volunteer

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

This past Saturday, Philly Spring Cleanup Day united 10,000+ volunteers in 248 cleanup efforts around the city. Our 34 volunteers in the 300-600 block of Washington Ave gathered more than 30 bags of trash and 8+ bags of recycling in the 5 hour event. Among the items collected were hundreds of cigarette butts, broken bottles, a shoe, silly bands, and paraphernalia that should not lie anywhere close to where children play. I was quite proud to see everyone eager to help out as they got down and dirty (with gloves, shovels and brooms, of course!) Despite our success, (find out more, after the jump!)

Hey friends & readers- Who's excited to help Philadelphia this Saturday for Philly Spring Cleanup Day? As we mentioned, Green Philly Blog is partnering with greenlimbs, in Queen Village neighborhood of 300-600 Washington Avenue. Our volunteers will help bag trash, recycle, tend trees and prepare beds for spring planting. My friend and I visited the project location on Sunday afternoon. While there were 20-30 kids playing in this park, trash litters the streets and area inside. Here are some pics of the area (click through for the slideshow courtesy of Chad Collier):

Sick of litter on the streets? Tired of Philly's dirty rep? Readers, who's ready to take some action for the 4th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup?!? As we mentioned, the City of Philadelphia announced their 4th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup, “Keep Up the Sweep Up", on Saturday, April 2, 2011 (rain date, Saturday, April 9) from 9 AM- 2 PM. Green Philly Blog is partnering with another local blog, greenlimbs. Together, we're thrilled to announce that we’ll be keeping & 'sweeping' in South Philadelphia's Queen Village neighborhood (300-600 Washington Avenue). We'll need volunteers to help bag trash, recycle, tend trees and prepare beds for spring planting - (and we'll even have a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society-trained tree tender in our group). You can sign up to volunteer with us through the Streets Department site or by emailing us directly to (find out, after the jump!)