“Are you going to be Toucan again this summer?”
“I’m going to be Red-Tailed Hawk.”
“That’s cool…”
“Actually, I want to be Fossa.”
“Fossa? Do you think anyone knows what a Fossa is?”
“I’m going to be Fossa.”
This was the conversation I had with my six-year-old son who was going to Evergreen’s Adventure Camp for the second time. All campers pick a nature name for themselves. He was Toucan last summer and Fossa this past summer. (In case you are wondering, a fossa is a mammal from Madagascar that looks like a big cat or a small cougar with a very long tail.)
I share this because I work at Evergreen, headquartered at Evergreen Brick Works, just downstream from Branksome Hall in the Don River Valley. Founded in 1991, Evergreen is a national non-profit transforming public spaces in our cities to build a healthier future for people and our planet.
Evergreen Brick Works is a shining example of this. It is located on the historic site of the former Don Valley Brick Works and quarry—the site that made the bricks that built Toronto. In 2010, Evergreen transformed a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into a global showcase for green design and an award-winning public space. Open year-round, Evergreen Brick Works welcomes more than 500,000 visitors annually to experience its public markets, participate in conferences and events, enjoy outdoor learning and nature play, and explore public art in the heart of Toronto’s ravine system.
As a national Program Director, I regularly meet with passionate community champions to help them build better public spaces. In the morning, I’ll be on a virtual call with a tenacious principal from a K–8 public school in Winnipeg who wants to revitalize the school grounds in support of climate resiliency and land-based education. We’ll strategize on how to engage elected officials and how to unlock funds to turn their idea into reality.
For lunch, I’ll hop down to Picnic Café to eat with a mayor and staff who want to draw inspiration from the Brick Works and learn how they might be able to transform their own post-industrial brownfield development site, located steps from their downtown, into a thriving community hub. During the site tour, they will half jokingly ask if we want to build an “Evergreen East.”
“My work at Evergreen in the Don Valley is all about transforming public spaces to build a healthier future for the planet.”
I’ll have some deskwork time in the afternoon while hearing the gleeful chatter of school children participating in our Visiting Schools Program. In the office kitchen, I’ll grab a coffee and learn about how the recent “Tomato-palooza” event went, while snacking on site-grown tomatoes that will forever ruin my ability to enjoy the store-bought version.
Evergreen is the only place I have ever worked where I spend my evenings and weekends… essentially at work. I get my maple syrup exclusively from the Evergreen Garden Market. My father-in-law roasted marshmallows for the first time at the Brick Works. My nieces picked out their unique birthday presents at the Artisan Market. And of course, Fossa goes to the Adventure Camp, where there is zero screentime and he gets to experience risky play—play that is as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible.
In Junior School at Branksome Hall, I remember the many times I walked down the steep winding path through the Carolinian forest into the valley to play field hockey or run laps (so many laps!) in the sports field. I would never have imagined that 20 years after graduating from Branksome, I would return to the same river valley for work (and play).
Joyce joined Evergreen in 2020 and leads its national programs to support communities in improving their cities. Prior to that, she was the executive director of an environmental charity for eight years.
Top photo: Video still courtesy of Carter Kirilenko
