Everyone Happy To See Pop Up Park’s Return

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The Pop Up Park set-up began around 2pm last Friday.

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Merchants dislike the park's location, as it blocks the entrance to Elm St from South Ave. Credit: Michael Dinan

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The YMCA hosted Olympic-themed events on Friday, including Olympic bracelet making.

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Kids lined up to begin the Olympic Ceremonies Parade last Friday, hosted by the YMCA.

The opening of the Pop Up Park at South and Elm last Friday went smoothly.

“Everybody seems happy to have it back,” Jeff Holland, a member of the Pop Up Park committee, said.  “We are seeing people that we haven’t seen since the last time we set up.”

The temporary park displayed a mixture of New Canaanites relaxing, talking, and eating under the shade of the new park umbrellas and children participating in the olympic-themed events hosted by the YMCA. Thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation, the Pop Up Park committee was able to add pots full of radiant flower blossoms as well as more tables with varying heights.

Tucker Murphy, a founding member of the Pop Up Park volunteer committee, said that the park “is supposed to be flexible.  If one person is here versus 30 people, either is okay.”

Although there are many scheduled events for the next three weeks, there is room for additions, according to Marty Skrelunas, another member of the Pop Up Park committee.  “We have programming requests coming in sort of non-stop,” he said.

Skrelunas says because the Pop Up park is open more days this year, the increased consistency will help people better understand the park.  “When it was open for two days, shut down for a week, and opened up again, a lot of people had to make a last-minute decision on which direction to drive,” he said.  “With consistency, habits change pretty quickly.”

He expects that the consistency this year will lead to “more participation in the park and more interaction with the shops.”