The Gardner 4's blog

The next monthly meeting for SABA will be this Thursday, 6/9 from 7:30 to 9:00 at the house at Normandy Park. Recently, we have been posting signs for these meetings, which has drawn in neighbors to participate who had not known about these meetings. Since there are many households in our neighborhood that do not receive these messages, please forward SABA announcements and information to your neighbors so everyone can get involved as much as they would like.

The agenda for the meeting is:

1. 4th of July Celebration.

The annual neighborhood yard sale will be on Saturday, May 28 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon. This is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and it corresponds with the annual Beechwood Civic Assoc yard sale. Their yard sale has been happening for years and attracts hundreds of shoppers.

View SABA 2011 Yard Sale in a larger map

As in the past, everyone is welcome to participate. You may sell from your house or from Normandy Park. We will advertise the sale and we will post a list of participating addresses on the SABA website. This list will be available to shoppers so they will know the houses in the neighborhood to go to.

If you would like to participate, please contact Bill Gardner. Tell me if you plan to sell from the park or your home. If you are selling from your home, please give me your address so we can include it on the list.

Start digging through your basement and attic for those old items you are ready to get rid of and good luck with the yard sale.

Due to the weather forecast for Saturday, 4/16, the Spring Park Planting and Egg Hunt will postponed to the rain date of Sunday 4/17. The planting will still begin at 10:00 am and the egg hunt will begin at 11:00 am. The time of the Easter Bunny's arrival is still a surprise.

The next monthly meeting for SABA will be held this Thursday 4/14 from 7:30 to 9:00 pm at the house at Normandy Park. We have a number of very important issues on the agenda, including a special presentation by the Director of the Haverford Township Free Library.

The agenda for this week's meeting is:

1. Final discussions about the Spring Planting ad Egg Hunt event planned for this upcoming Saturday, 4/16.

2. Plans for the annual yard sale to be held on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. This will be in conjunction with the well-established yard sale of the Beechwood Civic Assoc.

Spring has sprung and it is time for SABA's annual spring planting and Easter Egg Hunt at Normandy Park. As in the past, this event will take place on the weekend before Easter. So, this year, the event will be on Saturday, April 16, with a rain date of Sunday, April 17.

The planting portion of the event will begin at 10:00am. This will be our opportunity to clean up the existing garden beds and further enhance the landscaping of the park. Now is the time of year that many of the plants around your house are beginning to sprout. Take a look around your yard and remember those plants that last year you said to yourself, "I really should thin that out." This is the perfect opportunity to tackle that project at home and donate the thinned out plants to the neighborhood park. We will plant those donations throughout the park.

Do you love baseball? Do you like to learn and teach the ins and outs of the game? Have you ever thought you'd like to learn to coach a team but didn't know where to start?

Then the Haverford Athletic Club is the place for you.

The Haverford AC has been the baseball league for our neighborhood for over 35 years. They have 3 levels of play: t-ball, machine-pitch, and baseball (divided into Minors and Majors). The baseball level has the kids pitching and includes almost all the rules of full baseball, with a few modifications for the kids. The baseball teams are looking for assistant coaches to teach skills, organize practices, and help the coaches and players during the games. You do not have to have coaching experience. You just need some knowledge of the game.

The next monthly SABA meeting with be this Thursday, March 10. As usual, we will meet at the house at Normandy Park from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. Agenda items to discuss include:

1. Spring Park Planting and Easter Egg Hunt -
In hopes of having better planting conditions, it has been suggested that we have the planting event and egg hunt on the same day, as in the past, on the Saturday before Easter, which is 4/16.
Coordinators of each the planting and the egg hunt are still needed.

2. Spring newsletter -
We are seeking contributions to the newsletter now since we will want to get it out soon to promote spring and summer events.

3. Haverford Township Free Library -
Christine Faris, the new Library Director, is interested in attending a SABA meeting to get to know our group and to present information about the library and its resources. What would we like her to showcase in her presentation to our community?

4. Elwell Field playground structure -

For the last 2 years, our first event of the year was the Easter Egg Hunt, held on the weekend before Easter. The timing of Easter (and therefore the Egg Hunt) was appropriate for also having our spring park clean-up and planting event at Normandy Park on the same day. This year, Easter is much later (April 24). We should think about:

1. When should we have the Easter Egg Hunt? Maybe April 16 with April 17th as a rain date?

2. Who will help organize the egg hunt, including getting the supplies? What age groups should we have for the kids to hunt? Last year the groups were 0-2, 3-5, and 6-8. How does that sound?

3. Can we count on the Easter Bunny to make an appearance again?

4. When should we have the spring clean-up and planting event? Having it on the same day as the egg hunt might bring out more people but the weather might allow us to plant and clean-up the park even before the event.

We have a sign that spring is just around the corner - Baseball Sign Ups!!!

The Haverford Athletic Club (aka Haverford AC or HAC) is the little league for our neighborhood and the games are played on our local fields (Normandy Park, Chestnutwold Elementary, and Elwell Field).

They have scheduled two walk-in sign up days:

* Wednesday January 12, 2011 7:00 to 8:30 PM at Chestnutwold Elementary School
* Saturday January 22, 2011 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon at Chestnutwold Elementary School

HAC also accepts sign ups via the mail. Sign Up/Registration Form, Information Sheet, and Sign Up Flyer can be downloaded from the Haverford AC website. http://eteamz.active.com/haverfordac

HAC also has made three exciting changes for 2011:
1. The divisions were re-named: T-Ball (formerly Bronco), Machine Pitch (formerly Pony), Minors Baseball, and Majors Baseball (formerly Mustang)

As we watch our first significant snowfall of the season, I encourage everyone to be thoughtful and considerate with how we all have to deal with the snow. We all know that many of the streets in our neighborhood are rather narrow, with many cars parked on one or both sides. This makes it difficult for the township to plow the streets effectively. One of the best things we can all do is to get as many cars off the street so the plows can clear the streets easily and completely.

I know some houses do not have a driveway and many people share driveway, making it complicated to get cars off the street. I believe that with a little consideration and a willingness to share driveway space with neighbors, we can ensure that the streets are cleared effectively. Once the snow has been plowed, there should be little difficulty with parking on the street again.