Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership Honors Environmental Stewards

Residents of Philadelphia and surrounding counties depend on local streams and creeks to supply the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers with drinking water. This Wednesday, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership will honor people, organizations and companies dedicated to improving and protecting the TTF Watershed. The second annual Watershed Milestones Award Ceremony and Reception takes place May 22 at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.

Executive Director Julie Slavet says that the TTF Watershed, which covers 30 square miles of Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties, is “one of the most challenged in terms of runoff.” Because much of the Tacony Creek runs through Northeast Philadelphia, it accumulates sewage and other urban pollution, which makes its way into the Delaware River.

Honorees at Wednesday’s event will include Central High School 10^th grader Aliyah Patterson, who volunteers regularly at events throughout the TTF communities. Slavet says, “Aliyah came to us all on her own, and she’s gotten really excited about the watershed and the environment. We think she’s wonderful – the great kind of environmental leader that we want to support.”

The Abington School District will also be recognized for its partnership in building a riparian buffer at its Junior High School, which sits near the headwaters of the East Baeder Creek. As school districts cover extensive areas of land in suburban Pennsylvania, Slavet says, “We feel like this is a really good start working with this particular school district and recognizing them.”

The Watershed Milestones Reception will feature a silent auction, Yards beer, Chadds Ford wines and cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery. Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the door.

Supporters can also donate via the TTF website, volunteer at events, or join the Board of Directors. Visit http://ttfwatershed.org/ for more information or to sign up for email updates. 

El Centro participates in Kinetic Sculpture Derby this Saturday

Every May the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington gathers to celebrate homespun ingenuity, functional sculpture, and human-powered transit at the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. One entry this year is a remarkable combination of youthful enthusiasm, alternative education, and neighborhood pride- built by a small band of El Centro high school students to celebrate Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to provide affordable housing.

The designers are “over-age, under-credited” youth, or students who lack the appropriate number of school credits for their age and intended grade. These students are often on the verge of or have dropped out of school, for a range of reasons including; financial instability, failing grades, parenthood, or bullying.

With only roughly half of Philadelphia students graduating high school on time, there is a moral and economic imperative to educate and inspire struggling students towards personal sustainability as working adults. El Centro del Estudiantes, or El Centro as it is called for short, is an alternative high school in the Kensington section of Northeast Philadelphia that caters to students who have dropped out of traditional high schools. The academic program is experience-based, with students earning 80% of their credits through community internships with local businesses and nonprofits. These experiences give them exposure to a variety of professional fields and help them build skills for their futures. El Centro opened in 2009 through a partnership between Congreso de Latinos Unidos and Big Picture Philadelphia, a national nonprofit that has opened alternative schools across the country including the first local one in 2005 in Camden, NJ.

While technically a district funded school, El Centro has a drastically different “student-centered” approach that lets youth drive their work through elective projects. Jesus, a student at El Centro and father of three, has been interning at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in Kensington. He began by advertising their services in the community using fliers and other traditional outreach media. Concerned that his paper-based efforts were not reaching his audience and that online marketing would have limited reach in a low-income area where many don’t have computers, he decided to think outside the box and do something new and big. Jesus, or Zeus as his advisors and friends call him, is the mastermind being El Centro’s first derby entry, a 10ft tall vehicle shaped and painted like a brick row house. He said the goal is to advertise to the community what Habitat is all about, “helping people own their own homes.”

Jesus, along with his classmates and advisors (the El Centro term for teacher) was inspired by the local rowhouses in the Kensington section of the city. Together they have designed and partially built their float using almost all donated or salvaged materials, and if all goes according to plan they will be ready to reveal their masterpiece this Saturday at the race.

Be sure to cheer on Zeus and his classmates from El Centro’s this Saturday 12pm, at Trenton Ave & Norris St! http://kinetickensington.com

Morgan is the Director of Community Engagement for Grid Magazine and in her spare time (big laugh!) she is a full-time Master of Sustainable Design graduate student at Philadelphia University. She is really proud of her roof-top deck garden. 

Rain Barrel Art for a Sustainable Future

What happens when artists bring children, adults, and elders together to create painted rain barrels? They build community. They make waves for water conservation through their paintings and luscious images. They raise awareness of water as a natural resource. They demonstrate to homeowners and businesses how they can save money, while protecting the Wisssahickon Watershed, by capturing water in a rain barrel. They use art to build a sustainable future.

The member artists of the Mt. Airy Art Garage (MAAG), a community center of creativity for the arts in Northwest Philadelphia, saw this project as a natural extension of their first rain barrel project. In May 2012 the Mt. Airy Business Improvement District (MABID) was the first Philadelphia neighborhood association to receive 15 rain barrels from the Water Department to be used for sustainable practice within our Northwest community. MABID reached out to the Mt. Airy Art Garage (MAAG) to create a partnership, and they turned it into both sustainability and art.

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Volunteer for National Trails Day in Wissahickon Valley Park

The 21^st anniversary of National Trails Day is on Saturday, June 1^, and the trails Kitchen’s Lane of the Wissahickon Valley Park is getting a polish to celebrate. Volunteers can spend the morning performing invasive plant removal and trail maintenance to keep the trails in tip top shape, both recreationally and ecologically.

The event, sponsored by the American Hiking Society, takes place every year on the first Saturday in June. Friends of the Wissahickon is joining with REI Conshohocken for the event in an effort to raise awareness of and care for the trails in Wissahickon Valley Park. REI is a national outdoor retail co-op that has been a partner for the event for over ten years. Friends of the Wissahickon has been working to advocate and care for the Wissahickon Valley since its founding in 1924.

Trail work begins at 9:30 a.m. and continues until 12:30 p.m. Meet at the parking lot at Kitchen's Lane, down Wissahickon Avenue in Mt. Airy. Register with FOW Volunteer Coordinator Eric Falk at falk@fow.org or 215-247-0417 x107.

Camden’s New Fresh Mobile Market Takes the Produce to the People

Food trucks aren’t known for having the healthiest fare, but in Camden, NJ, where fresh foods are scarce, there is a new Mobile Market that sells locally grown fruits and vegetables at bargain prices.  At their Launch Party on May 8, the Camden Fresh Mobile Market program set up a mini farmer’s market at Mickle Towers, a senior home where most residents have difficulty accessing fresh food without help from their families.  Thanks to Mobile Market’s refrigerated trailer, residents had their pick of fresh asparagus, strawberries, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, eggs, and more right where they live. 

The program also strives to be educational, helping people learn “what they can do with the produce and with things that are grown nearby that they’ve never seen,” said CCGC Executive Director Mike Devlin. Much of the produce is bought wholesale from the Camden City Garden Club’s Urban Farm on 3^rd and Beckett Streets, as well as a CCGC board member’s farm in Sewell, NJ, Duffield’s Farm.  CCGC, through their USDA Entrepreneurial Gardening Program, is also enabling Camden Community Gardeners to sell their surplus harvest to the Mobile Market to make a profit. 

The Mobile Market was funded by a $63,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation.  Its partners include NJ Senator Donald Norcross, county and city officials from Camden, and the NJ Department of Agriculture. The Mobile Market program is operated by the Camden City Garden Club, which also runs the Camden Children’s Garden CCGC manages 120 community gardens in Camden and produces $2.3 million worth of produce each year, feeding 12% of the city’s population. 

The Mobile Market plans to make stops at various community centers and housing facilities.  “We’re going to go to the people,” said Mike Devlin.  Tracy Nyszczot, of Camden Children’s Garden Public Relations explains that the Mobile Market program “will establish a key contact with each organization/housing area at each stop that will provide a handout flyer in English / Spanish to advise when we are coming.” Interested Camden Residents can sign up for the email list at http://bit.ly/11fpfBp. A finalized scheduled will be available here: http://camdenchildrensgarden.wordpress.com/mobile-market.