JANUARY, 2013

Dear Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Colleagues:

I hope you and your loved ones are enjoying this holiday season and please accept my sincere wish for good health and good fortune to you all in 2013. I also hope that as 2012 comes to an end, you look back with pride at everything that we, as Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, have accomplished. Our achievements have been numerous but the most significant outcome to our good work is the recognition of the City Administration and the reward of an increased budget.

As we enter 2013, we face a number of early and exciting opportunities in which many of you will be involved. We will continue working together to align our priorities as a merged department, forge our identity through a branding process and strengthen connections to our community partners. Several “all-staff” meetings will be scheduled early in the new year to discuss these and other plans; details regarding these meetings will follow.

And if you have the chance, check out the new Philadelphia Parks & Recreation website; it is one more example of the great work performed by our colleagues.

Once more, best wishes for holidays. Thank you all for providing Philadelphia with some of the world’s best programs and public spaces.

New Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Website

We are proud to announce the launch of the new Philadelphia Parks & Recreation website. Launching this site is an important milestone in the public life of our department. The major benefit of the new website is that we now have one public profile that showcases the assets and activities of our department, including the important services that our staff provides to the City on a daily basis.

Along with the new site, we’ve launched a revamped web application named “Find a Facility.” This interactive application allows our users to search for specific programs and activities within the Parks & Recreation system. Users can search by activity types, ZIP code, PPR District or weekday; users can also look up specific facility names from a list of over 300 locations.

A number of our fellow workers have invested significant time and effort into making this new site a reality. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the new website as well as recommend it to others. Thanks.

Holiday Scenes in Philadelphia Parks & Recreation

This season artists ranging from age 3 to adult, including seniors and special populations, created 100 nutcracker dolls at over 35 centers throughout the city. The dolls were made with all man-made materials such as toilet paper rolls, dish detergent bottles, soda bottles, etc.

The dolls are being displayed on the 10th floor at 1515 Arch Street and in the Children's section of the Free Library’s Central branch. The top 12 dolls will be on display at the Academy of Music for the entire run of The Nutcracker performance throughout the month of December.

All of the children will receive vouchers to see specific performances at the Academy for their participation in this contest and to see their dolls come to life on stage.

View additional Nutcracker Doll Contest photos

Employee Recognition Ceremony

View an album of holiday photos

View additional photos from the PPR Employee Recognition Ceremony 2012

Powers Park tree lighting ceremony

Campbell Square tree lighting ceremony

Olney Recreation Center Decorations

Holiday Bulletin Board Contest

View more pictures of the holiday bulletin board contest

Winterfest in Sister Cities Park

On December 15, PPR and the Center City District hosted a three-hour winter festival in Sister Cities Park. The event included a holiday treasure hunt, karaoke sing-along with Frosty the Snowman, plus seasonal arts and crafts. The Young Performers Theater Camp Choir kicked off the event with a performance. Throughout the day children enjoyed Story Art, Snowflake Science, Cold Weather Creatures, and cookie decorating. And of course Santa made an appearance too!

View additional photos of Winterfest

Charms of Fairmount Park

Each year, the Charms of Fairmount Park dress up in holiday finery for two weeks of celebration. Decorated by various interior designers and garden clubs, the historic houses delight visitors with festive adornments and stunning interiors.

This year guests could visit the five decorated houses (Laurel Hill, Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, Ormiston and Woodford) on a trolley tour offered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on their own, or by booking a group tour.

View an album of Charms of Fairmount Park tour photos

Learn more about the tours

Francisville Playground

The Second Annual Fairmount Park Holiday Gingerbread House Display

Local chefs handcrafted ten gingerbread models of Fairmount Park properties, which were displayed between November 12 and December 9, 2012 at The Shops at Liberty Place.

View photos of this year’s Gingerbread Display

View a list of participating restaurants

Christmas Centerpiece Workshop

Is that Martha Stewart? Nope, it’s Barbara McCabe, Director of Parks & Rec Stewardship Program, showing the senior citizens at Mann Senior Center (5th and Allegheny) how to create their own Christmas table centerpiece.

Only if Santa's elves worked this hard!!!

View more pictures of the centerpiece workshop

Cianfrani Park Holiday Celebration

LOVE Your Park Holiday Celebration

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy celebrated the holidays with park friends old and new on December 6 at Galdo’s Catering & Entertainment.

View additional photos of the LOVE Your Park Holiday Celebration party

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Christmas Village in LOVE Park

From Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, LOVE Park was transformed into a traditional German Christmas market.

View additional photos of the Christmas Village

Murphy Rec Center Girls Night Out

The Christmas season started early at Murphy Rec. on the 16th of November as 25 vendors displayed their numerous and unique products to a crowd of over 100 eager shoppers at the 1st annual Murphy Rec. “Girls Night Out”. Products ranged from specialized cupcakes to personalized athletic team Christmas trees. Each of the 25 vendors donated gifts that were raffled off at the end of the event.

Jessica Porco, LD 1, along with her merry volunteers Billy Leyenaar and Mark Hayes, and ARL Howard Briskin decorated the facility in festive red and white Christmas colors with balloons, candy canes, and trees, while Christmas music bellowed throughout the building and community. Light refreshments were served while the shoppers circulated around the joyous venue with bargains at every turn.

Ms. Porco organized the event to raise funds for the Murphy R.C. Summer Camp Scholarship Fund which enables some lower income members of the community to attend our highly successful summer camp.

Meanwhile… Phred’s Still Working

Every so often Phred the Panda, official mascot of Parks & Recreation, forgets to fill out his reports. Here we catch him in his private office in the underbelly of 1515 Arch, burning the midnight oil.

Editor’s Note:

As mentioned in the Deputy Mayor’s letter, our Department has made significant contributions to Philadelphia and our fellow citizens this past year (i.e. new parks, new 5K runs, new visual arts programs, and more). In next month’s newsletter, we are planning to take a look back at 2012 as a reminder of all of the good things that we have accomplished together.

And to get the full story of our past year, you really want to view the electronic version of the newsletter. Just as in this newsletter, there are always great photos and videos that are linked to the stories so we encourage you to send us your e-mail address and the newsletter will be sent directly to your mailbox. And speaking of which, welcome to all of you who have recently received a “phila.gov” e-mail address as a result of the migration from Lotus Notes to Outlook. You will now be receiving the newsletter and other department correspondence at your new city e-mail address.

One last bit of information; if you do not have e-mail access or elect not to share your personal e-mail address, you can also view a version of the newsletter on the recently launched Philadelphia Parks & Recreation website. The version of the newsletter posted on the website may not contain all of the information that is in the staff version but it is very close.

Happy Holidays!