Danielle Milley
With the announcement of a large grant from Live Green Toronto, the Valley Park Middle School Go Green Cricket Field is gaining momentum. “That was really important to us for a number of reasons. For one thing it’s nice to know they support us,” said Lisa Grogan-Green, co-chair of the committee. They found out about the $225,000 capital grant at the end of May and it gets added to the smaller, but just as important, grants the project has already received as it has worked diligently to apply for funding and seek sponsorship to make the $1.7-million project a reality. The idea was born last spring. It would see the school yard transformed from its current condition, which includes a concrete basketball court, 11 portables, and a small field used for soccer and other sports.
Once the cricket pitch moves from a dream to a reality, the school grounds will be an oasis with a butterfly meadow, an outdoor amphitheatre, herb and vegetable garden, interpretive marsh, and facilities to play cricket, soccer, baseball and basketball.

The new space will bring the Don River valley onto the school grounds and see the school yard extended back into the adjacent hydro field.

So far the committee has received support from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation in the form of a $50,000 grant and they’ve been short-listed for a Jays Care Foundation grant. There has also been support from the community.

“There’s been some angels in the neighbourhood,” Grogran-Green said.

Locally, the Kiwanis Club of East York is a believer in the project. The timing of it worked well with the club’s own goals, said Ross Hillis.

“One of the areas within our catchment is Thorncliffe Park and although we do have a presence there, we felt we wanted to do more in terms of community service,” he said.

So Hillis, the current vice-president and incoming president of the club, emailed local councillor John Parker to get some input on areas in need; he came back with Valley Park’s cricket project.

“This was something that it didn’t take long for us to support,” Hillis said.

“It’s a good match with our club. The reason for that is the main focus of Kiwanis is to serve the community and it seems like what Valley Park is doing with the Go Green project is also servicing the community.”

The cricket field and other amenities will provide much needed green space for the community to use on weekends or after school when the grounds aren’t in use by the school.

“That is what Kiwanis is all about,” Hillis said.

He took the idea to the board, which responded positively and was impressed with the scope of the project. The full membership voted to support the project on Tuesday .

The club isn’t a large one, though, so a large financial contribution just isn’t possible. Instead it’s come up with a three-pronged fundraising plan that would see the club organize a fundraising dinner in the fall, the encouragement of members to contribute a volunteer levy of $500 a year to go towards the project, and a community fundraiser at a local shopping mall.

Another local fundraising group, The Aquarians, have also expressed support for the project.

“That was sort of unsolicited help from somebody who cares a lot,” Grogan-Green said.

The small group works to raise funds for projects mostly associated with helping children in need.

“We’ve supported things in that neighbourhood previously and we liked that it was involving the community and would serve the whole broader community,” said Elizabeth Randell, a member of the group, who saw a media story about the project.

She said the group usually focuses on projects that get young people outdoors, which is a big part of the Valley Park project.

The group is holding a three-kilometre open swim on June 26 with funds raised going towards the cricket project.It takes place at the Kelso Conservation Area in Milton with each swimmer raising money through his or her own fundraising page.

Randell said they hope to be able to raise close to $10,000 for Valley Park from the event.

There are still many dollars to be raised for the ambitious project, A number of grant applications are still outstanding and the school and greater Thorncliffe Park community are also rallying to see the project come out on top in the Pepsi Refresh grant competition. The cricket project is vying against projects from across the country to win a $100,000 grant. Valley Park is currently in 19th position and voting ends June 30.

The next focus is on the business community.

“Our push right now is to get corporate donations because we haven’t done that enough,” Grogran-Green said.

Preliminary work could begin this summer.