Andrea de Pitera wondered why she hadn’t been contacted to select a volunteer from the Ramsey Hill Association who should receive recognition from the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy.
As chair of the association’s parks and gardens volunteer group, she usually got a call from the Conservancy asking which volunteer should be recognized for outstanding work.
She wouldn’t be doing that this year, she was told.
Because de Pitera is this year’s award winner.
De Pitera joined the Ramsey Hill Association in 2007, a year after she and her husband moved to the area. The six neighborhood parks within the association’s boundary (east of Dale Street almost to I-35E and I-94 to Summit Avenue) are important to de Pitera. She likes to spend time in the parks, she says, surrounded by green spaces. She calls it “forest bathing.”
“I take care of things I enjoy.”
Though she grew up in Bloomington, de Pitera says she’s “never been a suburban sort of person.” She lived in downtown Minneapolis in the past, when she worked at Dayton’s Department Store.
De Pitera and the 75-some volunteers in the association work in the parks from spring flower planting to stringing lights during the holiday season. Volunteers sign up to do watering and weeding for a week or two in the summer. De Pitera coordinates the schedule, “but I don’t crack any whips.”
“People are invested in the parks,” she says, “not just the volunteers, but other people in the neighborhood.”
The six parks and gardens in the area are Boyd Park, Cochran Park, Holly Tot Lot, McQuillan Park, Nathan Hale Park and Summit Overlook Park. Ramsey Hill Association is sponsoring events in some of the parks this summer and a house tour is planned for Sept. 22.
De Pitera has a special place in her heart for work the association has done to restore the fountain in Cochran Park at the intersection of Portland, Summit and Western. The park’s fountain sculpture, Indian Hunter and His Dog, which features a Native hunter, his dog and four geese that spout water from their beaks, was created by renowned sculptor and St. Paul native Paul Manship in 1926. (He also created the well-known Prometheus sculpture in New York City’s Rockefeller Center.)
The Ramsey Hill Association has been working with the City of St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society to fund the fountain restoration. The neighborhood raised more than $45,000 for the project, de Pitera says. The basin has recently been re-tiled and the sculpture has been refurbished. The four geese that spout water need to be set back in place.
De Pitera says the project took a blow when one of the geese was stolen in 2021. The thief took it to a metal recycling center but the owner of the scrapyard “had an inkling this was something special,” and returned it to the city.
Cochran Park also has a stone building (called a folly) with a plaque honoring the Cochran family, which donated the land in 1923, and a poem about childhood by author Robert Louis Stevenson. The Cochran family wanted the park dedicated to children.
De Pitera highlighted the five other parks – all within walking distance of her apartment – where the volunteers spearheaded improvements and help to tend.
Boyd Park (between Virginia and Farrington streets): Named for African-American union leader Frank Boyd, the park has a play area called “Vivienne’s Joy.” The playground was named for a volunteer’s 4-year-old daughter, who died from Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.
Holly Tot Lot (529 Holly Ave.): Created for children 2-5 years old.
McQuillan Park (515 Laurel Ave.): Has a play area and tennis courts. McQuillan Bros. plumbing donated a equipment for a dog waste area.
Nathan Hale Park (401 Summit Ave.): Dedicated to Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, the park has a bronze statue dedicated to Hale.
Summit Overlook Park (418 Summit Ave.): The park has a spectacular view of the city. It’s identified as the oldest park in the city by the group Public Art St. Paul. A huge bronze statue of an eagle was originally at the entrance of the New York Life building in downtown St. Paul. When the building was razed in 1967, the New York Life Eagle was moved to Fourth and Jackson, near a parking ramp. It was there until 1999, when it went into storage in a Como Park maintenance building until it was rescued, rehabbed and placed at Summit Overlook in 2004. The Ramsey Hill Association helped in the fight to land the eagle at the park.
Fundraising is part of the association’s work, de Pitera says. “Parks are an expensive venture. The city, quite frankly, doesn’t have the money.”
De Pitera and her husband volunteered for years at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.
“Volunteering is kind of in my nature,” she says. “It gives you whole new perspectives.
“It creates a more holistic society.”
And volunteering with the Ramsey Hill Association has given de Pitera a connection with her neighbors. During the pandemic shutdown in 2020, the group would gather outdoors for “walkabouts” in the neighborhood to share information and socialize, de Pitera says.
What does de Pitera say to those who claim to be too busy to volunteer?
“I’m super busy,” says the 54-year-old. She works from home for a contractor, she and her husband also run a home business and, of course, there’s plenty to do with the Ramsey Hill Association.
“You get to know your neighbors,” she says. “There’s a feeling you all have an investment in your neighborhood.
“A city is sometimes very insulating. It’s nice to get out and know your neighbors.”
More about the Ramsey Hill Association:
The group was founded in the 1970s. It is a nonprofit 501c3 organization run by volunteers. For more information, go to ramseyhill.org.
Party for the Parks
Andrea de Pitera will be honored at the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy’s annual Party for the Parks from 5:30-8:30 p.m. June 26 at Como Midway Picnic Pavilion.
Party for the Parks celebrates volunteers and raises funds for neighborhood parks.
Click here for tickets and more information
Article by Kathy Berdan. Photos from Kathy Berdan and Colleen Fitzpatrick