For 33 years, the Friends of Warner Park organization has sponsored Sunday in the Park.
This year, event chairs and longtime friends, Rebecca Rutledge, Hugh Howser, and Grace Clayton knew they wanted it to be extra special. Founder of Friends of Warner Park, Clare Armistead, died this summer, leaving behind a long legacy of good things she created. The chairs wanted the November 6 event to be in celebration of Clare’s legacy to the Warner Parks. Founding this important group in 1987 to help raise funds for the ongoing programs and maintenance of Percy and Edwin Warner Parks is one of Clare’s crowning achievements.
The chairs met with Clare Armistead several times before her passing to ensure everything was as she wanted it to be. Elegant, yet fun. As Grace Clayton said, “Pretty much like Clare.” As Nashville’s well-heeled crowd drove onto Ridge Field in Edwin Warner Park, they heard the distant sounds of bagpipes on the hill. After mimosas and other libations with the autumnal beauty of the Warner Parks serving as the background, a gospel choir sang as guests were led to their tables in the beautifully styled tent on the manicured grounds of the park. The event of course was styled by Howser’s own H3Events. Percy Warner Park was first opened to the public in 1927, and both Percy and Edwin Warner Parks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We asked the chairs about their involvement in the event and their passion for bettering Nashville.
Nashville Lifestyles: What made you want to co-chair Sunday in the Park?
Rebecca Rutledge: I love Percy Warner Park and use it daily. I do the 5.8 or the White Trail each day, and my family enjoys hiking the Red Trail on the weekends.
Hugh Howser: Sunday in the Park has always been a favorite event of mine; I love the simplicity and beauty of the park in the fall and have attended for years, so I was thrilled once asked!
Grace Clayton: I have served on the Friends of Warner Parks Board for many years and now I am a member of the Advisory Board. In my 20s I started The Young Friends of Warner Parks as a way for young professionals to get involved with supporting Warner Parks. It has been a dream of mine since I first began volunteering with Friends of Warner Parks to chair this event.
NL: How are the funds from this event utilized?
Clayton: The Funds from this event go directly to The Friends of Warner Parks—the organization that funds the maintenance and upkeep of the Edwin and Percy Warner Parks, including the Nature Center, programming for children and the community, upkeep of the shelters and trails, and maintaining the invasive plants and much more.
NL: Why is it so important to support Warner Parks?
Howser: One visit to Warner Parks answers this question. Nature is vital for us all as a community, as a city, and as humans. We must have our protected green spaces for healing, hope, and happiness.
NL: What inspires you to use your time, talents, and treasure as a volunteer?
Rutledge: I am inspired by the causes that I support. I am inspired when I walk past a family spending time together on the trails or a group of women who walk together and get exercise and fresh air that is vital to their physical health and wellbeing. People need access to vibrant, well maintained green spaces, and Warner Parks provides this to many people in our community. That is inspiring to me.
Howser: The overall production. Once all of our hard work has come to an end, we can sit back and look at our work, and talk about how tired we are.
Clayton: The results: the money raised for the causes that are most important to me.