Wildflower Celebration This Saturday – New this year: Birdwalk and Food Trucks

The 14th Annual Awbrey Park Wildflower Celebration is this Saturday, May 3, from 11 am until 2 pm. Awbrey Park is located at the corner of River Road and Spring Creek Drive in Eugene.

Our most popular event is the Treasure Hunt. Take a guided tour or explore on your own with a self-guided tour. Bright yellow trail markers will lead you to many of the parks native plants. If you find 12 of 15 plants, you can take home a native plant for your garden.

We are adding a new event this year that may become even more popular than the Treasure Hunt. Katie McMinnis. a veterinarian at the Cascade Raptor Center, will be leading a birdwalk around 11 am. Katie knows her birds by ear, which is ideal for the forest in the back part of the park.

But wait, there’s more! We have added food trucks this year. Calle Steelo Taco truck will be serving up tacos and King Whippy has soft ice cream with a gazillion colors of sprinkles.

The Friends of Awbrey Park will be stationed throughout the park to help you find trillium, lupine, red Columbine, bleeding heart, violets, fairy bells, false Solomon’s Seal, Oregon myrtle, and much, much more. Other items to look forward to:

• Live Music from Santa Clara musicians– Crowd favorite The Nostalgics will open and be followed by singer and songwriter Tim Foelker
• Rock Painting with Darcy – Rocks and paint provided. You make up your design.
• Kids games on the lawn plus three play areas for toddlers through age 12
• Several groups that support us year round will be present including:
  The Santa Clara Community Organization – Find out the work that the SCCO does for the Santa Clara community.
  The Santa Clara Community Foundation – The SCCF is a 501(c)3 non-profit that supports several projects including renovating the old (1901) schoolhouse on River Loop 2
  Lane County Master Gardeners mobile plant clinic will be available to answer questions.
  Lane County Audubon Society and Habitat Haven – learn how to certify your back yard as friendly to birds and pollinators
  The Irving Grange will surprise you with all of the activities that they put on
  Boy Scout Troop 182 – Thank the young men who have helped chip our trails for many years and been responsible for the flourishing natives on ‘Boy Scout Bank’
  Learn about the River Road – Santa Clara Volunteer Library. They have over 13,000 items, including fiction and nonfiction for adults and children, audiobooks, and DVDs.
  Meet The Friends of Awbrey Park. The Friends just completed their 17th year of improving the park.
  
  If you haven’t been to the park since late 2015, it is time to visit the park again. The City put in a new bridge to replace a slippery log. The bridge makes it safe to walk to the small forest in the east part of the park.