A Back-to-School Community Clean Up Is Happening in Fairhill August 29th!
A Back-to-School Community Clean Up Is Happening in Fairhill August 29th
We Love Philly has officially launched fundraising and registration for its first community clean-up. The clean-up will be held on Saturday, August 29, from 6:00am to 8:00pm (sunrise to sunset) in the Fairhill neighborhood of Philadelphia. The event is sponsored by One Bright Ray Community High School and Health-PHL. We Love Philly members and volunteers will begin just outside of One Bright Ray Community High School on 4th and Somerset. The goal is to raise 10,000 dollars for a We Love Philly Bus to help them in their mission to empower high school students with positive community experiences across the Philadelphia region. The bus will provide mobile educational workshops and will serve as a safer option for students to travel during the Covid-19 Pandemic
We Love Philly provides creative and meaningful experiences to local students by teaching volunteerism, and entrepreneurism and by connecting students with local leaders who guide them through high school and beyond. Despite the challenges we are all facing during the COVID pandemic, We Love Philly is adapting to continue with its mission to engage students in critical and meaningful experiences throughout the upcoming school year.
“We aren’t sure what exactly is in store for us this fall, but what we do know is that we love this city and the people in it,” says Carlos Aponte, founder of We Love Philly and educator at One Bright Ray Community High School. “We would like to show our love by doing an all-day clean-up of the community to restore some morale during this very scary time.” Aponte grew up in Philadelphia, has been teaching since 2016 at One Bright Ray Community High School, and founded We Love Philly in 2019. He feels that community initiated, Project Based Learning is the most impactful way to empower students and to lead them towards a path of happiness and success. Carlos also incorporates meditation and journaling as essential tools to help students.We need to make social/emotional learning a priority in order to have a path towards self regulation,” he explains. “ We all have had times when we have been stuck in a hamster wheel of stress. There is no excuse for programs nation-wide to not make it an integral part of the curriculum”
The organizations’ members and volunteers will begin the clean-up in the Fairhill neighborhood, where We Love Philly was founded. They will work from sunrise to sunset, picking up and disposing of garbage while taking the time to reconnect with community members along the way. Aponte states, “We want to expand our reach in the community while reminding our current members the value of community service. This clean-up is directly in line with three of our core values: ownership, environment, and love.”
