#westriver

Spring colors are popping at the Peace Garden!

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I wanted to wish you a happy springtime and remind you about a couple things:

* SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY PLANTING -- SATURDAY, MAY 9, 11AM Join us this upcoming Saturday, May 9 (rain date: May 17) for the 1st annual Mother's Day Planting at the West River Peace Garden. Flyer is below -- please share if you can!

We are very excited about this special occasion of remembrance which was requested and organized by our neighbors in the West River community. Come by the Peace Garden and then go and enjoy Westville ArtWalk! Really hope you can join us.

* WEEKLY WORK-DAYS RESUME, FRIDAY, MAY 15, 9:30-11AM

We meet every Friday at 9:30am to work at the Garden, unless there is extremely inclement weather.

We have been talking about possibly moving our regular work time to accommodate more people, particularly students and people from the surrounding blocks in West River and Hill North. Please email us ([email protected]) if you would like to come to our regular work-days but are only available in the evening or on weekends (please suggest a time that might work for you).

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Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks for your ongoing support and hope to see you at the Garden or out in the community sometime very soon!

Aaron G.

Friends of the West River Peace Garden 

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I wanted to wish you a Happy Earth Month and provide a few important updates about the Peace Garden:

* Join Us For the First Work-Day of 2026 -- Thursday, April 16, 10am

We had a great year of working in the Garden in 2025, and we are very excited to get going in 2026!

Our first work day of the new year will be on Thursday, April 16 from 10am to 12pm, when we will be hosting a community service activity for students from Albertus Magnus College at the Garden, as we have done the last two years!

[Working with Albertus Magnus students in April 2025.]

Note that this is not our regular work time, but please join us if you are available, even if you are a new volunteer! (We will be giving an introductory garden tour at the beginning.) Parking is available at the garden or across the street. Heavy rain cancels. 

* Regular Weekly Work-Days Resume on Friday, April 24

On April 24 we will resume our regularly scheduled work-days on Friday mornings. We meet every Friday at 9:30am to work at the Garden, unless there is extremely inclement weather.

We have been talking about possibly moving our regular work time to accommodate more people, particularly students and people from the surrounding blocks in West River and Hill North. Please email us ([email protected]) if you would like to come to our regular work-days but are only available in the evening or on weekends (please suggest a time that might work for you).

In June we will begin our collaborative work with Urban Resources Initiative, which runs through August. This is the most important window of time in terms of having volunteer support at the Garden. We are always happy to help students get community service hours for their volunteer participation.

* New Community Greenspace Sign Installed at the Garden  - Yay!

We were thrilled to have our new official Community Greenspace sign installed at the Garden back in February! 

It has been an honor for us to be part of the Community Greenspace program the past five years, and it's great to finally make it official!

* Mother's Day Garden Project

We are very excited to be hosting a special Mother's Day planting at the Garden this year honoring all the wonderful mothers in West River (and across the City) and their special role in nurturing a healthy, positive community!

This project started last year with the creation of a new planting area on the north side the Garden, and will be developed further this year with more formal events and activities involving the Cofield Estates and other community partners. Please stay tuned for more details! 

* Update on New Benches and Signs -- Partnership with New Haven Public Schools is Moving Full Steam Ahead!

As we reported back in December, we are in the process of updating our amenities at the Peace Garden including new benches and signs. In December we mentioned that we were exploring several options for benches and now we can report that we have decided to pursue an exciting partnership with the New Haven Public Schools (in this case, Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse High Schools) in which the students will produce benches for us in their school wood shop! One of the original goals of the Peace Commission going back more than three decades was to forge partnerships with the public schools in New Haven, in order to build community around the promotion of peace, and this project has afforded us a unique opportunity to do just that!

Thanks to the efforts of Fred Brown, JoAnne Wilcox and Manny Camacho of the Peace Commission, and also Millie Grenough and Paul Bloom from Friends of the West River Peace Garden, for helping us to make this connection with the schools and for meeting with school officials and students on multiple occasions. We will keep you updated as this exciting project progresses!

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Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks for your ongoing support and hope to see you at the Garden or out in the community sometime soon!

Aaron G.

Friends of the West River Peace Garden 

West River Peace Garden Advisory Committee

Meeting Agenda Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026

Time: 4:15pm - 5:15pm

Location: Zoom

I. Call to Order & Welcome

Introductions of members and guests.

Approval of minutes from the previous meeting.

II. 2025 Year in Review

Retrospective: Discussion of major milestones achieved last year.

Budget Summary: Final look at 2025 expenditures and donations.

(Peace Commission transferred $850 to the Peace Garden restricted account in 2025.)

Community Impact: Review of visitor numbers and volunteer engagement.

III. Planning for 2026

Seasonal Goals: Establishing the primary objectives for the upcoming greenspace season.

Events Calendar: Preliminary scheduling of garden tours and workshops.

Resource Allocation: Identifying needs for tools, plants, mulch, etc.

IV. First Work Day: Thursday, April 16

Logistics: Coordinating with Sister Cathy Albertus Magnus

Following week we will resume meeting on Fridays (April 24)

V. Amenities Project Updates: Benches and Signage

Benches Update: Report on meetings with Hillhouse and Wilbur Cross re: bench fabrication.

Signage Update: Installation of official URI Community Greenspace sign.

VI. New Business & Misc.

NHI article about Curtis Cofield Estates.

Helping to shovel out bus stops around Peace Garden.

VII. Announcements

Community news, partner organization updates, upcoming events.

VIII. Adjournment

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year (I hope it's not too late for that) and provide a few updates about the Peace Garden:

* Next West River Peace Garden Advisory Committee Meeting, Thursday, January 29, 4:15-5:15pm

Please join us for the first Advisory Committee meeting of 2026. This meeting will be held virtually as usual -- the Zoom information can be found below. There are many important things that we need to discuss -- e.g. our plans for the upcoming year, and updates about our benches collaboration with New Haven Public Schools (see below for a very abbreviated summary) -- so I hope you can join us. Please let me know if you would like to contribute anything to the agenda, which will be posted on our website.  

West River Peace Garden Advisory Committee

Thursday, Jan 29  •  4:15 – 5:00 PM

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 827 9111 3116

Passcode: 559472

One tap mobile

+13052241968,,82791113116#,,,,*559472# US

+19292056099,,82791113116#,,,,*559472# US (New York)

Join instructions

https://us02web.zoom.us/meetings/82791113116/invitations?signature=YXL4ii3Z-PO-csadamDPq8V8KTTC8tmq7RLpQv9mFFY

* Work-Days on Hiatus Until Spring - But SAVE THE DATE For the First 2026 Work-Day on Thursday, April 16

We had a great year of working in the Garden in 2025, completing our seasonal work in November, and our regular weekly work-days are on hiatus until Spring 2026. Last year was really our best year yet in terms of progress at the Garden, with a long list of landmark accomplishments that we reported on in our December newsletter. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped -- we sincerely hope you will join us again in 2026! 

Our first work day of the new year will be on Thursday, April 16 from 10am to 12pm, when we will be hosting a community service activity for students from Albertus Magnus College at the Garden, as we have done the last two years!

[Working with Albertus Magnus students in April 2025.]

After that, we will resume our regularly scheduled work-days on Fridays, beginning on April 24. 

* Update on New Benches and Signs -- Partnership with New Haven Public Schools is Moving Full Steam Ahead!

As we reported back in December, we are in the process of updating our amenities at the Peace Garden including new benches and signs. In December we mentioned that we were exploring several options for benches and now we can report that we have decided to pursue an exciting partnership with the New Haven Public Schools (in this case, Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse High Schools) in which the students will produce benches for us in their school wood shop!

One of the original goals of the Peace Commission going back more than three decades was to forge partnerships with the public schools in New Haven, in order to build community around the promotion of peace, and this project has afforded us a unique opportunity to do just that!

Thanks to the efforts of Fred Brown, JoAnne Wilcox and Manny Camacho of the Peace Commission, and also Millie Grenough and Paul Bloom from Friends of the West River Peace Garden, for helping us to make this connection with the schools and for meeting with school officials and students on multiple occasions. We will keep you updated as this exciting project progresses!Thanks to our friends at Urban Resources Initiative, we will also be installing an official greenspace sign similar to the mock-up below.

This will not be a large sign, and will not be visible except from up close, but it will help give us more of an official status and standing.  We also continue to have conversations with the City's landscape architect about other improvements at the Garden, based on the ideas generated by West River neighbors in our two community brainstorming charrettes. Let us know if you have further ideas in this area.  

* Take the Parks Department Survey - All Hands For New Haven Parks The New Haven Parks Department is completing its first strategic plan in about a decade, which is very exciting. 

We hope you will take the survey and let the Parks Department know that smaller parks and gardens like the Peace Garden should not be neglected, and they need more support and resources from the City. 

* Peace Garden in the News -- Featured in Connecticut Magazine!

In case you missed it, the Peace Garden was featured in a lovely spread in the October 2025 issue of the widely readConnecticut Magazine, beginning on page 20. This article is very similar to the one that appeared in another Hearst CT publication, the New Haven Register, about a month earlier. Thanks to author Declan Walsh and photographer Arnold Gold for doing a great job with the story. Be sure to check it out! (You can find a hard copy at the Library or we can get you a copy.)

Aaron and Paula also recently spoke about the Peace Garden on WATR radio. You can listen to it at the link below (mp3 file). 

 Wow Radio Peace Garden.mp3

Obviously we greatly appreciate these opportunities to tell the story of the Peace Garden and to express our pride in our special ginkgo!

_______________________

Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks for your ongoing support and we hope you are staying warm this winter.

Aaron G.

Friends of the West River Peace Garden 

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I just wanted to remind you of a few things:

* WRMP Walk Audit #2, Sunday, June 29

Tomorrow, Sunday June 29 at 1pm is the 2nd walk audit for West River Memorial Park. The audit will take a different route from the previous one but will once again end up at the Peace Garden, where we will (hopefully) have the opportunity to give a brief overview of our ongoing beautification efforts and challenges related to traffic safety. The meeting place is on Marginal Drive on the West Haven side of the park. See flyer below.

The last walk audit had many City officials in attendance and it was a great opportunity to brief them on our work. I don't expect as many City officials this time but it's still a good networking opportunity if you are able to make it.

* Next Advisory Committee Meeting, July 28

We moved to quarterly meetings this year and our next meeting is scheduled to take place in July. Right now I would like to do it on Monday, July 28 at 6pm but if there is a better time for you, please let me know. This meeting will be on Zoom (though I would like to explore the possibility of having some in-person meetings later this year). 

I will send out Zoom info in a subsequent email.

* News Article About the Peace Garden: "Peace Gardeners Prepare For New Neighbors"

In case you missed it, check out this great article from the New Haven Independent:

Thanks to the Independent for coming out and joining us during one of our gardening sessions and reporting on the many challenges and opportunities involved with our work at the Peace Garden.

* Curtis Cofield Estates Opening - Congrats!

Thanks to everyone who attended the ribbon-cutting for the Cofield Estates earlier this month. Friends of the Peace Garden was very well-represented at this inspiring celebratory event.

We were able to obtain a list of good contacts for the Cofield Estates and their property management team. If someone would like to reach out to the team from HallKeen about possibly providing information about the Peace Garden to Cofield residents, or giving a presentation about the Peace Garden in their community space, that would be great! We already have relationships with WRSHIP and to some extent with NHP Foundation but we also want to develop a good relationship with the property management folks who are onsite there every day.

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The garden is looking really good right thanks to your support. As always, please let me know your comments and concerns.

Aaron G.

Friends of the West River Peace Garden

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I wanted to wish you a happy almost-summertime and provide a few important updates about the Peace Garden:

*  Meeting With New URI Intern -- Friday, May 30, 9:30am

Join us for a greenspace planning meeting with our new URI intern Allie Douma! We are very excited and grateful to be working with URI again this year and are looking forward to a productive summer at the Garden! We will be discussing how we want to structure and pace our greenspace work, what we plant to plant, etc. Please come and contribute to this discussion, particularly if you have ideas about plantings at the Garden.

This meeting will take place on-site at the Peace Garden. Note that this will be a 'working meeting' and we will also be doing some (optional) light clean-up and watering. We continue to meet every Friday morning at the Garden and will continue to do so through November.

* Next Meeting With New Parks Department Director Max Webster -- Wednesday, June 4, 5:30pm

On January 8 several members of Friends of the West River Peace Garden attended a meeting with the new Director of the Parks Department, Max Webster, who assumed his role last November. We raised with him the issue of ARPA funding that was promised for parks and greenspaces like ours, but never delivered. Thanks to Urban Resources Initiative for arranging this meeting and another one in April. The next meeting with Director Webster and members of his team will be held on Wednesday, June 4 and you are invited to attend. (Please RSVP here.)

Attached to this email are notes from one of the meetings with Director Webster that took place earlier this year.

* Ribbon-Cutting for the Curtis Cofield Estates -- Monday, June 16, 11am - 1pm

There will be a celebratory ribbon-cutting for the new Curtis Cofield Estates (directly adjacent to the Peace Garden) on Monday, June 16, from 11am to 1pm. Lunch will be provided.  

Join us in celebrating the long-awaited completion of this new affordable housing option for the community. There will be a tent in case of inclement weather. If you are planning to attend, please RSVP to [email protected].

* SAVE THE DATE: Follow-Up Walk Audit of Ella Grasso Boulevard, Orange Avenue (Route 1), Marginal Drive and West River Memorial Park -- Sunday, June 29, 1-3pm

From previous newsletters you know that we are one of the advisory committee partners in the West River Memorial Park (WRMP) Renew Team, which is working on access and management issues for WRMP which is located across the street from the Peace Garden. The National Park Service is assisting the Renew Team in this work. As part of the advisory committee, we have been advocating for better connections and enhanced access between the Peace Garden and WRMP on the other side of Ella Grasso Boulevard. Partly at our urging, the WRMP Renew Team carried out a "walk audit" on March 15 bringing together various community stakeholders to examine the pedestrian conditions and park access issues along the Ella Grasso Boulevard and Derby Avenue corridors. The walk audit was attended by Mayor Justin Elicker, three different city department heads, and representatives of the South Central Regional Council of Government. We are very grateful to the organizers of the walk audit and all the officials who attended.

We are pleased to announce there will be a follow-up walk audit along the southern perimeter of West River Memorial Park taking place on Sunday, June 29. We will have more information about this event in a subsequent newsletter, but if you have any questions at the moment you can contact the walk audit point person Kat Jacobs at [email protected].

As you know from our previous newsletter, we recently had new sidewalks installed at the Peace Garden, which is a tremendous improvement and a sign of the progress we have been making. But there is much more work to do (which is the reason for the walk audits).

* Report-Back on AWESOME Community Service Day With Albertus Magnus Students, April 10

We had a wonderful work-day (our first of the year) in April with students from Albertus Magnus College. It's still early in the season but the garden is already looking great thanks to all the community support!

It was our second year collaborating with Albertus on their spring community service day and they have been fantastic to work with. More pictures can be found on our website. Special thanks to Sister Cathy Buchanan for including us.  

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Thanks for your ongoing support and I hope to see you soon.