Gala Planned to Raise Funds For Springside Park Improvements
There won't be dancing on the porch like in this 1940s photo, but the group hopes there'll be dancing on the lawn under the lights at the first gala held on the property in years.
On July 1, the conservancy is hold a gala featuring music, food, and cash bar as the first fundraiser for improvements to the park. The Friday night event is $30 with all of the funds going toward improvements eyed in the newly adopted master plan.
"It's featuring local restaurants serving food. We let them choose what they wanted to serve that night. Wandering Star is going to be here serving craft beers. We're trying to get local people involved in this," Ward 1 City Council and chair of the Gala Committee Lisa Tully said at a press event Thursday afternoon.
"We try to make this an affordable night for the community to come. We didn't want to make it expensive."
The gala will run from 7 until 10 p.m. and is the first outdoor social event in decades but one that was common years ago at the mansion.
"It's been a number of decades since there's been something similar to this as far as a social event. It might be a first ever in terms of a fundraisers to generate more funds for the park and improvements," Springside Park Conservancy President Joe Durwin said.
The conservancy coalesces a number of volunteers groups at the sprawling 237-acre park. Groups including the Hebert Arboretum, Springside Greenhouse Group, the Friends of Springside, and Morningside Initiative have joined together and created a master plan for the park.
"There really has just been this gradual evolution of stakeholdership that in the last couple of years crystallized with the incorporation of the Springside Park Conservancy and bringing all of those different allies together, and the table to work in tandem constructively," Durwin said.
Particularly eyed in the near future is the restoration of Springside House. According to the city's Parks and Open Spaces Manager James McGrath, the city is seeking a grant to start the foundation and drainage work to secure the historic building. From there, the plan will be to work on the envelope.
Overall, McGrath said the entire house needs a "top to bottom" restoration after being a victim to "deferred maintenance."
"Springside is our largest city park and the Springside House is the keystone feature within the park. The Springside House has a long and storied history so the improvements we'd like to make directly correlate with what we are trying to do in the park, which is to create this park as a real destination for this community," McGrath said.
But the plan calls for more than just improvements to the house. Durwin said the city is using some $20,000 in federal grant funds to plan out a restoration of the pond on Springside Avenue. The park has a Little League field, hiking trails, playgrounds, and public gardens, all needing attention. The money raised from the gala will go toward all of those type of projects.
"We have a number of capital improvements we'd like to make over time. This is a multi-year effort to improve Pittsfield's largest and arguably most important park," McGrath said.
With the emergence of more volunteer groups, Springside Park has risen in focus. McGrath said those collaborative efforts help when applying for grants by showing that the community is behind the projects.
"Collaboration is so critical across all city functions and most importantly in city parks," he said.
Tully hearkened back to Tanglewood's origins in saying that groupscoming together for a common goal can lead to great things. At Tanglewood in Lenox, a group of citizens banded together with an idea and that has since grown into what the summer music center is today. While the plan for Springside doesn't include becoming a major concert venue, the concept of grassroots volunteerism leading to significant improvements to the land remains.
"I'm hoping we can do the same thing here," Tully said.
The gala will also feature the awarding of the first annual Vincent Hebert Award, which will be given to a member of the community who has made positive impacts to the park.
Tags: fundraiser, gala, public parks, springside house, Springside Park,
