Events & News
Recent Events
Restore Mass Ave Makes Friends at Fall Fun Day
In glorious weather, this year’s Fall Fun Day at Mitchell Park was a huge success. The organizers estimated 500-600 adults and children came for community mingling and Halloween fun.
The tennis/pickleball court was transformed into a meet-and-greet space for reps of city agencies, Council Member Brooke Pinto, even the Dark Sky Association. Next to Restore Mass Ave’s welcome table the Chinese Embassy offered delicious free food.
Wenxing Qiu, Chinese Minister to Washington, met the general public and local leaders. Below he is at left with Carole Feld, ANC 2 D 01 Commissioner, Marie Drissell of the Sheridan Kalorama Neighborhood Council, and Deborah Shapley of RMA. Greeting visitors also for RMA were Board members Gerry Peck and Rob Halligan.
Our posters included our big map of how much the tree canopy has grown (shown here). The big photo of the double row of linden trees along the sidewalk, in 1913, was also popular. This image inspires our goals of landscape restoration for the twenty-first century. Bit by bit, thanks to our friends, we are ‘re-greening’ the landscape of Embassy Row, the nation’s last Grand Avenue.
Our Tree Walk Shared Knowledge of Trees and Projects
We hosted a come-one-and-all tour of Embassy Row trees on a pretty Sunday afternoon in August. About a dozen people met up under the ginkgo and tulip poplar trees that line Sheridan Circle’s sidewalks. Ms. Shapley, RMA President and tour guide first showed how Sheridan Circle embodies L’Enfant’s grand design for the city.
She announced RMA’s project with the National Park Service; it will plant American linden where previous old trees in the Circle died. Besides the stately American lindens on Mass Ave, we have other species, such as a big feathery locust tree. We planted elms by the Cameroon and Zambia embassies. At Emmet Park, we have other tree types. Our final stop was by a white oak, the Heritage-sized tree shown below. Please enjoy the pictures and join us another time!
