The Friends of Buttonwood Park is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that serves as stewards of Buttonwood Park, the largest and most visited public park in New Bedford, Mass. We are dedicated to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the park in the spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted, whose famed landscape architectural firm laid out the first plans for Buttonwood Park in 1895.
Our mission is to maintain a peaceful park where people can relax and escape the stresses of urban life. We focus on projects like tree plantings, gardens, and better recreational facilities that help improve the well-being of local residents who visit the park. We also support activities that preserve the park as a historic landscape.
The work of The Friends of Buttonwood Park is made possible by people like you. Because of your support, we can keep improving the park and providing you with a calm natural retreat to enjoy right here in the city.
Board members for The Friends of Buttonwood Park volunteer their time to ensure that local residents have a peaceful and beautiful park to enjoy.
The Friends is responsible for placing the Buttonwood Park Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
We’ve planted over 450 trees and shrubs, in accordance with the park’s master plan. Many of these are commemorative trees.
We started the Buttonwood on the Move health initiative and raised over $90,000 to help build three new basketball courts.
More than 3,500 New Bedford schoolchildren have participated in educational “Trees In Our Park” tree walks with us in the arboretum.
We created a lovely reading garden behind the Lawler Branch Library, as well as the wetlands buffer garden and the lilac garden.
Each May, we host a community-wide spring cleanup to rid the park of trash and teach people about the importance of a clean park.
We work together with other nonprofits and the New Bedford Parks Recreation & Beaches Department to improve the park.
We clear invasive plants and uncontrolled brush throughout the park, including at the future home of the park’s nature trail.
As our first Buttonwood on the Move project, we chose to restore the park’s basketball courts. These heavily used basketball courts had not been updated in 30 years. We raised more than $90,000 and built three new clean, safe basketball courts, which opened in 2014.
Our next big Buttonwood on the Move project is to create a nature trail through 18 acres of woods that lie north of the pond. This area has been overgrown and neglected for years. Right now, we’re working to raise $50,000 by 2017 to develop a master plan for this trail.
The courts have been restored. More info shortly.
Support the work of The Friends today! Your donation goes directly to projects that protect, improve, and maintain Buttonwood Park.
DonateYou can make a difference for Buttonwood Park. Become a member of The Friends, volunteer your time with us, or plant a commemorative tree at the park.
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