The Trash, Trees & Tulips Team is a new group that was created at our fall kickoff meeting.  Local residents who are interested in beautifying Carlington got together to share their ideas for the community.   Removing trash, replacing ash trees, and planting tulips were three popular ideas that gave rise to the name.

Our Fall cleanup and tulip planting is scheduled to take place Saturday October 13th and we meet in Alexander Park.  Get involved by contacting us to sign up today!

In addition to planning our Fall planting and clean up we have been busy  meeting  with our neighbors in Westboro, and Central Park. In Westboro, volunteer gardeners have adopted the City’s Clare Gardens Park.   CCA members got a chance to visit the park recently and see how volunteers there transformed the park through donations and added amenities from the City.  The park includes amenities such as exercise equipment, play structures, chess board picnic tables, and the small stage pictured below.  Volunteers have also planted donated plants at the entrances to the park and created garden beds within the park.

CCA members survey Clare Gardens in Westboro

Bed created by volunteers at entrance to Clare Gardens Park

Central Park volunteers have focused their efforts on the shared post boxes in their neighborhood.  Central Park community group members met with CCA volunteers to discuss the possibility of partnering on cleanups and plantings along the Experimental Farm Pathway that separates our communities.  The pathway defines the southern border of Carlington, and stretches eight kilometers from Pinecrest Creek on the west end, to the Rideau Canal pathway on the east.

If you would like to help create planting like this in Carlington don’t miss our fall cleanup on the October 13^th! Email Marc to get involved!

Planting by Central Park volunteers

Carlington residents turned out in big numbers to roll up their sleeves and work to make a better community.

We want to extend a huge thanks to the more than 60 Carlington residents who turned out for the CCA’s Fall community kick off meeting Tuesday night. Everyone in attendance was invited to provide their input and share their ideas for improving our community through a series of discussion groups.

Residents brought great energy and ideas and contributed their thoughts to building a safer, greener, better community through a broader, more representative community association. We left feeling excited about what we can achieve in the year ahead.

We want YOU to get involved! Send us an email and tell us how you want to help make Carlington a better place to live. We’ve got great opportunities to roll up your sleeves from tulip planting on October 13th to helping us organize our annual neighbourhood shinny hockey tournament, the Carlington Cup.

We want to hear from you!

P.S.–Our meeting was even profiled on CBC Ottawa! Watch the clip here.

We all want to build a better community. The question is, what are you actually willing to do about it?

Next Tuesday night is your chance to get started. Join us for our community building kick-off  September 11 at 7pm at the Alexander Community Centre.

We’re hosting a discussion about ways to make Carlington the kind of community we all know it can be. The sort of place where neighbours know and care about their neighbours. A greener, safer neighbourhood that attracts positive development. A community on the way up.

We’ve got some ideas about how to get there, but more importantly we want to hear from you. Join us for an update about what’s going on in our community and take part in an interactive discussion. We’ll be looking to hear directly from you about you want to see and how you think you can help.

Maybe you’re already an active Carlington Community Association (CCA) member; maybe you’ve never come to a meeting. Whether you’ve lived in our community your whole life or you’ve just moved in, we want you involved.

Join us and help build the Carlington you want.

Date:              Tuesday September 11, 2012
Time:             7:00pm
Location:      Alexander Community Centre (960 Silver Street)

P.S. – Help us spread the word by sharing this post with your friends and neighbours. All are welcome! 

We had a great time soaking the good folks of Hintonburg last weekend in the first ever Carlington vs.  Hintonburg Water Showdown. After a hard-fought battle, all agreed it came down to a draw. In the end, there wasn’t a dry soul to be found at Hampton Park and most had long forgotten what colour shirt they were wearing. (For the record though, Carlington wore green!)

A major thanks to Jeff Leiper and the Hintonburg crew for being such good sports, to Kevin Waghorn and Kimmy Pinard for their great planning and to everyone who came out, including Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi. His dispassionate referee skills under pressure could teach Norwegian soccer refs a thing or two…

Check out these great photos, courtesy of Justin at JVL Photography!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Let’s adopt Alexander!

Sound like a big commitment? Might help to know that Alexander is a park! In fact, our very own Alexander park, located in the heart of Carlington, next to the Alexander Community Centre at 960 Silver St.

With a basketball court, soccer field and play structure, Alexander park is used by many families and young people. In the past year, the Carlington Community Association (CCA) launched two hugely popular events there: the Carlington Cup – our annual neighbourhood shinny hockey competition – and the Carlington Family Fun Day, which drew more than 500 people on Victoria Day long weekend.

Now this fall the CCA plans to adopt Alexander park, through the City of Ottawa’s Adopt-a-Park program. In addition to organizing big clean-up campaigns twice a year, Alexander will become “ground zero” for a mass tulip bulb planting this fall, as part of the CCA’s Carlington Tulip Initiative.

And we will be looking for more ideas about how to make Alexander a great asset for our community!

For more information or to get involved, contact Marc or come out to the CCA’s general meeting on September 11, 7pm at the Alexander Community Centre.

P.S.–Check out these great before/after shots from our first round of Alexander improvement!