This blog post is reposted from Water for Riley
Graphic of the Reflecting Blooms drinking fountain by Maddie Wong Selby
By Deborah Sword
Volunteer Project Manager
Water for Riley
RIP: June 19, 2012 – October 25, 2020
Its purpose complete, Water for Riley is no more
The drinking fountain is installed and dedicated to The City of Calgary, which was Water for Riley’s sole mission and it’s accomplished. You have a last chance to win awesome prizes still, read down for details.
We always said the last task was to party at the drinking fountain. Alas, it could not be in Riley Park because of COVID 19, so we pivoted. On Sunday, October 25, 2020, we held a much scaled down celebration of that success. Water for Riley partnered with the Kensington Business Redevelopment Zone (BRZ) in a public market.
Scaled down and still local
Water for Riley was always hyper local. Our talented team and all the money was raised spent and locally. Water for Riley was founded on the idea of building community and building relationships by building a drinking fountain. Whereas we’d hoped the party for the drinking fountain could be city-wide, complying with health rules meant even the party was local.
As well as vendors the BRZ arranged, Water for Riley hosted its team. Displaying and selling their art were local artists, Framed on Fifth gallery owner and sculpture Hannah White, Artsploration painter, Mary-Leigh Doyle, woodcrafts by Jeff Melnyk and handmade glass bead jewelry maker Karyn Williams.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties, the developer of the Grace Hospital site north of Riley Park, donated a gorgeous, huge gift basket to give away. NorthWest Healthcare Properties employee Rachelle Donaldson volunteered at the market for the day.
Bloco Vivo, the Samba & Maracatu band that practices in Riley Park, brought energy and warmth on a cold day with its performance.
Water for Riley’s biggest hit of the day was the giveaways to people who stopped to chat about the drinking fountain in Riley Park and membership in the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association (HSCA). Water for Riley offered gifts to entice people to join HSCA, and the HSCA offered discounts on memberships. Important to note is that Water for Riley bought all the gifts to give away, the final way it supported local community and business as thanks for all the support the project received.
COVID 19 changed what could have been
The event had been scheduled for 13 June, 2020, and we’d booked a full and active day of local celebrities, fun and performances in Riley Park. Then, COVID 19 shut down the parks and public realm. We cancelled and hoped restrictions would be brief. That, obviously, didn’t work out and we had hard decisions to make.
We decided to not wait until 2021, because there’s no guarantee it would be any better or safer. We scaled down the event and accepted that we could not meet Alberta Health Services rules to hold the event in Riley Park.
Water for Riley has now reported to its donors and presented its final accounting to its HSCA oversight Board, which is the Hillhurst Sunnyside Planning Committee.
It’s done. Thanks for the memories and for the drinking fountain in Riley Park.