CUPE Local 416 Assists Community Cricket Field Project Planting Trees for Earth Day

TORONTO, April 19, 2012 /CNW/ - The Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field Project is pleased to announce that Toronto Civic Employees Union Local 416 will be tree planting tomorrow at Canada's Valley Park Middle School in celebration of Earth Day.

Local Union 416 has donated and will plant alongside students roughly 2000 bare root trees made up of several indigenous species to provide educational value and teach about the enriched habitat of the adjacent East Don River Valley. Union employees and students will begin tree planting tomorrow, Friday April 20 at 10:00 am. There will be a ceremonial planting with the union and Don Valley West Ward 26 Councillor John Parker at the front of the school at 11:00 am. MPP Kathleen Wynne and Trustee Gerri Gershon will also arrive to plant at 11:10 am and 11:20 am respectively.

Local 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents over 8,000 City of Toronto workers who provide many of the quality public services that help make Toronto a great city. VPMS is Canada's largest middle school with 1200 mostly new immigrant students of South Asian origin. The school is located at 130 Overlea Blvd. and Don Mills Road, just south of The Ontario Science Centre.

"We are grateful to Local 416 for providing us with this opportunity to celebrate Earth Day and help re-establish our urban forest," said Lisa Grogan-Green, co-chair of the Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field Project. "We are proud to call Local 416 a project sponsor and our friend as we celebrate Earth Day with them tomorrow."

The Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field project brings an environmentally sustainable multi-sport cricket field to two of Toronto's Priority Neighbourhoods: Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park. Construction starts July 1 and will be completed by the end of this year. The $1.1 million Stream One Construction Phase includes a sports field to be irrigated by an innovative rainwater harvesting system and a surrounding urban forest, bioswale, wetland and butterfly meadow. The project is a partnership between Valley Park Middle School, Flemingdon Neighbourhood Services, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Local 416 is one of many public and private sponsors including Ontario Trillium Foundation.

VPGGCF project co-chairs Lisa Grogan-Green, 647-388-3200 and,
Principal Nickolas Stefanoff, 416-949-4130
Dave Hewitt, vice president, Local 416 CUPE, 647-454-9752