One-hundred-fifty volunteers tidied the space and witnessed the dedication of a new playground.
With the famed gazebo behind them, volunteers and state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson, front, left, improved the 97-year-old park. Their diligence helped the organizers to set a record for greatest participation.
The onset of spring always impels people to clean, but Saturday revealed the end of summer can prove equally inspirational.
The warm day saw 150 committed cleaners devote four hours to the maintenance of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, 1500 Pattison Ave, the site of the eighth annual Growing the Neighborhood Volunteer Day. The Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department and the Fairmount Park Conservancy rewarded their efforts with the announcement of improvement projects and the official opening of an unnamed playground.
The space, the Fairmount Park system’s eighth largest at 348 acres, joined Stephen Girard Park, 21st and Shunk streets, a 2006 selection, as local spots that have gained from the conservancy’s mission to unite corporations and residents for service outings.
“FDR Park is a beloved treasure,” Kathryn Ott Lovell, the conservancy’s executive director, said as the groups, who began at 8 a.m., collected trash and recyclables, mulched new trees and removed vegetation from the sight-line of the park’s lake.
Community members expressed their views on its critical needs at an Aug. 2 meeting at the American Swedish Historical Museum, 1900 Pattison Ave. Already the beneficiary of $4 million over the last decade through Parks & Recreation, FDR Park will receive $195,000 more for a boat, a skimmer to remove algae, three aerators that will pump oxygen into the water and new signage. Visitors should encounter the additions by spring.
“It was really time to come down here,” Ott Lovell said. “This place should become a top destination because parks have the potential to change lives, to become catalysts for positive social change.”
Mark Focht, Parks & Recreation’s first deputy commissioner, agreed with Ott Lovell’s declarations.
“I am pleased with the turnout,” he said upon learning the organizers had run out of shirts to accommodate the attendees. “Everyone is doing a bang-up job.”
The park purifiers convened near the main entrance on Broad Street and Pattison Avenue and chose teams and occupations. The rising temperatures may have moistened brows, but they did not melt away the ambition of the helpers, including many children.
Tracy Beck, the Swedish Museum’s executive director, brought her four youngsters and earnestly tended to the sight-line as a member of the red team.
“I’d been wanting to come to a cleanup for years,” she said.
Beck did not mind not the muck that came with her chore, deeming the task her style.
“I want to see the area revived,” she said. “I love this park.”
Barbara Capozzi, the head of the Packer Park Civic Association and a member of The Friends of FDR Park, desires for the stretch to rival a northern neighbor.
“I want to make FDR Park as awesome as Central Park,” the resident of 19th and Hartranft streets said of the massive New York City destination.
Greg Jacovini, the third-year president of the 13-year-old friends group, acknowledged the conservancy for its attention to the local park, which consists of 77 acres of natural lands, 125 acres of buildings and a 146-acre golf course, and its advocacy for giving his 100-member congregation multiple says in plotting the park’s revitalization.
“We see a difference already,” Jacovini, a resident of 10th and Montrose streets, said of the conservancy’s increased aid.
Ott Lovell, Jacovini’s main contact, noted the capital improvements will help to expand programming and educational opportunities within FDR Park that include the Sept. 23 to 24 POPPED! Music Festival, and The First Tee of Philadelphia, 20th Street and Pattison Avenue, part of a system that assists more than 5,000 children through character development, golf and life skills initiatives.
He and his affiliates chose the park’s fringe to give visitors and passers-by an immediate visual gift.
While many complain about having to battle winter’s wretched weather, Martha Bormann and George Madosky have not uttered a peep of frustration in fighting a much more injurious foe, cancer.
Most Saturday afternoons, residents can be found walking their dogs, running to the sounds of their iPods or playing sports on one of the city's many grassy fields. Others are out enjoying picnics, s...
Currently leading Packer Park as the Packer Park Civic Association president, Barbara Capozzi has been assisting her neighbors since 1994. The resident of the 1900 block of Hartranft Street has announced her intention to run for the 2nd District seat in City Council that will be vacated by Council President Anna Verna.
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1. Anna Maria Vona said... on Sep 15, 2011 at 01:35PM
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2. Kathleen Villa said... on Sep 15, 2011 at 06:16PM
“Wow....Love the news. I remember standing under that gazebo when I was only three years old back in 1961 taking wedding photos with my family. I was the flower girl. Me, my younger sister Rose Ann, and most of our friends rode our bikes there every spring and summer, had picnics, played softball and tennis. Our dad would take us there during the frigid cold months when we were kids to go ice skating on the ponds. During the summer mom would pack a picnic lunch and we'd sit on the grass and watch people fishing in the big pond. I have so many wonderful memories of walking around FDR park in South Philly. I played my first round of golf there and actually got my first hole-in- one. Back in the 70's it was "Pat Steaks and the Lakes" as we used to say when we were teens out on a Friday night date looking for something to do. Thanks for preserving a rare South Philly jewel.”