They were cleaning
in the park one day

Some of the Northeast’s most powerful agencies teamed up on Saturday to clean up a portion of Pennypack Park.
Brian King, executive director of the Mayfair Community Development Corporation, organized the cleanup. He and CDC volunteers were joined by their counterparts from the Major Artery Revitalization Committee (MARC) and the Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP).
The St. Matthew Elementary School football team participated, as did the Friends of Pennypack Park, which saved the aluminum cans for recycling. Jackie Olson, volunteer coordinator for the Pennypack Environmental Center, also brought some help.
That kind of effort is needed in a city that has generally shortchanged the Fairmount Park Commission for years.
The cleanup was timed for the early spring, when more people start walking through the park.
The areas that were cleaned included the park area adjacent to Austin Meehan Middle School and the so-called "Sandyford Run" portion of the park leading to Roosevelt Boulevard.
Among the items the 50 or so volunteers hauled away were furniture, car parts, shopping carts, bicycles, tires, a burned-out motorcycle and a tent used by minors to hold drinking parties.
The garbage was thrown into a sanitation department truck, and all the volunteers went back to the John M. Perzel Community Center for a luncheon.
"These are great, great workers," Olson said.
Olson hosts stream cleanups, tree plantings and other environmental-friendly initiatives on the second Saturday of every month in Pennypack Park. This coming Saturday, as part of a citywide cleanup introduced by Mayor Michael Nutter, she will work with volunteers from Special People In Northeast to clean the Pennypack on the Delaware park.
That same day, MARC will coordinate a major cleanup along Cottman Avenue from State Road to Roosevelt Boulevard. The Mayfair CDC and CLIP, a city program that addresses quality-of-life issues throughout the Northeast, will join the effort.
As for the Mayfair CDC and MARC, Saturday’s cleanup marked the continuation of a partnership between two groups that were previously separated by Frankford Avenue. King heads the CDC, which focuses on the avenue and streets west of it. John Byrne is in charge of MARC, which generally handles matters on the avenue and blocks to the east.
"Trash has no boundaries," said Tom Conway, a former MARC president and current deputy city managing director, whose office oversees CLIP. "It’s better to combine our resources."
Reese Hartey, president and chairman of the board of the Mayfair CDC, said one of his organization’s prime goals is to have a clean neighborhood, adding that Saturday’s event was a big success. His group has already agreed to work with the Friends of Pennypack in the future.
"Any chance to clean up, we hop on it," he said. ••