Overview

Park ’til Dark and Pour at the Park in South Park took place on Saturday, May 18 and both were huge successes! The main goals of these events are to raise awareness for our work, to connect and interact with park users and to fundraise for our organization. Between the two events we interacted with over 400 people and grossed $31,401, which will all be poured directly back into your nine Allegheny County Parks with our ongoing work. Whether you sponsored the events, bought a ticket to Pour at the Park, donated to Park ’til Dark, attended an activity or conversed with a staff member, we thank you for your attendance and support!

We loved spending the day interacting, collaborating and building community in the parks with you!  We learned a lot about why you love your parks and we hope to use this knowledge to continue to improve all nine of your county parks in the future.

Below is a brief recap of the events so you can learn more about our efforts and excitement. You can also check out our event pictures on our Facebook for both Park ’til Dark and Pour at the Park to see more of the day’s fun.

Park ’til Dark

This year, we were thrilled to have a beautiful day in the parks. We arose to sunrise yoga with South Hills Power Yoga, practiced Tai Chi on the fairgrounds with Gurney Bolster, planted trees with the Allegheny County Park Rangers and Pittsburgh Area Geocaching Association, Chatted about native and deer resistant plants with Penn State Master Gardeners, hosted a Forest Bathing Walk with Dr. Doug, and led a tour of our own projects throughout the park.

IMPACT

Thanks to Park ’til Dark, together we accomplished the following impact:

• Planted 100 number of trees including Allegheny Serviceberry, Black Birch, Shagbark Hickory, Eastern Redbud, Pagoda Dogwood, Eastern Red Cedar, Cucumber Magnolia, Hophornbeam, Chokecherry, Eastern Hoptree, White Oak, Chinkapin Oak and Basswood.
• Engaged 25 volunteers
• Collaborated with 9 organizations
• Hosted 7 activities throughout the day with over 65 individuals participating
• Learned from park users exactly what makes South Park so special to them

Pour at the Park

This year’s event at South Park was the perfect evening in the park! The sun shined brightly throughout the event, allowing guests to wander inside and outside the Museum Building and Fairgrounds. The atmosphere was playful as live music from Bindley Hardware Co. filled the air. Guests mingled, purchased raffle tickets, laughed, played, sat in community and watched as the children from the event took over the fairgrounds with fun activities led by Coach Dave from CDG Sports. It was a jam-packed three hours of fun for all!

IMPACT

Thanks to your support, we achieved the following together:

• Attended by 331 people
• Hosted 16 beverage vendors featuring a mix of beer, wine, cider, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks
• Hosted 4 food vendors offering an assortment of local dishes including food for different diets and preferences.
• Waste was managed by Pennsylvania Resources Council, who worked hard to make the event Zero-Waste.

Thank You!

We are so grateful to everyone who helped to make Park ’til Dark and Pour at the Park possible in South Park! We would especially like to thank our Presenting Sponsor, Flora Park Garden Center and all our sponsors – Mascaro Construction, Friends of South Park, Two Men and a Junk Truck, Horhut Tree Experts, Greymist Metal Craft, Vibrant Pittsburgh, Denise C Marasco – Howard Hanna, Renewal by Andersen, Zelenkofske Axelrod, LLC., Enscoe Long Insurance Group, Highpoint Fitness, OTB Bicycle Cafe, Green Mountain Energy, Georges Supply Center, and Bill Few Associates, Wealth Management. We would also like to thank Allegheny County, Allegheny County Parks and Stewards of Beer for all their help in planning and organizing the event. Lastly, we want to thank all our vendors, community partners and event attendees! We hope that you had a great time, tried something new in the park and connected with your community.

We hope to see you at our next event in North Park on Saturday, October 12! If you have ideas on fun activities we could do together or how we can improve, please email or call us to let us know.