Who We Are

The Friends of Loring Park is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving, improving, and supporting historic Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis. Established in 1997 “Friends” have worked to foster and build a strong and vibrant Loring Park community.  

Brief History of the “Friends”

Beginning as the garden sub-committee of Citizens for a Loring Park Community (CLPC), The Friends became its own non-profit in 1997. Utilizing Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) funds specified for the restoration of Loring Park, the Friends became the community organization dedicated to the implementation of the Loring Park 20-year improvement plan created by Balmori Associates, a New York based landscape design firm. Seeking additional funding from the city, neighborhood organizations, and individual donations the Friends continue their mission to advocate and collaborate with the Park Board, financially support improvement projects and facilitate volunteer projects all for the betterment of Loring Park. The original group of neighbors/ board members included: Ione Siegel, Lee Frelich, Marcia Stout, Dottie Speidel, Diane Woelm, and Karl Reichert.

What we do

Current Projects & Initiatives

• Berger Fountain restoration with new expanded plaza, design and fundraising

• Garden of the Seasons and West Circle Garden

• Park and community information kiosk (2019 installation)

• Further development of The Loring Park Guest Artist Program

Ongoing Projects & Programming

• Regular community gardening opportunities to maintain park gardens

• Host spring garden season Kick-Off celebration

• Support ongoing garden projects and plant purchases through Garden of the Seasons commemorative brick sales

• Host monthly community sing-a-longs

• Bench sponsorships

• Support a sustainable urban forest through EAB and DED inoculations

• Guest artist programming

• Park programming co-sponsorships

Our Accomplishments - 20+ years advocating for a healthy and vibrant Loring Park

• Design and install The Garden of the Seasons (1997)

• Multiple smaller volunteer designed and maintained gardens throughout the park

• Project 515 Pathway to Equality commemorative brick project in acknowledgement and support of marriage equality (2014)

• Design engagement and funding for Community Arts Building expansion (2003)

• Financial support for playground equipment, the Woman’s Club Fishing Pier, outdoor chess tables

• 1000 sf Community Arts Building rain garden (2012)

• Commissioned stain glass window for Community Arts Building -Designer: Reynaldo Diaz. Glass Artist: Connie Becker (2005)

• Fundraising and support for the restoration and relocation of the Performance Place building (1998)

• The Loring Park Guest Artist Program

• Park improvement projects: 

  • Playground equipment 

  • Woman's Club Fishing Pier 

  • 100 benches 

  • Outdoor chess tables 

• Park programming co-sponsorships:

  • Summer movies series

  • Morning Meditation Group

  • Garden tending events

  • WinterFest

  • Pre-Parade Aquatennial Party

  • Acoustic Music Festival 

  • The Pickup Truck Opera performance

  • Community Sing-A-Long

• Continued financial support for park programming in partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board

MEET THE BOARD

David Hile, President

I joined the Friends’ Board in about 2009 and have been Board President since 2011. I retired from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in 1998 where I ran the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center (Jail). My wife Mary and I joined the Loring Park neighborhood in 2003 when we moved into Summit House on Groveland Avenue. We moved from a single-family home in Plymouth that had a yard and gardens. No longer having my own gardens, I jumped at the chance to join the Friends of Loring Park and get my hands dirty in the Garden of Seasons. As Board President I feel the daunting task of keeping Friends the vibrant and thriving organization that my predecessors (Ione Segal and Lee Frelich) had created. With my hard-working fellow Board members and the community, I feel we can continue the success of this vital organization.

Todd Miller

I live on Oak Grove Street. I had just sold my home in Uptown and missed working in my yard, so in 2009, I joined the Friends of Loring Park as a volunteer gardener. I design, plant and maintain the Triangle Garden beside the horse shoe courts. I also oversee the commemorative brick program in the Garden of the Seasons, offer my photography on the fundraising notecards in the rec center. I love being active in Loring Park as a way of 'giving back' to a community that is so culturally rich and socially important in the downtown area. I designed, installed, and maintain the West Circle Garden.

Richard Anderson, Treasurer

I first moved into the Loring Park neighborhood in 1969 living on Oak Grove St. The neighborhood was quite different then, so I have been excited to see the tremendous change over 50 years has brought. One thing that has not changed is the diversity of residents and that's what I like best about living here. l joined Friends a number of years ago and it is exciting to help make improvements to the Park.

Pat Davies

Cattails got me interested in Loring when we moved to Loring Green East twelve years ago because they covered the whole lake.  Engagement with park board staff, a successful push to change state law, and a lot of neighborhood support, especially from Friends of Loring Park, has led to getting to know the system, the people who live here, and even cattail biology. Now we have to look at the green cover of duckweed! I love being on the Friends board, working on the Berger Fountain committee, on the Loring Greenway board, and watching our whole downtown community become more vibrant and attractive every day.

Lee Frelich (founding member)

Lee E. Frelich is Director of the Center for Forest Ecology at the University of Minnesota, and one of the neighborhood experts on trees, climate change, invasive species and urban ecology. Twenty-five years ago, I moved to Loring Park to live in a neighborhood where everything needed for daily life is available on foot, and to be close to Orchestra Hall. I am one of the founding members of Friends of Loring Park, established in 1997.  My favorite memory was the great storm and flood of July 1, 1997, in the midst of Loring Park's major renovation. Rivers three feet deep poured down the Loring Greenway and Grant Street into the park that evening, temporarily turning the park into a lake, with high water mark at the deck of the bridge The water level was back to normal the following morning, and the park maintenance supervisor could not figure why 500-pound chunks of pavement were sitting in the middle of the lawn, or why the pond was filled with water. MPRB had just finished emptying the water from the pond the day before the storm, to install a clay liner to prevent water loss. A woman who frequently walked through the park in those days was delighted to tell me "you emptied the pond and god filled it back up for you". Loring Pond had to be emptied a second time, and MPRB did install the clay liner later that summer.

Marcia Stout (founding member)

I recall an outstanding moment when we had just put in the red benches in the Garden of the Seasons. We were all working, planting, and enjoying each other and the sound of nature. I looked up and all the benches were occupied. I cried—one mission accomplished. Ede and I in our Hip boots, planting on the edges of the pond, were laughing and trying not to fall in! All the great leadership on our board and their creativity makes for a rewarding experience and lots of fun!

Bill Tresch

I joined the board in 2014, a couple years after I was asked to lead the Morning Meditation group, a one-month experiment which has become an ongoing program entering its 9th year. How could you not love the park from that early morning ringside seat. From meditation and then gardening, the board, and working to develop the Loring Park Guest Artist program, one thing leads to the next. The park, the board, Loring has become a valued community of friends and neighbors.  

Nicholas Deacon, Vice President

I moved to the neighborhood in 2013 and joined the Friends of Loring Park board 2019. My interests in the park span the playgrounds and programs that my kids take advantage of to the flower and now vegetable gardening that relies on volunteer support. I am a member of the Biology Faculty at Minneapolis College and the faculty advisor for the student gardening club, so I see many opportunities for increasing connections to our community members.

Jerry Amundson

I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors, dogs, and travel. I grew up in Lakeville, MN when the area was still mostly farmland. Often in the summer, as a kid, I would walk with the family dog along the creek behind our house. There was the peace and quiet of course, and moments to escape the heat under a stand of willow trees. Later, however, I would realize those walks allowed me to see firsthand the effects of humans on the environment. Through the 20 years I lived there, I observed big changes like farmland getting replaced by housing developments, but small things too like tadpole numbers dropping which meant decline of toads and frogs. Most of my early travel was around Minnesota, then as an adult visiting areas of the US, Europe and Asia.

Mark Scally

I’ve been in business all my life:

In an accounting, tax and business consulting firm where I moved from LA to Minneapolis to become the CEO and Board Chair of a firm, RSM, with 3,300 employees. I was also the CEO for the global group, RSM Global, for a number of years which employed 16,000 people.

I was involved with a number of start-up businesses for 8 years but stopped when I could no longer raise the capital to grow a $30-50 million revenue firm because of the 2008 recession.

I was the CEO of a large construction firm that had real estate interests and start-up businesses.

I am currently with Expense Reduction Analysts which helps organizations reduce their expenses in ways they don’t know how to do themselves. I am a sales consultant for a particular distribution source.

I was in early childhood education here in MN for about 10 years through MN Business for Early Learning. Among other things, I spoke in the Twin Cities and Greater MN about the importance to businesses of having as many children as possible truly ready for Kindergarten.

I was involved in a not-for-profit in Southern California focusing on helping children.

I’ve always loved Loring Park and would like to help it in whatever way I can. I’ve had extensive experience with strategic planning, organizational development, sales and marketing and capital raising.

Joella Mosley (Secretary)

Joella Mosley, a consultant and entrepreneur, lived in France for almost two decades where she worked in set design, was an artist’s assistant to international designer Louis Durot, and started her business as a contractor for residential and commercial renovations. Upon her return to the U.S., she was Director of Development for a social services agency for Spanish-speaking immigrants in Washington, D.C. In 2011, she founded New Green Industries, LLC (NGI).

NGI is a horizontal group-purchasing consortium for local businesses and nonprofits that saves participants money, focuses spending locally, and makes greening operations affordable. Promoting green/eco-friendly products, NGI has been able to offer participants saving of up to 31% for electricity services, 26% for restaurant supplies, and 26% for office supplies. In 2015, NGI was nominated by Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan Business Improvement District for the Climate and Energy Leadership Awards by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Joella is an associate with Training and Development Resources in Minneapolis and is in the process of establishing NGI in the Midwest.

Erik Peterson

Erik has lived in the Loring Park neighborhood for two years. He brings valuable park board experience from White Bear Township. While on the White Bear Township Park Board, Erik was involved in bringing the parks (there are 26 local parks) up to ADA compliance as required by the city. He was involved as well in helping to preserve the old, Cass Gilbert-designed city hall by moving it to Polar Lakes Park, and instrumental in creating the annual White Bear Township Day celebration. Erik loves gardening which has been evident by his outstanding volunteerism in the Loring Park gardens this summer. He is an invaluable asset in our mission to rid the ponds’ shorelines of invasive species. 

Ede Holmen, (Emeriti)

Ione Segal, (Founding Member), 1997-2017