Frankford Community Blog | Local News, Events, Community Resources
It was hot soup on a cold Martin Luther King Day of Service as Ike and Kat Hardy went right to the people. They set up shop early Monday morning at Frankford and Margaret and within a few hours had given out over 200 cups of soup.
It is typical of this couple to just do what needs to be done. They are always there when someone needs help and they know the community. It is no accident they call Kat Hardy “Mayor” in the neighborhood.
The Ray of Hope project coordinated a clean up with 15 volunteers from Rosemont College on Monday, January 15th. Block captain, Lynda DeSouza and Frankford Watch, Elijah Myers worked with the volunteers on this brisk Martin Luther King Day of Service to clean the area around the Arrott Street terminal.
Photo by Elijah Myers 1/15/2018
Bags of trash and other items were collected and left for city pick up from this MLK Day of service project.
Happy New Year’s to you and your family.
The Ray of Hope Project (TROHP) is asking all our Colleges, Universities, Faith Base Organizations and Concerned Citizens Partners if they would be willing to HELP collect 15,000 pair of OLD SHOES AND SNEAKERS. These shoe drives will help TROHP raise the necessary fund to assist struggling families all year around.
Last year, in 2017, TROHP was able to assist 93 struggling families with new coats, new children clothes, new toys, reading books, school supplies and HOPE! There are 130,000 children who are living in poverty in the City of Philadelphia.
TROHP can use all the help we can get!! We are asking if you can please collect old shoes & sneakers to assist with this very important matter. Thank you for your time in this matter. For more info contact TROHP@ 215 964 7627.
My Warmest Regards,
Raymond Gant
State Senator Christine Tartaglione and State Representative Jason Dawkins brought home the bacon when they presented a check for $200,000 to Joseph Marziello, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Philadelphia, on November 22nd.
Tartaglione and Dawkins invested a lot of time and influence to get the grant for the club. It is ear marked for the completion of the renovations that have been underway at the club for over a year now.
The work at the club has been one of the biggest construction projects in Frankford this year and it has already made a big difference.
From Marziello’s message on the Boys and Girls Clubs web site:
After establishing the new John and Katie Ericksen Family Literacy Center at our Northeast Frankford Club in March 2017, we began renovations to create a Kids Café, STEM Learning Lab and Technology Center at the Club. The improvements are on-track to be completed In October 2017 and will allow us to provide youth at Frankford with hot, home-cooked food daily while engaging them in critical STEM programming.
… Since renovations to the Northeast Frankford Club began, youth enrollment at the Club has increased by 50 percent, with the number of teens attending Club programming doubling.
I spoke with Marziello 2 years ago about his vision for the club. The building was in very poor shape at that point and, yet he was optimistic that he would raise the money and get the job done. He actually did what he said he was going to do.
Bellow is a video of the presentation. If you have seen it on Facebook, this is a shorter version of the same.
A few years ago, after passing the skateboard park at Carmella Playground for the 1,000th time, I stopped by there to take some pictures. It was no big deal but I ended up staying two hours, watching the kids do their thing. They are the best of the lot, honing their skills there rather than down at Love Park. It was news to me, but this is a serious sport and some of our local guys, John Valentin, is right up there with the best.
A small company in the skateboarding world, is trying to have a big impact on kids by rewarding them with a skateboard for writing an essay on what it means to pay it forward.
Sk8Skins is small, self-funded company reaching out at the grassroots level. They are looking for financial help through IndieGoGo to offset the cost of design and manufacturing the skateboards to pass on to the kids. The fundraising drive is in progress now. More information is available at www.Sk8Skins.com or go directly to this this link for the fundraising page.
