Bringing a Special New Bench to Guild Park

A commemorative park bench is something special. It's often a welcome place to catch your breath, or just to sit and enjoy your surroundings. It's also a way to honour the memory of a person who's gone but not to be forgotten.

On September 20, 2024, visitors at Guild Park got to enjoy a new commemorative bench, the first one installed on the 88-acre site in over a decade.

The story behind this commemorative bench at Guild Park is about a woman who made a difference to her family, her community and Guild Park. The tale also illustrates how complicated and difficult it is to navigate the City of Toronto's process to sponsor a commemorative bench at Guild Park.

The City's bench program began as a way to encourage people to improve City parks by donating a bench. As the experience at Guild Park shows, this charitiable process has evolved into a maze of bureaucracy where it seems no one is effectively in charge.

Bringing this bench to Guild Park (see photo) required $2,500 in sponsorship, and 15 months of volunteer advocacy.

This commemorative bench is in memory of Louise Miskew. She was a successful real estate broker in Scarborough who raised her family in Guildwood Village. Louise was also an active community supporter and took a lead role in the Guild Renaissance Group (GRG), the charity that worked for decades to bring the arts and artists back to Guild Park.

The opening of the park's Clark Centre for the Arts in 2022 was a testament to the efforts of the GRG and Louise. She was among the first people to enjoy taking the public art programs offered in that new facility.

Sadly, Louise died unexpectedly in late June 2023. Her volunteer colleagues, including members of Friends of Guild Park, decided that a commemorative bench in the park would make a fitting tribute.

Guild Park was the place where the Miskew family - husband Fred and their children Stephanie and Paul - would visit regularly. They often walked from their nearby home, entered the park from Livingston Road, then strolled along the forest footpath toward the formal gardens.

Volunteers intended to announce their plans for a commemorative bench at the memorial service held in early July 2023 for Louise. After reaching the City officials in charge of the process, volunteers' efforts to make this happen got blocked by two almost-insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles.

Problem one is the City only handles commemorative requests during certain months in the spring and fall. This program was designed so people can sponsor benches and trees at City parks, but is now so popular that the City accepts applications only at limited times. The recent screenshot below from the City of Toronto website (Sept. 26, 2024) tells people that the program is currently at capacity and is no longer accepting applications.

The month of Louise's sudden passing, June, is one of the months when the City closes applications for commemorative benches and trees.

The second obstacle was the City's policy against installing any commemorative benches at Guild Park. This edict was based on a mistake made a decade earlier and had never been questioned.

People familiar with the size and scale of Guild Park know there are ample opportunities on site to install new seating or to replace existing worn or damaged benches.

After months of probing, volunteers eventually learned that the Parks Department decision to make Guild Park a "no-bench zone" originated from an internal "miscommunication" going back to the 2013 ice storm.

As background, Guild Park's native Carolinian forest suffered serious long-term damage from the combined effects of that winter's ice and the extensive insect infestations from previous summers. The 2016 photo shows the long term damage at Guild Park's forest after the 2013 ice storm.

To replace and upgrade Guild Park's damaged woods, the City's urban foresters implemented a long-term reforestration plan. To ensure only native trees were planted in appropriate places, officials decided to halt any new plantings of commemorative trees at Guild Park until further notice.

At the City's Commemorative Tree & Bench Program, the call to stop planting new trees at Guild Park was mistakenly interpreted as a signal to also stop installing new benches. Guild Park volunteers brought this error to the attention of City Parks officials more than a year ago. Parks staff say remedial action is underway.

From June 2023 to April 2024, these two obstacles stymied volunteers' efforts, preventing progress on this commemorative bench project. Without any indications of City approval or support, volunteers made no public mention of their plans for a bench at Guild Park for Louise, not even at her July 2023 memorial service, attended by hundreds of her friends and family members.

Meanwhile behind the scenes, members of the Guild Renaissance Group began allocating the necessary funds to sponsor a bench honouring their organzation's late volunteer chair.

At the April 2024 Guild Park Advisory Group meeting of volunteers and City officials, Friends of Guild Park reps again asked for updates about a bench for Louise. In response, Scarborough District Parks Manager, Goran Mitrevski, arranged for City staff to process an application to install this bench at Guild Park.

By June this year, the bench had been paid for by the GRG and officially approved by the City. The next step came in mid-September when volunteers from Friends of Guild Park met in the park with two reps from the City's commemorative program, see photo, and confirmed the bench location.

Just two days after that informal meeting, City crews mounted the commemorative bench on a custom concrete pad. The date of the bench install was Sept. 20, 2024 - exactly 15 months after Louise died.

The location holds special significance. The bench is along the walkway informally known as "Livingston Trail." It the very route that Louise and her family would use on their countless visits to Guild Park.

The bench location is also practical. It's about mid-way on a long, 400-metre stretch of path that lacks places to sit and rest. Having a bench at this part of Guild Park is welcomed by the many visitors who use this unimproved trail, especially seniors who live nearby and regularly walk this section of Guild Park.

Sitting on this south-facing bench lets people capture glimpses of Lake Ontario through the trees year-round. Trilliums bloom each spring, see photo, close to Guild Park's new bench.

It's important to note that the City's process to install commemorative benches operates separately and with much greater complexity than the way regular benches get repaired and installed at Guild Park. Park officials responsible for Guild Park do a good job routinely installing new benches or upgrading existing ones around the site. A prime example is the popular bench recently installed at the entry to Guild Park's forest boardwalk, along Guildwood Parkway (see photo). 

There's one more task for the City to complete: installing on the commemorative bench the actual memorial plaque that recognizes local resident and volunteer, Louise Miskew.  It's usual practice to install these name plates after the bench is in place.

When that work is done, Guild Park volunteers will hold an informal celebration at the site of Louise's bench. Watch for details to come at a later date. It will be an occasion to welcome everyone who'd like to mark Louise's memory and how she made her community - and Guild Park - better.