Joining Forest Park Forever or renewing your membership benefits the Park season after season. Member support goes into the soil and water that bolsters new trees taking root. It helps our nonprofit conservancy improve pathways, waterways and prairies that the Park's human and wildlife visitors use to travel around. 

Year after year, Forest Park Forever members sustain our nonprofit's ability to care for all 1,300 acres of urban habitat. We talked to some Members at the 2023 Annual Member Appreciation Event about what the Park means to them and why they give back year after year. We hope you enjoy sharing in their memories—and that you'll consider joining (or renewing) to help us maintain Forest Park for generations of joyful moments and lasting memories to come.

From Joyous Fall Moments . . .

As a young child, Kathy Doellefeld remembers going to Forest Park whenever visitors were in from out of town, and once she became a teenager, she started visiting the Park on her own. One gorgeous fall day, she witnessed an event she will never forget.

"Almost everyone was out of school, and we were hanging out near the Grand Basin," Doellefeld recalls. "All of a sudden, a pickup football game started. This was in the late 1960s when racial tensions were high, but it was just Black and White kids who didn't know each other, all playing together. It was so cool because nobody cared about being different races or anything. It was just this big clump of kids."

Visiting the Park as an adult, Doellefeld continues to see kids of all races and backgrounds playing together.

"There will be kids playing together at the Nature Playscape, which is so fabulous, or at some of the other playgrounds, like the Variety Wonderland Playground near the Visitor Center," she says. "We're so lucky to have this place. It really does feel like a community space." 

. . .To Lasting Summer Memories

When Don Mueller was growing up, like today, thousands of St. Louisans spent evenings in Forest Park to escape the summer heat. 

"When I was a kid in the early 1960s, we lived in Richmond Heights with no air conditioning," Mueller says. "My parents would take us to Forest Park and put us under the spray from the fountains below the World's Fair Pavilion. That would cool us off, and then they'd take us home to fall asleep for the night."

Mueller's daughter Carolyn would go on to share her father's love of Forest Park. 

"She met her husband at the Zoo when he was the elephant keeper," Mueller explains. "They got engaged in the Park, and they had their wedding reception here.

While working at the Saint Louis Zoo, Carolyn Mueller began writing books—including one about the walkways in Forest Park.

"Recently, we came to the Park with the photographer who shot their wedding to have family pictures taken. The weekend forecast was terrible, but 30 minutes before the shoot, the weather turned beautiful for about an hour and a half before the rain came, and we got some great photos in front of the Muny. We all love Forest Park because it's been part of our lives in so many ways."

And From the Tallest Trees in Springtime . . .

Larry Timberlake and his friend Ann Kibburs are always up for a walk in the Park, especially in the spring.

"That's when everything comes to life," says Timberlake. "I like to walk through the Kennedy Forest and take the back path from there to the Art Museum. The trees are so majestic, and one day I found a plant that smelled like mint. There's always something new to see in the spring."

Another favorite route for Timberlake and Kibburs is over the bridge on Government Drive near the Boathouse. They enjoy taking in the waterway before continuing to the World’s Fair Pavilion and back.

"It's kind of peaceful, and it's great for Ann because she needs a paved surface to walk on with her walker," Timberlake says. "There are a lot of paved surfaces in the Park for her to use.

"It's just so beautiful. All the plantings and flowers that Forest Park Forever maintains are always different. Like, we noticed today that they now have fall colors in front of the Visitor Center. We love that—but spring is when everything really comes together for me."

. . . To the Littlest Critters in Winter

Chris Schraw says that he's been bicycling around the Park for decades, beginning when he worked at St. Mary's Hospital, which was then located near Oakland and Hampton.

"I'd bike to work, and after work, I'd bike around the Park and then back to my home in Maplewood," Schraw says. "After I retired, I started bringing my dog over here. As soon as we would enter the Park, her attitude changed. She suddenly became more interested in everything around her. It amazed me what a positive effect Forest Park had on my dog."

Even in the "dead" of winter, Schraw finds a lot of interesting things in the Park. He and his dog have spotted a wide range of wildlife, from wild turkeys to bevers and more.

"Over at the bridge near the Muny, we spotted a night heron perched in a tree above the stream. We try to see him every day now, and our record is about 50-50," Schraw notes.

"I could drive 45 minutes to the Shaw Nature Reserve, or I can just come here, right here in the city. It's just really an amazing place to be out in the natural world; I've seen deer, foxes, even beavers building their dam. One time, I saw ten wild turkeys near the picnic pavilion by Kennedy Forest. Where else can you see that in St. Louis at any time of the year?"

Forest Park is the Heart of St. Louis and Forest Park Forever members are the Heart of the Park.

While major gifts have contributed to many favorite places in the Park, its’s the memberships of everyday Park-goers like Kathy Doellefeld, Don Mueller, Larry Timberlake and Chris Schraw that fund the green care and maintenance that ensures Forest Park remains a great place to enjoy.

By joining Forest Park Forever, you can join them by investing in the spots holding special places in your heart—and in the hearts of all who will follow in your footsteps.