Crombie Park
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You are on the [cover page] of folder [Crombie Park (Main)]Welcome to Crombie Park
a project of CELOS
The park is located at Jarvis and Esplanade in downtown Toronto, near the St.Lawrence Market. It is named after David Crombie, Toronto's mayor from 1974-78. The park is a long strip of land bordering the north side of the large St. Lawrence housing development, which has a mix of co-op and Toronto Community Housing Corporation buildings. Two schools share a location at the west tip of the development. One of those schools is the Downtown Alternative School, which uses the park as its playground. But that end of the park is paved over, and for many years the playground has been pretty ugly.
In 2006, teacher Paula Grosso began working with her grade 4, 5 and 6 students, plus their parents, on planning some improvements to the schoolyard.
Here are the plans they made:
School Playground
Click on logo to enlarge it
Click on drawing to enlarge it
Paula Grosso heard about the cob courtyard at Dufferin Grove Park. She came by to look and ended up helping. She wrote: "I was inspired by being a Dufferin Grove volunteer during the summer of 2006. (Helped out with the composting toilet). I felt the park was truly an inspiration of how play areas and public spaces can be used as teaching tools (an ideal outdoor classroom if you will)."
Paula thought that some of the Crombie park schoolyard plans might be carried out very cheaply and with the children's participation by using cob. She was particularly interested in the cob benches, and several approaches were made to the city's Parks staff to get permission. That's where the project ran into snags. Questions about liability for the benches and for projects built with the help of children were held up in meetings for quite a while. But then, approval came.
Paula writes, We have just met again with the greening committee, and decided to go for it. This project will be able to begin thanks to SAS, a local business intelligence software company whose generosity will support the buying of materials. Students will start work this Spring. Evergreen, TD Friends of the Environment, and WWF Canada are also helping. This is what we plan to do:
May 10th, 9-3pm (Planter building Fun Day)- we will build a planter from rubble and cement for our Food of the Americas garden. Lunch provided.
May 12- May 30th (making 1 cob bench around planter)
June 1-14th (Designing and working with children on mosaics)
June 14th Downtown Alternative School Bazaar and Family Fun Day (Finish Murals)
posted May 18, 2008
Planter building day
May 10th, 2008, 9-3pm (Planter building Fun Day)- to build a planter from rubble and cement for our Food of the Americas garden. Lunch was provided.
Laying out the planter shape
Setting up the temporary "bake oven"
Pizza Day at Crombie Park
While discussions were still going on about allowing the project to proceed, Paula arranged for some of the baking staff to come to Crombie Park and set up a temporary oven for children and parents to make some pizza. In addition, parents worked with kids to make soup, which was kept warm on top of the "oven."
Bake Oven November 16, 2007, 4-6 pm
On Friday November 16, a group of CELOS workers came to the park. They were there to set up a bake oven for pupils of the Downtown Alternative School and their teacher Paula Grosso.
Click on picture to enlarge it
Click on picture to enlarge it