 On the evening of Thursday, June 11, 2009, Greenfield school celebrated the start of construction of Phase I of the Greening Greenfield project with a Ground Breaking Ceremony and Family Picnic. Despite the threat of rain, the event was well attended by the project funders who graciously joined Greenfield's community partners, Greenfield student ambassadors, and the design team in raising shovels to kick-off this momentous occasion.
The Greenfield Foundation, the project's lead funder, was represented at the Ground Breaking by Board President, Priscilla Luce. Glen Abrams and Bob Allen represented the Philadelphia Water Department  and GreenPlan Philadelphia respectively. Babette Josephs came to show her support of this project, and John Frangipani, Greenfield's Regional Superintendent spoke about the School District support of Greening Greenfield's community planning process and their hope that the landscape improvements to the urban environment designed for Greenfield will be a model to be repeated at other public schools.
Glen Abrams explained to the crowd how Greening Greenfield will be a pilot project demonstrating how the Philadelphia Water Department's goals for the reduction of storm water drainage to the combined sewer system can be achieved. The storm water retention swales of the rain gardens and porous play surfaces will be contributing to meeting EPA guidelines for reduction of water pollution. Glen acknowledged the hard work of our federal politicians who have created funding opportunities for initiatives like Greening Greenfield. He also spoke about GreenPlan Philadelphia's goals for greening school yards and increasing tree canopy coverage in Philadelphia - this project will be the first to forge the way for other public school communities to follow.
Other attendees at the event included Mindy Maslow of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tenders and PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources TreeVitalize, Flavia Rutkosky from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Anne Rahn, Executive Director of Delaware Valley Earth Force, Jennifer Grafton and David Ade of SMP Architects, Suzanna Fabry of Viridian Landscape Studio, Emily Bittenbender of Bittenbender Construction, Denise McKeon, President of the Greenfield Home and School Association, Heidi Segal Levy of the Community Design Collaborative and members from the Collaborative volunteer design team from KlingStubbins.
Greening Greenfield co-chairs Lisa Armstrong and Brett Webber described the upcoming landscape improvements to the crowd of well-wishers, and thanked each representative of the supporting organizations that made this project possible.
During the ceremony, Greenfield student ambassadors presented each funder and community partner with certificates of appreciation. The student ambassadors represented their classes in the four Greening Greenfield design workshops, making important creative contributions to the vision of the project. Eighth graders Cooper Schilling and David Marshall, seventh grader Teige Dougherty, sixth graders Dylan Ramirez and Will Amari, fifth grader Andrea Everett, and fourth grader Griffin Kaulbach participated with the guest dignitaries in the ceremonial digging into the ground with green-ribboned shovels.
Refreshments and delicious finger foods were sponsored by Di Bruno Brothers, Smile Café, Sue's Produce and Fruits and Bonner's. The Greening Greenfield Committee sold Greening Greenfield tee-shirts, designed by sixth grader Will Amari, at the event.
The day after the Ground Breaking, The Inquirer covered the story of Greening Greenfield with a great article by Inga Saffron. View the article, titled, "Attacking Asphalt", by clicking this link:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/47906407.html
    
|
