Happy New Year from DIY!
DIY Lowell wants to wish everyone an amazing 2021! There are so many things we missed last year–being able to gather and plan in person, all our community festivals and events like Points of Light and Folk Festival, and being able to meet with friends at restaurants and pubs. However, one thing we didn’t miss was Lowell’s amazing support!
Thanks to the community, we:
- Transitioned to a new Program Director, Alexis Ploss
- Worked with the Ghost Signs Alive project team to finish their J.C. Ayer projection, now exhibiting until 9:00 pm every night
- Kickstarted the Helping Centralville Connect project in cooperation with many stakeholders and the Solomon Foundation (Survey still open for those who missed it in 2020!)
- Joined with Free Soil Arts Collective and Commonwealth Places to start the Visualize Lowell’s Black History project
- Had an amazing, fun Café Crawl, giving punchcards to dozens of people who each visited up to ten cafés and won gift cards and other prizes
- A lot of other behind-the-scenes work, including beginning coordination of re-starting the Young Ideas Project “the Space” and growing it to additional youth groups, “Quarantine Café” virtual community meetings, and more!
Want to help us out?
Check out the Ghost Signs Alive fundraiser on the Lowell Virtual Market – the team is selling limited edition soap inspired by Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral and hand-crafted by Red Antler Apothecary and five distinctive postcards designed by the team–from a single postcard for $1.50 for a $15 for an entire gift basket.
Consider joining the Advisory Committee (link pdf) by emailing info@diylowell.org with interest.
Sign up for our mailing list to stay informed of all our activities and opportunities.
Thank you!
The Great Lowell Café Crawl!
Note: You may still donate, but the Great Lowell Re-Opening Café Crawl is over–stay tuned for the winners!
Want to support local business and DIY Lowell at once? Join us on the Great Lowell Re-Opening Café Crawl!
For a $20 donation, you’ll receive a Café Crawl Card and two special thank-you stickers in the mail. When you present your card to a participating café, they will check off their name on the card and give you a special (cafés and specials listed below), limit one special per card per café.
- Customers are limited to one special per café per card.
- Share a photo on Twitter or Instagram at each café you visit tagging @diylowell and #diylowellcafecrawl to be entered into a weekly raffle for gift cards from participating cafés and more pulled each Saturday in November.
- Email a photo of your card with as many punches you can get before Nov. 30, because each punch will count as a raffle entry for you in our FINAL RAFFLE on Dec. 1.
If your card is filled up with punches from every café, you’re entered into the grand prize: naming a drink for a week at Brew’d Awakening!
If your card is filled up with punches from every café, you’re entered into the grand prize: naming a drink for a week at What are you waiting for? Donate with major credit cards or with a Paypal account by clicking the button below (donation is made secure via Paypal’s system but you can use any payment method)–make sure to share your current mailing address in so we can mail you the stickers and card! You may also pay by check with the instructions here. Don’t forget to email your mailing address to us at info@diylowell.org if you send a check.
Participating Restaurants
 | Brew’d Awakening | 61 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852 | $2 off a purchase of $5 or more |
 | Coffee and Cotton | 250 Jackson St., 4th floor, Lowell, MA 01852 | One free medium drip coffee (hot or iced) with any food purchase |
 | Gallery Z | 167 Market St., Lowell, MA 01853 | Coming soon! |
 | Little Delights Bakery | 132 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852 | Free Cupcake with purchase |
 | Panela Restaurant | 7 Hanover St., Lowell, MA 01850 | Free hot Colombian chocolate, in-store or to-go, when you order any breakfast item |
 | Purple Carrot Bread Co. | 107 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852 | Free medium coffee hot or iced with purchase of $3 or more |
 | Rosie’s Café | 155 Middlesex St., #1B, Lowell, MA 01852 | Medium coffee + muffin for $5.00 (save 50 cents) |
 | The Worthen House Café | 141 Worthen St., Lowell, MA 01852 | 50% off one appetizer |
 | Wham’s Café | 737 Lakeview Ave, Lowell, MA 01850 | Free Kahawa Coffee or Soda Can with each order or $1.00 off a 16oz or 24oz Smoothie or Frappe |
Special thanks to all participating restaurants and to the DIY Lowell Advisory Committee for organization and support.
Helping Centralville Connect by Improving the River Path
The Centralville River Path project is a multi-year initiative to improve the riverside path in Centralville between Bridge Street and Aiken Street–and its entrances at Gold Star Park and near the Ouellette Bridge. Over 2021, DIY Lowell advanced several community outreach efforts, including working with “Stitching Urban Fabric” for pro-bono landscape design services, to envision a welcoming, safe, and fun pedestrian and bicycle path. The vision was phased, with the intent that DIY Lowell would undertake short-term pop-up improvements in 2022, and larger interventions would start in 2023.
Community engagement has been an integral part of the process and a driving force behind the design. Initial input gathered from an online survey was used to develop
three different design concepts for the path and trailheads. The community then provided feedback on those concepts at two pop-up public meetings and a second online survey. The concept was vetted at a final public meeting in Spring 2022. The result was a captivating vision of a clean, safe path with bold entrance signage, signature pergolas, ecologically friendly pollinator gardens, selected invasive removal, and ADA-accessibility. You can view the entire concept document–including short-term and long-term plans here. (PDF, 17 MB)
DIY Lowell is now raising funds toward a $20,000 goal and a $40,000 stretch goal for the quick-build demonstration improvements outlined in the document. Use the button below to donate to the River Path project, or email info@diylowell.org if you know of a grant or sponsorship opportunity!
It won’t end there! We are proud to work with Lowell Litter Krewe, who will lead the creation of permanent improvements over 2023 with funding secured by the State Delegation. They’re going to work hand-in-hand with us and the community that uses this amazing resource making the vision a reality!
You can still help! Join our mailing list if you want to know about future clean ups and other opportunities. Please email us at info@diylowell.org if you want to be involved in any other way.
Email info@diylowell.org with any questions or comments.
THE RIVER PATH project facilitation is funded by the Solomon Foundation’s Streets for Recovery program.
