The Gardner 4's blog

As many of you may have noticed, the large wooden playground piece at Elwell Field has been fenced off and inaccessible for a few weeks. As some of you may have noticed, it was removed from the park today. This leaves a large empty space in the park and in the hearts of the neighborhood children.

The township had determined that much of the wood was damaged, making the piece unsafe, so they fenced it off. They then determined that enough of the wood was damaged that it was beyond repair and needed to be removed.

The piece was purchased in 1990 for $30,000 and was the premier playground piece in the township at the time. Unfortunately, time has taken its toll. At the time, it was purchased with HUD funds. Some HUD funding, and possibly other resources, can be available to purchase a new piece, but not nearly enough to cover the cost.

Our next monthly SABA meeting will be held this Thursday, July 8. As usual, we will meet at the house at Normandy Park from 7:30 to 9:00. The agenda for the meeting includes:

1. Review and final accounting of the 4th of July Celebration.

2. Plans for summer maintenance of Normandy Park

3. Begin planning 2010 SABA 5k

4. Recruitment of new volunteers and vacant officer positions.

5. Additional items to discuss

Hope to see you there.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. Once again, the SABA 4th of July Celebration was a terrific success. So many people came out to enjoy our biggest and longest running tradition. Of course, an event like that could never happen without the help of volunteers who generously gave some of their time. Of the many people who helped, I want to specifically thank Ed Magargee, Rick Pelena, Jason Guynes, Erica Keagy, John Francone, Diane Wilder, and Alaine Plante.

Ed coordinated the entire event, making sure we had all the equipment, food, permits, and help that we needed. He has coordinated this event for many years now and we thank him for all his effort and commitment. Ed will be looking to pass the torch to a new coordinator for next year but has offered to provide the guidance and all of his records and organization to the next coordinator. Perhaps you would like to take the helm next year.

Just a quick reminder that SABA is now holding its monthly meetings on the second Thursday of the month. So, this month's meeting will be this Thursday, June 10. We will meet at the house at Normandy Park. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 to 9:00. Topics that will be discussed include:

4th of July Celebration (to be held on Sat. 7/3) - Status of the plans, areas where volunteers are needed

Update on next SABA newsletter - near completion, some more content still needed, plans for printing and distributing (Get ready, Block Captains! It will soon be ready to be delivered.)

Normandy Park update - improvements to the house and the landscaping are being coordinated with the township

Any additional topics or issues you want to address

Hope you can attend.

The annual SABA Yard Sale is scheduled for this Saturday, May 29 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon. Homes throughout the neighborhood will be participating, in addition to several people selling from Normandy Park. Here is a map to the participating homes and the location of Normandy Park.

View SABA Yardsale in a larger map

Don't forget, the Chestnutwold Chase will be held THIS Sunday, May 23rd, at 8 a.m.

This is the annual 5k run/1 mile walk that is a fundraiser for the Chestnutwold PTO. It is always a great event and it is so much fun seeing all the kids and adults running in support of the school

Registrants should be there by 7 a.m. to check in and pick up their race packet. Can't run a 5K? No worries, come and do the one-mile fun run/walk down the bus route. (Don't worry, the bus does not run on Sundays.) Then relax and enjoy the pancake breakfast in the school.

To register for the Chase, you may go online and pay with PayPal or you can download a form and send it in with your payment. You can register on Sunday morning but the price will go up and there may not be an T-shirts left. Questions? Michelle Corallo, eljacam@verizon.net, or Patty Lindner, pllindner@verizon.net.

Once again, SABA will be coordinating a neighborhood-wide yard sale. This year, we will have the yard sale on Saturday, May 29 from 8:00 to 12:00. This is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The rain date will be Sunday, May 30.

The Beechwood Civic Association has held their yard sale on this day for many years and it attracts MANY customers. In fact, it has become such a tradition in their neighborhood they don't even have to advertise the event and people know to show up. We hope to piggyback on the excitement and enthusiasm of their event to make our yard sale particularly successful.

We have selected Saturday, May 8 for this year's spring planting. This is one of our two most substantial events for further improving the landscaping and beauty of Normandy Park. I think the spring planting ends up feeling more fulfilling because you can watch the fruits of your effort grow and blossom throughout the rest of the outdoor season into the fall.

As in the past, the success of this and the beauty of the park depends on you. We need your volunteer effort for planting all the new additions to the park. Also. most everything we plant comes as a donation from neighbors. So, please take a look around your yard to see what plants are ready for thinning or you have decided to replace with something new. Then, don't simply discard those old plants. Bring them to Normandy Park on May 8 to make your own, personal contribution to this pocket park that has been such a centerpiece for the community.

As we did last year, we will kick off the year of SABA activities with an Easter Egg Hunt. Last year was the first time we held this event and it was a huge success. Many families and children came out and had a great time, especially when the Easter Bunny arrived. Photos from last year's event can be seen at www.sabanews.org/node/126 and there is a link to SABA's Flickr page for more photos.

As many of you know, every year SABA works to further improve the landscaping at Normandy Park. We do this with planting events in the spring and fall and some clean-up or maintenance events at other times. Last year, we began our efforts in the park with a clean-up of the garden beds and preparing various spots around the park for the spring planting event. That clean-up was combined with the Egg Hunt as a way of welcoming in spring at Normandy Park.

Our next monthly SABA meeting will be held this Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30. As usual, we will meet at the house at Normandy Park.

Turnout for the meetings during the winter was low, which makes sense since it is a quiet time for SABA. Plus, the weather kept many of us hunkered down at home. Now, the snow is finally melting, flower shoots are beginning to sprout up, and we are starting to go outside because we want to, not because we have to shovel snow. This is when SABA activities begin to pick up speed and we are most in need of your energy and enthusiasm.