NEW POLL: 88% SUPPORT CREATION OF ROUGE NATIONAL PARK

Rouge Park Alliance calls on Federal Government to Realize the Full Potential of Rouge Park and Make it a National Park

September 24, 2010 - Almost nine of ten Eastern GTA residents surveyed favoured the idea of the Federal Government making Rouge Park Canada’s first urban national park, according to a Nanos Poll commissioned by the Rouge Park Alliance.

After blogging my little heart out about the Tour de Greenbelt, and throwing 4 Greenbelt Harvest Rides at CYKL to pump up the Tour, it’s all over!!! Just like that!

CYKLfemmes, plus my boyfriend Phill, drove out to Uxbridge and rode the 100km route of the Tour de Greenbelt yesterday. For us, it was a great way to close-out a season of awesome riding!

Recently I got out into the Greenbelt to Northumberland for a friend’s wedding. The bride’s father is an organic farmer and naturally – no pun intended - she decided to have her wedding out on his beautiful farmland.

Last week, my youngest daughter Sierra asked me if I could get her 30 copies of the Greenbelt Kids Activity books. The Greenbelt Foundationproduced this 33-page Kids Activity book as a means to reach out to the young ones to learn about Ontario’s Greenbelt through games, puzzles and drawings. We produced these books in partnership with the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and they were a big hit at the Fair as well as many other places.

Media Release

       Attention: News / Recreation / Travel & Tourism / Environment / Sports

TOUR DE GREENBELT ADDS 100KM ROUTES FOR SECOND CYCLING WEEKEND 

      “Canadian Century” routes back by popular demand for avid cyclists

Ontario’s Greenbelt, September 21, 2010 – The Tour de Greenbelt, an annual cycling event for riders to experience the beauty and offerings of Ontario’s Greenbelt, is set to kick off its second weekend in York and Durham regions with the addition of a 100km route on each day due – back due to popular demand from past riders. 

Some people say Canadians are born with skates on their feet – for Olympian Joannie Rochette, this statement is almost true. Starting off her skating career at just 22 months old, Rochette said she wasn’t always a star and the path that she took didn’t start with an Olympic dream.

  “I didn’t think about the Olympics as my ultimate goal, I set small goals for myself and achieved them step-by-step,” said Rochette.

  This is very similar to our Ontario growers who are taking the necessary steps to achieve the ultimate goal of creating a local and sustainable food and wine economy in Ontario.

Media Release

Ontario Celebrates Leadership on Greenbelts across the Globe:

International Leaders Converge on Toronto, March 22-24, 2011

 Toronto, September 16, 2010 Policymakers and practitioners from four continents will converge in Toronto to address key environmental, farming, and social issues.  The Global Greenbelts Conference --- the first of its kind in the world --- mixes panel discussions, visits to Ontario’s Greenbelt, and local entertainment to highlight the potential of Greenbelts to help achieve food security, protect valuable ecosystems, and conserve biodiversity.

This past Sunday I participated in the third annual Tour de Greenbelt in Niagara. Not as a staff member, but as a bona fide participant. Having worked on this project for the majority of the spring and summer, I was eager to see the event unfold from the family perspective that we had been promoting.

Unfortunately, at the last minute my husband was unable to join me due to craziness in his work life. Undeterred, I rented a mini van, packed up my little guy Harrison and headed out to Niagara bright and early on Sunday morning. Loaded in back? My bike, the bike trailer, Harrison’s own little runner bike in case he wanted to be part of the action, and (of course!) our helmets.

This week I got the opportunity to chat with Dave Robinson from Mountain Equipment Co-op! I asked him some questions about himself and about MEC's involvement with the Tour de Greenbelt. Here's what he had to say!

Who is Dave and what does he do at MEC?
I'm the Sustainability Coordinator at MEC in Toronto, which means I wear many hats. But primarily I help coordinate events inside and outside the store, I write grants and manage donations. MEC got involved with the Tour de Greenbelt right from the get go, we were apart of the steering committee. We helped them gather some ideas for it initially and they took our advice.

What's MEC's role in the Tour de Greenbelt?
MEC is a sponsor, but also at a local store level in Toronto we send 6 staff members to all the events. 4 of the staff members are safety checkers, looking over all the bikes and equipment. They also do the ride where they carry tools and patch kits to help any bikes that might need it. We also have a bus coordinator who helps get people on the bus at the MEC store and to the location of the event. Lastly, we have a van driver that does a sweep of the course to pick up anybody that needs a lift. MEC in Burlington does a similar thing.

Looks like the Greenbelt Quilt of Possibilities is right on trend with quilts being back in fashion! Check out this article about quilting from the Toronto Star over the weekend that has commentary from Kate Busby, the curator of the Quilt of Possibilities: http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/858976--quilt-complex.