2012 Projects

Thanks! Fall Workday 2012

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Susan

We want to say Thank You to everyone who made our fall workday on Saturday, November 3rd, a success!

Thanks to Bill Morgan and his tractor for helping us get that mulch distributed to trees all around the 9-acre park. Without him there would probably still be a mini-mulch mountain sitting in the park today.

Thanks to Joel at TacoDeli for supplying us with the best tacos ever!

Thanks to Genuine Joe for providing the delicious coffee!

Thanks to the nice people from Hope Chapel who surprised us with bottled water and soft drinks.

Thanks to Brooke Miller and a group from Hoover’s Inc. for coming on Friday afternoon and providing about 24 person-hours worth of labor to get dillo dirt down around the two massive heritage trees on the south border of the park. Again, we couldn’t have gotten the job done on time on Saturday without this effort.

And, finally, thanks to the over 30 cheerful and cooperative volunteers who showed up bright and early on Saturday morning with tools and wheelbarrows. In three hours, we made that mulch mountain disappear as well as weeded and sifted debris out of the sand volleyball court. If you worked but did not sign in at the registration table in the pavilion, please drop me a private line. I need to report accurate volunteer hours to PARD.

Once again: THANKS A MILLION! I hope all the volunteers enjoyed participating and that everyone in the neighborhood enjoys the park just a little bit more as a result of their efforts. I know that it warmed my heart to see all the young families with children playing in the playground and using the pavilion for a birthday party while we were working. It just felt like the park was teeming with life and vigor yesterday and it is an honor to help make it a more beautiful and inviting place for everyone.

(And, thanks to Kent Samuelson for the great photos. You can see more of them here.)

Join us—Fall Workday 2012

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Susan

On Saturday, November 3, please join us in the park on what we hope will be a beautiful, cool fall morning to give Brentwood Park a little TLC. Since the fall of 2009, Friends of Brentwood Park has hosted semi-annual community workdays in the park, with each workday building on the success of the previous workdays.

Our neighborhood park adopter group continues to work closely with Austin Parks and Recreation and the Austin Parks Foundation to make Brentwood Park a more beautiful, clean and friendly neighborhood gathering place now and for the future. The most important component of the success equation is community participation and we hope to see that again on November 3rd.

Please come and give us just a couple of hours of time. The more folks who come, the bigger impact we can have and the more we impress upon PARD that this community loves its park. We promise you will have fun and maybe make a new friend or two!

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse will once again be providing hot coffee and we’ll have delicious breakfast tacos thanks to TacoDeli.

Each project will have a project leader to coordinate volunteer efforts. Here’s what we have planned:

* Volleyball Court – Clean up, border maintenance

* Park Sign Bed on Arroyo Seco – weeding, cleanup, tending the plantings

* Mulching Trees – We will be mulching the heritage trees on the south side of the park as well as the trees that were planted in 2010

* Sandbox area – get the sand back in the box; mulch nearby trees

All volunteers need to stop by the volunteer table at the pavilion to check-in.

Park along Arroyo Seco Street on the east side of the park.

The bathrooms at the pool will be open.


What to wear:

* Closed-toe shoes required!

* A hat, sunglasses and sunscreen are highly recommended.

* Long sleeves and long pants advised.


What to bring:

* A water bottle and a coffee mug – we’ll have water and coffee, but to keep waste down, bring your own fluids container(s).

* Work gloves

We need tools! If you are bringing tools please mark them clearly with your name and phone number so we can make sure all tools get back to their owners.


Tools we’ll need:

* Wheelbarrows (if you have, please bring! we never have enough)

* Rigid rakes for spreading mulch

* Pitchforks

* Shovels

* Weeding tools

* Garden forks

* Spades

* Trowels

* Pruners

* Shears

* Buckets and scrub brushes


To sign up, click on the Register Now button in the right sidebar. And, to help us provide our sponsors with an accurate count, please indicate the number of volunteers coming from your household.

Please pre-register!! It really helps us with planning.

Children must be accompanied by an adult who will work alongside them.


Rain date for this event: November 10th

If it’s cold, we’re working.

If it’s damp, we’re working.

If it’s raining more than a fine mist or sleeting or hailing, we’re not working.

IF WE DECIDE TO POSTPONE DUE TO THE WEATHER: we will send an email announcement to all registered participants plus the Brentwood and Crestview listservs and also posted on our Facebook page.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support and participation!


Thanks! It’s My Park Day 2012

Posted on March 13, 2012 by hedrich

Thanks to the scores of volunteers who came out on March 5th to spruce up our beloved park! We mulched lots of trees, cut back nandina in the pool area, cleaned up trash and dog poo, weeded the perimeter of the volleyball court, sifted the sand in the sandbox, and returned the sand that had migrated outside the box. But the most important accomplishment was the strengthening of community ties to our park as more than 75 friends and neighbors worked and laughed and enjoyed a beautiful morning together.

Austin Parks Foundation puts on this city-wide event each year and has provided invaluable financial and technical support to our park adopter group for the last three years.

Austin Simply Fit was a sponsor of It’s My Park Day and they chose to participate as volunteers at our park. They are located in the neighborhood on Burnet Rd., so if you are looking for a personal trainer, give them a call!!

Austin Parks and Recreation Dept. deserves huge kudos! You may have noticed the rather large pile of donated mulch that got delivered to the northwest corner of the park. We had requested that it be delivered to the pool area, near the trees that needed mulching. PARD came to the rescue and moved the entire pile over to the correct location a couple days before the event. Phew!

We also had several groups represented as volunteers: Crestview United Methodist Church, IBM New Hire Network and some Cub Scouts. Thanks to these groups, and we hope to see you again next time.

Thanks as always to generous neighborhood businesses Genuine Joe and Tacodeli for donating the delicious refreshments that our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed, and to Wheatsville Co-op for their continued sponsorship of this event and all the delicious fruit and snacks that came from their store.

We can’t begin to thank everyone else individually, but let’s just end with a single heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers before, during and after the event who made it possible. Our park really looks loved!

Pi Sigma Pi Mulches and Munches in Brentwood Park

Posted on February 13, 2012 by hedrich

On February 4, 2012, a group of 11 volunteers from the Pi Sigma Pi Academic Minority Engineering Society at UT came out and spread mulch around dozens of trees in the northwest quadrant of Brentwood Park. Their youthful enthusiasm made short work of a tall pile of mulch and was rewarded with piping hot pies donated by CraigO’s Pizza on Balcones. These delicious pizzas were consumed with, of course, even more youthful enthusiasm. This is the third Brentwood Park workday that this industrious group has participated in. Thanks to these exceptional young people for a job well done!

It’s My Park Day! 2012 Edition

Posted on February 10, 2012 by hedrich

Registration has begun for the March 5, 2012, edition of It’s My Park Day at Brentwood Park. (Learn more about It’s My Park Day here.)

Once again, we will proudly serve breakfast tacos from TacoDeli (who this year is a corporate sponsor of It’s My Park Day) and coffee from Genuine Joe.

So come on out and have fun working with your friends and neighbors at Brentwood Park. We hope to see you there!