Planting Acorns for the Future: Cincinnati Parks Foundation Board Gathers to Celebrate 30 Years of Progress

By Cincinnati Parks Foundation | July 15, 2025

This spring, Cincinnati Parks Foundation hosted a special gathering of our Board of Directors and Emerging Leaders to kick off our 30th anniversary year. This event offered an opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made, recognizing the partners and leaders who make our work possible and share what’s ahead for one of Cincinnati’s most active and impactful nonprofits.

Over the past 30 years, the Cincinnati Parks Foundation has raised more than $110 million to support clean, safe and inclusive parks and programming across the city. This year alone, our potential for impact is evident across every corner of our mission.

💡CREATE

Through our Create bucket, we’re raising $2 million for Owl’s Nest Park, which has become a catalytic project uniting three neighborhoods—East Walnut Hills, Evanston and O’Bryonville, along with Cincinnati Parks and Cincinnati Recreation Commission.  

At Sawyer Point, we are leading efforts to restore the riverfront skating rink and replace the playground that was lost to fire in 2023. This project is driven by a broad coalition of partners and is transforming Sawyer Point into a premier destination for family play. 

🌳CONSERVE

In our Conserve bucket, we are planting and distributing more than 1,200 trees annually, including 80 new trees in Sawyer Point planted thanks to a grant from the Arbor Day Foundation to aid in flood recovery. And thanks to our award-winning obLITTERators volunteer teams, we removed 50 more tons of litter from parks last year alone. This initiative continues each month in parks around the city. 

❤️CONNECT

Under connect, we’re proud to activate our parks through community-led programs that build future stewards of our historic park system. This includes launching Cincinnati Parks + Rec for Wellness, a powerful collaboration with the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati. Our goal is simple: to invite more people into our parks and help them feel better by doing so. 

This year, we’re also celebrating: 

🎩 The 19th annual Hats Off Luncheon, our signature fundraising event, on Friday, October 3. 

🎠10 years of Family Fun Days, now bigger than ever, featuring a sensory-friendly hour, free bicycle helmets with the Cincinnati Fire Department and Fire Foundation and a book giveaway with Queen City Book Bank through Ellen’s Heart + Soul Book Club. 

🌻Nature education access, including Nature Camp scholarships and free transportation for campers to Nature Centers and Krohn Conservatory. 

🥾More than 200 free public events, made possibly by grants awarded to over 30 Cincinnati Park Advisory Councils for neighborhood park programming. 

These efforts represent just a few of the acorns we’re planting today to provide shade in Cincinnati Parks tomorrow. As we celebrate 30 years of impact, we’re committed to continuing our work to conserve, create and connect—ensuring that our parks remain vibrant, welcoming and accessible for generations to come. 

Thank you to our board members, donors, partners, and volunteers. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together—and we’re just getting started. 

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