Neither rain, nor snow... Ho, ho, ho!

“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays the Abingdon Square Conservancy diehards from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Paraphrasing the USPS, we came together to make our 10th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony a memorable success for the Conservancy and our friends and neighbors.

The weather gods were not kind. We were not deterred. Nor were you! Our 18-foot-tall Christmas tree adorned with over 5,000 lights came to life on Friday, December 1st and now brightens the night in the heart of our beloved Greenwich Village. And Santa Claus was at his best with the wide-eyed little ones who were oblivious to the soggy weather.

Hot cocoa and cookies were consumed under umbrellas in record speed. Spontaneous caroling filled the air, too. The children enjoyed their wonderful sparkling glow bracelets. Here are few great pictures capturing the spirit of the evening.

[PHOTOS] West Villagers In Love With Abingdon Square Celebrate Spring!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Our 7th Annual Tulip Celebration was a resounding success. More than 120 gathered at The Center on 13th Street to celebrate Spring. The room could not have looked more beautiful, as it buzzed with people happy to reconnect with old neighbors and meet new ones. We hope you will enjoy the pictures we have included. Photos here.

All who attended (or made donations in lieu of attending) affirmed their support of the Conservancy and its commitment to keep the park a welcoming jewel in all seasons.

A huge thank you to our wine sponsors and door prize donors. Please visit all these establishments and share your appreciation. (See map below)

We are grateful to DISH Catering for accommodating us as a non-profit and for their delicious food. A special thanks to Li-Lac Chocolates; their in-kind support has been with us since the event’s inception. Thanks to The Center and their team for making their home, ours; and to Luis Resto and Paul Nowinski, whose wonderful music filled the room with warmth and excitement.

Our stunning tulips in the Square peaked beautifully this spring; we hope you enjoyed them. The summer plantings begin soon. This is your donation in action! If you haven’t yet donated please consider doing so now. Donate here.

We are already planning our 13th Halloween Pumpkin Patch and 8th Holiday Tree Lighting. If you would like to give us a hand, we are always looking for volunteers.

In the meantime please enjoy a wonderful summer!

See you in the Square,

Sigrid Esser

Chair, Board of Directors

Abingdon Square Conservancy

Square Fills Up with Neighbors and Joy (Slide Show)

Hundreds of Villagers Gather to Welcome Santa and the Holiday Tree

With the looming rains held at bay, hundreds of young and young-at-heart West Villagers were not bothered and celebrated the holiday season on a beautiful evening Friday, November 30. Friends of the Square enjoyed hot chocolate from Le Pain Quotidien and Krispy Kreme doughnuts courtesy of Adcroft family from Scranton, PA.  We watched the 4,600 lights glow on the thirty foot tree while Santa Claus thrilling hundreds of excited children. All while being serenaded by our wonderful caroler, Mary Kathryn Monday. Yet, it was the spirit of community that made the night so warm and bright!

View a slide show of the festivities

Please consider including the Conservancy in your year-end giving. Everything we do -- from maintaining the Square year-round to holding three community events annually -- is dependent on private financial support. Please help us build our community by sharing your photos at #abingdonsquare. And visit us on Facebook for more photos!

Happy Holidays to all!

The Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony Event Committee

[PHOTOS] Thank You for a Boo-tiful Night!

Thank You for a Glowing Success!

Thank you to all who carved jack-o'-lanterns and hauled them to Abingdon Square on Halloween night. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, adding to the fun and fright! You can view a slide show of the ghastly festivities.

We’re so grateful to D'Agostino and Brooklyn Fare for the pumpkins, Krispy Kreme of Scranton, PA for the delectable doughnuts, our neighbor Barbara Lorber's 20 pounds of treats, Marvin for the decorations, Peter Lewy for his music and for the legions of costumed children and kids-at-heart that paraded through the Square. A very special thank you to Li-Lac Chocolates for donating treats and their continued support. We hope you will be back next Halloween to bask in the glow and good cheer of the Conservancy’s 13th Annual Pumpkin Patch!

Please join us for the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday, November 30, 6-7 pm (rain or shine). Santa Claus will do the honors, and then he'll be available to visit with kids and take photos with them.

Thank you,

Your Abingdon Square Conservancy Pumpkin Patch Team

Thank You

Dear Neighbors,

The 4th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony in Abingdon Square was truly amazing. Never have so many of our neighbors, with their children and friends in tow, come to share the magical moment when Santa lights our beautiful, sparkling holiday tree. The feeling of community was warm and joyous. The Square is truly our “village square”!

Abingdon Square is completely dependent on private donations. Only your generous and ongoing support makes it possible for the park to be more colorful and our community events more vibrant than ever before. My heartfelt thanks to all of you!

My sincere thanks to Todd Hittle, who passed on the chair's baton after two and a half years of tireless stewardship.

On behalf of the Conservancy’s board, our best wishes to you and yours for a healthy, peaceful and happy 2018!

See you in the Square!

Gratefully yours,

Sigrid Esser
Chairman, Board of Directors

[PHOTOS] Hundreds of Villagers Gather to Welcome Santa and the Holiday Tree

Hundreds of young and young-at-heart West Villagers celebrated the holiday season on a beautiful evening Friday, December 1. Jolly Villagers enjoyed hot chocolate from our friends at Le Pain Quotidien (on Hudson) and doughnuts donated by Patti Adcroft and her family’s Krispy Kreme franchise in Scranton, PA. 

View a slide show of the festivities

Please consider including the Conservancy in your year-end giving. Everything we do -- from maintaining the Square year-round to holding three community events annually -- is dependent on private financial support. Please help us build our community by sharing your photos at #abingdonsquare. And visit us on Facebook for more photos!

Happy Holidays to all!

The Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony Event Committee

Join your neighbors for the most wonderful tree lighting tonight 6-7p!

Please join Abingdon Square Conservancy for

Our 4th Annual

Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony

Friday, December 1

6:00 - 7:00 pm (rain, shine or snow)

Hot Cocoa from Le Pain Quotidien

+ Complimentary holiday cookies and Krispy Kreme dougnuts

+ Caroling

+ Tree-lighting at 6:30 pm by our special guest Santa Claus

+ Photos with Santa (bring your own camera)

[PHOTOS] Thank You for a Boo-tiful Night!

Thank You for a Glowing Success!

Thank you to all who carved jack-o'-lanterns and hauled them to Abingdon Square on Halloween night. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, adding to the fun and fright! You can view a slide show of the ghastly festivities.

We’re so grateful to Li-Lac Chocolates for donating treats for the legions of costumed children and kids-at-heart that paraded through the Square. We hope you will be back next Halloween to bask in the glow and good cheer of the Conservancy’s 12th Annual Pumpkin Patch!

Please join us for the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday, December 1, 6-7 pm (rain or shine). Santa Claus will do the honors, and then he'll be available to visit with kids and take photos with them.

Thank you,

Your Abingdon Square Conservancy Pumpkin Patch Team

Sharpen Your Knives! The 11th Annual Pumpkin Patch Is Almost Here!

Dear Friend of the Square,

Our 11th Annual Pumpkin Patch gets off to a start next Tuesday, October 24th, as one hundred pumpkins will be magically placed around the beautiful mums in the garden in the heart of the Village.

Hurry over and pick up your free pumpkin shortly after 10:00am on a first-come, first-serve basis. One pumpkin each would be appreciated. Take the week to put your artistic skills to work and carve away your masterpiece.

Bring your jack-o’lantern back to the Square on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31stand we’ll candle light it at sunset. If one of ours was not available (they go quickly), feel free to bring yours from home, too. The more the spookier!

Join us from 6pm to 9pm as our famous display grows and grows. Your kids can trick-or-treat courtesy of Li-Lac Chocolates. And, music compliments of Peter Lewy will add to the festive mood.  

We hope you will have a wonderful time with your Abingdon Square friends and neighbors for this wonderful West Village Halloween tradition.

Share your photos on social media on Facebook or Instagram using #abingdonsquare.

And, please consider a donation so we can continue this event and others throughout the year at: http://www.abingdonsquare.org/new-donate/

Wishing you a great Halloween,

Your Abingdon Square Conservancy Pumpkin Patch Team

[PHOTOS] West Villagers in Love with The Square fill The Center!

Dear Neighbors,


The 5th Annual Tulip Celebration was a smashing success.  More than 150 Villagers, their friends and family gathered at The Center on 13th Street to celebrate the return of spring and enjoy delicious food, wine and chocolates.  Our friends and our donors affirmed again their support for Abingdon Square.  The room could not have looked more beautiful filled with tulips arranged by our horticulturalist, Susan Sipos. We truly brought The Square to The Center.

Thanks to all who purchased tickets and those who invested over $14,000 to our crucial Adopt-A-Bed program. (Donors listed below.)  These donations coupled with our major circle of donors, the Abingdon Guardians, will help ensure the Square stays beautiful and well maintained all year long.

A huge thank you to our sponsors and in-kind donors, Bar Bolonat, The Beatrice Inn, Pizzetteria Brunetti, Bus Stop Cafe, Cubbyhole, Farina, Hudson Hound, Injera, Mémé Mediterranean and TAVO for all of their wine, Li-Lac Chocolates and Diptyque.  Please visit all of these establishments and share your appreciation.  We are grateful to DISH for accommodating us as a non-profit and for their delicious food. A special thanks goes to The Center and their team for making their home ours. 

Finally, thank you to our Vice Chair, Russell Saray, to Team Tulip (Jeanne Buckman, Collin Glidewell, Allie Thompson) and to our event superstars, Rich Lo, Barbara Lorber and Susan Russon.

Check out our summer planting – your donations have already been put to work!  We are already planning our fall Pumpkin Patch and Holiday Tree Lighting.  If you would like to give us a hand, we are always looking for volunteers.  Many hands make for lighter work.

See you in the Square,

Sigrid Esser
Chair, Board of Directors
Abingdon Square Conservancy

Thank You for a Smashing Success!

Thank you to all who carved jack-o'-lanterns and hauled them to Abingdon Square on Halloween night. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, adding to the fun and fright! You can view a slide show of the ghastly festivities.

We’re also grateful to Li-Lac Chocolates for donating treats for the legions of costumed children and kids-at-heart that paraded through the Square. We hope you will be back next Halloween to bask in the glow and good cheer of the Conservancy’s 11th Annual Pumpkin Patch!

Please join us for the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday, December 2, 7-8 pm. Santa Claus will do the honors, and then he'll be available to visit with kids and take photos with them.

Thank you,

Jeanne Bucknam

Master of Scaremonies

Board Member, Events Committee Chair

Abingdon Square Conservancy

Abingdon Square Will Glow Tonight!

Join Us Tonight for the Rise of the Jack-O'-Lanterns!  

Be forewarned! If our terrifying tradition holds true, tonight, tens of jack-o'-lanterns will mysteriously appear in Abingdon Square!

Do you dare bring the kids? Is it safe to stop by and take photos?

Those brave souls and scaredy-cats that tempt fortune and venture onto the haunted grounds of the Square from 6 to 9 pm will receive a treat—courtesy of Li-Lac Chocolates—from Conservancy board members and volunteers!

Please don't be afraid to share your photos on social media with #abingdonsquare.

Happy Halloween!!

Jeanne Bucknam

Master of Scaremonies

Board Member, Events Committee Chair

Abingdon Square Conservancy

Pumpkin Pick Up Starts Monday!

1. Come pick up your free pumpkin at A-BOO!-ngdon Square beginning on Monday, October 24 at 10 am. We’ll have 100 pumpkins available first-come, first-served.

2. Take home your ghoulish gourd and carve a fangtastic masterpiece.

3. Bring your jack-o’-lantern back to the Square anytime on Halloween, Monday, October 31 and we’ll bring it to life at sunset! 

4. Join us in the Square on Halloween night from 6 to 9 pm for our famous fiendish fiery display. We'll be passing out devilishly delicious treats—courtesy of Li-Lac Chocolates—and having a frightfully good time with our neighbors in costumes and plain clothes!

5. Share your photos on social media at #abingdonsquare.

 

Wishing you a Haunting Halloween,

Jeanne Bucknam

Master of Scaremonies

Board Member, Events Committee Chair

Abingdon Square Conservancy

West Villagers Show Up for Their Square! (Slide Show)

The 4th Annual Tulip Celebration was an enjoyable and gainful evening. The rain which threatened the event never materialized and nearly 200 West Villagers gathered to celebrate the return of warm weather, enjoy small bites from some of the neighborhood's best food and wine purveyors and affirm their support for Abingdon Square.

Thanks to our generous donors, the event generated more than $25,000 in revenue for the Square, including $14,500 in donations to our Adopt-A-Bed Program. This crucial investment made by our Adopt-A-Bed donors – along with the extraordinary contributions made by the Abingdon Guardians, our major donor circle – help to ensure the ongoing care of the Square and they foster a more closely knit, healthy and prosperous community. Our big-hearted Adopt-A-Bed donors are listed below.

 

View a slide show of the festivities.

 

 

Three Growing Seasons

Richard Bisson

 

Two Growing Seasons

Susan Boland & Kelly Granat

Stephen Foster & Russell Saray

Todd Hittle

Amita Rodman & Viren Mehta

 

One Growing Season

Anonymous

Deirdre Barry

David Figueroa & Sergio Leguizamo

Suzanne Greene

Kate Lavin

Rich Lo & Joe Mayock

Barbara Lorber

Bruce Mastalinski

Nicholas Palance

Cynthia & Jeffrey Penney

Perry Street Block Association

Barbara Roberts

Frank Schwarzer

Jo & Henry Strouss

Christine & Mick Walsdorf

Edith & Roy Zuckerman

 

Bunk-Beds

Jeanne Bucknam

Collin Glidewell

Jeffery & Jamie Harris

Paul Michaud

 

A huge thanks to our sponsors and in-kind donors, Bank Street Creative, Diptyque, Gregory Beltre Photography, Imperial Vintner, Li-Lac Chocolates, Mole and Pizzeterria Brunetti for making another Tulip Celebration possible. Our thanks also to Industria Superstudio for substantially discounting the rental of its event space. Please show your appreciation for their commitment to our community by thanking them for serving as sponsors and by patronizing all of their businesses. 

 

Finally, thank you to the unsung heroes of the evening, our event committee co-chairs, Jeanne Bucknam, Barbara Lorber and Sue Russon.

 

Watch for our summer planting – your donations at work!  – which will take place next week.

 

See you in the Square!

 

Best regards,

 

Todd Hittle

Chair, Board of Directors

Abingdon Square Conservancy

Thank You

Dear Neighbors:

"Wow! This is why we do this!" I thought to myself as I watched Abingdon Square filled with excited kids and happy parents eagerly waiting for Santa to light the holiday tree earlier this month. The sense of anticipation and joy was palpable.

Thanks to your tremendous generosity, we're completing our most successful year ever. Your big heartedness allowed us to enhance the spring and summer plantings, and add a fall planting for the first time. Over and over, you told us that the Square never looked more beautiful or cleaner. You repeatedly attended our events, as we were blessed with our best attendance ever. We're excited to do it all over again in 2016 and look forward to sharing it all with you. Thank you again for a marvelously green, clean and fun-filled 2015!

Wishing you many more memorable moments in the Square in 2016!

Sincerely,

Todd Hittle
Chairman, Board of Directors

 

 

On Balmy Winter Night, Hundreds Gather for Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony

Over two hundred children and children-at-heart celebrated the holiday season on a mild and clear evening last Friday at Abingdon Square, the town square of the West Village. Jolly Villagers drank hot chocolate, ate holiday cookies, sang carols, watched the lighting of the 18-foot-tall Frazier fir tree and enjoyed a visit from Santa Claus. 

You can view a slide show of the joyous throng and the festivities.

Special thanks to Jane Stouffer for once again leading our rousing, neighbor-sourced choir of young and venerable carolers. Jane, who has been a dedicated volunteer and generous donor, is relocating to South Carolina. Jane and her endless talents and enthusiasm will be sorely missed. We wish her well and hope she will return frequently.

Thank you for attending and for your continued support. Please consider including the Conservancy in your year-end giving. Everything we do -- from maintaining the Square year-round to holding three community events annually -- is dependent on the financial support of you, our neighbors. And please help us build our community by sharing your photos of the celebration with #abingdonsquare.

Happy Holidays to all!

 

Jeanne Bucknam and Russell Saray

Co-Chairs, Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony Event Committee

Board Members, Abingdon Square Conservancy

Year-End Appeal

Dear Neighbor,

 

What’s your favorite time of year in the West Village?

Maybe it’s that first day that really feels like Spring, when you can leave your tired winter coat in the closet and go soak up some sunshine in Abingdon Square, admiring the crocus, the magnolia trees and of course, the vibrant beds of tulips and daffodils.

Or perhaps it’s a summer evening, when an after-dinner stroll around the neighborhood ends with an ice cream cone in the park, chatting with neighbors and watching fireflies start to blink around the Doughboy statue in the fading light.

Do you love Halloween in the Village? On that giddy evening dozens of humble gourds, transformed by neighbors of all ages into wildly creative and whimsical Jack o’ Lanterns, make their appearance as the center lawn becomes The Pumpkin Patch.

The first snow of the season is always special, blanketing the park in white, outlining the iron curlicues of the park gates and swirling past the park lamps like confetti. And now there’s a new holiday favorite – the tree lighting by none other than Santa Claus himself.

In all seasons Abingdon Square is the heart of our neighborhood; a gathering place for all ages, offering calm and connection in an ever-changing city. It wasn’t always like this. YOU are one of our neighbors we have to thank for this haven.

As you know, the Square is funded almost entirely by private donations from individuals like you, residential buildings, and local businesses.  Your gift to Abingdon Square Conservancy, a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity,  with the gifts from our neighbors,  has made the park we have today possible. NYC Parks collects trash and locks and unlocks the gates. All the rest, from planting and weeding to pruning and mowing to sod and sprinklers to soil and bulbs, is made possible by the generosity of hundreds of donations to the Conservancy each year..   

In this season of Thanksgiving I hope as you reflect on the year, you will again include Abingdon Square on the list of things that matter in your life and for which you are grateful.  Every gift is fully tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.  To continue your essential support of the Conservancy’s work, please:

●      Go to www.abingdonsquare.org and click on “DOUGH-NATE” (a tribute to our intrepid park statue).  

●      Mail your donation to Abingdon Square Conservancy, 302A West 12th Street, #113, NY, NY 10014.  

Many thanks in advance for your generosity.  You’re assuring many more happy memories to be made in Abingdon Square in 2016.

 

Sincerely,

H. Todd Hittle, Chairman

Abingdon Square Conservancy