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Echo Park School and Camp

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

At Echo Park School and Camp, they address the total development of your child: physical, emotional, social and intellectual. They have designed a curriculum with enough flexibility to accommodate each child’s individual growth patterns. 

Your child is introduced to a variety of new experiences and encouraged to explore, manipulate, experiment and learn. Their goal is to help your child develop a positive self-image and the confidence to successfully proceed on his or her educational journey.
They accomplish these goals by providing your child with:
Highly-skilled, professional, education-degreed, caring teachers
A well-rounded curriculum
Quality educational materials in a modern classroom setting.
Children in all classrooms take part in our specialty classes, which include music, creative dramatics and physical education. Afternoon enrichment classes, available to children attending full days, include Spanish, safari club, science, arts crafts and journaling, gym and computers. Parents are encouraged to actively participate in the educational growth of their children. The Echo Park Parents Association is an active group that assists the school administrators with fundraising, family events and other school activities.

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Gigantic Mega-Development Coming!!!

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Maybe you missed it, I almost did too.  The news item in the L.A. Times made it seem like a joke.  But they are in escrow for 55 acres and plan to spend $3.55 billion (with a B) on this development.  This is the “City of Angeles Monument” that will take over Crown Hill.   The map shows the development taking all the land from 1st St./Beverly Boulevard on the north to 3rd St on the south. (more…)

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Central City Action

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Well, it’s summer at CCAC again.  You can tell by all the kids that are at the center.  Some come at 8 am to start work with SYEP (the summer youth employment program for kids that the City of Los Angeles sponsors). We have about 75 youth working out of our center.  Some are placed at the childcare centers in Echo Park, others are at the Methodist Church and Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic and the rest work at the center.  Most of the kids who work at the center are painting out graffiti and sprucing up Echo Park and some are working in the office for Gloria and other staff.

Besides working with the kids, we planned another Summer of Fun for our younger ones.  We started off by having a great and profitable weekend at the Lotus Festival.  So far we have been bowling, swimming, attended movies, had a few beach trips and even went fishing.  (more…)

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Echo Park Tours

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

The Los Angeles Visitors & Convention Bureau has selected Echo Park as one of about two dozen communities that will be featured in a $2.5 million campaign to promote neighborhood tourism.
The program–which is called `LA Lifestyles: The Neighborhoods of Los Angeles? is aimed at the growing number of travelers who want to go beyond the traditional tourist destinations–such as amusement parks and the beach–and explore areas with a rich variety of history and culture. Echo Park is that kind of place, say people at the convention bureau.

As part of the program, Echo Park and the other neighborhoods will be promoted in local and national travel and entertainment publications as well as in a series of colorful street banners. In addition, the convention bureau will also publish and distribute an Echo Park guide with a description of the neighborhood and a suggested itinerary. How about a paddle boat ride across the lake, followed by a shopping trip on Antique Row and then drinks at Les Freres Taix?

The convention bureau will rely on local Neighborhood Tour Organizations to come up with the itinerary and identify events–such as the Echo Park Arts Festival and The Cuban Festival–that would be of interest to visitors. Also, local organizers would be called upon to put together a guided tour for groups that express interest in exploring local historic sights or artist studios.

If you have any suggestions for stops on guided or self-guided tours, please contact Jesus Sanchez at (213) 250-4155 with your suggestions. Also, volunteers who are knowledgeable about the neighborhood are needed to lead small group tours.

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TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME!

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Echo Park Night at Dodger Stadium will be held on Monday, August 30 at 7:00 P.M. when the Dodgers play the Brewers at our local ballpark.

The baseball game has been sponsored by the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce for many years. It is a great time to get together with friends and neigbors and enjoy a good old summer pastime. A portion of you $8 ticket price funds local activities such as the annual Holiday Parade. (more…)

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ECHOES FROM THE PAST

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Visitors to Echo Park have long enjoyed a variety of recreational activities. A swimming pool, tennis courts and a softball diamond may be found on park land south of the lake, while picnic areas and a children’s playground can be enjoyed alongside anglers fishing for trout and catfish in the well-stocked lake.

It is boating, though, that has always captured the imagination of visitors to Echo Park. The original wood frame boathouse built in 1921 featured a functional watchtower and rented wooden canoes. It burned down later but by the mid1930s had been rebuilt in the popular Mission Revival style complete with arched windows and a clay tiled roof.

The lighthouse is now strictly for show and the canoes have been replaced with sleek, pedal-powered fiberglass boats, but the old-fashioned charm of boating on Echo Park Lake has changed little over the years.

(Excerpt from “Ghosts of Echo Park”. Only a few copies are left! Final orders will continue to be taken via the mail. Send $15.00 to Echo Park Publishing, P.O. Box 261021, LA 90026.)

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ECHO PARK DOES ITS PART

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

A recent article in “US News” discussed the alarming tree loss in American cities. Satellite images taken in 1972 of Puget Sound in the Seattle region were compared to images taken in 1996. The results were startling. The amount of land with less than 20 percent tree coverage more than doubled during the period studied and the land with more than 50 percent tree cover dropped from almost 50 to 23 percent during the same time.

It is difficult for the average person to appreciate the importance of trees. Trees benefit us by filtering tons of pollutants from the air, absorbing storm water runoff, insulating houses, and absorbing carbon which help limits global warming. Tree loss has been so gradual that most people have not realized how dramatic the decline of the number of trees has been. It is also surprising to learn that only 10 percent of urban trees are owned by cities–the rest are privately owned.
(more…)

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L.A. Volunteer Festival

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Make a Difference LA has a message for all of us ? VOLUNTEER!  And to let us all know about volunteer and service opportunities, the Volunteer Bureau of Mayor Richard Riordans office will hold its 2nd Annual Volunteer Festival on Sunday, October 3.

Hundreds of community organizations will participate.  There will be food, entertainment, and displays of city services as well as pet adoptions. 

The Festival will be held at two sites: L.A. Valley College in the San Fernando Valley (5800 Fulton Avenue) and Museum Row at Wilshire and Curson on the Miracle Mile (5801 Wilshire Blvd.). Parking is free at both locations.

For further information regarding festival participation, contact the Volunteer Bureau at (213) 485-6984 or 1-888-CARE-4-LA.

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Lotus Festival “99

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Dragon boat races, lotus blossoms, fireworks, people selling scents, clothes, and jewelry. Smells of exotic foods in the air. Where are you” In the Far East” No, it”s in your own backyard ” here in Echo Park where, for one weekend in July, the Lotus Festival is held. And this year, as in many other years, EPIA participated with a booth of their own.

For this year”s festival, held on July 10 and 11, we didn”t just have a booth. Thanks to the artistic skills of Suzy Rogers, we had beads and butterflies, silks and satins to decorate out booth. After Suzy Rogers, aided by Steven Arthur decorated the booth on Saturday morning, the volunteers to man the booth starting arriving. 

Most people sign up for an hour or two each day. Some volunteer for both days. What do volunteers do while they”re at the booth” They tell people about our neighborhood. Everyone has a favorite topic. Some like the garden, some talk about how safe Echo Park is, some talk about our tree plantings. We must have done at least an OK job because 60 people signed up to hear more about our organization. Hopefully we”ll see them at future meetings, in fact we sent them postcard invitations to our August meeting.

Booths must be torn down and set up each day. Steven Arthur, who coordinated the event, and Lynn Barbé, his faithful sidekick, helped with that task. They claim its well worth it as they get to watch a fantastic fireworks show on Saturday show from a prime seat in the EPIA booth. 

Congratulations and many thanks to all volunteers who included Greg Altunian, Steven Arthur, Lynn Barbé, Steve Batte, Susan Borden, Maxine Cummings, Carmla Emanuele, Ron Emler, Alicia Francis, Chie Iseri, Helen Kano, Suzanne Kimbrough, Sophie Lewis, Elizabeth Maier, Isa-Kae Meksin, Barbara Neal, Becky Orona, Judy Oroshnik, Barbara Rausch, Jesus Sanchez. While an exhaustive survey of volunteers was not made, it seems that everyone had a good time and is ready for next years event,

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Growing the Garden: Summer Gardening

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

There was a serious incident of vandalism and burglary at the garden on the Monday after the fourth of July weekend.  The perpetrators painted graffiti on the front wall and on the shed, they also peeled off a corner of the shed’s roof and stole two pick-axes and a saw.  A crack team of gardener-carpenters repaired the shed and painted over the vandalism.  We hope that everyone appreciates the garden during the day, and leaves it alone during the night.

The garden’s July 17 workday would never have been a success without Chris Arcudi, Susan Borden, James Cramer, Nichelle Harris, Erika Higgins, Al Renner, Illeana Ruiz, Jesus Sanchez, Barry Walker and David Zahniser. Every now and then we take some time to weed, water, prune, and mulch-mulch-mulch.  We cut back the native Salvia Cleveland, pinched the chrysanthemums back, and dead-headed the roses in preparation for the late summer weather.  We built new beds, and ended with a pleasant picnic. 

Collaboration has been very satisfying for the Echo Park Community Garden and three other community gardens nearby.  The city can help a little, but success comes to those who help each other.  The Solano Canyon Community Garden is getting underway and Al Renner, who helped us start and now is indispensable to us, has been hustling to get them underway with great success.  They built their own fence, have won two big grants and a few nice donations, and have done great work organizing the Solano Canyon Neighborhood.

The Rosewood Avenue Community Garden is just starting out with great help from Hays Witt of Councilmember Jackie Goldberg’s Office, and many others. Gardeners from Echo Park have been helping then design their garden.  In spring the Burlington Avenue Community Garden contemplated shutting the gate for the last time, but this summer they have too few plots for all the eager members.  Some Echo Park Gardeners, and many others, gardened over there and got the neighborhood re-excited about their garden.  You might have heard Rosewood’s Nola Mott interviewed on KCRW’s “Good Food” a few weeks ago.  On the web you can hear her by clicking HERE, and you can read about the Echo Park Community Garden in Kitchen Garden Magazine by clicking HERE.

The Echo Park Community Garden is at 2223 Sunset Boulevard, at the corner of Rosemont and Sunset.  The gate is open between 10:30 and 2:00 every Sunday (except holidays or when we’re tired), so come on up.  The Community Garden has no plots available as of this writing, but the waiting list is just four people long.  There are countless gardening opportunities. Everybody who likes to garden (or dig, cut wood, etc.) can participate, Call (213) 882-4835 for more information.

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