New Territory

As visitors to this site can no doubt tell, the big news from the Friends of Cloverly Park is the Old Tennis Court Farm Protection Project. This is new territory for us. We have never undertaken any fundraising of this magnitude. But this is an extraordinary situation: Germantown Friends School has offered the community the opportunity to purchase and preserve forever a 0.65-acre parcel of land adjacent to the park.

If Cloverly’s neighbors and friends can raise sufficient funds to effect the purchase, we can bring back the Old Tennis Court Farm, the thriving community garden that operated on the site from 2009 to 2015.

Once again, the neighborhood would have a place for community members to raise fresh, organic fruits and vegetables for their own tables, their friends and families’ tables, and those of the community’s food-security programs.

The purchase price of the parcel is $277,000. We are working with Natural Lands Trust, which is seeking public funds for a portion of the cost. We have set a goal of raising least $75,000 from the community. Each gift, whether $5 or $500, will be important because it will have come from you, the community.

We have just begun getting the word out about the project, and we hope you will help us in doing so. And if you have ideas or suggestions for fundraising, please contact us.

Welcome and Thank you!

This is the launch of our Friends of Cloverly Park website. We hope you will check it frequently for updates on park issues and events.

We are fortunate in the many organizations that choose to volunteer with us, among them the middle school students and teachers of nearby Fitler Academics Plus at Seymour and Knox Streets, who have been joining us for the spring Love Your Park since 2014; the community service programs of Penn Charter and Germantown Friends schools; and the men of the Drexel chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, who have given us more than a thousand volunteer hours since 2005.

But among our most important volunteers are our silent friends, those helpful neighbors and park users who, all year round, pick up trash and debris in and around the park without being asked or expecting recognition. A good neighborhood park is an asset to the whole community, and the quiet and constant actions of these neighbors speak of their commitment to keeping Cloverly a beautiful, safe space for all to enjoy. Thank you!