Bring the Tools to the Trees
A Home Base for Healing Everett Crowley Park
You are the heart of Everett Crowley Park’s recovery. For over 40 years, the Everett Crowley Park community has been the force behind healing the park’s ecology, transforming a former landfill into a thriving urban wilderness.
We have an active and eager group of volunteer park stewards but our progress is limited by logistics. We currently burn up to a quarter of our collective volunteer time hauling gear back and forth from the community centre instead of directly planting and protecting the park.
But we have an exciting opportunity to establish a permanent park headquarters: the ECPC Stewardship Basecamp.
Through an innovative partnership, students from Vancouver Community College (VCC) are standing by, ready to transform a used shipping container into a custom-built, solar-powered, off-grid park hub. They want to provide their professional labour as a massive in-kind gift to our park-loving community.
Bringing a legacy project like this to the heart of Everett Crowley Park is a complex undertaking that requires dedicated leadership and a lot of support. The Everett Crowley Park Committee team is thrilled that both the Champlain Heights Community Association’s board and the Vancouver Park Board support this vision!
Everything is lined up - but we need your help to make it happen! Our goal is to raise $5,000 between Earth Day (April 22) and World Environment Day (June 5th) so VCC can get the work done.
Because this is a community-led project, your support acts as a spark for further funding. For every $1 you give today, it will be matched by $4 from a committed supporter! This means your $20 contribution has the impact of $100!
To give you an idea of the scale and technical needs of this project, here are some of the expenses needed to bring the Stewardship Basecamp to the park:
$200 installs the exterior rain-capture system. This off-grid system allows tools to be cleaned after a day in the field.
$300 secures the site with industrial locks to protect our specialized gear, including our stewardship ebike and trailer.
$2,000 prepares the site for the Stewardship Basecamp to the securely placed.
$2,500 funds the heavy-duty delivery and placement, covering the specialized transport from school campus to the heart of the park.
$20,000 kits out the solar-powered unit. Under the guidance of a Red Seal electrician, VCC students will install solar panels, batteries and more to keep equipment safe and dry.
Your support is a one-time investment with a long-term impact. By giving today, you are ensuring the Stewardship Basecamp is built, delivered, and ready to support decades of healing stewardship work to come!
Please note that while we are extremely grateful for your support, we cannot provide tax receipts because we are not a federally registered charity.
Phase 2 teaser: Creating the Social Heart of the Park
This project will be more than creating a basecamp; it is about creating a community hub. Once the container is in place, we will focus on turning the Stewardship Basecamp into a social landmark where neighbours can connect, share stories, and relax both before and after park events.
To celebrate the Basecamp as a permanent part of the park's landscape, we hope these final touches will include:
An exterior mural by a local First Nation artist. We will work with an artist to create a mural that reflects the cultural and ecological stories of this land.
An ECPC bulletin board to be a central spot to learn about upcoming park events, and recent nature sightings in the park.
A pop-up learning space to connect and share our common love of the park.
The Everett Crowley Park Committee is a proud committee of the Champlain Heights Community Association and we are extremely grateful for all the support with this project!
The Everett Crowley Park Committee humbly acknowledges that we work and live on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples.
