Soul of the City grant: Art and Garden Come Together Aug 9th event

Here is the posting from last night on our Facebook site. Sorry it didn't make it to the blog yesterday!
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What an incredible day mural painting on the road and block party.

Thank you to the amazing volunteers from the Acadia Community Garden and Art Society and the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour and the Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative - you made the event! You set up, you helped out and you tore down. Somewhere in all of that, I sure hope you had time for a burger, painting the mural and fun and games! What a partnership this was!

Thank you to Sylvia Prochownik, pavement mural artist, for bringing to life the amazing mural with the help of our incredibly talented Acadia community folks of all ages.

A special shout out to Julie Sumner and Andy Poldaas, and Noel and Catherine James, for being incredible support team to Sylvia. From gridding, mixing paint, guiding and helping painters, they went above and beyond to help Sylvia and the community create Sylvia's vision on the pavement.

Thank you to The Calgary Foundation and Calgary Economic Development for the generous Soul of the City Neighbours Grant! Thank you for believing in us and our vision for this incredible day.

Thank you to Viviana and Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative,
Calgary Parks and Recreation, Calgary Roads, and everyone else at the City of Calgary that helped us, held our hand as we learned the ropes of how to do a mural and block party and answered our myriad of questions. This City rocks! All the staff involved from the City of Calgary did everything they could to help us make this happen. Thank you!

Thank you to all our Sponsors and Supporters and Special Guests- they came, they chatted, they painted, they donated, they discounted, they accomodated, and made the event event more special...

Acadia's own fabulous Firemen, Garry Deckert - Captain and Crew and the awesome Fire Engine and Constable Josh Young and his police car. These fine people keep our community safe and were so kind to come out and chat with the community, and paint on the mural and be an integral part of the festivities. We are so lucky to have you looking out for us in Acadia.

Our MLA, Justice Minister, Hon. Jonathan Denis took the time to stopped by and chatted with the community and even painted on the mural too!

Julie Black, The Calgary Foundation, came out for a visit and spoke at our opening ceremonies. It was so good to share our event with her. Without the Calgary Foundations funding, and Julie's amazing background support - this day would not happen.

Janet Melrose, the Calgary Horticultural Society dropped by for a visit and is writing an article for the Calgary Herald about our event. Janet was instrumental in helping us learn how to start a community garden and how to keep growing it.

Fabulous Porta Potties from BRIAN'S PORTA POTTIES
Traffic Cones from GRAHAM
Generator and Traffic Cones from ELLIS DON
Minerature Horses and wagon from MACDONALD MINERATURE HORSES
Old Fashioned Toss Games from ALLLIANCE ENTERTAINMENT
Buns - THE CARRIAGE HOUSE INN
Buns - MCGAVIN'S
Tables/Chairs/Benches/sundries/ - LUTHERAN CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
GENERATOR #2 - ANDY POLDAAS
Flowers on the new raised beds - LINDA BERRY and SHARON POLDAAS
Pressure Washer and Paint - BASELINE PAINTING
Pressure Washer #2 - VICTORIA AND ROB
Bench Boards and Mural on Bench - CATHERINE JAMES
Paint & Mentoring emerging artists - SYLVIA PROCHOWNIK
60 traffic cones-GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION

I am so sorry if I missed anyone - each of you was instrumental in making the day happen. Please let me know if I did.

To everyone in the community that came out - this day was for you! We hope you had fun. We wanted to get to know you and for you to get to know us. There would be no mural and no party if you were not there. You are part of a legacy and we hope to see you, your friends and family at Growing Acadia annual event next year. It will be a smaller event - a picnic in the park with some lovely music. Date is TBA.

One last and very important thank you must go out - to the neighbours of the Acadia Community Garden. You gave us your support - 100%. You encouraged us, you believed we could do this and you let us paint a mural on our street. We are so glad to share the street with you. Thank you for your kind words and your encouragement.

Thank you all for a great day.

And now its time for bed! Good night everyone!

Corinne Sandhurst
President
Acadia Community Garden and Art Society