The Winter Solstice has passed, and we are in the midst of celebrating the light in the darkness through Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the twelve days of Christmas.  However you celebrate as we approach the turning of the year, we wish you a very happy 2020.

Winter Waterfowl

Titanic Memorial Park is once again the winter home for waterfowl.  Look for ring-billed seagulls, cormorants, coots, buffleheads, ring-necked ducks, and more as winter progresses.  Read this DCist article, DC Doesn't Have One Hot Duck, It Has Many, to find out more about our winter visitors, and see if you can identify different species of waterfowl as they arrive.  Bonus:  Record your observations using the iNaturalist app...that will be good practice for the City Nature Challenge in the Spring!

As part of our Community Science Program, we will test Washington Channel waters throughout the winter to understand how much road salt travels into our waterways after storm events.

We are testing the waters in partnership with the Izaak Walton League, who explains:

Road salt (sodium chloride) is everywhere during winter months. It keeps us safe on roads and sidewalks, but it can also pose a threat to fish and wildlife as well as human health.

Fish and bugs that live in freshwater streams can't survive in extra salty water. And many of us (more than 118 million Americans) depend on local streams for drinking water. Water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes.

This Thanksgiving week, we are grateful to all of our supporters.  We continue to grow in terms of donors and volunteers, and it shows in the improved condition of Titanic Memorial Park.

Donors:  We are one week into our end-of-year Donor drive, and have met over 20% of our donor goal.  That's a great start!  Donors are essential for us to continue the work we do in the Park, and take on larger restoration projects in the coming years.  If you haven't donated yet, please consider a year-end gift to help us help the Park.

Thanks to you, Titanic Memorial Park and our Friends group had a great year! Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help us continue to restore this gem on the Washington Channel.

You probably remember how the Park looked before we all came together as Friends of the Titanic Memorial Park— crumbling tiles, overgrown, rotting benches…hardly a welcoming place for our community and visitors to enjoy.

It was great to see some Friends at the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly (SWNA) Picnic in Titanic Park at the end of September.  We have several updates to share with you for October:

Work Party, October 19, 2019

Our next work party is scheduled for:

Saturday, October 19
9:00 - Noon
Meet at the Titanic Memorial

We hope you've had a great summer!  We've got some events to announce and organizational news:

SWNA Picnic in the Park

Our friends at SWNA are sponsoring a Picnic in Titanic Memorial Park on:

Friday, September 27
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Bring your blankets, chairs, snacks, and drinks to enjoy one of our community's most cherished places with your SW neighbors!

Light refreshments will be provided.

We are looking to expand our Board of Directors!  We are particularly looking for a candidate who is able and willing to serve as treasurer of the Board.  Treasurer responsibilities are to:

• Coordinate financial matters with our fiscal sponsor, Southwest Neighborhood Assembly (SWNA)
• Manage our financial reporting requirements to the National Park Service (NPS)
• Record donations and thank donors
• Approve requests for reimbursement for Friends activities
• Provide annual budget and income/expense statement

We’re heading into Summer!  The days may be hazy, but they are not lazy!  Here is the latest:

Work Party, July 5, 2019

July 4 is a wonderful celebration of our Nation’s independence, and many neighbors enjoy Titanic Memorial Park on that day.  Sadly, this means a lot of refuse to clean up!  Please join us:

Friday, July 5
9:00 - Noon
Meet at the Titanic Memorial

The cherry blossoms are at peak bloom!  How beautiful they look in East Potomac Park, right across the Channel from the Titanic Memorial.  Now that Spring is here, it's time to get our Park spruced up for the season.

Titanic Day of Service

Our big event this Spring is our annual Titanic Day of Service:

April 13, 2019
9 am - 12 noon
Meet at the Titanic Memorial

We wanted to give you a quick update on happenings in the Park.  We are gearing up for a busy Spring, and hope you'll join us at some of our activities in 2019!

Helping Hands during the Government Shutdown

We thank our great Friends, both known and unknown to us, who emptied trash, cleaned up broken light globes, and let us know about other issues in the Park!  The Park Service is back at work, and doing their best to get all the National Parks back in good working order.