Manayunk’s James Dobson Elementary School hosted an Earth Day groundbreaking for a green schoolyard that will celebrate local history and teach sustainability. Kensington’s Horatio B. Hackett School kicked off a $1.4 million schoolyard greening project with the dedication of a new gateway on April 27. Both projects have roots in conceptual designs created by the Collaborative.
Dobson’s Earth Day celebration marked the beginning of a joint schoolyard greening project by Philadelphia Water, Destination Schuylkill River, and Friends of Dobson. Volunteers rose bright and early on Saturday, April 23 to dig garden beds and plant shrubs and perennials for Dobson’s new woodland walk, which will bring nature and nature-based play to several small terraces surrounding the school.
“Not just a schoolyard, but a common ground.” – Friends of Dobson
Hackett’s $1.4 million schoolyard project began with the April 27 dedication of a new gateway to the school - a project of Friends of Hackett, The Big SandBox, and JRMworks that took its cue from the school’s Celtic wall mosaics and set the stage for an accessible green schoolyard. The gateway was made possible through a $25,000 grant from Penn Treaty Special Services District and $5,000 of in-kind concrete work donated by Healy Jevin & Long Concrete. See the gateway and celebration on 6ABC News.
