Phil Bean is fundraising
Help Restore the F.T. Proctor Park Lily Pond!
Hi! I'm very excited to share news from Olmsted City of Greater Utica: a once-in-a-century restoration of the Lily Pond in Utica's F.T. Proctor Park. And to kick it off, a very generous anonymous donor has made a $50,000 match challenge--the donor will double every dollar we raise until we raise the first $50,000 (that is, we have an opportunity to turn $50,000 automatically into $100,000!).
Like the rest of the park--which is listed on the National Register of Historic places--the Lily Pond was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the leading landscape architect of the first half of the twentieth century. This beloved feature of the park has served for 110 years, and it's very much showing its age--patching is no longer good enough. Let's fix it!! Take a look at how it could look once the work is done!
Olmsted City, a program of the Landmarks Society Greater Utica (our local historic preservation nonprofit), also hopes to create a trail, landscaped with trees, shrubs, and benches, connecting the Lily Pond to other nearby features (see below). If we reach our fundraising goals by November 1, we will carry out this project next spring.
Our goal is not only to secure the Lily Pond for a second century but to create more walking loops. Public health research shows that parks that have loops are 80% more likely to attract visitors and that visitors are 90% more likely to engage in healthful exercise at such parks.
This project will benefit a broad cross-section of Utica's diverse population, given the high local incidence of lifestyle illnesses and trauma (particularly among our large refugee population, who use this park very actively). Exercise and contact with nature produce significant mental and physical health benefits.
We have no paid employees. We depend entirely on voluntary donations. As I said, we already have a $50,000 match pledge (or about a third of this project's cost). But the person who made this generous pledge also wants us to attract at least 250 donors, so please chip in what you can toward this project, which we hope to complete in time for the 2023 centennial of Maria Proctor's donation of the park to the people of Utica!
Thank you!!
Phil Bean, Chair
Olmsted City of Greater Utica
https://olmstedcity.org/
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