TestPics: Franklin Park Snow Fest

On Saturday, 31 January, the Franklin Park Coalition held a Snow Fest at the clubhouse for the William J. Devine Golf Course and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon whether you wanted to be indoors or outside in the not quite 20 degree weather.

Last year at this time I was barely aware of what an amazing urban park we had in Jamaica Plain, but this year there was no way I’d miss it. Not only could I enjoy the afternoon with the great folks from the Coalition and my fellow Boston residents, I figured I could also grab some more winter pictures of the park. When Christine Poff, the Coalition’s executive director, saw me taking pictures she asked if I would take some pictures with her phone and post them to the Coalition’s Twitter feed. I had already told her that I’d be more than happy to be one of the volunteers so when she asked me to take pictures for the Coalition I said yes. I’ll mark the pictures I took for the Coalition by putting their logo in the lower right corner, and I’ll put a link to the online post so you can see it in their Twitter feed. It will also give you a chance to follow them if you’re not already doing so, and if you’re either in Boston or you care about our Frederick Law Olmsted-designed urban park you really should follow them on your favorite social medium networks.

When you walked into the clubhouse there was a table with a sign up sheet for people to get regular emails from the Coalition,  and flyers about the Coalition with a great map of the park. I had gotten an email from them Friday morning reminding me about the Snow Fest and letting me know that it wasn’t just on Saturday but they would nave another one a week later on 7 February. Since part of the activities were sledding and a ski tour there was also a form the Coalition asked people to sign if they planned on enjoying their outdoor activities. There were also tables selling hot chocolate and baked goodies with the proceeds to go to support the Coalition’s Boston Marathon team.

With it being so cold outside people were asked to only spend 20 minutes outside and then come in to warm up. Inside there was a variety of table games, ping-pong and arts and crafts for people to enjoy.

There was also a table to make friendship bracelets, which always had people.

But when you hear “Snow Fest” you probably don’t think about indoor fun. When the Coalition’s volunteers were setting things up they had a couple of people shoveling a path behind the clubhouse to the hill for sledding. The shoveled path didn’t make it that far to the hill but Boston had gotten over two feet of snow so they could only clear so much path before the event started.

That didn’t matter much to the kids and the young at heart. If people didn’t bring their own sled they could borrow one. The sledding was iffy because the snow we got with the blizzard was light, fluffy snow, and the planned ski tour was canceled because the snow was too soft for group cross-country skiing. It didn’t deter the sledders and there was almost no time during the afternoon with nobody on the sledding hill.

I also got a few pictures of the golf course after the Blizzard of 2015 because the snow was so beautiful, even trod upon.

And you can’t have  snow fest without snowmen, so the Coalition made sure to have charcoal and other things to make snowmen.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Snow Fest and a big thanks to the CEP group from Northeastern University who let their USBA Saturday volunteering day help make the Franklin Park Snow Fest such a success.

There’s more Snow Fest to come so if you’re in Boston on Saturday, 7 February, I hope you’ll come down to the William J. Devine Golf Course and join us. It’s from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and admission is FREE. Go to the Franklin Park Coalition website for more information. I look forward to seeing you there!

This Just In: I’ve been trying to get this posted all week and this morning I got an email from the Coalition saying that the Pop-Up Snow Fest will happen every Saturday as long as the snow lasts. But don’t wait too long, you may miss the best times!