Volunteer at Wooded Island.
When: 4th Saturday, March 23, April 27, May 25, June 22, July 27, August 24, September 21, October 26, November 23, 2019 10AM-2PM
Contact Jerry Levy at Jerry Levy at (312) 832-0215 (day), or (773) 955-6384 (evening) with questions.
Where: Meet at the South Bridge, near the parking lot at S. Cornell Ave. and E. 63rd St. Take Lake Shore Dr. to E. Hayes Dr. and stay right at the split, then take the first right into the parking lot. The South Bridge is just beyond the Northeast side of the parking lot.
Wooded Island is a beautiful hidden gem located in between two lagoons in Jackson Park. It was closed for over a year while it was rehabilitated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Get out in nature and help out with maintenance and upkeep work on the island. Many public parks in the metropolitan area rely on the help of volunteers to do routine maintenance projects because their budgets have been cut or are non-existent. If you’ve thought about checking it out head out, get some exercise and then explore the rest of the island. Check out this video about the island.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
About Jackson Park (from Chicago Park District)
Located in the Woodlawn community, Jackson Park totals 542.89 acres and features a gymnasium, three multi-purpose rooms, and fitness center. Green features of the park include Wooded Island, (which include the Japanese styled Osaka Garden), Bobolink Meadows, and a vegetable and flower garden. Outside, the park offers three harbors, 63rd St. Beach, basketball/tennis courts, multi-purpose fields, golf course, golf driving range and an artificial turf field.
History
In 1869, the renowned designers of New York’s Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, were hired to lay out the 1055-acre park. Known originally as South Park, the landscape had eastern and western divisions connected by a grand boulevard named the Midway Plaisance.
The eastern division became known as Lake Park; however, in 1880 the commission asked the public to suggest official names for both the eastern and western Divisions. Jackson and Washington were proposed, and the following year, Lake Park was renamed Jackson Park to honor Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh president of the United States.
In 1890, Olmsted and Daniel H. Burnham laid out the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. After it closed in October 1893 the site was transformed back into parkland. Jackson Park featured the first public golf course west of the Alleghenies, which opened in 1899.
