ParksCorps Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Rain can’t stop rowers in Waterfront Park stewardship

Rain can’t stop rowers in Waterfront Park stewardship

Rain means nothing to rowers. They are, they’re glad to remind you, out on the water five days a week, come what may from the skies above.

“The only time practice would be canceled is if there’s whitecaps or really extreme weather,” says Hayley Ransom, a junior in her third year with Bainbridge Island Rowing.

Adds junior Bennett Hay: “But then we’d just go inside (the boathouse) and work out. We’re out here no matter what.”

No surprise then that a contingent some 60 strong turned out for the club’s latest ParksCorps volunteer stewardship event at Waterfront Park – under soggy winter skies, and on Super Bowl Sunday at that. Not to row, but to steward the park.

Site of the new Stan Pocock Rowing Center, Waterfront Park is home ground for the rowers. The club has adopted the park environs in turn, and the […]

Rain can’t stop rowers in Waterfront Park stewardshipDouglas2024-02-23T09:49:59-08:00

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorps

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorps

Not even most volleyball players seemed to know there’s a sand court at Eagledale Park.

“My daughter’s been in volleyball for seven years, and she’s never touched this court,” admitted Megan Adcock, a Bainbridge Spartan Volleyball Boosters parent. “We had no idea.”

There is, and now they do, after a great ParksCorps volunteer event at the south-end park. More than 30 players and parent volunteers turned out to restore the court and grounds. Besides weeding and raking the court, volunteers grubbed out about 4 cubic yards of invasives and left the park looking a lot sharper.

Volunteers included a team Blackmouth Design, a Day Road design-build firm. Owner Rich Batcheller’s daughter Lola is a setter with the BHS varsity squad.

“I pulled some guys off jobs today,” Batcheller said. “It’s good to get outside and get some fresh air, get away from […]

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorpsDouglas2023-08-24T15:10:51-07:00

X-Country, Bainbridge Island Ultimate dig in, dig out at Strawberry Hill

X-Country, Bainbridge Island Ultimate dig in, dig out at Strawberry Hill

A happily common sight of late: youth volunteers pitching in to restore the 10-acre addition at Strawberry Hill Park, future site of the Strawberry Hill Bike Park. Latest to lend their energy and talents are Bainbridge Island Cross-Country. The club harriers rooted out ivy and holly, supporting a healthy forests initiative by Bainbridge Metro Parks.

BI Ultimate also joined the list of local clubs who’ve been putting in volunteer hours at the Strawberry Hill Bike Park site through the Parks & Trails Foundation’s ParksCorps program. The club earned funds for their activities by doing two hours of invasive removal, restoring the land and forest.

Great job, Bainbridge Island Cross-Country and Bainbridge Island Ultimate!

Learn more about ParksCorps here.

X-Country, Bainbridge Island Ultimate dig in, dig out at Strawberry HillDouglas2022-11-23T14:49:21-08:00

Thanks to Windermere for Hilltop broom pull

Thanks to Windermere for Hilltop broom pull

It wasn’t so long ago that the Scotch broom at Hilltop meadow grew this tall. Use your imagination to picture just how tall this is, and it was taller than that.

Restoration of the 5-acre meadow, bridging Grand Forest east and west, has been an ongoing challenge since it was preserved a decade ago. Keeping the noxious broom at bay is central to that effort.

“The restoration is rather fresh, in ecological terms,” says Morgan Houk, volunteer coordinator for Bainbridge Metro Parks.

Windermere’s Bainbridge Island office took up the cause this month, through the ParksCorps program of the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.

Nine Windermere agents put in a morning of service at the Hilltop meadow’s west edge, combing the tall grass to root out Scotch broom starts before they can flower and […]

Thanks to Windermere for Hilltop broom pullDouglas2022-06-21T12:50:42-07:00

Gideon Park ivy pull makes ripples across the sea

Gideon Park ivy pull makes ripples across the sea

An ivy pull in tiny Gideon Park is making ripples halfway around the globe.

Students from the Odyssey Multiage Program are raising funds to help young women in the island nations of Melanesia, through the Parks Foundation’s new ParksCorps program – doing well for their overseas peers, by doing good for Bainbridge Island parks.

The students’ volunteer work is benefiting Melanesian Women Today, providing scholarships for girls who would otherwise be denied the educational opportunities kids here take for granted.

“Everyone should be able to learn and have an education,” says Abby Myrick, an Odyssey seventh grader. “I feel like those girls who don’t get to learn there, I just want to help them so they can learn and do stuff with their lives that they want to do. I think that’s important.”

Odyssey seventh and eighth graders are working at Gideon Park […]

Gideon Park ivy pull makes ripples across the seaDouglas2022-05-20T11:50:41-07:00