What's On in Parkdale Archives | Creating Together Parkdale

Halloween Fun During COVID!

October 27, 2020 by Melanie

According to the government of Ontario, given the high transmission of COVID-19 in Ottawa, Peel, Toronto and York Region, traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating is not recommended. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have a tonne of fun, right?! Here are some trick-or-treat alternatives to get ready for this year, and make sure your family keeps the spirit of halloween alive!

1. Virtual Halloween Costume Party

The government of Ontario recommended it, and guess what – we are offering one! Creating Together Early ON Centre is excited to invite you to our Virtual Halloween Costume Party next Friday October 30th 🙂 We CAN’T WAIT to see everyone’s costumes and hopefully you all will enjoy our Halloween songs and craft activities!

On Friday October 30th at 10am, click this link to join: zoom.us/j/7391226799

Feel like hosting your own? Indy With Kids offers some great how-to tips here:

https://indywithkids.com/halloween-zoom-party/

2. Organize a candy hunt

It is recommended that this be with the people living within your household, due to COVID-19. So here’s some tips to do in advance, to make sure all goes smoothly ~

Get your costume ready! This would most certainly be better, of course, in costume 🙂
Treat contatiner – make sure every child has something to gather their treasures in.
Decide where to have the candy hunt. The sun sets around 6:15pm, so remember if it’s to be done outside, that the kiddos will need to have some flashlights / light sources 🙂
Plan an after-hunt Halloween activity to do while your children eat their treats (eg., one of the other activities here)

3. Carving Pumpkins

Looking for ideas? Spruce Crafts offers some awesome tips here: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/pumpkin-carving-ideas-for-kids-4153104

4. Share Scary Stories

KOA offers some awesome scary campfire stories which will do the trick, here: https://koa.com/blog/kid-friendly-spooky-campfire-stories/

5. Decorating Front Lawns, and Driving by the city’s best!

Trick-or-treat 2020 might be cancelled, but that hasn’t stopped enthusiasts from doing up their front yarns with some haunting delights! Once your done your own lawn, go and do a drive-by on some of the greates lawns in the city: The Brenyon Way houses, 1 Krisbury Avenue, and 27 Glenlake Avenue are just some of the usual spooky staples to check out!

Most importantly,

have fun, and stay safe!

Virtual Programming at Creating Together

September 8, 2020 by Melanie

Creating Together staff are committed to ensuring families are supported and having fun. Our doors may be closed, but our virtual programming is fully open!

Take a look below for a snapshot of our Virtual Programming offered on Facebook and Zoom, and download the pdf file here to access the embedded links to connect you directly to our facebook and zoom channels. Each week we explore a different theme, and there’s something special planned for you Monday through Friday so enjoy – and let us know if you need anything!

Virtual-Programming-Poster-Final Download

Update: Supporting Torontonians with ActiveTO

May 27, 2020 by Melanie

We all know how important it is for our health to keep active, though it’s been difficult to do since the lock-down and closures of our parks. ActiveTO is about making sure people have space to get outside, have space to get around while respecting physical distancing.

“Our streets are going to look different in many places in the post-COVID world. We will need more road space for walking. We will need quiet streets. We will need more bike infrastructure. We are going about this in a responsible, common sense way with Toronto Public Health, Transportation Services and local councillors all involved in making common sense, health-focused decisions which broaden out our transportation network.”
– Mayor John Tory

ActiveTO Initiatives:

Creating Quiet Streets

These will be local routes with traffic calming measures that will enable local car traffic only and open up space for pedestrians and cyclists. These projects will roll out fairly quickly and the initial target will be 50 kilometres of quiet streets. In our area, quieter streets include:

Kensington Market (area that borders Nassau Ave., Spadina Ave, Augusta Ave. and Dundas St. W.)
Lakeshore Dr./Lake Promenade (First Ave. to Forty Second St.)
High Park Ave. (Bloor St. W. to Annette St.)
Brock/Emerson/Cowan Ave. (Dupont St. to King St. W.)

Closing Major Roads

Transportation Services staff and Toronto Public Health have recommended closing some major roads adjacent to major trails or recreational attractions where crowding on weekends and holidays has been observed. These would include some locations with complete closures to all car traffic and would be delivered through recurring short-term road closures, such as on weekends. When this happens, on a trial basis, staff will be monitoring adjacent routes with real-time data and will make adjustments as necessary.

Normal weekend closures (except long weekends) will begin at 6 a.m. on Saturdays until 11 p.m. on Sundays. Public parking lots, such as those with access to parks and beaches, will not be accessible if they fall within the major road closure area.

Major road closures are being planned from Saturday, May 30 at 6 a.m. until Sunday, May 31 at 11 p.m. Specific locations will be posted on the City’s website here when they are confirmed.

Expanding cycling network

More bike lanes will help people move around the city as the restart gets underway.

A Council report released on May 25 asks Council to approve the installation of approximately 25 kilometres of new bikeways, for a total of approximately 40 kilometres of on-street cycling lanes approved for accelerated installation in 2020. The proposed plan includes flexibility so that bikeway installations can be adjusted based on considerations such as changing traffic volumes, and the evolving needs of residents and businesses in the wake of the pandemic.

If approved, the cycling network would be expanded quickly through temporary installations by repurposing curb lanes along several key corridors. Bloor Street East, University Avenue/Queen’s Park Crescent and Dundas Street East would be among the first installations. For updates, please check on the City’s website here.

Not very confident on your bike? Check out the Bicycle Safety Campaign for tips, resources, and support to get you and your family out there safely!

National Physician’s Day

May 1, 2020 by Melanie

May 1 is National Physicians Day.

Creating Together board, staff, parents and families would like to extend our deepest gratitude for all of our physicians and health teams. Across the country, lights will be turned on at 9pm to shine a light on our gratitude, for all they do.

We’d like to share the sentiments of Sandy Buchman, president of the Canadian Medical Association, as she so succinctly mirrors our gratitude and appreciation for the work and sacrifices made on our front lines by the medical profession:

“This year, perhaps more than ever, we are reminded of the dedication of physicians and all health professionals who are fighting COVID-19 alongside policy makers and the public.

This pandemic has been a stark reminder of the commitment of physicians from coast-to-coast-to-coast. Facing unprecedented circumstances and anxiety, physicians are leading the public health response, caring for those afflicted by COVID-19, and sustaining our health care system.

Today, let’s reflect on the work and sacrifices made by physicians and, most importantly, express our most sincere appreciation for the care they provide in normal and in extraordinary times. Physicians embrace the medical profession as a calling – and this rings truer now more than ever.”

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/today-is-national-physicians-day-in-canada-813384751.html

So families, tonight at 9pm, we ask that you turn your light on, to shine a light for our incredible medical teams.

THANK YOU to our Country’s True Superheros!

April 28, 2020 by Melanie

April 28th marks a very special day: National Superhero Day. Created in 1995 by Marvel’s employees, most years we celebrate with capes and masks, paying homage to our favourite fictional superheroes. This year however, people across the continent are recognizing the true heroes.

While we all do our best to stay home, so many people are working on the front to ensure we can eat, receive mail and deliveries, and be cared for in the hospitals and long-term care facilities. Amidst a time of such isolation, we have all witnessed an incredible coming together of hearts and minds in a united effort to get through this pandemic. If you’ve taken a stroll through Parkdale, you will have seen placards on lawns, signs in windows thanking our service heroes.

A large thank-you sign dedicated to health care workers decorates the lawn in front of a nursing home on Halton Street in Toronto’s west end, posted in the Globe and Mail on April 16th: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-thank-you-and-stay-safe-readers-tributes-to-front-line-workers-in/

There have been a couple amazing parades and demonstrations for our hospital workers as well:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-salutes-health-care-workers-covid19-1.5537982

https://www.cp24.com/news/heartwarming-transit-workers-honour-health-care-workers-along-hospital-row-1.4919923

And here in Parkdale, we’d like to give a special thanks our neighbours at St. Joseph’s Hospital, PARC, White Eagle Long-Term Care Residence (where we do circle once / month) and West Neighbourhood House.

This last week alone, PARC served over 2300 meals, and continue to offer support to the homeless and under-housed.

If you would like to support PARC in their work, **monetary donations are the most efficient way**. This allows them to purchase the exact supplies they urgently need on short notice.

At West Neighbourhood House, they are offering employment support, a neighbourhood Mutual Aid program where volunteers can offer support and folks in need can ask for help (learn how to become a neighbourhood pod lead or volunteer HERE), and tax help.

And at St. Joseph’s, together with the other hospitals, they continue to make sure patients and families are informed while also offering exceptional front-line health care: Information for Patients and Families.

So if you’re having a moment of doubt, remember you are not alone, and there’s so many services out there for you to give and also receive, thanks to our superheroes on the front lines!