By Nagiarry Porcena-Meneus, Community Organizer
To honor the environmental justice teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., community members, volunteer organizations, and schools came together in both of the Montgomery County and Philadelphia areas of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed. The events focused on sustainable actions for our local parks, neighborhoods, and waterways. These events were part of the annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service.
Abington Friends School hosted a Let Your Life Speak: King Day of Service and Symposium. We worked with volunteers to assemble and decorate 15 pollinator boxes. Pollinators are critical to the health of our gardens and ecosystem. These boxes provide shelter for insects, such as bees and wasps, and will be placed in creekside locations across our watershed. More photos from the day here.
In Tacony Creek Park, the 300-acre woodland in Northeast Philadelphia, volunteers braved the cold morning to clean 4 park gateways, collecting 55 trash bags of litter.
Thank you to Grover Washington Jr. Middle School, Philadelphia Composite Squadron 103, Civil Air Patrol, and Community Academy of Philadelphia Charter School for joining in!
Big thanks to the sixty community members who contributed and made an important difference for our local park! We also appreciate our Tacony Creek Park Keeper clean-up leaders: Robin, Santiago, Siani, Raymond, and Sean for their hard work and advocacy.
“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. … Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? … This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We utilized Dr. King’s birthday as an opportunity to give back because the future of our neighborhoods and our environment depends on one another. By taking care of Tacony Creek Park and our watershed, not only are the nearby streams cleaner, but residents, wildlife, and plants can thrive in a healthier environment.
