Friday 25 April 2025

Newly Elected Officers

The first Meeting of the Board of Directors met yesterday to elect the Officers for the 2025-26 year. For the first time in seven- and six-years, the ECCA has a new Vice-President and new Secretary respectively.

The Officers are:
Christopher Ng, President
Emma Sauriol, Vice-President
Marie Jurcevic, Secretary
Stan Kunnathu, Treasurer

The Board also has its first Director of Memberships in over a year, Mike Stiles. He is joined by fellow Directors Maricel McDonald, Karl Alexander, Brayden Boerchers, Jenna Larcher and Sharon Todd.

The Board meets on the first Tuesday of each month. Meetings are open to the public and we kindly ask that you RSVP to [email protected] to confirm your attendance. The next Meeting of the Board is scheduled for Tuesday 06 May 2025 at 6.30pm.

Friday 18 April 2025

Garden Boxes

The ECCA Garden Committee has been meeting for several weeks and we are excited to share that our boxes have arrived! They were built by a resident who donated his time. Come and check them out at the Community Park at 115 Evanston Drive! (Note that the final layout of the boxes will be different from the picture).

We have also been successful in our grant application with the Calgary Foundation and the Federation of Calgary Communities. This allowed us to build more boxes than originally anticipated.

In the coming weeks, we will be installing our rain collection system and obtaining seeds, soil and compost. Our seeds are donated by Bluegrass in Balzac. As most of you know, the project this year is dedicated to the Grow A Row initiative of the Calgary Food Bank. We will be planting potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and zucchini.

We will also be putting the nearby logs at the bottom of the boxes to reduce the amount of soil needed while keeping the boxes high enough to minimize bending for gardeners. This technique called Hugelkultur also creates nutrients over time.

We are still getting organized and will keep you all posted on next steps once we are further along. Planting day will be either during the May long weekend or the following weekend. By then, we should be able to communicate how you can get involved in the watering and maintenance of the garden.

If you are interested in joining the ECCA Garden Committee or to be part of Friends of the Garden (which includes residents who want to play a part in the garden once it is mostly built and organized), there is still time, and we would be happy to have you. Please contact Emma at [email protected]

April 2025 Newsletter

The latest is here: https://mycalgary.com/Newsletters/Calgary/NW/Evanston/2025/April.pdf

The physical newsletter is delivered to all households in Evanston each month. It is paid for by the advertisements you see in each edition - the ECCA does not pay for the use or delivery of the newsletter.

Thursday 10 April 2025

Our BigYellowBag fundraiser is on now!

Have you heard about our latest fundraiser?! We’ve teamed up with the BigYellowBag® Give & Grow Program so that you can donate to AND get quality garden products at the same time! $10 from every bag of soil or mulch that is purchased using our unique code 'ECCA25' will come right back to us. It’s easier than ever to support. The best part? They will deliver the bag right to your home! No lugging, no mess!

Wednesday 09 April 2025

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS

Grow A Row

The ECCA is getting organized to participate in “Grow A Row”, a Calgary Food bank initiative that allows Calgarians to help donate fresh food to those in need. As part of the next phase of development of the Evanston Community Park (115 Evanston Drive), we plan to build up to eight food garden boxes that will be partly dedicated to donating to the Calgary Food Bank. Details for the program are found at https://www.calgaryfoodbank.com/growarow/

If you are interested in becoming part of the Evanston Community Garden “Grow A Row" pilot project, please let us know by contacting [email protected]. We are looking for volunteers who are enthusiastic about coming together as a community to give back. Any help is welcome, whether you are an avid gardener or simply happy to be part of something that allows you to meet your neighbours.

Volunteer with the ECCA

We are always looking for people to join our team as the success of our events and our ability to deliver on community projects and initiatives are dependent on our volunteers. There are a variety of opportunities to get involved. Please email [email protected] if you are interested and or would like more information about joining the Board. If you are looking to volunteer your time, but perhaps not as director, we have a volunteer list you could be added to at [email protected].

Join your Association!

To help support the ECCA please visit the Evanston Creekside Community Association page at https://www.eccacalgary.com/register/ to purchase a $20 membership.

We are always interested to hear from you about potential events and programs you would like to see offered in the community as well as anything Evanston. Please reach out directly to [email protected].