My Leadership Philadelphia class prompted the work, and I’m so happy I got the encouragement.
Asked to do a ‘Pay it Forward’ project in which we committed some volunteer time to a neighborhood in Philadelphia that none of our team members lived, worked or already volunteered in, we ended up cleaning, mulching, picking up trash and other work in Fairhill Square Park near Kensington ahead of a rededication for a beautiful piece of art.
Puerto Rican artist Rafael Ferrer dedicated his “El Gran Teatro de la Luna” in the park at 4th and Lehigh after 14 years of it being in storage.
I asked a friend at the city’s Parks and Rec department, who put me in touch with another staffer who directed me to a community leader who had been organizing a friends group for the newly updated park. Some of my teammates and I went to one of their community meetings, then helped with the park’s clean up day and then were a part of the park’s big art re-dedication yesterday, complete with more than 100 kids from various youth groups.
See our project notes here, and below find our presentation back to our other classmates.
