Looking to read our latest newsletter? You must have clicked on the banner image in your email, which links to our RoncyWorks blog. So, here you are. We’ll disable that link in future newsletters. But, for now, please read our March 2013 Newsletter.
Find past newsletters in our Newsletter Archive. Or read our latest updates on this site.
Roncesvalles Village has held annual Earth Hour celebrations since 2010. We’ve showcased local acoustic performers, choirs, flash mobs, lantern making workshops and candlelight walks. We have joined millions world wide, globally recognizing the largest planet-focused movement in the world!
Our City Councillor Gord Perks is a recognized environmentalist, our MPP Cheri DiNovo and MP Peggy Nash are driving forces behind “Clean Train Coalition.” RoncyWorks models success in street planning and preserving. And, no fewer than four school/residential associations in the community have Green Teams. We are champions of eco awareness.
Our community cheerleading caught the eye of WWF Canada, whose 2013 Earth Hour Campaign brings attention to the Cheerleader, both through a series of cheerleading videos and the appointment of regional Captains, of which I, your author, am one!
This year’s Earth Hour Event is a thrilling opportunity for Roncy to welcome other Toronto residents to our community, helping to promote what Earth Hour is all about. My own personal role is to Educate through Entertainment, I want to share my passion, engage new devotees, find more voices, attract larger crowds … in hopes that those in Government can see that the People want attention brought to Climate Change. Our celebratory joining together, symbolizes this.
Roncesvalles Village BIA to Co-Host the 2013 WWF Canada Earth Hour event. Ontario’s Earth Hour Co-Captain this year is local resident Karyn Klaire Koski.
Saturday March 23, 8-9:30 pm
Festivities will start at 8:00 pm at either of two Gathering Spots: South at Grafton Park or North near the Revue Cinema. RoncyWorks Earth Hour Marshals will start promptly, leading candlelight carrying Walkers towards each other along the commercial side of Roncesvalles and then crossing at either set of lights – before Wright Avenue.
WWF Canada will have staging set up on Wright Avenue, between High Park Library and Howard Park Emmanuel United Church. Free entertainment will greet walkers — taking only a few minutes out for quick nods from speakers to announce the symbolic POWER OFF at 8:30 pm — and performances will continue till 9:30.
BRING YOUR OWN CANDLE OR LANTERN AND YOUR MUG OR CARAFE FOR HOT CHOCOLATE
Learn more at WWF Canada – Earth Hour or Earth Hour in Toronto on facebook
RoncyWorks was rooted from Roncesvalles Renewed, a community group initiated by the Roncesvalles Village BIA in 2005, four years before construction began on our main street.
Members of Roncesvalles Renewed at one of the many meetings held at the home of John Senders and Ann Crichton-Harris on Indian Road.
Roncesvalles Renewed included reps from the BIA and three local Residents Associations, other local residents with particular interests or expertise in urban planning and renewal, business owners, local institutions and political representatives. We saw this reconstruction as an opportunity to try a new model for how communities collaborate with the City on major infrastructure projects of this kind.
Beginning in June 2009, Roncesvalles Avenue underwent a major reconstruction. The sewers were rebuilt, followed by the water mains, streetcar tracks and sidewalks. It meant digging, dust and detours for about two years. It also presented a number of opportunities, not least of which was to create a thriving canopy of trees along Roncesvalles.
Undaunted by the rain, new volunteer Robin Poole and her three friends came out with their children to plant bulbs along Roncesvalles. Three cheers for the big and little volunteers. From Left to Right: Back row – Robin, Michelle, Amanda (holding Ruby) Front row – Georgia, Jules, Finn, Spencer and Alex.
In the week before superstorm Sandy blew in, volunteers from our Green Team got out to plant 800 spring bulbs among the 21 planting beds along Roncesvalles. Several beds were planted by volunteers in the cold and wind as the storm approached. Three cheers for the big and little volunteers.
The bulbs were provided by the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation. Next spring you’ll see a splash of yellow, orange, white and blues from the Narcissis Hawera, Red Devon, Fortune, Geranium and Scilla Siberica as these new bulbs spring forth.
Thank you to Barbara Japp and Jackie Taschereau who led the effort and to the the ten others who helped out with the planting. Thanks also to the Sweeps who got in there ahead of time to clear the planters of trash and cigarette butts. And, thanks to the rain, they got plenty of water.
After the removal of our home made ash cans, cigarette butt litter on Roncy has definitely increased. We need to explore more permanent solutions to this problem. This should include the addition of cigarette receptacles interspersed between the trash cans near spots where there is a larger volume of butts accumulating.
Other cities and communities have been grappling with the problem, so let’s learn from them. In San Diego, their longest running environmental non-profit, I Love a Clean San Diego, runs regular cleanups and is addressing prevention. This year they have partnered with other non-profits to install ash cans along their streets. They are piloting the program in three communities and are monitoring the volume of butts before and after ash can installation.
The DropPit is a solution used in the Netherlands to address the most widespread form of litter: cigarette butts and chewing gum. Makes you wonder how they handle this in the winter time.
Even Paris wants smokers to stop tossing butts in the street. This year they have started attaching little ribbed resin disks to public waste bins where smokers can put out their cigarettes.
