2024 was an exciting year for Humboldt Park and the Humboldt Park Friends Group.
We applied for and received a grant from the Anthropocene Alliance, or A2, the nation’s largest coalition of frontline communities fighting for environmental protection. The A2 grant has allowed our group to do more community outreach and education about our mission, encouraging more people in our community to get involved with our park’s environmental protection and improvements. Humboldt Park improves the air we breathe, provides a cooling effect in our neighborhood in the summer, provides beauty and recreation all year round, and deserves our attention and protection. To that end, we started a new campaign called Humboldt in Harmony, Resilient Park, Resilient Community.
Humboldt in Harmony: Healthy Park, Healthy Community
Humboldt in Harmony: Healthy Park, Healthy Community is a community-driven initiative that includes establishing a Pollinator Garden equipped with a rainwater collection system and restoring the park lagoon’s shoreline habitats with native plants. This initiative promotes local biodiversity and habitat restoration and demonstrates Humboldt Park Friends’ commitment to address and adapt the park for climate change. The Humboldt in Harmony campaign will focus on fundraising in the interest of four main categories of park protection and improvements that include Wildlife, Reforestation, Pollinators, and Lagoon Improvements. If you are reading this and have not gotten involved, please join us, we need our community to come together.
Humboldt in Harmony Speaker Series
IWe also launched a new Humboldt in Harmony educational series. The series is free and open to the public to educate our community on environmental concerns and practical practices that each of us can bring to our daily lives to help protect the health of our park and our community. The five educational events began with a program in November on the lifecycle of urban forestry from seed to shade. January featured a history of parks with John Gurda, and February featured protecting water resources. March’s feature is on pollinators and master gardening, and a wildlife awareness and protection event will be announced.
Through these events and activities, Humboldt Park Friends – with support from A2 – is engaging community members in climate resilience, watershed protection, and environmental stewardship. Thanks to Gary Hollander, Steve Lucia, Henry Szymanski, Laureen Stirmel, Jane LeCapitaine, and Dani Graf for organizing and staffing the events.
100 for the Humboldt Event
In late October, the Friends group launched Humboldt in Harmony at an event attended by 80 people in the park pavilion. The group’s successful tree-planting initiative and the Friends group awarded proclamations from Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the State of Wisconsin (presented by Senator Chris Larson and Representative Christine Sinicki), and County Supervisor Jack Eckblad. Friends’ President Susan Catral unveiled a large commemorative plaque that locates the 100 trees planted in the past three years. The event also garnered donations from individuals and engaged attendees in information tables with Wisconsin Master Gardeners, Milwaukee Artists, and Johnson’s Nursery. Volunteers also collected and distributed packets of local pollinator seeds.
“If you attended our tree presentation, you heard stewardship described as a snowball effect—starting with quiet commitments from Friends and community members like you and building into visible outcomes in the park. However, a key part of good stewardship is communicating a clear vision and roadmap for our transformative objectives.
Our legacy by example of protecting greenspaces can be the foundation for years of preservation.
New Pollinator Garden
We are very excited to have received approval to plant a large pollinator garden in front of the Humboldt Park pavilion this spring. We are fortunate to have a very knowledgeable and committed Pollinator committee that is designing, preparing the area, and planting the pollinator garden. Our Humboldt Park Friends group will provide ongoing maintenance of the garden. Another goal is to use the garden to educate the community on the importance of pollinator gardens and pollinators. Thanks to Lynn Goldstein, Linda Lubner, Konrad Kunchenbach, Richard Kling, Luke Salmon and Kayleigh Pallagi.
Distribution of 600 door hangers
This fall, Humboldt Park Friends reached out to the local community by distributing 600 door hangers that described the Humboldt in Harmony initiative. This individual household outreach is a first for the group, and it also communicated activities in both English and Spanish. Together with email outreach, this effort gathered names from an additional 40 individuals interested in volunteering. A recent membership meeting enjoyed the involvement of five new members. The Friends group also got two community-based organizations to join the Anthropocene Alliance.
Thanks to Gary Hollander for his writing and organizing the volunteers who distributed the hangers. Thanks to Ignacio Catral for the design work and print management.
New Educational Signage
We are very excited to have received approval to update two signs positioned along the north side of the lagoon. One sign will feature the wildlife that calls Humboldt Park home, and the other will feature information about pollinator gardens.
Both signs will include QR codes that link to the Humboldt Park Friends website, where the community can learn more about our conservation efforts and contribute to funding our programs.
2024 Events:
Ice Skating on the Lagoon
January and February provided the weather we needed to prepare the lagoon for ice skating and hockey. Gregg Stillin and his team of volunteers use equipment of their own clever design to keep the ice in good shape for skating.
A portolet was provided by Humboldt Park Friends for January and February. Thanks to all the skaters who donated to take care of the equipment!
Easter Egg Hunt March 23rd
Hundreds of kids swarmed Humboldt Park in Milwaukee for the 2024 Easter Egg Hunt – an annual event that has now featured snow for a third straight year. Humboldt Park Friends organized the Bay View hunt. More than 5,000 candy-filled eggs were scattered in the snow for kids up to age 12 to find. The kids were divided into zones based on age, with at least one golden egg in each zone containing a special prize.
“We had hundreds of kids going after 5,000 eggs, and they were collected in a matter of minutes,” said Patrick McSweeney, a Humboldt Park Friends board member. “It’s what we look forward to all year, and it’s just organized pandemonium.”
Before the egg hunt began, kids could take photos with the Easter Bunny for free. The Bay View Lions Club also served a pancake breakfast.
While the event was free, families were asked to bring non-perishable food items for the Bay View Community Center’s food pantry.
Park Clean-up/Bird Walk April 27
This year’s park clean-up was well attended, and new volunteers joined the effort.
Board member and Naturalist Kyle Arpke guided the bird walk. Neighbors and families found bags of garbage in the park.
Thistle Pull and The Weed Ladies
Our very committed weed ladies, Laureen Stirmel, Jane LeCapitaine, and Dani Graf, have been working to remove the Canadian Thistles and other invasive species from the park. These ladies attend an annual invasive species educational event to stay current on which plants should be removed. We are very fortunate to have the volunteers in our group!
Jazz at the Vine
Jazz at the Vine: Every other Thursday, May through August
Humboldt Park’s beer garden provided the perfect backdrop for these musical summer evenings, where friends and families gathered to enjoy live jazz performances by many talented local artists.
The event continues to grow in popularity. We participated in Bay View Gallery Night and Bay View Jazz Fest. One of the evenings had student musicians from the Milwaukee Jazz Institute. The intimate setting drew rave reviews from our visitors.
A big thank you to our presenting sponsors, Lakefront Brewery, Beer Capitol and Gary Hollander, Peter Adams Realtor, Mindpool Live, Marina for Milwaukee, Tenuta’s Italian Restaurant, Jordanne Barber Golden Hare, Cafe Centraal
4th of July Parade
Humboldt Park Friends joined in the excitement of the 4th of July parade, bringing joy to the community by handing out candy along the route. Volunteers walked alongside Steve Blank’s vintage VW with bright smiles and patriotic spirit, engaging with spectators of all ages. Kids eagerly reached out for sweet treats as families lined the streets to celebrate Independence Day together. The group’s participation highlighted their commitment to community involvement, making the parade a celebration of freedom but also of togetherness and neighborhood pride.
Family Night at Chill on the Hill, August 6
Our volunteers had a Humboldt Park Friends table at Family Night at Chill on the Hill. Teaching children about the importance of nature and conservation is critical to our mission. Volunteers guided children to do crayon rubbings of various leaves from trees in the park. Thanks to Laureen Stirmel, Jane LeCapitaine, and Dani Graf for their work on this event.
Corn Roast at Chill on the Hill August 13
The popular Corn Roast at Chill on the Hill has become a great event. This popular event is a fund-raiser for the Humboldt Park Friends and helps create awareness for our organization and mission. Corn lovers enjoy the corn and frequently tip generously! A special thanks to Laureen Stirmel for all of her work on this event as well as all of the volunteers who worked on this event.
Cattail Pull: September 21
More trees planted!
Jane LeCapitaine and Henry Szymanski helped us pick out trees in our park, continuing the reforestation. We also installed a recognition plaque in the pavilion to recognize all the donors to our successful Hundred for Humboldt campaign.
Our website has a map of the trees listing the circumference, type of tree, and geographic location. https://www.humboldtparkmilwaukee.org/100-for-humboldt-page/
Tree Day, October 9
The Humboldt Park Friends group celebrated another successful Tree Day on October 9.
Tree Day has been an annual event at Humboldt Park since 1998. Each year, Humboldt Park Friends, the Milwaukee County Park Naturalist, and the City of Milwaukee Urban Forestry Department contribute their time and effort to this program.
Children from local schools are invited to participate by writing their names on a piece of paper that they each drop in the hole before the trees are planted. The paper will help nourish the tree and help connect the children and the tree.
The day’s festivities include a walking tour of the park, during which the kids identify the various tree species, leaf, seed, and bark types. They also enjoy story time, creating a craft, identifying leaves, and doing leaf rubbings in a booklet they take home to their families.
Thanks to Henry Szymanski, Laureen Stirmel, Jane LeCapitaine, Dani Graf and all of the volunteers for their work on this event.
Humboldt Park Junior and Senior Ranger Program
We continue to distribute park ranger activity books free of charge to the community through our website. We also have been putting them in the little free library on the corner of Pine St and Dakota st.
The Humboldt Park Ranger Program is a self-guided program for children ages 5 and up and their families. It is designed to teach children about Humboldt Park’s history, wildlife, geography, and celebrations. When kids complete enough of the book they receive a custom embroidered patch at one of our general meetings.
Memorial Restoration
Humboldt Park Friends continues our commitment to restore and maintain our historic WWI Memorial. HPF contracted a restoration specialist to repair the bronze eagle on our memorial. The eagle and the marble on the memorial were vandalized and spray painted with silver paint.
In closing
We cannot accomplish the many things we do without the support of our volunteer board:
President – Susan Catral
Vice-President – Garry Hollander
Secretary – Henry Szymanski
Treasurer – Laureen Stirmel
Ignacio Catral
Dani Graf
Patrick McSweeney
Kyle Arpke
Steven Lucia
Luke Salmon
Committees:
Lagoon Restoration chaired by Patrick McSweeney,
Reforestation chaired by Henry Szymanski,
Landscaping/Pollinator chaired by Lynn Goldstein and Linda Luebner,
Wildlife chaired by Kyle Arpke.
Easter Egg Hunt and Events- Chaired by Laureen Stirmel
Tree Day –Chaired by Laureen Stirmel
Jazz At The Vine chaired by Ignacio Catral