The volunteer group that keeps St. Mary’s Park itself running, officially recognized by the city, and governed by the same people you already elect to the SHA board.
What a “Friends of Parks” group is
Friends of St. Mary’s Park is Seton Hill’s chapter of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks’ (BCRP) citywide Friends of Parks program: a framework for community members to formally partner with the city to care for a specific park. Registered groups organize cleanups, plantings, and community events; help keep the park’s condition visible to the city; and become eligible for grants, free materials, and other support BCRP reserves for recognized groups.
To register and stay registered, a group has to check in with BCRP’s Community Engagement Team, agree on a yearly work plan, and file an annual report covering volunteer hours, events held, and funding received. A group that goes inactive, or whose nonprofit status lapses, can have its recognition withdrawn.
How Friends of St. Mary’s Park is governed
Friends of St. Mary’s Park doesn’t have its own separate leadership or its own election. It’s run by the Seton Hill Association’s Board of Directors, the same board members chosen every October, wearing a second hat.
BCRP’s Friends of Parks Manual lays out two acceptable ways for a Friends group to be structured: incorporate as its own independent nonprofit, or operate in partnership with an already-established one. Seton Hill went with the second option, deliberately, since the neighborhood decided two small, potentially overlapping nonprofits didn’t make sense here. BCRP’s own annual registration form even asks every Friends group to name its local community association and confirm the two are affiliated, this arrangement is the pattern the city’s program expects, not an exception to it.
In practice, that means the SHA and Friends of St. Mary’s Park share a bank account and a single set of officers. To state it plainly: when you vote in the SHA’s October election, you’re also choosing who runs Friends of St. Mary’s Park for the year.
What it does, and what it’s limited to
- Maintains, improves, and helps activate St. Mary’s Park through volunteer clean-ups, plantings, and community events.
- Manages the SHA’s access to the park building, which BCRP owns. That access is a privilege the city could revoke, so it’s treated carefully.
- Keeps the building usable through the winter: heat stays on low, and someone checks the pipes so they don’t freeze. There’s also an AC unit for summer, though no internet, a phone or library hotspot covers that when needed.
BCRP also sets real limits on what volunteers can do themselves: no heavy machinery or gas-powered equipment (lawn mowers, chainsaws), and no unauthorized tree pruning or repair work without training from BCRP’s forestry division. Bigger jobs like that go through the city, not around it.
Why the registration actually matters
Two concrete things depend on staying a registered Friends group, rather than just being a friendly neighborhood association:
- Grant eligibility. Programs like BCRP’s Park-N-Play grants ($500 to $5,000) and several Adopt-a-Lot-linked city grants are only open to recognized Friends of Parks groups, not to neighborhood associations generally.
- A possible permit fee waiver. Every park event or program needs a city permit regardless of Friends status, that’s a citywide rule, not something specific to registration. But a registered Friends group can request a waiver of some permit fees when an event is co-sponsored with or affiliated with BCRP. It’s a case-by-case decision made by the city’s permits office, not an automatic discount.
Recurring events
- Monthly neighborhood clean-ups, usually the same week as the SHA’s general meeting.
- Two neighborhood dumpster days a year, one in fall and one in spring, booked through the city’s Department of Public Works and held alongside a clean-up.
Get involved
There’s no separate membership for the Friends group, showing up is how you join in. To ask about using the park building or get involved more directly, reach out through the SHA’s contact page.