By Adam Swift
Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor, Jamaica Plain residents could see a lot more events at Lawson Park and the Peace Garden in Egleston Square.
At Monday night’s meeting of the Egleston Square Neighborhood Association (ESNA), Carolyn Royce highlighted an upcoming event at Greater Egleston High School on Tuesday, April 14 that will provide more information to residents and organizations about applying for grants for neighborhood events in the parks. The event takes place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will be hosted by the Friends of Egleston Parks, a group that advocates for both Lawson Park and the Peace Garden.
“We put the two friends groups together, and now it is Friends of Egleston Parks,” said Royce. “We are going to have a celebration and an announcement.”
Royce said the two parks are going through renovations thanks to money from the Community Preservation Act.
“But what is really great is that thanks to an anonymous donor, there’s a substantial donation made through the Boston Foundation to support activities in the Peace Garden and at Lawson Park,” said Royce. “One of the quests we have always had is to see those parks be used and to be used by the community for however the community wants to use them. For a long time, we put together volunteer activities, but now we have substantial money to pay for events to happen in the parks.”
Some of the potential park events include music performances, art shows, children’s activities, and gardening events.
“We just have a lot of flexibility with this money,” said Royce.
She added that the money will be distributed through a community grant program.
“That means the Friends of Egleston Parks has a steering committee, so anybody can submit an application,” said Royce.
The applications are available on the Friends of Egleston Parks website at friendsofeglestonparks.com.
“You can submit an application for what you want to do and put a budget to it; it will go to our steering committee,” said Royce. “If it looks good, we will send it on to the Boston Foundation trustees for final approval.”
Royce said the goal is to have broad participation for the park events, and to grow the Friends of Egleston Parks group.
“We want to spark a lot of interesting ideas to bring activities to these two, they are both small parks, but they’re impressive little parks,” said Royce. “We are there to help people put together their outreach program or to help in any way we can, but we are looking for individuals and organizations who have a great idea for an activity in the park.”
In other business, ESNA member Alvin Shiggs noted that the neighborhood association should be looking at ways to heighten awareness of its activities and bring in more members.
“A lot of new people are moving to the neighborhood in recent months and years who may not be aware of us,” said Shiggs. “We are looking for additional people to help out on other committees like the housing committee.”
Shiggs encouraged current ESNA members to come up with ideas about getting out the word about the work ESNA does.
“We are trying to get more people involved in the neighborhood to help continue with the improvement of the quality of life in the area,” he said.
In other discussions during Monday’s meeting, several residents stated they have received letters from the Santander Bank branch at 3060 Washington St. will be closing at the end of June and merging with the MLK Jr. Boulevard branch.
ESNA members said they have received no official word on the branch closing. Several members, as well as state Representative Samantha Montaño, said they would reach out to the bank, as well as the property owner, to get more information.
A request made to Santander Bank for more information on the bank closing was not returned as of Wednesday morning.