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2007 Annual Report
 Educating Gardeners Across the Region
PHS’s Education Services department launched Green City Teachers this year, an initiative that offers Philadelphia educators tools to help students appreciate the role of nature in their lives. Participating teachers integrate horticultural and environmental education into curriculums, after-school programs, and service-learning projects. A support network provides a forum for sharing ideas. Designed to complement Green City Youth, a PHS program for Philadelphia students, Green City Teachers is made possible by a generous grant from the Burpee Foundation, operated by the seed supplier, W. Atlee Burpee & Co.
Burpee CEO and president George Ball says, “We’re thrilled to help provide young people with what I call ‘plant literacy.’ Both PHS and Burpee have long legacies in Philadelphia, so it’s fitting that we collaborate to help the next generation connect with the environment.”
Inspired by the documentary Edens Lost & Found, PHS partnered with the Media & Policy Center Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Institute for Urban Research to host a national symposium called Growing Greener Cities. The October 2006 event brought together hundreds of professionals, academics, activists, and civic leaders from across the country to discuss urban environmental issues of the twenty-first century. The keynote speaker was Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace in her native Kenya.
PHS offers education programs for gardeners of all levels, including lectures, tours, and workshops across the area, from PHS headquarters to Meadowbrook Farm to Chanticleer … A Pleasure Garden in Wayne, PA. The City Gardening Series hosted 59 free garden workshops attended by nearly 900 people in neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia. The series is supported through a collaborative partnership with Chanticleer.
In the McLean Library, many months were devoted to planning, implementing, customizing, and testing a new library computer system that includes a user-friendly online catalog. Grateful thanks to the William Penn Foundation for funding this project through the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. The new catalog can be found at www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org.
The McLean Library staff also worked with the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts to produce a Preservation Needs Assessment for the library collections, including art and artifacts housed throughout PHS headquarters. This assessment is an evaluation of the policies, practices, and conditions that have an impact on the preservation of collections.
In print, PHS continued publishing Green Scene magazine, PHS News, and Philadelphia Green News for its members and constituents. Its urban greening newsletter, Strategy for a Green City, produced a popular edition this past year entitled “Youth in the Garden,” which highlights PHS’s growing number of youth-oriented activities such as the Kids Grow Expo, Green City Youth, and the Summer Youth Environmental Stewardship program. This issue and others (2007 topics include the economic benefits of greening, the urban forest, and partnerships) are available on the PHS website or by request.♦ |
