We’re busy preparing our 2014 annual report here at Keep Philadelphia Beautiful, but since it’s officially winter – and our cleanup season has come to a close – we thought we’d give you an overview of our community beautification efforts and a taste of our 2014 accomplishments.
So without further ado…
Cleanup Roundup
This year, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful led or assisted in 11 cleanups in every section of the City, from Fishtown to Germantown, from Strawberry Mansion to Chestnut Hill and Paine’s Park. And more than 600 volunteers joined us along the way.
Some of the Highlights
Keep Philadelphia Beautiful started our cleanup season during the Philly Spring Cleanup with Mayor Nutter, the Philadelphia Streets Department, the Eagles Youth Partnership, The Dow Chemical Company, and Keep America Beautiful at Gideon School in Strawberry Mansion. More than 50 volunteers cleaned five vacant lots, removed close to 60 bags of trash from the school yard, and painted new games for the students.
We were proud to again team up with Keep America Beautiful for two major community beautification events this summer – at Lonnie Young Recreation Center in Germantown with 200 of our friends from The Dow Chemical Company, and at Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown with the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, Bud Light, and Penn Beer. We painted, mulched, cleaned, picked up litter, and built.
Our cleanup season came to a close at Paine’s Park behind the Art Museum with Parks and Recreation and some great volunteers from Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. Together, we weeded and removed close to thirty bags of debris.
In between, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful assisted with cleanups in Fairmount, Juniata, Lawncrest, South Kensington, Parkside, and the Wissahickon – we helped with everything from supplies and general logistics to volunteer recruitment.
Preventing Litter by the Waterfront
Cleanups weren’t the only litter prevention initiative Keep Philadelphia Beautiful spearheaded in 2014. This past summer we partnered with the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) to install thirty new cigarette trash receptacles along the Waterfront, which within three months resulted in a more than 30% decrease in cigarette litter. Our project with the DRWC is part of a national Keep America Beautiful program focused on combatting cigarette litter, which you can read more about at www.preventcigarettelitter.org.
Seed Funding
Thanks to our friends at The Dow Chemical Company, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful was able to award ten microgrants to organizations throughout the City working on community beautification projects. We worked with organizations from Southwest Philadelphia to the Great Northeast, and helped fund initiatives such as community gardens, litter abatement programs, and tree plantings.
