​The Friends of Dimond Park Board are all volunteers who donate their time, sweat and sleepless nights to Dimond Park. We are always thinking about how to negotiate more resources for our Park, how to utilize volunteers' energy to beautify and maintain it, and how we can preserve the best of this historic open space for future generations. Here's a little about us and what motivates our efforts: 

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• Opie Bellas (founding member) - Board Chair. Opie serves as Board Chair for Friends of Dimond Park. In a previous life, Opie was a  professional singer with 5 recordings to her credit. She has been a long-time volunteer with Daily Bread, a non-profit whose mission is to redirect excess food from local vendors to places that could make good use of the food. As a competitive tennis player she has made it her mission to see the Dimond Tennis court renovation to completion. “I would like to thank District 4 Councilmember Sheng Thao for her can-do attitude and commitment to the Dimond neighborhood. Dimond Park is a jewel worth caring for.”
   

• Kathy Kenworthy (2021) (Vice Chair) - Kathy has been a Dimond resident for about 40 years.  Her kids grew up playing in Dimond Park and going up and down the trails in Dimond Canyon.  She has recently retired and is happy to be able to give back to a place where her family had so many fun adventures. She hopes we can maintain and improve the Park so that it is a go-to place for many more years.
   

• Laurie Umeh (founding member) - Secretary/Treasurer. Laurie lives in the Melrose neighborhood. She grew up across the street from a Minneapolis city park.  She swims at Lions Pool and is a proud member of the Really Terrible String Orchestra of Berkeley (cello).  
   

• Marilyn Miller (founding member) - Marilyn was in traffic court to request community service as an alternative to paying a fine. The judge agreed and granted her request to serve in Dimond Park.  Those 18 hours of service produced an indelible delight in the promise of the Park and, many years later, joining with other volunteers known today as Friends of Dimond Park.  Working with various volunteer groups early on and into the present has been/is a source of camaraderie and community, precious commodities in these times.
   

• Marion Mills (member at-large) - Marion has lived in the Dimond District for 35 years, close to Dimond Park.  She walks the park and Dimond Canyon every day and swim in the Lions pool three days a week.  She, and a group of volunteers, do a litter walk every Monday at 8 AM as an Oakland Adopt A Spot member.  The community loves the park and it is a much used playground, with tennis courts, picnic area, and places to rest for the community.
   

• Suzanne Drolet (2021) (member at-large) Suzanne has lived on Lyman Road with her husband, Alex, and dogs since 2011. Some of her earliest and favorite memories of her childhood happened at parks, and she enjoys helping keep this special neighborhood park a place to make fond memories for kids of all ages. When not working at Dimond Park, you can find her walking her dogs, working in her garden, or practicing yoga in her home studio. 

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