Supporting the St. Thomas Elevated Park and Launching the New ‘Art, Trees & Trails’ Project
Photo: On June 10th, 2020, Andrew Gunn and Maddie King of young & free press announced donations totalling $315,000 from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell to support the St. Thomas Elevated Park, establish a new tree-planting fund, and introduce the ‘Art, Trees & Trails’ project in St. Thomas and Elgin County. Left to right: Elizabeth VanHooren, General Manager, Kettle Creek Conservation Authority; Terry Carroll, Executive Director, Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation; Andrew Gunn and Maddie King; Chris Wilkinson, General Manager, Catfish Creek Conservation Authority; Serge Lavoie, On Track St. Thomas / St. Thomas Elevated Park; and Laura Woermke, Executive Director of the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre. Photo: Emily Stage, young & free press
Our team at young & free press is very excited to announce that the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell is contributing $100,000 to support the further development of the St. Thomas Elevated Park. With this donation, more green-space will be added, pathway lighting will be installed and powered by solar arrays, the new ‘Western Gateway’ entrance will be built at Lyle Road in Southwold Township, and most exciting, the 3.5 kilometre on-site trail will be transformed into the ‘Arboretum Line’, which will be a linear park functioning as a living tree museum featuring at least one example of each tree that is native to our part of southwestern Ontario. Work on all these projects will be started in 2020 and fully completed in 2021.
Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce the new ‘Art, Trees & Trails’ project! This fun initiative will be coordinated by Laura Woermke, Executive Director of the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre. The project will bring historic and contemporary artwork from the Art Centre permanent collection to our beautiful local trails and Elevated Park. Attractive signs that feature high-quality reproductions of many landmark paintings with local connections will be installed around the community, including along the trails at Springwater Forest, Dalewood Conservation Area, and the St. Thomas Elevated Park. In each case, the artwork will be selected to correspond to the precise physical location. This is a creative and innovative way to promote art education and add to our visual environment in places where community members and visitors love to explore nature. The ‘Art, Trees & Trails’ project has been generously funded with $115,000 by the Bushell Estate and truly represents a community-wide effort with the involvement of the Art Centre, Catfish Creek Conservation Authority, Kettle Creek Conservation Authority, and St. Thomas Elevated Park.
As announced earlier in the week, the Bushell Estate contributed an additional $100,000 to establish the ‘Evans Trees Fund’ at the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation. This will be a permanent fund to support tree-planting projects in Elgin County and St. Thomas for decades to come.
On Wednesday, June 10th, 2020, Andrew Gunn & Maddie King (centre) of young & free press welcomed project partners and members of the media to the St. Thomas Elevated Park to announce funding allocations from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell. Photo: Emily Stage, young & free press.
Beyond our social media work and partnerships with private companies and government organizations, our team at young & free press function as consultants alongside owner Andrew Gunn through his consulting firm, Andrew Gunn Consulting Inc. This gives our team of teenage staff members the opportunity to provide ideas and develop special community projects! Currently, we are the consultants on the Estate of Donna Bushell, who passed away in November 2019 in her hundredth year. Andrew and our teenage staff member, Maddie King, will be taking the lead on announcing all the donations from the Estate – ultimately, more than $2.5M will be allocated to support many wonderful projects in St. Thomas and Elgin County!
Maddie King, Andrew Gunn & Emily Stage of young & free press. As the consultants on the Estate of Donna Bushell, Maddie & Andrew have been taking the lead on making funding announcements for local projects. Emily is our photographer and has been taking shots at these events — we want to be sure to note that she has also been helping us to develop and implement all these extraordinary community projects!
Notes on the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell
Donna Vera Evans Bushell passed away November 9, 2019, in her hundredth year, the last of her family. Donna’s passion was to plant trees and reminisce about her ancestors and friends while her sister Doris Evans taught music as a church organist. The oldest sister, Thelma Joiner, taught elementary school around Aylmer for forty-five years and researched local North Yarmouth history. All three sisters shared a love of their heritage as descendants of the pioneer Westlake, Penhale and Gilbert families who settled along the North Edgeware Road in Yarmouth. Their collected historical papers will eventually be deposited in the Elgin County Archives. Recently, the Bushell Estate provided funding to the Catfish Creek Conservation Authority to construct the new environmentally-friendly “Evans Sisters’ Stage” at Springwater Forest, and to the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority to establish the new “Evans Sisters’ Water Trail” at Dalewood Conservation Area. Both projects have been designed in memory of Donna, Doris, and Thelma, and for the enjoyment of local residents and visitors to the community.
Donna Vera Evans Bushell passed away in November 2019 in her hundredth year.
Notes on the St. Thomas Elevated Park Project
On Track St. Thomas, a non-profit organization established in 1994, purchased the MCR bridge in St. Thomas in 2013 along with four kilometres of associated trail land. No grants from any level of government have gone into the purchase of the land or the construction of the park. Donations from local sources make up the majority of the investments to date, including major financial support from Doug Tarry Homes, Hayhoe Homes, Geerlinks Home Hardware, Entegrus and Nicli Aggregates. Key funding has also been received from the Trans Canada Trail Foundation. In addition, hundreds of volunteer hours have gone into the landscaping work done by members of the St. Thomas District Horticultural Society. The St. Thomas Elevated Park is a Canadian first.
Notes on the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre
The St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre is an incorporated non-profit charitable organization with the objective to encourage and promote an appreciation for and support the practice of the visual arts in St. Thomas, Elgin County and surrounding area. This has been accomplished in three main ways since the establishment of the Art Centre in 1969: a permanent art collection that consists of over 1900 works, 16 exhibitions annually that feature the work of local, regional, national and international artists, and ongoing education programs for both adults and children. Find more information on the Art Centre at www.stepac.ca
Notes on the Elgin - St. Thomas Community Foundation
The Elgin - St. Thomas Community Foundation helps people to support local charities in the Elgin County and St. Thomas area in ways that are simple, convenient, and long-lasting. Through building and managing endowed funds and providing grants, the Foundation focusses on improving and enhancing our communities – the places where we all live, work, play, and raise our families. More information on the Foundation is available online at www.escf.ca
