Veterans Day is this Monday and some events and happenings are taking place in the area this weekend to honor and support local men and women who served in the Armed Forces.

On Saturday, Nov. 9, Veterans Day Commemoration is scheduled in the northern section of Clark Park near the Gettysburg Stone (near 44th and Baltimore Ave.) Everyone is welcome to join the Friends of Clark Park, students of the HMS School for Cerebral Palsy and the Boy Scouts in honoring veterans. The event begins at 11 a.m. If you are a local veteran reading this, you can be honored too. Please call 215-222-2255 and leave your name and phone number.

Also tomorrow, dozens of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Philadelphia will gather to renovate the Veterans Group Home at 3209 Baring Street (in the Powelton Village area). The volunteer work team will build a new gazebo for the home, install a new grill and cooking area and renovate the first-floor bathroom. The work will take place from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and HGTV and DIY Network will be there to film it.

The Veterans Group Home, which has the capacity to house 48 men, is located on a quiet tree lined street and includes two-three story homes that are joined in the rear of the property by a shared kitchen and two dining areas.

Photo from wepac.org.

Do you have a couple of hours a week to spend in a neighborhood school library and make a big impact on a kids’ lives?

Budget cuts across the city have left neighborhood schools desperate for help to keep their libraries open. The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) is recruiting volunteers to read to students and help staff libraries in the neighborhoods. An orientation session for new volunteers will be held Friday, Nov. 8 beginning at 2 p.m. at the Powel School at 35th Street and Powelton Avenue.

Many of your neighbors have volunteered with WePAC. You will have to fill out some background check forms and complete the orientation before volunteering at a school. WePAC is looking for volunteers who can commit to at least two to three hours a week.

Call 267-443-3224 for more information.

There’s still a chance to support GATE 13:14, a monthly concert series presented by Bowerbird Concerts at The Rotunda. A Kickstarter fundraising campaign is underway, which would allow this free community program to continue. As of 11 a.m., $8,694 has been pledged and the project will be funded only if at least $10,000 is pledged by 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct 30.

From the Bowerbird project page on Kickstarter:

“Since 2006, Bowerbird has presented nearly 400 of events – concerts, workshops, small concerts, community art projects, and huge festivals. 

We believe that Philadelphia is hungry for something more than “just another gig.” We believe that there are wonderful artists living right in our own community and that some of the greatest historical work deserves more attention.  And most importantly, we believe in your curiosity.”

GATE 13:14 is a monthly series of concerts that aims to bring “experimental, outsider, avant, unknown, forgotten, futuristic, and rediscovered types of music” to the community. It also “strives to build a space for conversation and discovery, an incubator for new ideas and an opportunity to explore extraordinary ones, and a place to cultivate new audiences and communities around this work.”

To learn more about this project and to donate, click here.

Pirate scene at the Haunted Garden (Photo by Elizabeth Campion).

One of the big neighborhood draws on Halloween night is the haunted garden near 46th and Springfield, where throngs of young and old come to get good and scared. This year the garden will move about 100 feet away to the seriously spooky basement of the Saint Francis de Sales School (more on that soon).

Everybody loves this event and it is getting bigger every year (literally thousands now), so more volunteers are needed to make it a success. This is a great chance to get involved with something that has become a West Philly tradition.

Squirrel Hill resident Elizabeth Campion, who has co-hosted the event for many years, has sent us a list of the ways you can help and the times people are needed:

• Trip to the wholesale store. The organizers are buying 3,000 candy bars and thousands of pieces of fruit. You need a driver’s license for this one. Bonus if you have a vehicle. Any time Wednesday afternoon, (10/30), through 1 p.m. on Thursday/Halloween.

• Moving decorations from a garage near 48th and Cedar to the site.  Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 4-8 p.m. Donate an hour or two if you can.

• Decorate!!! Help design and decorate sets. Wednesday evening, 10/30, from 6-9 p.m. and Thursday (Halloween day) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – whatever hour(s) you can spare.

• Stage carpenters. The organizers need one or two “stage carpenters” folks who know their way around duct tape, ropes, hooks and pulleys. Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 6-9 p.m.

• Distribute treats. This is an ideal job for seniors, or families. Volunteers wait for the visitor to say “Trick or Treat” and respond with “Happy Halloween” and a treat.  Show up 10/31 at about 4:30 p.m. and leave when we run out (about 8 p.m.).

• Actors. Actors bring the sets alive. Families and Frats can coordinate as Pirates for the “Shipwreck,” or as Wait-Staff and Customers at “Dooley’s Deadly Diner” or Scarecrows at the “Poisoned Pumpkin Patch.” “Actors” must commit 10/31, 4:30-7:30 p.m. All volunteers are asked to come in costume, but some costume items can be borrowed from the organizers.

• Photographers. The organizers need people who have their own cameras and are willing to upload their cards to the Picasa site. Technical support will be provided if necessary. Photographers must commit 4:30-7:30 p.m. on 10/31. Can work as a team as long as there is continuous and overlapped coverage.

• Pack. Saturday, 11/2, from Noon-4 p.m. If you can differentiate between a spider and a pumpkin, you can help sort and pack. You will be paired with Cub Scouts who can do the bending and climbing.

If you would like to help with one or more of these activities or if you have questions, please contact Elizabeth at: home.in.phila@juno.com

Tyrell Biggs (in the white t-shirt) still schools young Philly boxers in the finer points of the sweet science at a gym in the basement of the Shepard Recreation Center near 57th and Haverford.

Tyrell Biggs was one of those dudes who may have hit his prime too early.

He was a starting forward on that legendary West Philadelphia High School basketball team that won a state record 68 straight games on its way to Public League and City titles in 1976-1978.

A few years later, as an amateur boxer, he won gold at the U.S. National Boxing Championships. In 1982 he won the amateur World Championships in Munich. Two years later his path to professional boxing was clear after he won gold in the super heavyweight division at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, beating future champ Lennox Lewis on his way to the title. He won his first 15 pro fights and got a shot at the title in 1987 but lost in a seventh-round TKO to Mike Tyson.

All by age 27.

For Tyrell Biggs boxing was a way up in life, as it still is for many kids in the city. But like many young people who get a lot of money at a young age, Biggs battled drug and alcohol addiction during much of his adult life. He is the subject of a feature documentary that you can help make happen called Whatever Happened to Tyrell Biggs? (see video below).

Here’s the plot outline for the documentary, which is being produced by Lunchbox Communications (the crew that made Digital Dharma):

“In 1984, US Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs is hailed as the second coming of Muhammad Ali. What should have been the dream launch of an international boxing legend in reality, marked the beginning of a long period of misfortunes, both in and out of the ring. This feature biopic explores one man’s fall from grace into the depths of despair that pushes him to vanish. Living in that territory in between fame and failure, Biggs confronts a struggle that lives within us all.” A good chunk of the production of this film is already complete, but the production team needs some help getting this important story about someone born and raised in West Philly.

Project Runway Season 12 winner Dom Streater making it work (Photo by Barbara Nitke / A+E Networks)

While it’s no secret that West Philadelphia is a neighborhood of stars, it was confirmed last night when Dominique “Dom” Streater won season 12 of Project Runway.

Throughout the season, the 24-year-old local fashion designer, who was born and raised on 58^th and Chestnut Streets (“a really nice community to grow up in,” she said), captivated the judges with her juxtaposition of competing patterns and bold colors. And her collection shown on last night’s Project Runway finale was no different—appropriately titled “Retro Redux,” Streater’s runway show at New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was a vibrant explosion of cool blues and purples intercut with contour shapes that oozed luxury and sophistication.

It’s an edgy trademark look that defines her trend du jour line, the Halcyon Clothing Collection, which she currently designs out of her home in Overbrook. But, as Project Runway’s latest winner, Streater will have the opportunity to launch her next collection with the help of a sizeable prize package, which includes $150,000 furnished by GoBank, state-of-the-art products from HP and Brother Sewing and Embroidery, and a $50,000 styling contract with L’Oreal Paris (among other goodies).

Before last night’s season finale aired, West Philly Local had a chance to chat with Streater, a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design, about making it to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, what defines West Philly fashion, and building her brand in her hometown. Continue Reading