September 1, 2022
The coming of September can be bittersweet, with summer coming to a close, vacation season ending and many preparing for another school year. On the other hand, the weather can be delightful, the light and blue skies in Stewart Park are beautiful, and along the Waterfront Trail, it's so nice to see the rowers from Cornell, Ithaca College and Cascadilla Boat Club back on the Inlet. Labor Day weekend is another free weekend for Carousel rides, thanks to the Cornell Concert Series. And the Fall will be packed with events and activities to enjoy, including many described below.
The Friends of Stewart Park Team
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HELP FURNISH THE NEW BDT-CWT TRAILHEAD
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The next time you are in Cass Park, check out the gateway to the Black Diamond Trail where a beautiful new trailhead has been designed, funded and installed by NYS Parks, with additional support from Ithaca's bicycling community. The new trailhead honors Andrejs Ozolins, a tireless advocate for bicycling whom we recently lost and still miss.
Cayuga Ski & Cyclery donated the trail's first bicycle tool and pump station and Friends of Stewart Park contributed the way-finding signs and Cayuga Waterfront Trail map. The kiosk design references the architecture of the old Lehigh Valley Station. FSP has installed one CWT bench thanks to the support of the Ithaca Veteran Volunteer Firefighter Association, and we are looking for additional sponsors for at least one more CWT bench. Also, FSP provided four bike racks and are looking for a sponsor for each or all of them. The bench donation is $6,000 and the bike rack donation is $500 per bike rack.
Please contact FSP at 607-319-4766 or info@friendsofstewartpark if you would like more information about helping us furnish these beautiful additions to Ithaca's trail network.
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Join Friends of Stewart Park and Wharton Studio Museum on Saturday, September 24 in making noise about the final phase of Stewart Park Revitalization at Party for the Park!
This year we’re back in the historic renovated Picnic Pavilion for our 7th annual Party for the Park fundraiser, with delicious small plate fare, including Mama Said Hand Pies, and local wines and craft beverages! Take in the views of the lake from the beautiful pavilion lawn and veranda while enjoying music by the incomparable London McDaniel & Friends.
This year's raffle prizes include local gift certificates, delicious wine, gorgeous photography, and two $1,000 gift certificates to the incredible Aurora Inn and Spa!
Get your tickets for Party for the Park today!
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Thank you to Cornell Concert Series for helping make this Labor Day Weekend extra special by sponsoring free carousel days September 3, 4 & 5 with free rides for everyone!
Be sure to visit the Cornell Concert Series website to learn more about how they present the world’s greatest musical traditions! Join them this year for Zydeco, Classical, Afropop world beat, Snarky Puppy, and more!
Thank you to all of this summer's carousel sponsors!
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WHEN: Saturday, September 17, 9:00am
WHERE: Meet at the Cascadilla Boathouse
Friends of Stewart Park invites you to join Rick Manning and Frank Muller for an introduction to the "iNaturalist" flora and fauna identification App and website, Saturday September 17 at 9:00. iNaturalist is a crowdsourced species identification system and an organism occurrence recording tool that you can use to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect information for a common purpose, or access the observational data collected by other iNaturalist users. The iNaturalist mission is to build a global community of 100 million naturalists by 2030 in order to connect people to nature and advance biodiversity science and conservation.
Frank Muller is a local photographer, gardener, amateur naturalist, nature lover and FSP's park and trail landscape gardener. You've likely seen him taking care of our trailheads, overlooks and other special gardens early on many weekday mornings throughout the spring and summer. Frank is a big fan and user of the iNaturalist app and he's always finding new and interesting native plants, bugs and birds along the waterfront. We thought it would fun to have Frank share this user-friendly tool with the Stewart Park and Waterfront Trail community.
It's recommended that you install the free iNaturalist App from your phone's App Store before arriving. You might also poke around on the website at: https://www.inaturalist.org to get more of an idea of what it's all about..
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LET'S TRIM THE LAKE EDGE VEGETATION!
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WHEN: Tuesday, September 13, 4:00-6:00pm
WHERE: Meet at the Wharton Building /DPW Garage Door
Join us to help finish the work that these good volunteers started earlier this year. We're cutting back invasive brush to make sure everyone can enjoy the view of Cayuga Lake this fall and winter. Bring you hand or battery-powered hedge trimmers, or borrow an hand trimmer from FSP. Meet by the DPW garage doors in Stewart Park on Tuesday, September 13th between 4 and 6pm.
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MORE PARK & TRAIL NEWS & EVENTS
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WATERMUSIC MEMORIES
Thank you to all who came out for WaterMusic and Dancing on the Trail this summer.
This year's WaterMusic was blessed with fantastic musicians and perfect weather. Paddlers, pedestrians, pedalers and even pups, came out to enjoy the music up and down the trail. FSP recently posted a gallery of photos from WaterMusic 2022 you can view here.
Thank you, as always, to Triphammer Arts for putting this event together, and to Tompkins County Tourism Program and Tompkins Trust Company for their event support..
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SILENT MOVIE UNDER THE RESCHEDULED & RELOCATED TO THE STATE THEATRE!
Join Wharton Studio Museum on Sunday, October 2nd at 4pm under the stars on the ceiling at the beautiful State Theatre in downtown Ithaca for Silent Movie Under the Stars Revisited! While we were rained out on August 20 at Taughannock Falls State Park, we are now thrilled to be showing Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. with live original music by Djug Django, Jr. at The State Theatre. The screening is FREE and open to everyone! Join us! October is Silent Movie Month in Ithaca!
A big thank you to Doug Levine and The State Theatre and to Ithaca Attorneys Littman & Babiarz for helping us turn lemons into lemonade and make this event possible! Presenting Sponsor for Silent Movie Under the Stars is M&T Bank; its Producing Partner is the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; and its Media Sponsor is Cinemapolis.
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