All This And More

In previous years the Friends have been active across a broad front. Among many other things, we have established and supported the Fort York Guard and Drums; published authoritative reports and newsletters; raised awareness of the fort; and stood up for its best interests when they’ve been threatened. During 2007 there was no let-up in activity as we accomplished the following:

• secured the 1813 colours of the York militia for Fort York when St. James’s Cathedral decided to de-accession them. Our undertaking to raise funds for their conservation has attracted pledges of $10,000 to date.
• put 17 young men and women in uniform as the Fort York Guard and Drums to march and drill for the summer, thereby animating the site. They also served as honour guards off-site and represented the fort at battle re-enactments at Forts Niagara and Erie.
• established an office in the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina, to replace one at Ernst & Young to which Joe Gill, our past chair, had access.
• published four regular issues of our quarterly newsletter, The Fife & Drum; also an extra edition specially for residents in the 950 condo units at 219 and 231 Fort York Blvd.
• converted most of our newsletter mailing lists to an electronic format. At the start of the year more than 1100 copies of each issue were being mailed to street addresses; by year-end 90% of the 1450 copies we sent were delivered to e-mail addresses.
• inaugurated Drumroll, an electronic bulletin sent on an occasional basis to promote upcoming events at the fort.
• engaged in extensive discussion that led to the selection of a new logo for the organization (see article on page 2)
• welcomed six new directors to our board
• held the ninth annual Georgian Dinner which was a sellout success.
• raised substantial funds for the benefit of Fort York through donations, dinners, memberships and our parking ventures. In addition, we succeeded in securing grants for summer youth employment of $15,000 from Toronto Culture, $35,000+ from the Government of Canada and a Walmart Evergreen grant of $10,000 for community gardens.
• spent funds on a variety of purposes, including the following: operation of the Fort York Guard and Drums ($110,000), start-up funding for the Fort York Foundation ($30,000), office rental and operations ($15,000), support for the fort’s exhibits program ($75,000), staff overtime during performances of “The Fort at York” play ($5000), purchase of pre-1801 Union Jacks for the flagpole outside the fort’s west gate ($1500), acquisitions and supplies for the on-site Research Centre ($1000)
• asked that the new Bathurst Street bridge planned for construction in 2009 be named in honour of Sir Isaac Brock to mark the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, hard on the heels of our success in having Council adopt pedestrian and cyclist-friendly design criteria for the new structure (see article on page 4)
• contacted 17 present-day successors of British Regiments stationed at Fort York before 1870 in a search for new information, of whom seven were able to respond by sending materials.
• provided two or three days of volunteer time weekly to organizing and cataloguing the fort’s collections of books, research files, photographs, etc. in the Research Centre
• purchased a number of small items for the Research Centre, including vintage postcards of Fort York, original newspapers reporting on the Battle of York, and books to support WWI student programs.
• staffed and operated the parking concessions on the lots and lawns west of FY for a total of 49 days between April and October.
• asked the Minister of Culture, so far without success, to confirm what is known informally: that Fort York is a registered archaeological site under the Ontario Heritage Act and, as a result, enjoys ministerial protection from unregulated land disturbance.

In all of these initiatives, The Friends worked closely to achieve our common goals with the Fort York Management Board, the staff at the fort, officials in Toronto Culture, and with others.