Pop Up Parks has worked in numerous areas around the city to bring neglected and unused spaces to life. The group is now working in the River Flats on a community garden.--Submitted photo
For the past six years, Pop Up Parks has been taking unused spaces in the city and giving them new life.
Current chairperson Dina Jubrak was not with the organization when it formed in 2014 or 2015, but she joined shortly after as a way to help spruce up the Hat.
“It’s fun, and it helps out the community,” she said. “I started to dip my toes in around 2016, and then we started organizing more structured programming.
“We started working with more groups, one example is Saamis Immigration, and then we were officially incorporated in 2018.”
Jubrak says the aim of Pop Up Parks is to breathe life into different parts of the city.
“We try to transform neglected and underused lots,” she said. “We want to take these lots and turn them into community spaces of all sorts.
“Whether it’s an edible food garden or art venue, we want to make spaces that positively help our community.”
Pop Up Parks used to work in two different alleyways downtown – both of which house businesses now. Within the last year, the organization has worked in a parking lot on Fourth Street downtown.
Now, Pop Up Parks has shifted its focus to the River Flats. It is working behind River Valley Church.
“It aligned really well with the church’s vision of having a garden there,” said Jubrak. “They’re hosting us for now, and we have a really nice community garden there.
“We have flowers and fresh vegetables growing there. We see ripe veggies almost daily, and we hope to see some cucumbers ripening up soon here.”
Jubrak says support from Medicine Hatters has been phenomenal, including with the latest projects.
“We’ve had people from McMan’s Daytime shelter come to help us,” she said. “We’ve also seen a bunch of other volunteers from the community come to help us.
“The support is great. Having people come out to plant, weed or paint goes a long way. It allows us to keep doing what we do.”
On top of beautifying underused parts of the city, Pop Up Parks is also organizing a number of events this year.
“We have so many partners with these – way too many to list,” said Jubrak. “We’ve actually had a few of these happen already, and we have some more coming up.”
The events are being held under the City’s Connecting Community Project.
“We did a great international community kitchen, and we have a mural being worked on right now,” she said. “This weekend coming up (Aug. 28), we’re hosting Medicine Hat’s recreation experience in Echo Dale. It’s a large event, but it has been planned with COVID-19 safety in mind.
“Then on Sept. 11 we’re hoping to close off our fun events. It’s going to be a great, full day of experiences.”
Find out more about Pop Up Parks at https://www.popupparks.ca/
