Giving back to your community is a privilege, an honor, and a meaningful way to come together with your friends and neighbors as you all work to make your parks brighter, your streets cleaner, and your community more beautiful. As befits the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia residents love working with each other to beautify and improve their richly historic city. If you’re from Philly, live there now, or simply love it, make sure you show up in spring so that you can join native Philadelphians as they give back to the city they call home.
Volunteer at Bartram’s Garden
Giving back isn’t about what you get in return, but receiving something as a result of volunteering isn’t exactly a bad thing. Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden sprawls over 45 acres and dates back to the 18th century. The property and gardens originally belonged to John Bartram, the first botanist in the United States. The plants and flowers Bartram collected and cataloged along the Schuylkill River still bloom and blossom over the property. Needless to say, with that many acres, volunteers are always needed to help with upkeep. Volunteer for ten hours a year and get a free membership to the garden.
Help the Youth with Urban Blazers
Urban Blazers is an amazing organization that aims to give Philadelphia’s under-resourced kids a chance to enjoy nature. Many children who live in the city have no way to get access to the natural resources that surround them. Volunteering with Urban Blazers gives you the opportunity to take inner city kids to local state parks and more. You can go swimming, canoeing, fishing, or hiking, not to mention skiing, rock climbing, and bike riding.
Join the Philly Spring Cleanup
The Philly Spring Cleanup takes place every year, and since 2017 marks the 10th annual event, it’s sure to do even better than last year. Last year, 28,895 volunteers came together across 902 project sites. Together, they discarded 655,320 pounds of trash, recycled 18,200 pounds of material, collected 18,840 pounds of yard waste, and got rid of 3,455 tires. Philly is always left sparkling after the Spring Cleanup, and this year, you can take part in it, as well.
Participate in Love Your Park
Love Your Park is a city-wide week devoted to sprucing up the many parks dotted throughout Philadelphia. Philly loves its parks, which is no surprise, given that one of America’s largest city parks is right in the heart of Philadelphia. For a week, events occur at the city’s parks, kicking off with Volunteer Day — a day that’s just for volunteers to put in the time and work needed to clean up essential neighborhood spaces. Try to stay the entire week if you can, even after volunteering — it’s worth the time off from work.
From planting trees and giving garden tours to going swimming with a fun-loving group of kids and cleaning up city parks, Philadelphia provides a broad range of opportunities for natives and visitors alike to give back. Given that Philadelphia is a cultural, historical goldmine, the least we can do is to try to keep it beautiful for generations to come.
Image by Larisa-K, used under CCO 1.0
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