The Heart of Stark: New trees bring shade upgrade to a Canton pocket park

I n partnership with The Repository, every Monday, Stark Community Foundation highlights positive happenings in our community. Here’s to Good News Mondays .

Made possible through funding from generous donors at Stark Community Foundation, ICAN Housing began the first phase of its Urban Accents initiative last month, planting three mature maple trees to upgrade the pocket park at Sixth Street and Walnut Avenue NE in downtown Canton.

The three trees, two planted on the west side and one on the southwest side, provide combined shade over the park’s seating area. Accessible picnic seating has been installed, and in the coming months, fruit bearing trees will be planted in the surrounding downtown Canton area.

Support for this project came from a variety of funds at Stark Community Foundation, including the W. Roderic Covey Tree Fund.

Named in memory of tree advocate W. Roderic Covey , this fund provides financial support to organizations in Stark County and its surrounding communities to conserve trees through planting, caring and education.

In the early 2000s, Rod led a long, difficult fight to save a more than 400-year-old cucumber magnolia tree in his Auburn Knolls neighborhood in North Canton.

His passion, persistence and advocacy helped preserve the centuries-old tree, which is considered to be the world’s oldest and largest of its kind. After Rod passed away in 2021, his daughter Lisa Covey created a charitable fund in celebration of his life and to ensure his positive impact would continue for generations to come.

Featuring a mural, a garden and green space, the pocket park is owned by the Canton YWCA and has been developed over several years through a multi-agency collaboration, including ICAN Housing. Previous funding was awarded through a Place Based Strategies Grant from the Ohio Capital Improvement Corporation, which made the park’s seating, paving and fencing possible.

Due to its southern-facing trajectory and open field atmosphere, the pocket park gets full sun all day, discouraging many visitors from utilizing the space. Those living nearby in YWCA’s shelter and Gateway House II locations, which provide housing for homeless individuals with disabilities and shelter displaced women and families, have a great need for the usable outdoor space.

With the shade that the newly planted trees will provide, the pocket park will be enjoyed by community residents for years to come.

Stark Community Foundation helps individuals, families, businesses and nonprofits achieve their philanthropic goals. Learn more at www.starkcf.org .

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Heart of Stark: New trees bring shade upgrade to a Canton pocket park