Bringing Neighbors Together

Thanks to all who participated in our Annual Meeting last night, including our elected officials including City Councilor Nirva Lafortune, Rep. Aaron Regunberg, Sen. Gayle Goldin, and Mayor Jorge Elorza!

Congratulations and thanks to Read Porter, Kathleen Rourke, and Anna Highsmith for their election to our board! And thanks to departing board members Anne Holland, Lee Clasper-Torch, and Emily Spitzman for the time and energy you’ve put into our community!

(Continuing members include Anneliese Greenier, Sandra Lee, John Pettinelli, Laura Ramsey, Sharon Lee Waldman, and Dean Weinberg, Ethan Gyles (president), Tom Schmeling (vice president), Erik Christiansen (secretary), and Britt Page (treasurer))

The Summit Ave Park Earth Day event will be a combination of work and play for neighbors of all ages in our community. Please join us at the Summit Avenue Park (AKA “Tot Lot” AKA site of the Summit Community Garden, recently approved for naming as Kerry Kohring Park) at the corner of 9th Street and Summit Avenue. The Friends of the Park group, the Summit Neighborhood Association and the Summit Neighborhood Community Garden will provide engaging, creative activities that will educate young children about the life cycle of plants, and planting and growing their own food.

Plans for the day include:

-Decorative plant pot painting and seed planting;
-Story time, including a presentation of booklets created by Community Garden member Margie Smith about plants and seeds;
-Age-appropriate description of seed morphology, as well as coloring and labeling an illustration of seed parts;
-Lima bean dissection.

We will also clean up the park, give out free seeds, and spread wood chips among the garden beds and under the slides in the playground.

All are welcome!

The Facebook event is located here.

This event is part of the 6th Annual City of Providence Earth Day Spring Cleaning, hosted by Mayor Jorge Elorza. There will be activities across the city — stay tuned for information on local activities at MLK Elementary, as well. http://www.providenceri.gov/2018-providence-earth-day-spring-cleaning/

The SNA is seeking community donations for a public drinking water fountain (or “bubbler” if you’re a native) in Lippitt Park! The park and adjacent Blackstone Boulevard path are among the most enjoyable and frequently used green spaces in the city. SNA hopes to reach a fundraising goal of $15,000 to install a drinking fountain to help make our park a healthier and more attractive amenity for walkers, joggers, cyclists, playground users, farmers market attendees, and all park users. Our fundraising has been generously seeded with a $6,000 grant from The Miriam Hospital, but we need the neighborhood’s help to raise the rest! Click here to donate online, or if you prefer to send a check, please make it out to “Summit Neighborhood Association” and mail to Box 41092, Providence, RI 02940.

The Spring 2018 newsletter has hit the streets!

We’re seeking volunteers to contribute content — any kind of local content, from quick writeups on events, to commentary, to poetry and photography, as long as it relates to the neighborhood — for our Summer 2018 newsletter. Please contact us at SNAProv at gmail dot com!

Sharing City Councilor Nirva Lafortune’s Ward 3 Community Meeting information:

We’re very happy to announce that the Board of Parks Commissioners has voted unanimously on our proposal to rename the park at the corner of Summit Avenue and Ninth Street after the late Kerry Kohring. We really appreciate the kind comments about Kerry made by Mayor Elorza, who chairs the board, and his fellow Commissioners. Thanks are due to our fellow community organizations in the Summit Community Garden group and the Friends of the Park for supporting this proposal. Thank you to State Senator Gayle Goldin, State Representative Aaron Regunberg, and City Councilor Nirva Lafortune for your letters of support. Thank you to Monica Anderson of Miriam Hospital (where Kerry volunteered) for your letter of support as well. Kerry’s reputation preceded him and all of this is a testament to his decency and devotion to our community. Stay tuned for a dedication, hopefully later in the spring!