Upcoming Events

Please email info (at) washingtonparks.net or call (202) GO-2-PARK for more information on any event. All DC events are Metro-accessible. Please go to www.wmata.com to plan your trip using Metrorail and Metrobus.

Parks & People needs ongoing volunteer support every Tuesday through Saturday between 8 and 4. Email abaker (at) washingtonparks.net to find out more and sign up for volunteering both in the parks and in the Riverside and Josephine Butler Parks Centers.

Ongoing events at the Josephine Butler Parks Center: Tutoring every Monday at 6:00 p.m., Lindy Hop Swing Dance every Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ; Yoga every Thursday at 6:15 p.m.; African Dance Class every Saturday at 10:00 a.m..

Greening For All - April 18, 2008 - 12:00 Noon
Lecture by Parks & People Director Steve Coleman: “Greening for All: Fighting the Poverty of Connection to the Earth.” New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1313 New York Avenue, Washington, DC.

Green DC Week Showcase - April 21, 2008 - 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Green DC Week Showcase presented by DC Department of the Environment. Freedom Plaza, 13th and Pennsylvania, NW.

Earth Day - April 22, 2008 - All Day
Join the Cool Capital Challenge regional carbon cutting initiative by making a carbon reduction pledge. We have the power – Cool Now!

Watts Branch Community Alliance Monthly Meeting - April 24, 2008 - 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Riverside Center, 5200 Foote Street, NE. Meets the 4 th Thursday of every month.

King Nature Santuary Planting - April 25, 2008 - 9a.m. - 3 p.m.
King Nature Sanctuary Planting, 48th & Burroughs, NE.

Anacostia Watershed Earth Day Clean-Up - April 26, 2008
Come to Riverside Center, 5200 Foote Street, NE, or go to www.anacostiaws.org for other locations.

Remembrance Gathering - April 26, 2008 - 12:45p.m. - 2:00p.m.
Remembrance Gathering: Remembering the African American and Quaker Cemeteries in Walter Pierce Park and the 160th Anniversary of the Pearl. Walter C. Pierce Park in Adams Morgan. Featuring the Marie Reed Civil War Cadets, Mary K. Ricks, Author, Escape on the Pearl, Paul Johnson, Edmonson Family Descendant; Mark Mack, Howard University Professor and Director of the Walter Pierce Park Archeology Project. Sponsored by the Kalorama Citizens Association.

Keep America Beautiful Day - May 3, 2008
Keep America Beautiful Day at Martin Luther King Nature Sanctuary, 48th and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE. Volunteer to transform this once forgotten green space. Call GO-2-PARK, ext. 10.

Riverside Farm Market - June 7 through November 1, 2008 - 10a.m. - 1p.m. - Every Saturday
Riverside Farm Market. Riverside Center, 5200 Foote Street, NE.

Body and Soul : Parks and the Health of Great Cities - September 21-23
Body and Soul: Parks and the Health of Great Cities, 2008 International Urban Parks Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. www.urbanparks08.org.

Coming Soon:

Parks Roundtable Forum led by DC Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.

Celebrate African American Music Month: June 2008

Ribbon-Cutting for Marvin Gaye Park Trail – 1st major new DC park trail in 30 years. The Ribbon Cutting will also kick off the Summer Concerts in the Park.

Marvin Gaye Festival 2008 – Annual celebration of the music, message, and meaning of DC’s native son – set in the park now permanently named after him.

Washington Ridge Crossing 2008 -- hike across DC’s learning greenway of natural and cultural heritage.

Recent Past Events

Cool Capital Carbon Buster Training Workshop - April 17, 2008 - 6:30-8 p.m.
Regional Cool Capital Carbon Buster Training Workshop. Executive Office Building Auditorium, 101 Monroe Street, Rockville. The workshop is presented by the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Cool Capital Challenge, the Sierra Club’s Montgomery County Group, the Center for a New American Dream, and Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light.

Parks and Recreation Oversight Hearing - April 15, 2008 - 10:00 a.m.
Parks and Recreation Budget Oversight Hearing, DC Council Committee on Libraries, Recreation, and Parks. Room 412, Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue,. NW. Call 724-8107 to testify or GO-2-PARK, ext. 10 to join a parks panel.

WABA Presents Confident City Cycling Class—Saturday Oct. 13, 2007
Location: Josephine Butler Parks Center
Want to use your bike to get where you need to go? Learn to safely share the road with cars, other bikes, and pedestrians. Washington Area Bicyclist Association, with the support of the DC Departments of Transportation and Recreation, and Arlington County in Virginia, presents a choice of 11 free classes in 2007 for cyclists 16 and over. Each class will be held for three hours on Saturdays. For more information or to register, click here.

Cool Capital Summer Kick-Off June 23, 2007
Parks & People’s Josephine Butler Parks Center will be the scene of the Kick-Off for the Cool Capital Summer on Saturday, June 23 from 9-2. The Kick-Off will feature a dramatic “Carbon Lowering” – the climate-saving equivalent of an old-fashioned barn-raising – in which volunteers will help transform the Parks Center into a model of energy efficiency through dozens of simple low-cost actions. In so doing, they will help permanently prevent tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions from going into the air, and advance Cool Capital’s model billion-pound carbon diet for the DC region. The Kick-Off will feature live music and dance with the Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers, energy efficiency displays, and food and refreshments.

Washington Ridge Crossing V June 2, 2007
Parks & People will lead its popular, 28-mile expedition across the entire capital on National Trails Weekend June 2. Following ancient Native American paths, the hike links the entire city together through parks, trails, and neighborhoods across the 100-million-year-old escarpment ridge of the city. To reserve a place on the hike, contact us.

With a special focus on the Cool Capital Challenge,
DC’s one-year, one-billion-pound carbon diet to combat global warming

Schedule

Sunrise 5:45 a.m.
6:30 a.m.- Assemble at Fletcher’s Boat Landing, 4940 Canal Road, NW

7:00 a.m. – Leave Fletcher’s

8:00 a.m. – Arrive at Wisconsin Avenue and Whitehaven NW

9:00 a.m. – COOL CAPITAL CHALLENGE SEGMENT Arrive at Walter C. Pierce Park (on Calvert Street 3 blocks east of Park/ Zoo Metro)

10:00 a.m. – Arrive Josephine Butler Parks Center, 2437 15th Street, NW (five blocks from Columbia Heights Green Line Metrorail)

11:00 a.m. – Leave 13th and Clifton Streets, NW (three blocks from U Street Green Line Metrorail)

(Lunch at National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception)

1:00 p.m. – Leave Brookland Metrorail station

3:00 p.m. - Arrive National Arboretum (accessible by shuttle from Union Station)

4:00 p.m. – Boat across Anacostia with Anacostia Watershed Society (suggested $10 contribution)

5:00 p.m. – Walk up Watts Branch stream valley/ Marvin Gaye Park (3 blocks north of Minnesota Avenue Metrorail)

6:30 p.m. – Dinner at Riverside Center, 5200 Foote Street, NE

8:00 p.m. - Return home from Capitol Heights Metrorail Station (Blue Line)

Sunset 8.28 p.m.

Please bring water, a snack, sun screen, and money for Metro and the boat crossing. You can either bring your lunch or purchase it at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

For more information, email steve.coleman@washingtonparks.net or on Saturday, call 744-8695 (cell).

Parks & People Helps Launch Cool Capital May, 2007
Continuing a long tradition of forging grassroots hands-on impact on seemingly impossible environmental challenges, Parks & People has pledged 15 million pounds of carbon dioxide reductions to the new Cool Capital Challenge initiative. Cool Capital is seeking to reduce local carbon dioxide emissions by one billion pounds inone year as a dramatic model effort to demonstrate how one metropolitan region

can come together to make a real impact on reversing the climate crisis. WPP is promoting this initiative to every volunteer, partner, and client that we serve. The Josephine Butler Parks Center is serving as a base of the campaign and as a model site for many of the simple ways that we can reduce the energy costs of our buildings, transportation, and lifestyles. To volunteer or join the campaign, contact us at info@washingtonparks.net.

Cool Capital Fair May 13, 2007
Continuing a long tradition of forging grassroots hands-on impact on seemingly impossible environmental challenges, Parks & People has pledged 15 million pounds of carbon dioxide reductions to the new Cool Capital Challenge initiative. Cool Capital is seeking to reduce local carbon dioxide emissions by one billion pounds in one year as a dramatic model effort to demonstrate how one metropolitan region can come together to make a real impact on reversing the climate crisis. WPP is promoting this initiative to every volunteer, partner, and client that we serve. Parks & People will host a Cool Capital Fair at the Josephine Butler Parks Center on Sunday, May 13, from 2 to 5 p.m. The Parks Center is serving as a base of the campaign and as a model site for many of the simple ways that we can reduce the energy costs of our buildings, transportation, and lifestyles. To volunteer or join the campaign, contact us at washingtonparks@aol.com.

What’s Going On?
Marvin Gaye Music Festival
March 31 thru April 7, 2007

All events take place in the Heritage Green section of Marvin Gaye Park at Division Avenue and Foote Street, NE, the Marvin Gaye Amphitheater (53rd and Eads NE inside the park behind H.D. Woodson High School), and Riverside Center (5200 Foote Street at Division Avenue NE).

General Festival Information
Coordinator: Dennis Chestnut, Washington Parks & People/ Watts Branch Community Alliance,
Base: Riverside Center, 5200 Foote Street, NE (corner of Division and Foote, NE)
Main Stage: Marvin Gaye Amphitheater, 53rd and Eads, NE, inside the park behind H.D. Woodson Senior High School.
Festival Office: 398-PARK
Web site: www.washingtonparks.net

The Marvin Gaye Amphitheater and Stage has been made possible through the generous donation of tens of thousands of community volunteer hours, collaborative leadership from multiple DC government agencies, and major funding and in-kind support from the Freddie Mac Corporation and Freddie Mac Foundation. Additional support has been provided by numerous other funders, partners, volunteers, and in-kind supporters.

Marvin Gaye Park pays tribute to DC’s native son whose music with a message began here in this stream valley and ultimately reached hundreds of millions of people world-wide. In honoring Marvin Gaye, the park pays tribute to all the people of this stream valley and the entire city who have in their own ways risen to greatness through adversity. The Park has been the scene of the largest community park revitalization in DC history.

The Watts Branch Community Alliance is a consortium of neighborhood leaders, organizations, and agencies dedicated to using Marvin Gaye Park and the Watts Branch Stream to advance a healthy, sustainable future for the entire Watts Branch stream valley. The Alliance is led by Dennis Chestnut of Washington Parks & People, a lifelong resident of the stream valley.

Volunteer help is needed—please sign up!


Park events open to all.


 

Washington Parks & People is supported in large part by thousands of civic-minded community volunteers all year round. Without your support, we could not possibly have such an impact on city parks and the communities that surround them. Winter offers numerous opportunities to help. At the Josephine Butler Parks Center, volunteers are improving this historic mansion and "greenhouse" for advancing Washington's parks and people. At Marvin Gaye Park, volunteers are now raking, mulching, pruning, and revitalizing the length of DC's longest municipal park and inside our Riverside Center. Winter is the perfect time to remove invasive plants from the park - they are easy to spot and easy to pull. People of all ages, sizes, and skill levels are encouraged to come out. Come join us!

There are volunteer opportunities every day of the week except Sunday. You can choose to volunteer at our heaquarters in the Josephine Butler Parks Center or at our field headquarters in the Riverside Center, as well as in neighborhood parks across the city or in large parks along the Anacostia River.