recipient of Tompkins Weekly’s Hometown Heroes Award, which recognizes Manning for his many contributions and dedication to the Ithaca community.


“He’s a local treasure,” said Robyn Wishna, who nominated Manning for the award.


“He’s not just one-dimensional,” said Wishna, a professional photographer. “He’s contributed to our community in so many different ways. For me, one of the biggest ones was the Waterfront Trail and Stewart Park. They affect thousands and thousands of people and will for generations to come. Me and my friends walk that trail all the time, and it makes the park and waterfront so accessible to everyone. And what they’ve done with the improvements to Stewart Park is so incredible.”


Read the rest of the article by Jaime Cone Hughes in the Tompkins Weekly.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our Wild About the Waterfront fundraiser. You helped raise over $1,700 for the new pollinator garden and area enhancements for the new Splash Pad and Accessible Playground Bathroom! We received the kindest and most enthusiastic feedback about the event and hope to do it again next year!


Thank you also to all who participated:

Musicians: Tenzin Chopak & Emmett Scott; Dave Davies & Brian Earle; Benny Bleu; and the Falling Waters Trio (Hope Grietzer, Tom Hodgson & Rick Manning).


Featured photographers: Dede Hatch, Tenzin Chopak, Rachel Hogancamp, Julian Euell, Frank Muller and Dan Segal & The Plantsmen Nursery. Photos provided by the Finger Lakes Land Trust, Wharton Studio Museum, and Friends of Stewart Park.


Community Artists: Kris Altucher, Manuela Amzallag, Muhammad Arif, Tommy Beers, Linda Byard, Paul Dawson, Linda Edsall, Coleen Foley, Sonia Jirka, Tracey Lynn Myers, Bob Riter, and Tonya VanCamp


And thanks to Cinemapolis and to our Event Sponsors The Plantsmen Nursery and Ithaca Native Landscape Symposium

The new accessible bathroom building is progressing quickly by the capable crew of Edger Enterprises and their numerous subcontractors. The building has three bathrooms, one male, one female and one all gender/family bathroom with an adult changing table. Work is now focused on the interior plumbing and electrical work to be followed by sheetrock installation and then lighting and furnishing installation. Exterior siding is scheduled to begin soon and completed by the end of March. In April the existing splash pad will be demolished, followed by the installation of the new splash pad plumbing, fixtures and concrete surfacing.


The project is still on schedule to be completed and opened by the end of June and the July 4th holiday weekend (Stewart Park’s 103rd anniversary).

UPCOMING PARK AND TRAIL EVENTS

Volunteer Highlight

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You can help Richie maintain “Rugosa Row.”
Learn more >>

Upcoming Project

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A new, accessible splash pad is in the works!
Learn more >>

Sponsor the Carousel

You can provide free summer carousel rides! Learn more >>