volunteer

The Streets Department once again held the Philly Spring Cleanup Day this past April. I must admit, I wasn't as enthused as I was last year. The sixth annual city-wide collaboration returned to our previous hosting site at 8th & Poplar, and we had a few hiccups along the way: a few less participants as last year, a technical glitch that missed our site at the pickup center, and a forgotten printed form. Our cleanup team worked from 9 to 2, picking up everything from used water bottles to sweeping cigarette butts in the masses. One of our volunteers, the lovely Jessica, even joked that the Hurricanes 40s must have been pretty good since there were so many bottles laying around the field... Find out the benefits of cleaning Up Philly (year-round), after the jump...

Looking to get some volunteer hours in this summer? Want to meet locavore lovers and those who love to eat?  Farm to City has a volunteer opportunity we are sharing below: Farm to City is looking for energetic and passionate volunteers to staff an information table at our biggest market, the Saturday Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market. Volunteers will provide information and resources on vendors, community activities, and Farm to City programs including:

3,771 is not the number of murals in Philly or the amount of visitors that Reading Terminal gets a day. It’s the number of plastic bottles that apparel brand United By Blue pulled from the Schuylkill River during our 2012 summer cleanups at Bartram’s Garden. If those same bottles were stacked end to end, they’d tower over the Comcast Center, or Philadelphia's tallest skyscraper. So who is United By Blue? A group of caped crusaders ridding our rivers of litter in the dead of night? Not quite. United By Blue is an organic apparel brand that removes a pound of trash from oceans and waterways for every product sold. Translated? If you buy the softest, organic shirt you’ll ever feel, we roll up our sleeves. You buy an organic, waxed canvas bag for your next adventure; we’re out on the water. (Find out more about how you can help, after the jump!)

United by Blue pledges to remove one pound of trash for every product sold. But these Philly-based philanthropists don't just stop at oceans... They help when it matters most. This past Saturday, 100 volunteers school 'bussed' their way up to Staten Island, New York for Hurricane Sandy assistance efforts. Since (find out more after the jump:)

May 12th -19th is Philly Love Your Park Week - a week dedicated to celebrating Philadelphia's park system. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, the Fairmount Park Conservancy, and Pennslyvania Horticulture Society have joined forces to bring Philadelphians eight days of diverse park events. Out-of-towners may think of Philly as an urban jungle, but we're lucky to have over 100 area parks to meet and exceed our "great outdoors" quota. There's a laundry list of park events happening over the next week, read on for some of the highlights...

Earth Day is this Sunday (obviously.). Philadelphia had a city-wide cleanup effort this past weekend, but that doesn't mean you should wait for a city-wide initiative to volunteer. Instead of hosting a birthday or holiday party at home, organize a volunteer outing to a local park or community garden. Philadelphia has a lot of green space (and litter), so start with a community park or number of blocks. Read on!

Philadelphia hosted its 5th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup this past Saturday, April 14th from 9 AM - 2 PM.  Over 350 projects across the city encouraged citizens to volunteer to make our city a prettier place. The theme of the Cleanup is "Keep Up the Sweep Up", which emphasizes residents and organizations to sustain the effort towards a cleaner & brighter Philly year-round. Although we haven't received the exact stats from this past weekend yet, the past 4 cleanups have boasted 45,000 volunteers, collected over 5.8 MILLION pounds of trash - which is enough to fill Lincoln Financial Field up to 17.4 feet high. As we mentioned, we hosted a Philly Spring Cleanup Day site at 8th & Poplar this past weekend.  The fields are a host to many PSSC leagues, and many local residents use the fields for soccer games, taking kids & pets. At first glance, the fields didn't seem too bad. But when we started looking around, there was a lot of litter: (See more pics & stats from the day, after the jump!)

Hey GPB readers! Green Philly Blog and Philadelphia Sports & Social Club (PSSC) are joining efforts to host a Philly Spring Cleanup site at 8th & Poplar Streets in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. The site is home to hundreds of Philadelphians participating in Kickball, Softball and other outdoor sports.  Although this area is loved by many recreational athletes, litter & debris affect the field’s beauty. (Bonus: PSSC is having the softball field diamond restored prior to coincide with the cleanup efforts.)  Plus, there's a few vacant lots & littered around the area that could use a cleaning. Join us on Saturday, April 14th* from 9 AM – 2 PM to help with litter pickup, tree tending, and other projects that will help clean up the fields.  We’ll provide supplies but feel free to bring your own gloves, rakes, etc. if you do own these supplies. Here’s how to sign up:

Psyched to "Keep Up the Sweep Up?" Philly Spring Cleanup Day is April 14, 2012 from 9 AM - 2 PM! Last year alone, over 12,000 volunteers helped with over 250 projects and collected an incredible 1.3 million pounds of trash. Let's make it bigger this year. Mayor Nutter kicked off the campaign at