Category: Community Events

Community Sleigh Ride – December 19

Start Your Holiday Celebration with a Community Sleigh Ride and Carol Singing!

Thursday, December 19th, 2019 at 6:00PM

[Horse and sleigh ride]

What a great way to start the holidays!

WE’RE GOING TO TRY SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR !! In addition to the main sleigh ride which will depart from the Fieldhouse at 6:30pm, we have added an earlier, shorter “toddlers-ride” starting at 6pm.
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Christmas Craft Fair – November 23 – Reminder

[Scarf on Display]

The Champlain Park Annual Christmas Craft Fair is on this Saturday November 23, from 10 until 3 PM at the Champlain Park field house, 149 Cowley Avenue (the neighbourhood is near Scott Street and Island Park Drive).

A wonderful selection of hand knitted and sewn items, pottery, stained glass, jewellery, holiday baking and a wide selection of vintage cashmere scarves and vintage designer purses.

Free parking and hot chocolate.

See https://champlainpark.org/2019/10/19/craft-fair-november-23/ for one more detail.

Halloween Fun Run Wrap-up

Many Thanks to Volunteers for Halloween Dress-up Fun Run 2019

Here’s a message from Peter Laughton, the event organizer:

A huge thank-you to all who came out to run this past Saturday morning in our annual Halloween Dress-up run. The weather cooperated and as a result we had over 50 costumed participants.

The incredible generosity of those in attendance allowed us to raise $677.00 for OSS Basketball and JUMPSTART charities for young players in financial need.

Thanks to everyone in the Champlain Community Association for all your support, including promotion on the website and the Speaker, allowing us to use the field-house, and sponsorship of the run through food and prizes. Thanks to Bushtukah for the tent and prizes. Thanks to Jordan Clark from Shoppers Drug Mart for the food. Thanks as well to the volunteer de-pavers who allowed us to run across the new opening at Pontiac and to the dedicated volunteers who have taken over the management and stewardship of our beautiful Champlain Woods!

Looking forward to seeing everyone again next year and Happy Halloween!

Thanks to John Arnason for the photos and Carol Arnason for providing the captions.

Large turnout of families in Halloween costumes preparing for start of run at Champlain Park.

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Wreath Making Workshop – December 1

Join the Champlain Park Garden Club on Sunday afternoon, December 1, for a holiday-wreath making workshop at the Fieldhouse. No artistic skill needed to make an 18-inch wreath with five types of fresh evergreen boughs and berries. All materials supplied. Have a fun day with your friends, even mark a birthday with this fun, creative hour.

Cost is $29. Sessions start at 1 pm and 3:30 pm. Please register in advance by calling Laurie Fagan, 613.728.1945.

[Wreath on a Door]
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Halloween Fun Run – October 26

Champlain Park is once again hosting its annual fun run through the Champlain Woods. Runners 5 and under run an 800 meter loop and the 5 and overs (ability dependant) complete a 2K. This year we will take advantage of the newly de-paved SJAM connection to the woods! Prizes will be awarded for best costume and top 3 finishers per age category. All participants receive a candy medal. Donations of $10 or more per runner are encouraged but not required and funds this year go to OSS u14 girls basketball and the ‘Jumpstart’ equal access to sport fund. No registration is required; just show up in costume and run.

Come out and run and send a message to kids in the community that Halloween can be about more than just sugary treats! Volunteers are welcomed as finish line coordinators or on course Marshalls. Donations of food and drink are also welcomed. Contact peterlaughton@rogers.com if you are able to help.

[Poster for the Fun Run]
8th Annual Champlain Park Halloween Run 2019.pdf

Pontiac De-paving Day Photo Review

Community Effort to Remove Pavement on Pontiac Street and Reclaim Paradise!!

Last Saturday, a family-friendly event was led by Councillor Jeff Leiper to de-pave one block of Pontiac Street and to re-connect the green space of Champlain Park directly to NCC lands accessing the Ottawa river.

The Councillor received sponsorship from the City with funds from cash-in-lieu of parkland money and a small grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Energetic community volunteers showed up to dig up sections of pavement and transfer them to City dumpsters. The volunteers were organized by Enviro Centre and Champlain Park Community Association, with coffee from Bridgehead and bagels from the Ottawa Bagel Shop.

In the near future, the City workers will finish digging the gravel base, adding soil, and seeding the area. The NCC will remove the fence and gravel on their side. Volunteers plan to landscape the NCC land with native species of ground cover, shrubs and trees. As Joni Mitchell sang in her song “Big Yellow Taxi”, “you don’t know what you’ve got, ’till it’s gone”. It’s not often a parking lot gets turned into parkland!

Enviro Centre team with Champlain Park Community Association volunteer, Debra Huron, set up coffee (Bridgehead) and bagels (Ottawa Bagel Shop) as well as supplying tools and safety gear for volunteers. Photo by John Arnason.

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Depaving Commences

Here’s a quick photo essay of the core work cycle at the depaving ceremony this morning. There were other things happening too, like a kids amusement spot with pumpkins and paint (they helped out near the end, moving small road fragments), an outfitting area and sponsored snacks. Hopefully we’ll have time to write a longer story later and give credit to the people and groups who helped with the depaving event.

The pick-axe crew at work, digging up the slabs.
Loading slabs onto the wheelbarrows. Councillor Jeff Leiper (in white) lends a hand.
Back and forth the wheelbarrow convoy goes.
Lining up to drop off asphalt squares. The front end loader lifts batches of them up into the dumpster.

Depaving Pontiac Street Ceremony – October 5

We’re holding a depaving ceremony on Saturday, October 5th 2019 from 09:30 to noon. Come and grab a chunk of asphalt (already pre-scored into squares) from the section of Pontiac that we’re converting to park, and throw it out! This is literally a community effort. Equipment and safety gear will be provided.

[Scoring the Pavement with a Circular Saw Cutter]
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