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• published Fort York: Stories from the Birthplace of Toronto, an anthology of articles from The Fife and Drum edited by Adrian Gamble and designed by Ted Smolak. Copies are available in the fort’s Canteen and at the Spacing Store, 401 Richmond St. W. • employed 20 young men and women in the Fort York Summer Guard, who bring the fort to life with historical animation. They participated in major heritage presentations at Fort York, Old Fort Erie, and Fort George as well as working with animation staffs at Forts George, Malden, and Erie. The Guard also took part in two Bentway events: the Strachan Gate opening and The 1812 The 2018 Fort York Guard Overture performed as part of the Toronto Drums in the front row are Summer Music Festival. Responsibility Prairie, Ethan Scott, Monica for the Guard is shared between the City Pierce Cosgrove, Gabriel Bissell-Barahona, and The Friends, who managed generous Alexander King and Drum grants from Canada Summer Jobs and McPherson, Robert Cyrwus, Young Canada Works. • regrouped following the death on April 22 of Stephen Otto, who played a founding role in The Friends and the Fort York Foundation. A celebration marking his appointment to the Order of Canada had been held in Toronto on February 20. • accepted with regret the resignation from the board of Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, and welcomed four new directors: Bruce Gooding, Kevin Leung, Anna Okorokov and Alison Rose. • working with Richard Gerrard at City of Toronto Museums, granted $5,000 to support the research of Julia Herbst, graduate student at Texas A&M University’s Nautical Archaeology program, and her colleagues, on the remains of the CityPlace Schooner. • remained grateful for the time and effort of the Precinct Advisory Committee: Robert Allsopp, Pamela Robinson, Melanie Hare, Marc Ryan, Rick Merrill and Lisa Rochon. Representatives worked with Metrolinx to refine a design brief for the Ordnance Switching Station and other infrastructure related to the electrification of the Lakeshore corridor. Advice was contributed to the redevelopment of the Quality Meats site and a watching brief maintained on 89-101 Niagara St. The group is also working with our councillor, the City, Waterfront Toronto and the Bentway to acquire the Corten steel panels needed to complete the Bentway’s extension to the Fort York Visitor Centre. • published four issues of The Fife and Drum, full of news and articles of interest about the fort and the neighbourhood. More than 15 authors – including Carl Benn, Wesley Turner, Donald Graves, Shawn Micallef and Victor Russell – had bylines in the issues of 2018. • developed a strategy for a wider distribution of The Fife and Drum in the neighbourhoods adjacent to Fort York
assembled on August 17 for an occasion that couldn’t exist in 1812. With the (left to right) Clair Hartke, Theo Guenther (volunteer), Sarah O’Keeffe, Sean La Ruiz Villalta and Ada Cooke-Baskier. For the Squad, middle row, are Sergeant Holly Benison, Christina Borys, Melissa Evenden, Caitlyn Collins, Major Stuart Murray. In the top row are Neil Ballantyne, Ryan Tapley, Stuart Isaac Delaney and Alexander King. Photo: Sid Calzavara • organized meetings of an expanded Neighbourhood Committee chaired by Anna Okorokov, with participation by volunteers Sarah Cranston, Patrick Quealey and Andrew Stewart, and fort staff Erica Roppolo and Kristine Williamson. • co-hosted a ‘Fort Night’ on September 20 to attract neighbours for an after-work introductory tour of the fort with refreshments in the Officers’ Mess Kitchen. • our volunteers in the Resource Centre, Nancy Baines and Heather Cirulis, devoted one day a week to organizing the collections of reference materials for the use of fort staff and visitors. We also added into our collections books donated by Donald S. Macdonald and others. • begun nine years ago by The Friends, the Fort York Community Citizenship Committee in November hosted the 17th special Citizenship Ceremony at the fort. Thirty-nine new citizens were welcomed with a prayer by an Indigenous elder, music, roundtable discussions exploring the meaning of Canadian citizenship, and a luncheon of elk, three sisters vegetables, bannock, salad and pastries from the fort’s kitchen. • organized a dinner on a cost-recovery basis for current and past directors of The Friends. • tallied 78,600 visits on our website www.fortyork.ca, which makes 524,200 hits since its launch May 2012. The site serves as both an educational resource and a marketing tool for Fort York. It is also a source of donations; it enables downloads of The Fife and Drum and encourages new subscribers; and helps new members join and current ones renew their memberships. For comparison, our accomplishments for 1994 to 2017 can be found at www.fortyork.ca/about-us/our-accomplishments.html.
What The Friends of Fort York and Our Accomplishments for 2018
Original printed pages
