Project Playback: Helping Neighbors Improve North Oaks Neighborhood Park

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One of our favorite things about the work we do is the people and organizations we get to work with. In 2018, Austin Parks Foundation completed four park improvement projects thanks to a $210,000 Active Parks Project grant from the St. David’s Foundation! With COVID delaying an official ribbon cutting and some additional community-initiated improvements coming this year, we wanted …

Good To See You Again: Thousands of Volunteers Help Local Parks During It’s My Park Day

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It was wonderful to see thousands of smiling faces helping their local parks, trails and green spaces on Saturday, November 6th! After an all-virtual event in Fall 2020 and a hybrid event in Spring 2021, over 2,230 volunteers participated at 75 in-person projects and virtually across Austin. From trash clean up events to building community gardens, volunteers provided our parks …

Honoring our Adopt-A-Park Team of the Year: Brentwood Park

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Brentwood Park has had a dedicated park adoption team for so long that it goes back before recorded history – APF history, anyway. You can count on Friends of Brentwood Park to run an It’s My Park Day project twice a year, every single year, and round up the best taco and coffee donations from neighborhood businesses to treat their …

Project Playback: A Deep Dive Into Our Investment at Deep Eddy Pool

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Deep Eddy Pool and the adjacent Eilers Park are unquestionably an Austinite favorite for cooling off in the summer heat. In the early 1900s, the property orginated as a swimming hole above a limestone bed in the Colorado River. George A. Rowley founded and named the property Deep Eddy Bathing Beach, and it became a hit with locals and out-of-towners …

In Memory: Louis René Barrera

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We’re saddened to hear of the passing of Louis René Barrera, a man who dedicated so much of his life to Austin’s parks. He served as the Environmental Conservation Information Specialist for the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department for 24 years. His legacy can be seen clearly at any of Austin’s 15 nature preserves, but especially at Blunn …

Impact Grant Winner Georgian Acres

APF Awarded Over $280,000 in 2018 Fall Community, Neighborhood and Impact Grants

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Funding will be used for various community-initiated Austin parks improvements, renovations, and construction projects.  $100,000 ACL Music Festival Impact Grant to help build Georgian Acres Neighborhood Park.   AUSTIN, TEXAS (January 16, 2019) – Austin Parks Foundation (APF) is thrilled to announce their 2018 fall grantees that will receive over $280,000 in collective funding to improve various Austin parks, trails …

People + Parks: The Amplifier

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By Elizabeth McGuire We’ve all heard this before: one person can make a difference. But really, how? One person can make a difference because one voice can amplify others. One person can inspire dozens. One effort can snowball into action and eventually lead to change. This is how our community improves. So goes the philosophy of Sally Baulch, who has …

People + Parks: Future Philanthropists

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By Elizabeth McGuire If you ask Anissa Castillo what she remembers about volunteering with her young family at the last It’s My Park Day, she will talk of quality time, life lessons and good citizenship. If you ask her kids what they remember, they will say, “digging in the mulch and jumping on rock piles!” Both answers are perfect. The …

Julie Sondecker

People + Parks: Keeping Austin Clean, One Day at a Time

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By Elizabeth McGuire For the last 337 days, Austin’s green spaces have been cleaner than ever before. That’s because Julie Sondecker, creator of Instagram’s @365DaysofHiking, has been picking up trash in parks and on trails every single day since May 30, 2017. During her daily outings, she fills her signature blue mesh bag, artfully arranges the trash in a beautiful …