Relive Love Your Park Fall Service Day, in 15 great photos

On Saturday, November 9th, more than 1,300 volunteers celebrated the 10th annual Love Your Park Fall Service Day in 104 Philly parks, making it one of the largest service days in the history of the program.

At this year’s signature site, Kemble Park, more than 100 volunteers came out to clean and green the park, raking leaves, mulching trees and planting bulbs – all to help prep the park for winter. Philly Goat Project also brought out more than a dozen goats, who also helped eat invasive plants around the park.

It was a special day for the Friends of Kemble Park, who just celebrated their first year as part of the Philadelphia Park Friends Network, which is made of 130 park and community garden volunteer groups across the city. While it was the Friends of Kemble Park’s first official year, they have had generations of volunteer caretakers for the park, including Sandra Broadus’ own father.

“There is a reason this park is beautiful,” Broadus said at Love Your Park Fall Service Day. “He used to come home every day, take off his suit, put on his work clothes – with a bucket and a broom and a rake – and come out here and clean this park, along with the rest of the community. It inspired others to also take pride in the park and in their community and to clean and maintain their neighborhood.”

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Fairmount Park Conservancy host a citywide cleanup in all of Philly’s parks twice a year in partnership with volunteers who steward their neighborhood parks.

“That’s one of the reasons it’s incredibly exciting and gratifying to come out here to see one another and see all of the faces and love that people have for this piece of the community,” said Maura McCarthy, Ph.D., Fairmount Park Conservancy’s Executive Director.

At the end of the cleanup, Philadelphia’s Mayor Jim Kenney thanked all of the volunteers, noting that this community held a special place in his heart, as he went to college nearby.

Relive the magic of the largest Love Your Park Fall Service Day to date in 20 #loveyourpark photos from parks all across Philly!