The second best reason for the existence of parks in urban areas has got to be for the purpose of building communities. People fill the parks around them at various times during the year and when they do so, they see other people. That may sound like a strange sort of thing to say but the world we live in today can be rather divisive and oftentimes leaves people as strangers when at one time they could consider each other neighbors.
Yesterday, in the Lehigh Parkway, a group of individuals joined together and formed one of those park spawn communities in order to help clean up damage from old storms. I was able to organize the event so that students from Muhlenberg College’s EnACT (Environmental Action Student Group), councilpersons from the Allentown Environmental Advisory Council, members of the Lehigh Valley Road Runners, park walkers, park lovers, concerned citizens and active stewards all met between saw blades and made a difference.
A fallen tree was the major focus of this day of action and within an hour of beginning our work, the tree was entirely tended to. Our group was able to accomplish quite a lot, pretty rapidly, in the course of that hour. It was fantastic.
With strangers working together for a common purpose for no pay or recognition, a difference was made. The purpose of this day was simple and not incredibly remarkable. The thing that made the event remarkable were the people who worked together to complete the task at hand. As you view the pictures below I sincerely hope you can see what I am talking about and I really hope that it encourages you to come for the next one. What beats making friends from strangers?
Number 18 was pretty awesome Readers. Thank you
#1 by michael molovinsky on January 29, 2012 - 9:14 am
congrats on your well done project
#2 by Andrew Kleiner on January 29, 2012 - 10:22 am
Thank you Sir! Thanks for coming by as well!