Happy Holidays!
Our Top Ten List
Register for Winter Classes
Canine Corner
RecPark Goes High Tech
Youth Baseball League Registration
Swinging Success for Serra
GG Park Tree Lighting
Ladybug’s Home Flies to UNRC
Volunteer Opportunities
Our Top Ten List
Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year to you and to our park staff from the Friends of Noe Valley Recreation Center!
Looking back on 2012, FNVRC is proud to say our range of sponsored programs, events and news has expanded considerably since we started in 2005.
Here are our New Year’s Top Ten Accomplishments:
10. Regularly updated www.noevalleyreccenter.com and publicized class offerings in the Noe Valley Voice
9. Wrote grant to develop educational and recreation space on the Sanchez Street side of the center
8. Hosted volunteer gardening days
7. Hosted a pre-election education session (with Upper Noe Neighbors and the League of Women Voters)
6. Hosted free September Elementary School Fair (with Parents for Public Schools)
5. Successfully planted the Sanchez Street side of the building with native plants
4. Hosted two free family movie nights with popcorn and lemonade (with the Community Recreation Council) and an Ice Cream and Swing benefit for J. Serra Elementary School, which featured live music and swing dance lessons (with the CRC and parks department)
3. Hosted free spring tot concerts featuring live music and local musicians
2. Bought a custom-made sandbox cover to alleviate ongoing problems with sandbox maintenance and cleanliness
1. Created and delivered monthly e-newsletters to nearly 800 subscribers—thank you for signing up and staying informed!
We are a volunteer non-profit group that advocates for Upper Noe Recreation Center, and we can’t do it without your support. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our 501(c)3 so we may help keep Upper Noe the fabulous neighborhood resource it is.
Register for Winter Classes
Winter classes start the week of Jan. 8, and Upper Noe's selection ranges from Boot Camp for adults to Baby and Me for one-year-olds.
Youth theater, senior tango, tennis for all and Bow Wow Baking—we’ve got your age and species covered.
See the list of classes (listed by day and including descriptions) on our website. Registration begins Saturday, Dec. 15, at 10 a.m. and can be done online or at any recreation center for any class. Click here to view the entire winter catalog.
Please note: Bow Wow Baking was left out of the catalog. It will be offered at Upper Noe on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
 Canine Corner
FNVRC’s Chris Faust reviews John Rutheford’s Bow Wow Baking class.
The recipes in this course use only high-quality, healthy ingredients. The results are nutritious and delicious, fit for human consumption even but lacking in excessive salt, sugars and spices, and ingredients like onions, that aren't appropriate for dogs. It demonstrates that good foods don't have to be expensive or even time-consuming.
Everyone goes home with meals and treats. The next two Saturdays (Dec 8 and 15, 10:30 a.m. to noon) will focus on making Holiday treats and gifts! Drop in and check it out.
Pictured: Low Fat Rice and Egg Pie (doggie quiche) and Peanut Butter Bones.
 RecPark Goes High Tech
Say you’re new to SF or visitng a far-flung neighborhood, and you want to find a dog park or a park bathroom or a playground. Well—there’s an app for that!
Download the City of San Francisco Recreation and Parks Official Mobile App, and you can get park news, find volunteer opportunities and submit feedback, too.
The app is a pilot and is only available to iPhone users at present, but plans to expand it are already afoot. Future versions will allow you to submit permit applications to rent picnic areas, clubhouses and recreation centers as well as buy tickets to events like Eggstravaganza and Scaregrove. For more information, visit the iTunes store.
 Youth Baseball League Registration
The 2013 season of the San Francisco Youth Baseball League starts in March 2013, and registration begins Thursday, Dec. 6, at 10 a.m. Fees are $80 per player, which includes coaching, uniforms, practice and games.
There are seven divisions, starting with t-ball for ages 5 to 6 and coach pitch for ages 5 to 7. The rest of the divisions are kid-pitched: ages 9 to 10, 11 to 12 and 13 to 14.
For more information, call League Coordinator Tim Roff at 415-242-1070 or visit www.sfreconline.org.
The league is hosted in conjunction with the San Francisco Fire Department’s FLAME program, which hosts athletic leagues, a boxing program and sponsors free fishing trips for Bay Area youth.
Swinging Success for Serra
Our Nov. 10 Ice Cream ‘N Swing fundraiser for Junipero Serra netted the school more than $500. JP and the Rhythm Chasers had everyone’s toes tapping!
“The band was fantastic, and the kids had a ball dancing long after the instructors left, and long after the parents were worn out,” said Margo Aparicio, a member of the school’s PTA leadership team. “Nothing like a sugar rush to keep those tiny feet flying!”
Thank you to all the volunteers and dancers who made the afternoon such a joy.
GG Park Tree Lighting
The Recreation and Parks Department will host its 83rd annual holiday tree lighting Thursday, Dec. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. at McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park, 501 Stanyon at Fell Street.
The event features free carnival rides, arts and crafts, live entertainment and a visit from Santa. For more information, visit www.sfrecpark.org.
Ladybug’s Home Flies to UNRC
Last month it was a family affair for the Ladybug Gardeners when lead Ladybug Joan Lionberger was joined by her son Troy, a UC Berkeley research fellow and two of his fellow Cal post-docs.
It took the three students less than 30 minutes to weed the entire area around the tennis court, Lionberger said. Troy later joined his mother, FNVRC’s Kate Haug, and neighbor Krist and her two daughters to weed the native plants on the Sanchez Street side of the building, an endeavor which took two hours.
This month Lionberger hopes to plant bulbs Saturday, Dec. 8. Looking forward, she hopes to rally some volunteers for the second Saturdays in February and March.
The city will continue to provide a staff member to help the Ladybugs because more than six people showed up last time, but more neighbors are needed, she said.
“If it wasn't for the guys from Berkeley, the Ladybug Gardeners would have to close down for good,” she said. For more information, contact info@noevalleyreccenter.com.
Volunteers Needed
• Help advise the city on what classes should be offered at the Upper Noe Rec Center. Serve a term on the Upper Noe Recreation Center’s Community Recreation Council and help shape programming at the Center. A teen member is still needed! Please contact Cheryl Woltjen at 970-8061. The form is available on our website and at the center. Please either drop it off or mail it to: Cheryl Woltjen, UNRC, 295 Day Street, SF, 94131.
• Distribute our new Friends of NVRC postcard. This newsletter is distributed to nearly 1,000 “friends.” Make sure interested neighbors know about our group by helping distribute our informational postcard around the neighborhood. Please email molly (at) noevalleyreccenter.com if you know of a good shop or cafe to distribute the postcards. Or you could help put them somewhere frequented by park users.
• Lead a new event. Are you interested in organizing a new event at the Center? Maybe a game night or movie night? Please let us know.
• Garden at the Park. Help keep the park beautiful by volunteering with the Ladybug Gardeners on the second Saturday of every month. All ages welcome, no experience necessary. Even an hour would be a big help! Please contact us at info (at) noevalleyreccenter.com.
Community Events
December 19
Community Recreation Council
6:30 p.m.
Recreation Center kitchen
Help shape programming and priorities at Upper Noe
Outside the Center
December 1-23
HoliDAYS on 24th Street
(times vary)
24th Street
Month-long extravaganza of music, holiday events and merchant specials. See detailed calendar here.
December 9
Chanukah Wonderland
3 to 6 p.m.
Noe and 24th streets
Bounce around, build the menorah and grab a latke—this year's Chanukah celebration just got bigger.
Thanks for your interest and support of your park! Please contact us with any questions or suggestions. Let us know about any community events you are planning at the park so we can promote them. Please forward this newsletter to your friends and neighbors who use the Noe Valley Recreation Center. We want this newsletter to help build the park community — please help us connect with members of the community.
Enjoy your Park!
Molly Sterkel (molly@noevalleyreccenter.com)
Friends of the Noe Valley Recreation Center
www.NoeValleyRecCenter.com |
