Work in progress at the Lea School playground. (Photo courtesy of West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools)

UPDATE (8/14/14): The Greening Lea project has reached its fundraising goal after a sizable donation from the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA), West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools reports. SHCA’s gift of $1,000 completed and even exceeded the $3,000 fundraising goal for Greening Lea’s August project several weeks early!

8/7/14: Here’s a great chance to make something good out of a bad situation. The Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) has a chance to get a great playground set from the recently shuttered Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland) and they need some help.

The new playground set was built at Wilson in November 2010 through a grant from The Hamels Foundation, the charitable organization of Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels. The plan is to move the playground set onto the Lea playground (near the existing structure there) at the corner of 47th and Spruce, roughly doubling the size of the school’s play area.

But the committee in charge of Greening Lea, the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools project to make the Lea School’s footprint greener and more kid-friendly, needs to raise $3,000 to help cover the costs of transplanting the playground structure. The grant will help cover costs for a new porous surface that will be built under the new and existing play structure to make it safe for kids. The new surface will also help with the Greening Lea plan to manage stormwater run-off. The current massive asphalt playground, if future plans play out, will be converted into an inviting tree-lined space.

But that’s still in the future. The goal now is to get the new playground structure in place. The work at the playground has already begun. Click here to donate. As usual, any amount will help.

Six weeks are left before kids head back to school and we are passing along information from two area organizations that are helping low-income and homeless families and children prepare for the upcoming school year. We’re sure that there will be more school supply drives and fundraising events in the area. We’ll post new information when it becomes available.

ACHIEVEability Backpack Drive, Fundraising events

Photo courtesy ACHIEVEability.

ACHIEVEability is holding a Backpack Donation Drive to support over 300 school-age kids in the area. When donating a backpack, please consider the following school supplies as well: spiral bound notebooks, loose leaf paper, composition books, folders, pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, calculators, pencil sharpeners, glue, erasers, scissors, crayons, etc. Donations can be delivered to ACHIEVEability’s administrative office located at 35 N. 60th Street. All donations should be delivered no later than August 22.

For more information about making a donation please contact the ACHIEVEability Development Department at 215-748-8809 or development@achieveability.org.

On Wednesday, July 30, from 5  to 7 p.m., all are welcome to join ACHIEVEability at Ben & Jerry’s shop at 218 S. 40th St and enjoy some delicious ice cream while helping ACHIEVEability help others. During the event, 20 percent of all sales will be donated to the organization.

Finally, on Thursday, July 31, ACHIEVEability is hosting a Coffee Happy Hour at the Creative Café @ Replica (3711 Market St)   from 5:30-7 p.m. The Coffee Happy Hour will feature the limited-edition signature drink, the ACHIEVEaJava, available to purchase for $2 along with discounted pastries and snacks. The Café will also raffle off a $25 gift card to be used for either design/print services at either Replica location, or to be used solely in the Creative Café @ Replica for coffee and pastries. No RSVP is required for this event.  Continue Reading

West Philly Tool Library staff (Photo courtesy WPTL).

West Philly Tool Library (WPTL) is Philadelphia’s only library that lends tools to community members, both individuals and organizations. WPTL’s members borrow tools for home repairs, construction projects, gardening and even creating art. Recently, the tool library has announced some big plans that include increasing the number of members in more neighborhoods and their access to most needed tools and expanding their education and outreach programs.

Sounds great, but the problem is that WPTL can’t meet this demand without community help. Their current memberships fund only 34 percent of their annual operating budget of $40,000. So an online crowdfunding campaign was launched to help them make ends meet.

WPTL is currently raising $10,000 through Indiegogo and has already raised over $3,000. The money donated through this campaign will help the following projects, according to the campaign page:

• Increase availability of the tools they can’t keep on the shelves, like table saws, weed whackers, tile saws, and cordless drills
• Develop a robust education program to ensure that community members have the skills they need to properly leverage their tools
• Develop programs to reach into the neighborhoods they don’t fully serve

For more information and to donate, click here.

If you want to learn more about how to become the tool library member, visit this page.

Mount Moriah Cemetery. (Photos from The Friends of Mount Moriah Facebook page)

From Betsy Ross to former Philadelphia Mayor George Connell and famous local architect Samuel Sloan, the soil of Mount Moriah Cemetery in Southwest Philly is steeped in history.

In Mount Moriah’s heyday, the 380-acre estate with its elaborate Romanesque entrance and gatehouse, served as the burial grounds for Philadelphia’s elite. But now, the largest cemetery in Philadelphia is suffering from neglect, overrun by weeds and foliage as a result of years of failed management and confusion about ownership.

While the private group, The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, is working to bring the cemetery back to a beautified state as legal issues over its ownership still go unresolved, the costs to maintain the grounds are steep. In an effort to help the West Philly Runners and the Fishtown Beer Runners have teamed up for a two-part fundraiser next week to support the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery’s work.

The two running groups will hold their respective fundraisers in tandem, with West Philly Runners’ hosting its event on Wed. June 18 at City Tap House Philly (3925 Walnut Street), from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The group is asking for a $10 donation, which will be pooled together and given to Friends of Mount Moriah.

“The Mount Moriah Cemetery has the potential to be a great outdoor space, but right now it’s in limbo,” West Philly Runners member Stacey Ritzen, who co-organized the event, told West Philly Local. “We really want to clean up the space and make it nice, how it used to be back in the day. It used to be a cemetery for pretty wealthy West Philadelphia residents, and people would go and have picnics, just really enjoyed the space. It would be great to see it restored to what it was.”

During next Wednesday’s event, attendees can enjoy beer specials courtesy of Southern Tier Brewing Company and possibly win prizes from Honest Tom’s, Little Baby’s, Greensgrow West, Philadelphia Runner and other local businesses by taking part in the raffle. Fishtown Beer Runners will run a similar event the next day, Thurs. June 19, at Llama Tooth, with a portion of the proceeds received that night going to Friends of Mount Moriah.

West Philly Runners is also hosting a clean up day at the cemetery on Sat. June 22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. “Hopefully through the efforts of these two fundraisers, we can get the word out and hopefully inspire people to come volunteer and put in the hours,” Ritzen said. “We really want to see it become a space everyone can use.”

–Annamarya Scaccia

Editor’s Note: Here’s a recent video, “In Memoriam,” made by Temple University. The history and current state of this massive, formerly abandoned cemetery are examined through interviews. The dramatic efforts by hundreds of volunteers to revitalize it are also addressed in the video.

Through June 15, the West Philadelphia YMCA is accepting donations of everyday necessities for local infants and newborns. YMCA is teaming up with Youth Services Inc. in this effort to help our little neighbors. The basic necessities include:

• Diapers
• Socks
• Rattles
• Bottles
• Onesies
• Receiving blankets
• Pacifiers
• T-shirts

These items can be dropped off at the designated box in the Y’s lobby. For more information, please contact Shalann K. Graves at 215-476-2700 X 2017.

The West Philadelphia YMCA is located at 5120 Chestnut Street.

Neighbor Kate Krauss, one of the organizers of “Fund for Phil” set up to help Philippe Holland, the pizza delivery driver shot by police near 51st and Willows on April 22, has sent us an update on Philippe’s condition, the fund and a couple of other important messages:

“Philippe has been transferred to a rehab hospital in Newark, New Jersey. He read the original card we sent for the first time three days ago and was very touched. His mother says that she can’t even find the words to express how grateful she is. So let’s keep this going–we will continue to collect money at Mariposa through June.

We have $969 in the PayPal account, so today is a great time to try to reach $1,000… Here is the link: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online [please enter “FundforPhil – at – Gmail.com”].

[Bindlestiff Books owner] Alexis Buss has already collected about $400 at Bindlestiff Books…”

We also hear that a Channel 3 news reporter is coming to Bindlestiff Books (4530 Baltimore Ave) tomorrow (Thursday) at 11:00 a.m. to do a little spot on the neighborhood’s response to the shooting of Phillipe Holland and those who donated money are welcome to stop by.