Giving Rye: Meet Friends of Rye Town Park
Giving Rye is a new occasional feature highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Diana Page of Friends of Rye Town Park.
Your Name: Diana Page
Organization: Friends of Rye Town Park
Your role: President
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission.
Page: We work to improve Rye Town Park’s beautiful greenspaces, and advocate to improve the park and beach experience for park goers. We have a small but very dedicated Board – including people like David Rasmussen, whose parents founded Friends of Rye Town Park and who has been a past President and an active board member for its entire 32 year existence.
How long have you operated in Rye?
Page: 32 years, since 1991.
What programming or work in Rye is the organization best known for?
Page: We are best known for funding significant improvements to the Park. In recent years this includes:
- Planting the daffodil hillside in Rye Town Park, in partnership with Chris Duncan and the Little Garden Club of Rye – 30,000 daffodil bulbs on the hillside, and added another 2,000 bulbs to the seaside walkway.
- Planting and maintaining the majority of the gardens in and around the perimeter of the park, with an emphasis on native, pollinator friendly flora. We are fortunate to have the guidance of our Chief Gardening Officer, local gardener Lucy Berkoff, who carefully selects the plants and trees we add to the park to ensure that they benefit the local ecology.
- Planting trees in the park (over 20 new trees so far in 2023 alone, including our redbud necklace honoring longtime park friend and advocate Bill Lawyer).
- Beehives on the pond – we harvest our own Rye Town Park Honey, with help from our volunteer beekeepers – Park Director Russ Gold and board member Chris Meier.
- Building the beautiful new pond side seating area, featuring new stone walls, a centerpiece semicircular teak bench, and new native redbud trees and gardens, honoring longtime Rye resident and our former board member Charlie Northshield.
- Providing early funding and advocacy for the Rye Poetry Path with founder Amy Vijayanagar.
- Funding two water stations (water fountains and water bottle filling stations, with attached dog fountain) and two new beachside showers.
Looking forward to 2024, what will be your top initiatives?
Page:
- Continuing to improve the greenspaces in the park
- Advocating for investment in improving the crumbling buildings and other infrastructure in the park
- Providing funding to meet arising needs and new project ideas (so if you have an idea you’d like us to consider, please contact us)
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Page: We serve all Rye Town Park visitors! Follow our Instagram @friendsofryetownpark for frequent updates on what we’re doing, great events happening in the park, and how you can get involved.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Page: Yes
Looking back across 2023, what were your organization’s top achievements?
Page: We will spend over $62,000 in significant and lasting improvements to the park in 2023. Highlights include:
- Building the beautiful new pond side seating area in partnership with the Northshield family, featuring new stone walls, a centerpiece semicircular teak bench, and new native redbud trees and gardens.
- Planting and maintenance of the majority of the park’s gardens, and planting more than 20 new trees by the time 2023 is over!
- Successfully advocating for the necessary additional local government funding to complete the exterior stucco remediation at the park’s bathhouse.
- Most recently – everyone loved the pumpkins we placed atop the stone wall that runs from Rye Beach Ave to Dearborn on Forest Ave, to celebrate autumn.
How can local residents support your organization?
Page: You can go to our website to make a financial contribution or to sign up to volunteer (we run periodic beach and park cleanups and have needs for volunteers for special projects from time to time). You can also reach out to us if you have ideas of projects you’d like us to consider at the park.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Page: This year we were honored to receive an incredibly generous $5,000 donation from the Rye Professional Firefighters Local 2029! Firefighter Sal Inguanti led a hugely successful effort to raise money for local charities and we were so grateful to be one of the lucky recipients.
Chris Duncan and the Little Garden Club of Rye approached us a couple years ago with the idea to plant two columns of daffodils on the hillside in the park, and we were thrilled to partner with them on this beautiful project which remains one of our favorite attractions every spring.
Amy Vijayanagar came to us with her idea for the Rye Poetry Path, and we were delighted to provide seed funding to help get the project off the ground. We have loved working with her on the initial project and more recently on the free Children’s Guide to the Rye Poetry Path, which she developed with local educator Molly Ness, and which is used by many local teachers and classes who have made field trips to the park. We love to see the park used as a classroom, and we have been so pleased to hear how many people enjoy discovering the poems and art in the park.
We have regular volunteers at our beach and park cleanups, like local mom Jaime Ulrich and her young son Evan, who show up month after month to help us clean up the inevitable plastic and trash. And we have many consistent regular financial contributors who value their privacy but without whom we could not do all the great things we do!
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Page: Since 2019
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Page: Volunteer. I was active on the Milton PTO while my children were there, and previously served on the Rye Free Reading Room associate board, where I co-hosted my favorite party of any year – Novel Night – twice!
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Page: Kind-hearted.
Pick one:
Page:
| MyRye.com
Select from: |
Your Pick: |
| Coke or Pepsi? | Coke |
| Regular or diet? | Regular |
| Action movie or rom com? | Both |
| Cook, order in or eat out? | Eat out |
| Dog, cat or no pet? | Dog |
| Balsamic vinaigrette or ranch? | Balsamic |
| Ruffles Original, Lay’s Barbeque or Funyuns? | Ruffles Original |
| Still, sparkling or tap? | Tap |
What is the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?
Page: When we moved to Rye, even as we were unloading boxes off the moving truck, countless new neighbors stopped by with food or bottles of wine or just to say hi. After years of living in big cities where you didn’t really know your neighbors, it was extraordinary. One neighbor in particular, my friend Emily, made it her business to quickly help me get to know people and organizations here, which gave me a strong sense of connection to this community very early on. She made Rye feel like home, right away, which was an incredibly powerful gift.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why, and who would you take with you?
Page: Italy or England (two of my favorite places), with my family (my favorite people).
What is your favorite streaming / TV series?
Page: No single one; love British detective shows.
What is your favorite movie?
Page: Hard to select just one. Maybe Princess Bride?
Where do you live in Rye and how many years have you lived in the City?
Page: My family and I live near Rye Town Park and have lived in Rye for seven years.
Thanks, Diana!
