Parkview Hills neighbourhood ready for annual Easter balloon display this Sunday and Monday

By NATASHA JACKSON

On Easter Sunday morning (April 5), Parkview Hills residents will set up their annual festive balloon display on Marilyn Crescent.

The street is off St. Clair Avenue East, just north of O’Connor Drive, and will feature various Easter-themed balloon art displays in front of local houses.

Organizers Patti Callahan, Sarah Albany and Angela Gibson have been doing these displays for more than six years in the Parkview Hills community.

Gibson, who creates these displays, started during the COVID-19 pandemic to make things more lively and happy for people on her street.

“Angela is a balloon wizard, and she started and did a little bit during Covid just to make people on our street happy,” said Callahan. “It just evolved from there.”

This year, Callahan said there will be new wooden cutouts alongside the balloon displays. This will include wooden cutouts of eggs and bunnies. “But this year we’re doing some wooden cutouts as well. I’ve been working for two weeks on eggs and wooden bunnies and other kinds of things,” said Callahan.

In 2024, the community had the idea to raise money for the Thorncliffe Food Bank and collected $150 in donations and filled the entire back of a car with non-perishable food items as part of the Easter displays.

Last year, food was donated to the Salvation Army.

This year, Callahan says they’ve already collected more than $700 to go towards buying the balloons and wood for their wooden cutouts, and additional funds raised, and food donations, will go towards local food banks and other charitable organizations.

Residents can see the displays from at 6 a.m. on Easter Sunday until the end of the day on Easter Monday.