The Henry Lea School playground at 47th and Spruce a few of years ago (left) and an artist’s rendering of the Greening Lea plan (right).

It’s not too late to support a neighborhood public school and at the same time beautify the neighborhood. The Greening Lea Naming Campaign, the grassroots effort to turn the vast tarmac playground at The Henry Lea School (47th and Spruce) into an inviting space, has been extended to June 15.

You can buy a brick (also, here is an order form), paver or a cluster of bricks with your name, your business’s name or a name in memory of a loved one online that will be used for the project. The brick and paver campaign is part of a multi-year effort to transform the physical surrounding of the Lea School led by the West Philly Coalition of Neighborhood Schools, a grassroots organization started in 2010. Details on the Greening Lea project are here.

Photo courtesy Neighborhood Bike Works.

Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW), a nonprofit that offers bike education and recreation opportunities to West Philly youth, is seeking adult volunteers to help with their summer camp program. NBW’s Summer Cycling Day Camp, held from June 29 to August 21, offers youth ages 8 through 14 the opportunity to recondition and earn a bike, helmet, and lock in a two-week session. Youth complete our Earn-A-Bike curriculum, participate in fun outdoor activities, go on educational field trips, and learn about safe cycling, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles.

If you enjoy working with youth and want to develop or improve your mechanics or riding skills, this is a great opportunity for you. No experience is necessary – just a willingness to learn and potentially get your hands dirty! The camp will be held at NBW’s headquarters at 40th and Locust Walk from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. on weekdays.

If you’re interested please contact Nadav Carmel at nadav@neighborhoodbikeworks.org or 215-386-0316.

Neighborhood Bike Works is moving! (Photo from NBW Facebook page).

Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW), a great neighborhood institution that has been providing bike education programs for youth and bike repair classes for adults for nearly two decades, has just announced its plans to open a new, larger hub and community shop in West Philly this Fall. The new site is located at two side-by-side storefront properties – at 3939 and 3943 Lancaster Avenue. It is one mile from NBW’s current headquarters in the basement of St. Mary’s Church on Locust Walk.

“By moving out of a basement space to a highly visible, street-level site, we hope more families will find us and get involved in our programs,” NBW Executive Director Erin DeCou said in a statement.

A larger space on Lancaster Ave will offer more flexibility and an opportunity for NBW to operate more than one class or event at a time. Located at the intersection of the Mantua, Belmont, and Powelton neighborhoods, the new headquarters will also allow NBW to be closer to more of the communities they serve.  Continue Reading

Photo from bicyclecoalition.org

Philly bicyclists will get together this Wednesday (May 20) for the Ride of Silence, the annual international event that honors the cyclists killed or injured by motorists. The ride also raises awareness of cyclists’s right to share the road.

The 8-mile ride will start at 7 p.m. at the foot of the front steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and will go through parts of West Philadelphia before returning to the starting point. A brief pre-ride dedication ceremony will begin at 6:45 p.m.

Last year about 175 bicyclists participated in the ride and this year the organizers are hoping to attract at least 400 riders.

Here are more details about the Ride of Silence route from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia:

From the Philadelphia Art Museum the ride will proceed down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, circle City Hall, continue to Independence Hall, and head over to West Philly via the Walnut St. Bridge. The ride will return to the front of the Art Museum over the Spring Garden Street Bridge.

Riders are asked to gather at 6:30 p.m. The duration of the ride is expected to be one hour. Helmets are required and bicycle lights are encouraged.

Minor Threats Chess Club’s coach, Jason Bui, sent us an update on the latest achievements by his students, who recently returned from the Elementary National Championships in Nashville, Tenn. and also participated in other chess championships this spring. We wrote about the club and its fundraising efforts earlier this year. The Minor Threats Chess Club is based at Mitchell Elementary School and its members are West Philly schoolchildren in grades 3 through 8.

“It has been a loooong month for the Minor Threats Chess Club. We spent a total of 16 out of 32 days on the road from April to May. We had three very long bus rides. We had our bags lost in Ohio (don’t worry, we got them back). We broke down along the side of the turnpike on the way back from Louisville (everyone got home safe and sound). We had sick kids and parents. The kids never complained.

Syair was sick on Sunday in Nashville. He threw up before his first round. He went in and won and then came out and still couldn’t eat, took a nap, went in and won the last round of the day. He won his first Nationals trophy that weekend.

Derrick Moore, a 4th grader at Mitchell Elementary School, with a trophy. (Photo courtesy of Minor Threats Chess Club)

Junior High Nationals was Derrick’s first Nationals. He won his first individual trophy there.

The Philadelphia Chess Society (our super group consisting of Paul Robeson Chess Club, Minor Threats Chess Club, and Enon Connected Pawns) won 7 trophies at Elementary Nationals. Not bad for only having 13 kids playing.

These trips are amazing opportunities for our kids. They learn so much about the world, chess, and themselves. They get to see that there is a whole big world out there. They get to see that if they are brave and they are willing to work hard that nothing can hold them back.

I would not be able to take these kids on these trips without the support of people like you. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!“

A Red Paw Emergency Relief Team volunteer and rescued dog posing near the donated car. (Photo by West Philly Local).

Here’s some great news for a great local organization that has helped save lives of hundreds of our little friends and companions since its inception in 2011. Red Paw Emergency Relief Team, a non-profit that responds to fires and other disasters in the city and helps displaced pets, has just received a new vehicle, which will allow them to continue their important work, since their old car started breaking down too often. The new car was donated by NRG Home.

The new vehicle was presented to Red Paw’s staff and volunteers, including the founder and former firefighter Jennifer Leary, this afternoon near the corner of 48th and Walnut Streets, across the street from the empty lot where the Windermere Court Apartments building once stood. Red Paw was created in the aftermath of the devastating fire at Windermere in January 2011. Many pets remained trapped inside the heavily damaged and structurally unstable building for weeks after the fire, which prompted rescue efforts by local pet rescue organizations.

Jennifer Leary was one of the firefighters responding to the Windermere fire. She founded Red Paw in July 2011.