The Walnut Hill Community Association (WHCA) is holding a Community Day next weekend on the grounds of the old West Philadelphia High School and is organizing a cleanup this Saturday to prepare the area for the celebration. The cleanup will take place on Saturday, Oct 4, between 9 a.m. and 12 Noon and volunteer help will be greatly appreciated.

Volunteers are needed to pull weeds, do light gardening work, and sweep up leaves. All residents and friends are invited to join in and all ages are welcome. Light refreshments will be served and the following items and supplies will be provided: t-shirts, brooms, rakes, shovels, gloves, and more.

Here’s more information on volunteer sign up:

• All volunteers meet at 47th & Locust on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 9 a.m.
• Coffee & Bagels
• Registration/Sign-in
• Walnut Hill Community Association membership table
• Community Day 2014 volunteer sign up and flyers onsite

The Walnut Hill Community Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and will include lots of fun activities, raffles, live entertainment, food and drinks, a farm stand, and much more. More information is coming soon. Interested vendors (food truck vendors: $50 per space; craft tables: $25 per space) are asked to contact Tyson at 267-499-6492 or Amin at 267-975-1962.

Just a reminder that Walnut Hill boundaries are between 45th and 52nd Streets and between Market and Spruce Streets. Here’s contact information for WHCA:

Walnut Hill Community Association
4637 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19139
215-472-1381
walnuthillevents@gmail.com

Gun violence in Philadelphia continues, with almost daily reports of shootings in different parts of the city. There were more than 70 shooting victims in Philadelphia this month alone, including women, according to GunCrisis.org. In the past two weeks, two pregnant women were shot to death (their babies did not survive) and a 15-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet outside of Einstein Medical Center. To say “No” to gun violence, community organization Hands Across Philadelphia (Facebook page) is holding a second annual “Stop The Violence” community march and rally on Saturday, Sept. 27 on 52nd Street.

The march will begin at 11 a.m. at 52nd and Woodland (gathering starts at 10 a.m.) and will proceed to 52nd and Jefferson. This year, organizers are hoping that more people will join them. “SPREAD THE WORD!! WE ARE GOING TO SHUT 52ND STREET DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 27TH 2014 TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS TO STOP THE VIOLENCE!!! OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US!!! LET US BE THE CHANGE THEY NEED TO SEE!!!” reads a post on their Facebook page.

The NAACP, Mothers in Charge, The Philadelphia Black Clergy, and a host of other groups, community leaders and locally elected officials will participate in the march, according to the organizers. The Taney Dragons youth baseball team will lead the Hands Across Philadelphia Peace March and Rally on Saturday.

Stop The Violence march on 52nd Street in 2013. (Photo from Hands Across Philadelphia Facebook page)

The funeral for 8-year-old Emmeline Valadez, who tragically died after falling from a ninth story apartment building window last week, was held this morning in Hammonton, New Jersey.

Emmeline lived with her father, a Penn graduate student and single father, and her older sister at the Fairfax building at 43rd and Locust. She fell from the window at about 7:45 a.m. last Wednesday. Her obituary is here.

Neighbors and friends are taking up a collection online to help offset funeral expenses. You can contribute to the campaign here. All funds raised will go directly to the father and donations will be accepted until this weekend.

Here’s a chance to help those women who are just starting their careers. If you have a spare dress outfit (appropriate for a “business” environment) hanging in your closet please consider donating it to Dress for Success Philadelphia, a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged women achieve economic independence.

In West Philadelphia, My Task Master is holding a 2nd Women’s Suit Drive to benefit Dress for Success and is collecting women’s fall business clothing, shoes, scarves, jewelry and handbags. The drive will be held on September 22-25 and donations can be dropped off at the My Task Master office at 47th and Hazel.

Please note that all donations must be like new, clean and current.

For more information and to schedule a drop-off please email Emily Anderson at: emily@mytaskmaster.net (please put “Dress for Success” in the subject line).

Global Citizen, in partnership with Interstate General Media (publishers of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com), Uber & 900AM-WURD yesterday launched a citywide school supplies drive to benefit some of the most underserved Philadelphia public schools. The only drop-off location for donations in West Philly is HipCityVeg at 214 S. 40th Street.

The following items are accepted through Sept. 7: No. 2 pencils, ballpoint pens, copy paper, calculators, dry erasers, crayons, rulers, hand sanitizers, and more (check out the flier below for the full list of accepted donations). You can drop off your donation at HipCityVeg every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Photo from WePAC’s Facebook page.

West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), a non-profit organization that re-opens public school libraries closed for lack of funding and staffs them with volunteers, is moving to a new location and holding a big moving sale at their current location in Powelton Village at 3603 Hamilton Street. The two-day sale began on Thursday and everything must go before their moving day this Sunday.

Lots of items are offered for free or at low-cost, including chairs, office chairs, desks, a vacuum, a portable freestanding AC, metal cabinets, freestanding metal drawers, vases, a trunk, computer monitors, computer accessories for scrap, a working laser printer, a large JB Van Scriven conference table, a coffee maker, and more.

Today’s sale started at 9 a.m. and will go on until 5 p.m. so stop by at the corner of 36th and Hamilton to check it out. Please bring a donation for the free items. All proceeds will go to WePAC’s mission.

If you have questions, send a text to 917-865-2652 or go here.

The new WePAC location starting this Sunday is at 5070 Parkside.