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Earth Day

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7 Earth Day Activities to Do This Weekend in Philadelphia

You say it’s your Earth Day? It’s my Earth Day, too! Get out of the house this Sunday, April 22, and enjoy any of these events, while pondering a future when there’s an Earth Year, and a Fossil Fuel Day.

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April 20, 2018
1 min read
#107 April 2018/All Topics

Grid’s Guide to April 2018 Festivals

Grid's guide to the best April festivals in the greater Philadelphia area.

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April 5, 2018
2 mins read

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  1. Dusti Morton on A fiery City Council hearing on the Academy of Natural Sciences closure ends in subpoenas
  2. Me on Museumgoers express heartache and outrage on the final day of the Academy of Natural Sciences Museum
  3. Me on Grid is transitioning to an all-digital newsroom. We need your help.
  4. Raquel Moreno on City circumambulation group celebrates ten years of walks
  5. Suzanne Ryan on Once billions strong, the passenger pigeon survives in a fading Academy diorama

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From the outside, the building hasn’t changed much From the outside, the building hasn’t changed much in a year. Merzbacher’s two-tone painted brick factory at 4530 Germantown Ave. still has the words “bread to share” flanking its front door, and the smell of freshly baked loaves still wafts out — only now, there are a lot more of them. Inside, founder and head baker Peter Merzbacher weaves through a maze of racks as timers beep and motors hum around him. Since Grid first visited the bakery last summer, Merzbacher has gained a new title: owner of Metropolitan Bakery. Acquiring Metropolitan, one of Philadelphia’s most trusted bakeries for more than three decades, increased Merzbacher’s production from about 12,000 pounds of dough a week to 25,000. “We have more than doubled,” Merzbacher says. “When I was thinking about whether it made sense to acquire Metropolitan and steward their legacy, I hoped that we would maybe grow by — after the dust settled — maybe 70%. And to grow by an excess of 100% is my wildest dreams come true.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Julia Lowe #philadelphia #baker #phillybakery #phillyfoodie #supportlocalbusinesses
Philadelphia Eagles executive Connor Barwin is kno Philadelphia Eagles executive Connor Barwin is known for two things: chasing down quarterbacks — he had 14.5 sacks for the Birds in 2014 — and improving the region. Through his Make the World Better Foundation, he’s rebuilt public parks and rec spaces in the neighborhoods that needed them most. So when he decided to make his own home more sustainable, he did it the way he does everything — locally and hands-on. We were honored when Barwin chose Solar States for the installation. We’re a Philadelphia-born, certified B Corp installer, rooted here since 2008. And the thing that struck Barwin wasn’t the hardware going up. It was the people putting it up. “I met Micah (Gold-Markel), who started Solar States a number of years ago,” he says. “He was hiring people from YouthBuild Philly, giving people good jobs in a growing industry. But honestly, the coolest part about being here today is to meet the people who are actually doing these jobs. There were 10 people here — I got to know some of their stories. They’re earning livable wages. They’re part of this new, growing green economy.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Micah Gold-Markel #philadelphia #philadelphiaeagles #solarenergy #solarpower #solarpowered
When tenants at King’s Ferry Square Apartments in When tenants at King’s Ferry Square Apartments in South Philadelphia call their property manager, Camden answers the phone. “Hi there!” she says, unfailingly chipper. Camden, however, is not a property manager, nor is she an employee of The Michaels Organization, which owns the building. In fact, Camden is not a human. She’s an artificial intelligence agent, named for the South Jersey city where The Michaels Organization is headquartered. Earlier this year, Camden started fielding residents’ calls to the building office. “We can’t communicate with them,” says June Almond, a King’s Ferry resident since 1999 and member of the building’s recently formed tenant union. “When you call AI, they always ask you if you want a tour. They advertise.” Camden would present callers with information tailored toward prospective renters, not current tenants, Almond explains. “It takes too long,” she says, and “when you get to the end, it says no one’s in the office. You cannot leave a message.” “If a resident wishes to speak with a staff member directly, telling Camden they need to speak to an agent will route the call to our front desk team,” a representative for The Michaels Organization said in a statement, though King’s Ferry tenants have described being unable to get through to a human despite repeated attempts. That’s been a problem when tenants have urgent issues; Almond recently went without hot water for two days and had trouble contacting management to make a maintenance request. It wasn’t always that way, she says. Under a previous property manager, tenants and management met once or twice per month to discuss building conditions, and issues were dealt with promptly. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #tenants #tenantunion #tenantrights #rentersrights
We have a new plan: Grid will not go all-digital. We have a new plan: Grid will not go all-digital. Grid will survive as a print publication, or it will cease to exist. After last month’s announcement, we heard from many of you by email and at the farmers market. Not one of you was excited about going digital. Neither were we. To stay in print, we’ve set a new goal: We need 600 more subscribers at $10 a month or $99 a year, plus 54 sponsors at $20 a month to keep Grid free at Philadelphia’s public libraries. Our deadline is March 15, 2027. More than 100 of you have already stepped up. Thank you. Read Alex’s full letter and subscribe at the link in bio. #philadelphia #phillynews #sustainability #environmentalnews #independentjournalism
On the morning of Friday, Oct. 23, environmental a On the morning of Friday, Oct. 23, environmental advocates from across the region gathered at St. Joseph’s University in West Philadelphia. It was a diverse crowd, including elected officials, college students, City workers and neighborhood block captains, but everyone present had one thing in common. “We all breathe the same air,” said Elizabeth Main, the university's director of environmental stewardship and sustainability, addressing the room. “Environmental challenges do not stop at campus boundaries or City Council district lines.” The occasion was Overbrook Environmental Education Center’s second annual Thriving Communities Symposium, a two-day event for local environmental advocates that included workshops, a resource fair and an awards dinner (Grid publisher Alex Mulcahy was among those honored at the dinner). The symposium was specifically designed to support small community organizations, many of which have lost funding for environmental projects since Trump took office. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Kathryn Rice #philadelphia #environmentaljustice #environmentaladvocacy #environmentalproject #environmentalprotection
When Drexel University announced Sept.1 that the A When Drexel University announced Sept.1 that the Academy of Natural Sciences Museum would shutter at the end of the month, City Council responded to widespread public outcry by announcing a legislative committee hearing to investigate. On Monday, Oct. 26, after a nearly three-week postponement, the long-awaited day had come: more than 120 people — many of them holding “Save the Academy” signs — filled City Council’s chambers on the fourth floor of City Hall to watch as councilmembers heard testimony and interrogated representatives from Drexel about the museum’s closure. Committee Chair Isaiah Thomas began the contentious hearing by pointing out a glaring absence. “We do not have the presence of the Administration here today,” Thomas said, eliciting a chorus of boos. Deputy Mayor Patricia Wellenbach, whom Mayor Cherelle Parker appointed to represent the City in matters related to the Academy, and who had been slated to testify, did not appear at the hearing, and her name was crossed off on a list of witnesses distributed to attendees. Instead, Wellenbach had submitted a written statement, claiming that, because she couldn’t speak on behalf of Drexel or the Academy, she was “not the appropriate person to testify.” “This is disrespect,” said Councilmember Jeffery Young. “Someone who is paid by the taxpayers, someone who is a representative of the administration, should be here to talk to us.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
It’s not often a vote can shape what a place looks It’s not often a vote can shape what a place looks like for generations. On Nov. 3, Delaware County voters get that chance — the opportunity to protect the water they drink, wildlife around them and the open spaces that make this county worth calling home. The Delaware County Water Quality, Natural Areas, and Wildlife Habitat Protection bond will allow the county to borrow up to $120 million to protect drinking water sources and water quality, conserve trees that clean our air and wetlands that prevent flooding, safeguard wildlife habitat and keep our natural areas from being lost to development. As a lifelong resident of Delaware County and the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania and Delaware, I urge everyone to vote YES on this ballot initiative. ➡️ Read the full op-ed at gridphilly.com ✍️ Lori Brennan 📸 Taproot Photography #delawarecounty #delco #electionday #waterquality #protectwildlife
Ten-year-old Josiah Marcelino lives within walking Ten-year-old Josiah Marcelino lives within walking distance of Tacony Creek Park, but had never ventured onto its nature trails. This July, through the Bikes & Trails Camp, presented by YJR (Yo! Just Ride) Outdoors and the Tookany/Tacony Frankford (TTF) Watershed Partnership, Marcelino was able to experience the park in a brand-new way: via bicycle. “I learned to ride a bike at Bike Camp in just one day!” he said. “Going on the trail was really fun, and even though it was bumpy, I really enjoyed seeing and exploring the park.” All throughout Philadelphia, kids are learning how to ride bikes on park trails thanks to YJR Outdoors. The programs provide everything necessary: bicycles, helmets and instructors. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Emily Kovach 📸 Photo courtesy of Wendi Wu/Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed #philadelphia #youthcycling #morekidsonbikes #bikephilly #bikephl
Often the best business ideas arise from seeing a Often the best business ideas arise from seeing a need. For Natalia Cardona, owner of Azúcar Jams, opportunity was hiding in an unlikely place: the jam aisle. Other sections of American supermarkets feature ingredients that generations of immigrants brought to the United States. But Cardona, the Guatemalan daughter of a woman who ran a juicery and made jams from surplus fruit, saw nothing on the jam shelves that offered the tropical tastes she grew up enjoying. Cardona, one of 12 children in a blended family, grew up in a Guatemala City shanty town near a vast seasonal food market. Her family cooked adventurously, and Cardona spent much of her childhood savoring the market’s delicious array of foods. “I love cooking and eating and I will try pretty much anything,” she says. When she was 10 years old, with help from a Rhode Island-based Quaker group, she and her father immigrated to Canada. Cardona graduated from college in New Brunswick with a degree in international relations and landed an internship with the United Nations in Latin America. In 2000, the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia hired her as an administrative assistant. Several promotions later, Cardona’s expanded responsibilities took her around the world, tasting as she went, and doing work she loved. When her nonprofit job was eliminated in 2025, friends and family urged her to start retailing the small-batch Caribbean- and Latin American-influenced jams she had been giving away. Inspired by her dad’s example as an entrepreneur and by the stories of many founders from the podcast “How I Built This,” Cardona acquired the necessary licenses and launched Azúcar Jams in October 2025. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Marilyn Anthony 📸 Jess Benjamin #philadelphia #homemadejam #shopphilly #phillyfoodie #supportlocalbusinesses
Three turtles are waiting in the garden at the Max Three turtles are waiting in the garden at the Max Myers Playground. The kids have to find them. As David Crutchfield, garden educator with Farm Philly’s Junior Farmers program, leads the after-school program attendees outside, the children sprint ahead, eager to dive into the kale, squash, beets and other plants to search. Junior Farmers supports gardening at 10 recreation centers and playgrounds, according to its website. Crutchfield rotates through gardens in Northeast Philadelphia, visiting them once a week. He also works at the Pennypack Environmental Center (Farm Philly and the environmental center are part of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation), which gives him access to animals, dead and alive, to work into his garden education sessions. Crutchfield describes his role as “naturalist,” his official title notwithstanding. “I get a chance to garden with the kids, teach them nature, horticulture,” Crutchfield says. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Jeff Fusco #philadelphia #horticulture #gardeneducation #natureeducation #juniorfarmers
The Sunday following Philadelphia’s apocalyptic mi The Sunday following Philadelphia’s apocalyptic microburst storm, the Garden Court gardeners gathered late in the day to honor our fallen fruit trees. They sat around the apple stump and shared stories of the shade the tree had offered on hot July days and the roost the branches had made for birds and squirrels. Of the apples the wind sometimes threw down — always more sour than we’d like — or the cherries hung a ladder’s reach above our heads — always sweeter than the low-growing fruit. Then they shared silence and offered gifts: a scattering of cornmeal, a ripe tomato, a splash of water. This was climate grief, moving through a community. The Garden Court Community Garden is a natural respite on a busy street. In midsummer, when the squash and collards were in full flush and the central apple tree had leafed out into a wonderful umbrella of shade, the garden became a cool, green oasis. But when I returned from traveling just one week after the storm in early July, I was warned by a friend: “It looks really different.” Our oasis had been disrupted. The apple tree, along with our cherry and one peach, had been toppled. In place of green shade, only stumps and sweltering sunshine. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Sarah Ruiz 📸 Brook Layne #philadelphia #climategrief #microburst #fallentrees #communitygarden
The Sunday following Philadelphia’s apocalyptic mi The Sunday following Philadelphia’s apocalyptic microburst storm, the Garden Court gardeners gathered late in the day to honor our fallen fruit trees. They sat around the apple stump and shared stories of the shade the tree had offered on hot July days and the roost the branches had made for birds and squirrels. Of the apples the wind sometimes threw down — always more sour than we’d like — or the cherries hung a ladder’s reach above our heads — always sweeter than the low-growing fruit. Then they shared silence and offered gifts: a scattering of cornmeal, a ripe tomato, a splash of water. This was climate grief, moving through a community. The Garden Court Community Garden is a natural respite on a busy street. In midsummer, when the squash and collards were in full flush and the central apple tree had leafed out into a wonderful umbrella of shade, the garden became a cool, green oasis. But when I returned from traveling just one week after the storm in early July, I was warned by a friend: “It looks really different.” Our oasis had been disrupted. The apple tree, along with our cherry and one peach, had been toppled. In place of green shade, only stumps and sweltering sunshine. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Sarah Ruiz 📸 Brook Layne #philadelphia #climategrief #microburst #fallentrees #communitygarden
“1854,” says Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, with author “1854,” says Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, with authority, when asked about the origins of Philadelphia’s borders. “That’s when the Consolidation was signed: February 2, 1854.” Good luck finding another Philadelphian who could, on the spot, provide the exact date on which the Consolidation Act transformed the neat rectangle of William Penn’s colonial city — from Vine Street to South Street, Schuylkill to Delaware — into the considerably less tidy shape of the city today. But to be fair to the rest of us, Tiziou has good reason to know this obscure bit of trivia: He has walked the city’s odd, jutting perimeter no less than 17 times. Tiziou completed his first walk in 2016 as part of an artist residency, to which he’d applied as a photographer. (In 2011, he photographed and designed Philadelphia’s largest piece of public art: “How Philly Moves,” a mural on the side of a parking garage at the Philadelphia International Airport.) Over the next few years, he made the 100-mile trek an annual ritual. He’d set off clockwise from 61st and Baltimore and complete the walk in segments over five or six days. “I thought I knew Philly pretty well before I walked it,” says Tiziou. “It was a humbling, humbling experience. The city is vast and unknowable and magical.” In 2020, hoping to share that magic, Tiziou began accommodating larger groups through his organization, the Walk Around Philadelphia. He talks about “gifting people places”: showing them parts of their city they wouldn’t encounter otherwise. “We took a group of high school kids from the Kensington Health Sciences Academy out on a spring break walk,” he says, “and these youngsters had never been on the banks of the Delaware.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #philly #walkaroundphiladelphia #walkinggroup #urbannature
It was a muggy morning in mid-August and parents w It was a muggy morning in mid-August and parents were gathered inside The Academy at Palumbo High School’s cafeteria, chatting animatedly over coffee and biscuits. The occasion was the First-Year Student Breakfast, an annual event the school’s Home and School Association (HSA) hosts to connect new families with school staff and parent volunteers. The meeting had been running for nearly two hours when parents began asking about Palumbo’s tech policy. Edwin Mayorga, a Palumbo parent and HSA member, saw an opportunity to ask a question that had been on his mind — what, exactly, was the school’s stance on AI? “I knew I was kind of opening Pandora’s box right at the end of the meeting,” said Mayorga, acknowledging that AI is a thorny topic for schools looking to strike a balance between preparing students for the future and protecting them from technology’s potential harms. He said the school staff members present at the meeting provided a brief answer to his question, but added that the school’s AI policy is “still very vague to me, which I don’t think is usually a good recipe for good education.” Proponents say artificial intelligence has the potential to transform education by saving teachers time and personalizing curriculum, but research shows that AI tools can undermine student learning and stunt cognitive development. A recent report published by the Brookings Institution found that the risks of incorporating AI into classrooms currently outweigh the benefits. The School District of Philadelphia has taken steps to restrict student access to AI by limiting student use to ninth through 12th grade classrooms and publishing a set of AI guidelines, but some parents say they still lack information about how their children are engaging with AI at school. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Kathryn Rice 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #aiineducation #aiinschools #ailiteracy #digitalliteracy
Nicole Pepe’s house on the 5100 block of Catharine Nicole Pepe’s house on the 5100 block of Catharine Street shook as the tree hit it. She had been watching through a window as the fierce winds of the July 11 microburst whipped leaves and bits of roofing shingles in a vortex behind her house. “My husband said, ‘Get in the middle of the house,’” just before the century-old London plane tree fell over. “You’d think it’d be like a thunderous crash, but it hit a car first, so it was like this weird kind of metallic sound.” When the storm finally passed and the winds died down, Pepe and her husband went outside to find the tree wedged against their porch. And it turned out it had actually crushed two cars when it fell across the street. “One of them happens to be mine,” says Liz Beard. Beard had been watching the torrential downpour from a second-floor window. “My house was like literally going through a car wash,” she says. After the storm, “I come outside to see what’s up, and there’s one of the huge London planes across two cars on our street.” Trees bring a lot to a neighborhood. Their shade makes hot days bearable, which is especially important as cities bake in a rapidly warming climate. They help soak up rain, which makes it easier to manage urban stormwater. But they also carry costs, especially when storms knock them over. As tree-toppling storms, amplified by a warmer, wetter climate, become more common, will property owners decide the canopy isn’t worth it? ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Liz Beard #philadelphia #microburst #climatechange #treecanopy #treedown
A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time on the third floor of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The birds feed on the ground, rest on twigs and raise their wings to take to the air in a beech forest whose colonnade of gray trunks recedes into the diorama’s painted background. The mounted skeletons in Dinosaur Hall help visitors picture a T. rex treading the earth, a predator with no contemporary counterpart. The same is true of this display for the extinct passenger pigeons that once flew in the billions. “The Pidgeons in such numbers we see fly, that like a cloud they do make dark the sky; and in such multitudes are sometimes found, as that they cover both trees and ground,” says Keith Russell, program manager for urban conservation at Audubon Mid-Atlantic, quoting early Pennsylvania settler and poet John Holme. Russell says that thanks to centuries of written accounts, as well as Philadelphia’s role as a hub for natural history exploration, “there is a longer timeline of records for Philadelphia than there is for any other place.” Hannah Michelle Brower and Aspen Simone of Philly Pigeon Tours highlighted that connection in a special program they offered for the nation’s 250th. The tours usually focus on urban pigeons (aka rock doves), free-flying members of a domesticated Eurasian species. “We talked about the rock pigeon and the history with them, but focused more on passenger pigeons because they were native to America,” Brower says. “We talked about the whole history of early colonist records of their abundance and how people caused their decline and extinction.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #ornithology #pigeons #passengerpigeon #academyofnaturalsciences
With the closing of the Academy of Natural Science With the closing of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University has blundered into a spectacular public relations disaster. I could almost feel sorry for them, had their actions not been so cruel and heartless. When the news first broke, the reaction was a stunned grief. According to Drexel, this beloved museum, the public-facing side of an irreplaceable scientific institution, just didn’t make financial sense anymore. They listed some facts. Attendance was down, and had never recovered from COVID-19. The building at 19th Street and the Parkway required major work. It just couldn’t go on. Two of the three divisions of the Academy would be spared. Drexel would maintain the Academy’s collection of 19 million(!) specimens and scientific research would continue. To make it financially stable, they would sell the building. It was a tidy narrative, a problem and a solution presented simultaneously. After the initial shock and sadness of hearing the news, people started asking questions: How much work does the building need? Why does it need to close so quickly? Has every effort been made to save the museum? Supporters began to organize, politicians expressed dismay. And then the William Penn Foundation, usually a behind-the-scenes player, made a public offer to fund the museum for a year. It was a bold intervention, effectively calling Drexel’s bluff. The closest Drexel has come to acknowledging that offer was when they told NBC 10 they hadn’t received a “formal proposal.” Their response speaks volumes. The museum has closed quickly because Drexel has no interest in keeping it open. Drexel did not just fail to make every effort to save the museum — they made no effort. ➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at gridphilly.com ✍️ Alex Mulcahy #philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lea One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lead levels in water sources used for food preparation, according to tests conducted by the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) over the past three years. The dangerously high levels of lead, a potent neurotoxin linked to stunted development and learning difficulties, were found by the district during routine water testing, the results of which were posted to its website. Grid then analyzed the results and the potential exposures to district students, which has not been previously performed by other media. The high lead results were predominantly taken from water taps found in kitchens or food prep areas, affecting 21 schools out of the 219 tested. In an additional seven schools, high lead results were discovered in several nurses’ offices, a pre-K room and a special needs room. In some cases, the lead levels were more than 10 times higher than the district’s safety level of 10 parts per billion (ppb). In one high school kitchen, lead was found at 6,200 ppb. School district officials and documents indicate that contaminated water sources were immediately taken offline until filters could be installed and the water retested. But health and environmental advocates say the data reveals the latest vulnerability in an ongoing districtwide plan to address lead-in-water risks that dates to 2017. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Kyle Bagenstose #philadelphia #phillypublicschools #cleandrinkingwater #safedrinkingwater #leadcontamination
Grid is transitioning to an all-digital publicatio Grid is transitioning to an all-digital publication. We need 500 new subscribers to make it possible. Grid’s December issue, 211, will be its last in print. Our business model is no longer working, and we’re making a change to keep our journalism going. Our mission isn’t changing: sustainability news and stories that inspire, educate and hold the powerful to account. What is changing is the pace: We’re moving from monthly to weekly publishing online so we can respond to breaking news stories faster and reach more people – including online audiences. One of our recent videos was viewed almost 40,000 times, four times our print run. To make it work, we need 500 new monthly supporters. If we get there, Grid continues. → Give to Grid at store.gridphilly.com → Read the full letter from publisher Alex Mulcahy at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #phillynews #sustainability #environmentalnews #independentjournalism
Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of people stood in line outside the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, waiting in the spitting rain for the museum to open its doors to the public for the final time. Artie Cohen, 6, who’d been going to the Academy since he was 2 years old, looked forward to seeing the dinosaurs. And how did he feel about the museum’s closure? “Sad.” “There’s a lot of other great natural history museums that we can visit,” said Lauren Zalut, Artie’s mother. “But to not have this one, the first one in the country, is pretty disappointing.” “We’d have to go to New York to see something like this,” she said. On Sept. 1, Drexel University and the Academy announced that the museum would close permanently at the end of the month, citing declining attendance that never rebounded after the pandemic. But, in 2025 at least, the Academy’s revenue outpaced its expenses. The greatest obstacle to the museum’s continued operation seems to have been a staggering $150 million in deferred maintenance costs for its 150-year-old building on the Ben Franklin Parkway, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board. Though there had been indications, earlier than September, that the Academy was not in good fiscal health — a significant reduction in hours last fall, an accompanying round of layoffs — there were no public statements about a potential closure until the Sept. 1 announcement. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Tasso Hartzog #philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
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