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Party in the Park 2025!
We ate, we danced, we sparkled! Check out more photos from the big night on out Events page.
Highlights & Updates
What We've Achieved, Together
Our 2024 Year in Review
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Please consider supporting FSRP with a 2024 tax-deductible year-end donation so we can continue our care of the park in 2025.
As 2024 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to reflect on a truly incredible year for Schuylkill River Park and our surrounding community. With your support, dedication, and enthusiasm, we've accomplished so much together! Here's a look back at some of this year’s highlights and a glimpse into the exciting things ahead.
Events that Brought Us Together
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Party in the Park: Our signature event of the year was a smashing success! With live music from the Panamaniacs and local food and drinks, this event was a vibrant start to summer with all our neighbors.
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Fall Festival: We hosted a family-friendly kickoff to fall, with pumpkin carving, live music, story time, and community fun for all ages.
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Dog Park Socials and Howl-O-Ween Bash: Our Dog Park committee created memorable events for our furry friends and their humans, featuring costume contests, raffles, and more.
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Love Your Park Days: Our Board members and volunteers were able to plant a pollinator garden, weed, clean the flower beds and shrubs, paint the benches, and create another nature play space. We also laughed, got dirty, met new neighbors, and ate a lot of donuts.
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Ladybug Release Party: An annual favorite, we had a delightful time celebrating nature and the vital role ladybugs play in our Community Garden.
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Swap ’Til You Drop: We hosted two Clothing Swaps with the help of Trinity Church, letting everyone clean out their closets and find things “new to you.”
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Philly Phreeze Fundraiser: This 2nd Annual fundraising event was a splashy success, raising money for lifeguard salaries for the 2024 pool season
Rec Center Improvements
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Flooring at the Rec Center: We installed refreshed flooring at Markward Rec Center to cover up the tired old concrete and make the space more functional and welcoming for all.
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Mosaic Tile Installation: Thanks to the creativity of local Girl Scout Troop 93942, a beautiful mosaic now adorns the southern wall of the Rec Center.
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Changing Stations Installed & Swings Replaced: Responding to community feedback, we installed changing tables at the Rec Center, making visits easier for caregivers with young children. We also advocated for the broken swings to be replaced on big kid playground.
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Rec Center Mural: With the help of Mural Arts, the Rec Center dedicated a new mural designed by Calo Rosa and the Rec Center after school program.
Dog Park Improvements
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With your donations, we repaired the turf, installed new fencing, and performed other much needed maintenance in the dog parks. We also secured a grant for future improvements! Your continued support is crucial to maintaining and improving this beloved space.
Community Updates
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Rec Center Classes & Events: We continued to offer classes out of the Rec Center, like T’ai Chi, Yoga, Kids’ Art classes, Karaoke parties, and E-Sports. We also had four members of the Markward Swim Team win medals at their meets!
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Garden Transformation: Thanks to Scott Farrington and volunteers, our garden was filled with stunning new plants and blooms.
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Farmers Market Success: Our vendors brought fresh, local food to the park all season long.
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Love in the Park: Schuylkill River Park became part of a beautiful love story as a local couple got engaged on their favorite bench. Their commemorative plaque ensures this moment is forever part of our park’s story.
Advocacy and the Year Ahead
We have accomplished a great deal this year, but there’s always more to do! None of this would be possible without YOU—our neighbors, volunteers, and supporters. Your commitment to the park makes it the heart of our community. Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a fantastic start to the New Year!
Party in the Park was a Hit!
Visit our Events page for more pictures of the unofficial start of summer.
Thank you for another Love Your Park Day!
We had a great day beautifying Schuylkill River Park! Thank you for helping us plant a pollinator garden, weed, clean the beds, paint the benches, and create another nature play space.
Park lighting update
Over the past year the lights in most of the park south of the bowl have only been on intermittently, and many times they were not on all. As a result, much of the park was pitch black soon after the sun went down.
Since October of 2022, FSRP has been engaging the City to regularly come out and repair these lights, but fixes have proven temporary at best due to severe degradation of the wiring connecting all the lights. Once one light shorts out, the whole group goes out. The City has asked FSRP to work with them to identify funding sources for a completely new lighting system, but that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take many months, if not over a year, to achieve. We're grateful to the assistance of Sen Nikil Saval's office in navigating potential funding streams to accomplish this.
In the meantime, FSRP has worked with the City to procure temporary lights. These should be installed by the end of 2023. We will continue to keep you updated on the status of a lighting revamp and we look forward to the installation of new lights and a safer park as a result.
Photo in the bowl after sun down.
Adirondack Chairs & Picnic Tables
If you build it they will come... and relax! After lots of hammering, painting, drying, gluing and yelling at the instruction manuals, FSRP built and added some super comfy, wooden Adirondack chairs and wooden picnic tables to the park. Please be kind to them!
We hope they're increasing your enjoyment of the Park!
Markward Plaza Renovations
We had a wonderful time celebrating the re-opening of Markward Plaza! We hope you enjoyed the live music and chatting with our board members about the revised master plan.
Basketball Backboards and Rims
Gone are the days of perpetually broken rims. Thanks to the generous donations from the community and local businesses, FSRP was able to match the funds we raised and replace our basketball hoops with professional grade equipment. We are so proud to make this happen for the community.
