January 5 | Ringing in the New Year

Friends and neighbors: Today a small group of volunteers gathered in The Circle to take down the holiday decorations that have adorned the center island and the bear cub sculptures on the Fountain at The Circle. It’s always a bittersweet task, as it signifies that the holidays are over and our Berkeley version of winter has really arrived. For the...

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December 26 | FOFW Anniversary Noted in Berkeleyside

Friends and neighbors: Happy holidays! As we noted earlier this year, Friends of the Fountain and Walk marked its 30th anniversary in 2023. Created as an all-volunteer nonprofit in 1993 by a group of neighbors, it has served as community caretaker for the Fountain at The Circle and Fountain Walk ever since. This week, Berkeley’s community news site, Berkeleyside, took...

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December 2 | Fountain Decorated for the Season

Friends and neighbors: Just a note to let you know the Fountain at The Circle is now dressed for the holidays. A group of Friends of the Fountain and Walk volunteers added lighted greenery around the perimeter of the fountain island and wreaths and kippot on the grizzly bear cubs at the fountain’s center. The decorations will be up through...

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November 25 | Happy Holidays to All Our Friends!

Friends and neighbors: Happy holidays! And a sincere thank you for all your support of our now 30-year-old neighborhood nonprofit. Yes, 2023 marked Friends of the Fountain and Walk’s third full decade as an all-volunteer, grassroots organization, a milestone only possible thanks to a community that cares about preserving its neighborhood treasures. In this 30th anniversary year, in partnership with...

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August 13 | Improvements Coming Soon at The Circle

Hello, friends and neighbors. Friends of the Fountain and Walk wants to alert you to the fact that a few improvement projects are expected to begin in and around The Circle very soon. These are projects that FOFW has been working toward for some time, and it appears that our partners at the city are ready to help us move...

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May 14 | The Agony and the Ecstasy

Friends and neighbors: Happy spring! That was to be the gist of this post, which was simply going to urge you to take a stroll along Fountain Walk soon, to enjoy the amazing array of plants that neighbor Wendy Wells has painstakingly and lovingly installed and tended over the past several years along the lower walk. Many are in bloom...

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March 6 | Student volunteers join FOFW work day

Friends and neighbors: On Friday, March 3, Friends of the Fountain and Walk had its monthly work day on The Circle and Fountain Walk a day earlier than the usual first Saturday of the month. That’s because a group of young volunteers from neighboring Saint Mary’s College High School were able to come out that day and lend our usual...

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December 17 | Find the Fountain in Its Finery for 3 More Weeks

Friends and neighbors: Happy holidays! Just a note to remind you that for the next three weeks, the Fountain at The Circle will remain dressed for the season, with garlands of green around the perimeter of the center island and wreaths and kippahs adorning the fountain’s grizzly bear cubs. The lights come on about sundown and remain on for several...

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December 2 | Meet the Four(!) Northbrae Fountains

Friends and neighbors: A few pre-pandemic years back, we shared with you the news that an image of a long lost second Northbrae fountain had surfaced. The fellow who found it among several old photos he purchased at a flea market sent it our way. After some sleuthing and a major assist from a real estate agent who identified a...

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December 1 | Fountain at The Circle Flowing Again

Friends and neighbors: After a shutdown of about two weeks, the Fountain at The Circle is back up and running, The fountain had been emptied and shut off to allow for the installation of new LED lights in the main pool. The lights being replaced had begun developing issues that caused short circuits from time to time, and were ultimately...

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