We love Philadelphia no matter the season, but have a special place in our hearts for spring and summer – when we get to work with amazing partners and volunteers to #KeepPhillyBeautiful through community beautification events. Though the warmer weather isn’t gone yet, here’s what we’ve been up to so far.

Cleanin’ Up! 

Have we mentioned how much we love cleanup season? Once or twice, maybe?

Well, KPB has had quite the cleanup season so far, and we’re not done yet. We kicked things off in Kensington during the Philly Spring Cleanup with our friends at the Streets Department, Recyclebank and New Kensington CDC – where we gave new life to a former playground by weeding, painting, planting, and removing over 200 bags of debris. And when we decided that wasn’t good enough, we got another group of volunteers together for a second round of painting.

Then, beautiful Tacony Creek Park came calling, so KPB teamed up with TTF Watershed Partnership and NichePHL, a consortium of young friends groups, on debris and invasive species removal.

To highlight Keep America Beautiful’s recently released national study on blight, we decided to combine service with neighborhood tours to delve deeper in to how communities in Philadelphia are adressing the issue. We started off in South Philly with our friends at the Nationalities Service Center – and there’s still time to join us in Kensington!  Click here to register!

So far this cleanup season, KPB has engaged 200 volunteers and removed over 6,000 pounds of litter from our parks and streets.

Trees Galore! 

Community cleanup events aren’t the only trick we’ve had up our sleeves this spring and summer. In April, KPB teamed up with TreePhilly and CityLights Network in Southwest Philly to find new homes for 25 trees.

And this fall, thanks to The UPS Foundation and Keep America Beautiful, we’ll be able to give away at least 100 trees in a section of Northeast Philadelphia most affected by Hurricane Sandy along with TreePhilly, The Fairmount Park Conservancy, and the Associated Polish Home.