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Bellmawr Lake

#099.5 August 2017/Community

Rivers, pools and lakes are waiting to refresh your body and spirit

Photo by Carrie Hubbard Six Waterlogged Days by Lauren Johnson It’s August, and the race is on to beat the heat, so pack a picnic, grab a towel and get ready to get wet. Swimming, tubing, kayaking and more are all available as options if you want to leave those hot sidewalks behind, cool down,

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August 3, 2017
3 mins read

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Temple SBDC welcomes you to join the Prosperity No Temple SBDC welcomes you to join the Prosperity Now Green Business Accelerator, a 6-week program committed to empowering underserved small businesses to grow in the climate economy through sectors such as green building, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, green products, and green transportation. Selected participants will gain access to resources, workshops, and one-on-one support to help position their businesses for success in the green economy. Applications are now open through Friday, May 16th. Click the link in our bio to apply! #greeneconomy #greenbusiness #greenbusinessaccelerator #sustainabilitymatters #smallbusinesssupport
If Vellum St. owner and founder Melissa Torre coul If Vellum St. owner and founder Melissa Torre could only recommend one of her products, Fat Marshmallow would be the winner. The whipped tallow skin fluff is not only free of essential oils, but full of locally-sourced, good-for-you ingredients. Here’s a look into how Fat Marshmallow is made 🐮 ➡️ Read the full story about the local tallow skincare company at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #tallow #tallowsoap #tallowskincare #sustainableskincare #shopphilly
👉🎙️ TONIGHT: Join us at Public Trust for T 👉🎙️ TONIGHT: Join us at Public Trust for The People Left Behind, a conversation about the long-term effects of gun violence on local communities beyond the crime scene. This podcast launch event will be hosted by Afea Tucker and features panelists Vivek Ashok, Ellie Rushing, Julien Suaudeau, Terrez McCleary, and Michelle Kerr-Spry. When: Tuesday, March 6th (7:00 PM - 8:30 PM) Where: Public Trust 4017 Walnut St Philadelphia, 19104 For more information, visit gridphilly.com/events. We hope to see you there 💚 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🍐 On March 14, a seven-year-old tree, which had 🍐 On March 14, a seven-year-old tree, which had arrived grafted with 15 varieties of stone fruits, was planted alongside a natural dye garden before a crowd of about 50 community members at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Sam Van Aken grafted 15 additional varieties onto the tree the next day and will return each year for five years to continue grafting until the tree bears 40 different fruits — including pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries and almonds — that are native to or have historically been planted in the region. “I started to look at the fruit themselves as cultural objects,” Van Aken says. “They’re almost like artworks; they have a particular provenance, a specific history of where they’ve traveled … and embedded within that object are people’s narratives.” A college trip to Europe led to driving ambulances in the Bosnian War, which then led to working with dissident artists in Poland. When he returned to the United States, Van Aken knew the power of art. What Van Aken, who grew up on a farm, did not know was that making art of consequence would lead him back to his agricultural roots. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Dawn Kane 📸 Matthew Bender #philadelphia #urbangardening #homegrown #growyourownfood #agriculture #agricultureeducation
“I don’t have a tallow skincare company — I “I don’t have a tallow skincare company — I have a company that tries to use the best ingredients that we can get in the most ethical way that we can get them.” Meet Melissa Torre, owner and founder of Philadelphia’s Vellum St. Soap Company 🐮 ➡️ Read the full story about Melissa’s mission to make skincare sustainable at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #tallow #tallowsoap #tallowskincare #sustainableskincare #shopphilly
🗣️ Philly, we need your voice! 🗣️ The Ph 🗣️ Philly, we need your voice! 🗣️ The Philly Pulse: Community Poll is now live! This online poll is your chance to weigh in on the issues that matter most to you—education, public safety, and clean & green initiatives. 🌿📚 👉 Take the poll now at PhillyPulsePoll.com ⏰ Poll closes Sunday, June 1 at 11:59 p.m. 🗳️ Your voice matters—help shape the future of Philly! 🔄 Spread the word! Share this poll with your networks, on your social channels, and through your community outreach. Let’s make sure every Philadelphian’s voice is heard. 💬💪 #PhillyPulse #CivicEngagement #PhillyVotes #EveryVoiceEveryVote #CommunityPoll #PhillyStrong
🫘 On the first warm Saturday of the year, Taylo 🫘 On the first warm Saturday of the year, Taylor Bakeman organized a seed packing event to restock The Discovery Center’s new native seed library. Just a few weeks after opening, its seed supply was already running low. A dozen volunteers spent the day counting and sifting tiny seeds of New York ironweed, anise hyssop and more than 20 other species into small manila paper envelopes, just the right size to fit into the drawers of a library card catalog. Bakeman, 28, a volunteer at The Discovery Center and a user of seed libraries throughout her upbringing in Arizona, brought the idea for a seed library to The Discovery Center during her Pennsylvania Master Naturalist training. She came up with the project to reduce barriers to growing native plants, after experiencing difficulties finding native seeds and plants at an affordable price. “Being familiar with using a seed library and wanting to advance the accessibility of native seeds, I thought it was the perfect thing to have, especially in a place like The Discovery Center,” says Bakeman. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Julia Lowe 📸 Troy Bynum #philadelphia #nativeplants #nativeseeds #seedlibrary #gardening #urbangardening
🧼 The internet’s latest viral skincare ingred 🧼 The internet’s latest viral skincare ingredient might surprise you. Many are raving about the many potential skin benefits of using soaps and moisturizers made from beef tallow — yes, rendered cow fat. While the popularity of these products has been on the rise since about 2022, one Philadelphia-based soap company was years ahead of the tallow trend. Melissa Torre, owner and founder of Vellum St. Soap Company, says that tallow skincare isn’t a fad; it marks a return to the skincare of ancient human history. “Humans were using animal fats for their skin for eons,” says Torre. “It’s only since about the 1930s and 1940s that we started using synthetic oils.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Julia Lowe #philadelphia #tallow #tallowsoap #tallowskincare #sustainableskincare #shopphilly
👉 You’re invited to Grid Magazine’s podcast 👉 You’re invited to Grid Magazine’s podcast launch event 🎙️ Join us at Public Trust for The People Left Behind, a conversation about the long-term effects of gun violence on local communities beyond the crime scene. The program will be hosted by Afea Tucker and features panelists Vivek Ashok, Ellie Rushing, Julien Suaudeau, Terrez McCleary, and Michelle Kerr-Spry. When: Tuesday, March 6th (7:00 PM - 8:30 PM) Where: Public Trust 4017 Walnut St Philadelphia, 19104 For more information, visit gridphilly.com/events. We hope to see you there 💚 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
In February, The Philadelphia Inquirer published — in print and online — an op-ed by former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Titled “We should support an affordable, inclusive energy transition,” the article made the case that “we must act fast on the seriousness of climate change and do so responsibly, without losing sight of the affordability and reliability we all deserve.” By that, Nutter meant that we must continue to expand natural gas infrastructure. Solar home arrays and electric appliances, he argued, are “out of reach” for marginalized communities; natural gas, meanwhile, is “the most affordable option for energy-burdened households.” Banning natural gas, he wrote, raises energy prices and represents “ideological rhetoric missing reality on the ground.” If the article read to some like a gas industry press release, that’s because, essentially, it is. Since 2023, Nutter has been a member of the leadership of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a group funded by fossil fuel companies like EQT Corporation and TC Energy as well as labor organizations such as Teamsters National Pipeline and Pipeliners Local Union 798. Since its founding in 2020, the organization has spent millions of dollars on advertising and public relations efforts designed to position natural gas as a climate solution. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #naturalgas #fossilfuels #climatechange #cleanenergy #greenenergy
🌱 The outdoors is surging with the warmth and l 🌱 The outdoors is surging with the warmth and light of spring. Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. Shoots are sprouting. Your neighbors are digging in the soil. No matter the color of your thumb, you may feel the urge to get your hands dirty and plant something. Indeed, now is the time to get those tomatoes and squash seeds in the ground if you haven’t already. But spring isn’t the only season to cultivate friendships with photosynthesizers. Fall is best for planting perennials and the prime time to pop native seeds in the fridge for cold stratification through the winter. Then you can start drawing up spring plans all over again. And you don’t have to go it alone. Resources like the Discovery Center’s seed library can jump-start your native plant journey, and Heroic Gardens accepts volunteers to beautify public and private spaces in the region while helping military veterans heal from trauma. Whatever plants you tend, remember to do it cleanly and quietly, with electric or, better yet, human power. We hope that this issue gives you some ideas for your own garden now and through the seasons. ➡️ Visit gridphilly.com to read the full Gardening Issue now! ✏️ Cover illustration by James Boyle #philadelphia #urbangarden #gardening #communitygarden #urbannature #pollinatorgarden
⛽ Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the Unite ⛽ Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the United States. It’s an engine responsible for an annual 30 million tons of carbon dioxide, 21,000 tons of fine particulates and 68,000 tons of nitrogen oxides nationwide that are harmful to human health and the environment, PennEnvironment reports. A heavy-duty truck or SUV may spring to mind, but this dirty engine actually belongs to gas-powered lawn equipment — specifically, the two-stroke gas-powered leaf blower and its relatives. (Two-stroke means it burns both gas and oil.) One leaf blower produces the same emissions per unit time as 15 cars. Locally, this variety of lawn equipment annually emits the CO₂ equivalent of adding nearly 13,000 cars to Philadelphia’s streets, plus other harmful pollutants that contribute to the city’s rank as the fifth most challenging metropolitan area in the U.S. to live with asthma. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue 📸 Chris Bair #philadelphia #cleanair #airquality #emissions #reduceemissions #goelectric #asthmaawareness #publichealth
📝 Editor’s Notes: Resisting Resignation 📝 📝 Editor’s Notes: Resisting Resignation 📝 A few years ago a friend moved to the suburbs after decades in Philadelphia. Last week she came over for dinner, and she joked about a chicken bone she stepped over on the sidewalk on her way to our West Philly door. There’s nothing like chicken bones to let you know you’re back in the city. It was a small thing, but it hit me as a powerful statement about litter. Did someone toss that bone out of their car window, not caring that they were littering? Did a rat dig it out of a bag of uncontained household waste the night before trash pickup? In sad contrast to expectations in our neighborhood, suburban culture rejects casual littering. In even sadder contrast, suburban waste systems generally provide enclosed trash bins and collection methods that don’t scatter refuse (compared to sanitation workers flinging bags of trash into moving garbage trucks). After a while in Philadelphia, you just turn a blind eye to the litter, but it shouldn’t take moving away to remind us that we don’t have to. ➡️ Read the full note from our editor at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown #philadelphia #litter #waste #wastemanagement #wasteremoval
👗 The handmade dresses of red lace and black si 👗 The handmade dresses of red lace and black silk displayed in the tall, arched windows of Dafina Co. in Old City (47 N. 3rd Street) prompt passersby to pause and imagine slipping into such elegance. Inside the boutique, restrained electronic music and French artwork set the stage for the runway-ready clothing that designer Gerta Hebeja says not only gives the wearer confidence, but also goes easy on the planet. Gerta co-owns the boutique with her mother, Anila Hebeja, a dressmaker. Her sister, Megi, models for the Dafina catalog. Together, the Hebeja women are encouraging people to invest in timeless clothing that they will love for years, rather than buying fast fashion by the truckload. It starts with quality fabric, Hebeja says. She looks for materials with a luxurious feel. “There must be a fullness to the fabric.” While much of it comes from Philadelphia and New York, Hebeja also acquires materials during her regular visits to her Albanian grandparents. Limited-edition fabrics come from Turkey and Italy. To minimize waste, she buys only what’s needed, and any scraps of leftover material are repurposed as detailing or used for accessories. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Dawn Kane 📸 Matthew Bender #philadelphia #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #sustainablestyle #slowfashion #zerowastefashion
🧸 Julie McWilliams never liked the idea of buyi 🧸 Julie McWilliams never liked the idea of buying a toy that her three young boys would outgrow in a matter of months. An environmentally-conscious mom, she had long struggled with the tension between providing her kids with enriching play experiences and her desire to reduce waste. That’s why, last December, she decided to do all of her holiday toy shopping through Unless Kids, a Philadelphia-based online platform that promotes circular toy sharing. “I really try to limit consumption in our house and be thoughtful about what we bring in,” McWilliams explains. “Unless Kids makes it easy to get secondhand toys without the hassle of going to thrift stores or dealing with flaky sellers on Facebook Marketplace.” Unless Kids offers a simple yet transformative model: parents purchase toys at a discounted rate, giving their children a chance to play with them without committing to permanent ownership. After a child grows tired of the item, families can return the toys or simply pay a small portion of the discount back to keep them. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #circulareconomy #wastefree #zerowaste #recycledtoys #sustainability
🧥 For the Ardmore-based fashion company America 🧥 For the Ardmore-based fashion company American Trench, it’s all about looking sharp and staying stateside. “We make some pieces of classic menswear that guys can identify with as super useful investment pieces,” says cofounder Jacob Hurwitz. When the brand launched its first product in 2013, Hurwitz says he and cofounder David Neill were driven by their desire “to support the making of something beautiful” in the United States. At the time, they used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to garner customers for their trench coat — a quality piece with real staying power. “You’re going to have it for 20 years,” Hurwitz says. Today, American Trench sells hundreds of products, including retro socks, linen trousers and alpaca wool sweaters. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Jenny Roberts 📸 Matthew Bender #philadelphia #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #sustainablestyle #slowfashion #zerowastefashion
Philly AIDS Thrift was born out of a love for junk Philly AIDS Thrift was born out of a love for junk and an activist spirit, says Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, cofounder and executive director of the nonprofit thrift store. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job creating this safe space for people,” Kallas-Saritsoglou says. “It’s a little bit more than a thrift store; it’s a real communal space.” Located at 710 South 5th Street, Philly AIDS Thrift is an eclectic, artsy retailer that doubles as a local haven for LGBTQ folks and HIV-positive people. Over the last 20 years, Philly AIDS Thrift’s activism and philanthropy have resulted in more than $5 million in donations to HIV/AIDS nonprofit service organizations in the Delaware Valley. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Jenny Roberts 📸 Troy Bynum #philadelphia #phillythrift #thriftstore #lgbtqia #hivawareness #aidsawareness
Polyester fleece burst onto the catalog pages and Polyester fleece burst onto the catalog pages and clothing racks of outdoors brands such as Patagonia (a key developer) in the 1980s, offering wool’s benefits without its drawbacks. It was durable, warm, moisture-wicking and quick-drying. By the late aughts, however, concerns grew over microplastic pollution. While industrial and fishing waste were primary culprits, our clothes also played a role. Polyester fibers — just 10 microns thick — shed in the wash and enter marine ecosystems, harming wildlife. Worse, microplastics are now found in human organs, breast milk and even brains. Throwing out your wardrobe probably isn’t the greatest solution; we can still use what we have, but we should try to cut off the steady flow of these fibers into our wastewater. Here are some ways we can collectively reduce microplastic pollution from our clothing. ➡️ View the full infographic at gridphilly.com ✍️ + ✏️ Bryan Satalino #philadelphia #microplastics #plasticpollution  #microplasticpollution #sustainableclothing
Amid a federal disinvestment in technical support Amid a federal disinvestment in technical support for environmental justice communities, four community-based organizations (CBOs) in Philadelphia are advancing their work to address the local impacts of climate change. Partnered with Drexel University’s Environmental Collaboratory, Esperanza, Mantua Civic Association, Overbrook Environmental and Education Center (OEEC) and SEAMAAC have released the findings of thorough community outreach to recommend solutions to climate-based quality-of-life issues in the city that they will turn into policy suggestions. The report, which was released in November and publicly announced on April 11 at a town hall on Drexel’s campus, comes about two years after the formation of the Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective (PCJC), a collaboration between the CBOs and the university. That collective branched off from the larger, roughly 30-group Green Living Plan, which gave climate-based recommendations to the 2023 mayoral candidates. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue 📸 Markus Spiske #philadelphia #sustainability #environmentalpolicy #environmentalissues #politics #climatechange #climatejustice #environmentaljustice
🐦 The attendees came out for the living birds a 🐦 The attendees came out for the living birds at the September 22 “Little Sit” held by the In Color Birding Club, the Feminist Bird Club, Philly Queer Birders, Disability Pride Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, but John Eskate showed up with dead birds in his bag. Eskate, the volunteer and civic engagement senior manager for The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, brought preserved bird specimens from the research collection. He hoped the specimens could provide a link to the ornithological research conducted by the academy’s scientists during the Little Sit (a riff on a Big Sit, which is a birding tradition of observing birds for 24 hours at one location). To other outdoors events held by Disability Pride, Eskate has brought along birding backpacks from the Free Library of Philadelphia. The backpacks contain binoculars and guidebooks to help novices get started. “I think for any new birders it’s an opportunity to promote the birding backpacks and try them out,” Eskate says. Eskate and Andrew Kleiner, the academy’s director of community science, have spent the last two years looking for opportunities to connect local naturalists of all stripes with science and to knit Philadelphia’s many nature lovers, and nature groups, together. They have plenty of groups to work with. “You cannot have a weekend that passes without a group doing something,” says Kleiner, who has resolved to take part in a nature activity every Saturday. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Chris Baker Evens #philadelphia #birding #birders #birdwatching #birdwatchers #urbannature
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