I have spent the past week traveling a bit and sharing Groundwork Lawrence and our experience as well as learning about placemaking at a workshop in New York City.

The workshop was titled "Streets as Places," and was one of several that the Project for Public Spaces organizes. PPS is a non-profit urban planning and design organization who works around the world helping people and communities improve parks, plazas, public squares and transportation infrastructure. The training was designed to encourage participants to think differently about how streets and public ways can create and enhance community. We focused on transit plazas or hubs, intersections in dense urban networks and how analysis tools as well as pilot projects are all important in creating places that people want to engage in. I love Lawrence's street network-we have a dense streetscape with many pedestrians. How can we encourage community through improvements in our streets? How can we focus street improvements on pedestrians-many young people-and their safety and community? How can we focus park improvements on creating community and responding to existing needs and future adaptation of our spaces?

Sunday, I attended the "Greening the City" Conference at Lesly University. The conference was organized by Mass Audubon and Lesley University at Porter Square in Cambridge. I spoke about Groundwork Lawrence and the Groundwork USA network with our sister trust, Groundwork Somerville. GWS spoke about their involvement in the community corridor planning for the extension of the Green Line (Boston T) into Somerville. We spoke on community involvement, outreach, and tools for successful partnerships and engagement.

Yesterday was the celebration of 20 years of the Massachusetts Environmental Trust. MET has distributed over $17 million to municipalities and organizations to support, protect and enhance Massachusetts water resources. Did you know that purchasing one of their license plates directly impacts the work that they are able to do? You can buy a plate (for $40 for two years) online at the RMV. MET has supported GWL many times over the years in our alleyway LID project, our Green Team and other projects.

This weekend Rose, Heather, Kate and a few Green Team members will be attending the Groundwork USA Youth Summit and the 2009 Brownfields Conference in New Orleans, LA. The Brownfields Conference is the nation's largest conference focused on brownfield revitalization and economic development. Groundwork USA's Youth Summit will bring young people from Green Teams across the country to share their experiences from their communities and to develop leadership skills to bring back to their Team. Our crew attending will get to explore a Louisiana bayou, work with Groundwork New Orleans and other conference attendees in re-vegetating a school rebuilt after Katrina, and share and learn from other youth.

"Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." - Theodore Roosevelt

Dear Friends,

It is in this spirit that I reach out to let you know of my decision to resign from my role as Executive Director of Groundwork Lawrence, where I've been truly blessed to have worked for the better part of the past seven years. As most of you know, I recently took on a new role for myself as mother to my son Owen; and as I am not one to do things half-heartedly, I've decided to pursue this new and exciting chapter in my life by devoting my time and undivided attention toward raising him, much the same way I've approached my work in Lawrence.

During my tenure at Groundwork, I've enjoyed the honor of meeting and working side by side with talented and dedicated colleagues, as well as numerous partners and friends like you. I've been fortunate to experience the satisfaction of helping transform decay into beauty, by seeing through to completion several projects with tangible results -- especially the ones that stand today as beautiful parks and gardens. I've also born witness to the power of people connecting with their neighbors, rolling up their sleeves, and getting things done together. Indeed, while it has been the hardest I've ever worked, my professional endeavors at Groundwork Lawrence have been the most satisfying of my career. Without a doubt, it is and has most certainly been work worth doing.

Because the undertaking of community development is never done, I take heart in the fact that the mission and goals of Groundwork Lawrence live on, the struggle to raise and leverage funds for our projects and programs will continue, the doors will remain open, and the work worth doing will keep emerging and evolving. To continue steering the ship, particularly as our economy struggles to right itself, it is with great pleasure and pride that I introduce to you Groundwork Lawrence's new Executive Director, a talented and thoughtful woman who has also been my esteemed colleague and friend for four years, Heather McMann. Heather is someone many of you already know and have worked with, but in case you didn't know, she has long been the glue holding together the operations at Groundwork Lawrence! I trust you will enjoy working with her and the rest of our team as much as I have over the years, and I encourage you to get to know her better if you haven't already.

I hope to see you at Glow on December 10 (more details below). Please stay in touch, either via LinkedIn, or by reaching out through the Groundwork family. My love for Lawrence and this powerhouse of an organization remains strong, as I hope yours does, too.

With my sincerest gratitude,
Kate (Gormly) O'Brien

It has been a great 2009 Farmers Market Season and we're a long way from the warmth of this summer market picture! Thank you to all of our vendors (food, craft, and information) and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Visit the Market today to stock up on those fall storage crops like carrots, potatoes, squash and onions. There are pumpkins too-just in time for Halloween!

Small crew at Reviviendo Playground

Last Thursday, Oct. 22nd employees from local shoe companies came together for the New England Two Ten Foundation Day of Service.

Close to 150 employees from New Balance, Clarks, Puma, Converse, and ShoeBuy.com came to Lawrence for the day to work on service projects at Den Rock Park, Jacques Pond, the Greater Lawrence Boating Program, Lawrence History Center and in other parks around the city. The group did an amazing job planting bulbs, blazing trails at Den Rock, raking leaves, pulling invasive plants at Jacques Pond, moving historic documents and picking up litter. I think my favorite comment was when a regular visitor to the Boathouse asked if the group had been volunteering for a full week, when they had only been working one hour! The volunteers were fantastic - really happy to work and fantastic at it. When you see bulbs come up in the spring at Den Rock, Reviviendo and the Boathouse think of them!

Lunch at the Abe Bashara Boathouse

Each year GWL manages multiple service events in the City in partnership with local schools, businesses and nonprofits. Our next large scale volunteer event will be to celebrate Earth Day in April! We also are happy to provide bags and gloves for smaller groups who are interested in doing a park clean-up in their neighborhood. We also occasionally need help in the office and will probably need some volunteers for Glow. Contact Kathryn at the office if you are interested in helping out.

Due to the hard work of advocates around the country, including FRAC and CFSC, the FY 2010 Agriculture Appropriations provided a $2 increase to fruit & vegetable vouchers for women participating in WIC. Participants will now receive $10 a month (as opposed to the previous $8 provided) to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. This increase was recommended by the Institute of Medicine, and will be implemented by USDA within 60 days. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), “The value of these additional benefits will be approximately $55,000,000. Over the next five years these additional benefits will be worth a quarter of a billion dollars in additional fruits and vegetables for woman in the WIC program.” Visit FRAC’s website for more information and resources.

Next week (Tuesday, October 27) will mark the end of our CSA season. We are thankful to all of our CSA members for joining us this year and hope that you enjoyed getting your share of the harvest!

Next week, you shares will be delivered in crates, but ask that you bring your own bags to transfer your share into. We will have plastic bags available for those who forget their own bags. Please also return all crates at the last CSA pickup.

We will send out another reminder about this in next week’s newsletter, but we figured that two reminders are better than one! Also stay tuned for future emails about the end-of-season survey and registration for the 2010 season.

We've been quiet on the website and blog lately but have been busy at the office, of course. Soon, Cronin Park will be undergoing major renovations and you'll be able to follow the progress here. We're very excited to see the work begin there.

Our Green Team helped out at Canal IllumiNations this past Sunday and will be attending Bioneers by the Bay this coming weekend. This year’s Bioneers by the Bay Youth Initiative, organized by youth for youth, focuses on the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental sustainability, weaving in artistic elements and activities.

There are two more weeks left in the CSA Distribution. This weekend Farmer Dave will be hosting a pot-luck at the farm. If you missed information about it in the newsletter, be sure to check it out!

Some of us here at the office (read-me) are in mourning that Gourmet Magazine will no longer be published. I've included links to a few recipes that I just love as a quick tribute and help with your CSA share cooking this week. Some of these are also in the newsletter.

Arugula Pesto
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2002/11/linguine_witharugulapesto
Arugula in Chickpea Soup
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2007/01/chickpea-soup-with-arugula
Tomato and Corn Pie
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/08/tomato-and-corn-pie
Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/10/spiced-applesauce-cake-with...
Bulger Veggie Burgers
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/06/bulgurveggieburgers
Cheddar Bites with Jalapeno Mustard
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/10/country-ham-and-cheddar-pre...

Whew! Is it dinner time yet?

Community Day Charter School along Cross Street

Thanks to all our volunteers at the 2009 Cleanup. We had a final count of 350 adults and youth from the City and surrounding communities. Over 250 of the volunteers were youth including a large group from Lawrence High School, a resilient crew from Community Day Charter School and a brave new bunch from St. Patrick's 3rd grade Bear Den (Cub Scouts). In addition to that we had our Green Team and two other Green Teams from Groundwork Somerville and Groundwork Springfield.

Many thanks go to our sponsors who contributed dollars and goods to make the cleanup happen. The

Cub Scouts at McDermott Park

sponsors include SoBe, Covanta Energy, Allied Waste, and Bay State Gas. Mainstream Global provided lunch for the volunteers and Deb Gurry from Clock Tower Cafe did the cooking. We were also ecstatic to distribute Richardson's Ice Cream from Bread and Roses.

Additional help came from our friends at Lawrence Heritage State Park who were able to collect trash from certain sites and move it to the dumpster and drop locations. Also, The Greater Lawrence Community Boating Program donated 4 boats to use for the day. The boats were used at Scarito Park to ferry trash across the river from the steeper bank on the Prospect Hill Side. (The picture of the New Balance crew on this entry is of some of the material they collected!)

Newbalance Crew at Scarito

Take a look at our pictures here and also on our Flickr site. If you have any pictures from the day- please email Kathryn since our staff wasn't able to take as many pictures as we'd like! If you're willing to share them, please let us know!

Also, check back here for updates on our final tally of trash and metal and tires collected!

Tomorrow, Saturday September 19, join us at Manchester Street Park for the 8th Annual Spicket River Cleanup. We're keeping the Spicket River Greenway Green!

Join us at 9 a.m. to collect trash and recycling from the parks along the river and the river's banks. You can check out our event page for more details.

At the Cleanup you'll also learn more about The Green Team’s "Green It Up!" campaign, an ongoing effort to clean up city streets, enlists local youth to reduce, reuse and recycle, while working to keep their own neighborhoods free of trash.