Preparations have begun for the Bartram’s Garden Greens Sale, which is on Saturday, Dec. 7 (more about it later). Volunteers are sought who can lend a hand to help support this popular annual event. Volunteers are needed from Sunday, Dec. 1 – Saturday, Dec. 7 for a variety of tasks, including decorating wreaths, assisting in the Garden Shop, and greeting visitors. Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Please note that volunteers who share their talents for 10 or more hours in one calendar year can receive a complimentary Bartram’s Garden Membership. Click here for more details.

(Photo courtesy of Bartram’s Garden)

Saturday, Nov. 16, is LOVE Your Park Fall Service Day and you can show appreciation of your neighborhood park by helping with the Fall cleanup. Several West Philadelphia parks are participating in the event and neighbors are welcome to help beautify their park and prepare it for the winter.

Help may be needed with the following activities: leaf raking, general cleanup, mulching, tree and bulb planting, cleaning garden beds for winter, and others. The participating parks are:

–Barkan Park
–Cedar Park
–Clark Park
–Cobbs Creek
–Granahan Playground
–Lotus Gardens
–Malcolm X Park
–Morris Park
–Royal Gardens
–Saunders Park Greene/Willow Triangle

If you live near one of these parks and want to help, please go to: http://loveyourpark.org/volunteer/, select your park on the map to check what activities are scheduled and at what time and then fill out the sign up form.

Veterans Day is this Monday and some events and happenings are taking place in the area this weekend to honor and support local men and women who served in the Armed Forces.

On Saturday, Nov. 9, Veterans Day Commemoration is scheduled in the northern section of Clark Park near the Gettysburg Stone (near 44th and Baltimore Ave.) Everyone is welcome to join the Friends of Clark Park, students of the HMS School for Cerebral Palsy and the Boy Scouts in honoring veterans. The event begins at 11 a.m. If you are a local veteran reading this, you can be honored too. Please call 215-222-2255 and leave your name and phone number.

Also tomorrow, dozens of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Philadelphia will gather to renovate the Veterans Group Home at 3209 Baring Street (in the Powelton Village area). The volunteer work team will build a new gazebo for the home, install a new grill and cooking area and renovate the first-floor bathroom. The work will take place from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and HGTV and DIY Network will be there to film it.

The Veterans Group Home, which has the capacity to house 48 men, is located on a quiet tree lined street and includes two-three story homes that are joined in the rear of the property by a shared kitchen and two dining areas.

Photo from wepac.org.

Do you have a couple of hours a week to spend in a neighborhood school library and make a big impact on a kids’ lives?

Budget cuts across the city have left neighborhood schools desperate for help to keep their libraries open. The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) is recruiting volunteers to read to students and help staff libraries in the neighborhoods. An orientation session for new volunteers will be held Friday, Nov. 8 beginning at 2 p.m. at the Powel School at 35th Street and Powelton Avenue.

Many of your neighbors have volunteered with WePAC. You will have to fill out some background check forms and complete the orientation before volunteering at a school. WePAC is looking for volunteers who can commit to at least two to three hours a week.

Call 267-443-3224 for more information.

There’s still a chance to support GATE 13:14, a monthly concert series presented by Bowerbird Concerts at The Rotunda. A Kickstarter fundraising campaign is underway, which would allow this free community program to continue. As of 11 a.m., $8,694 has been pledged and the project will be funded only if at least $10,000 is pledged by 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct 30.

From the Bowerbird project page on Kickstarter:

“Since 2006, Bowerbird has presented nearly 400 of events – concerts, workshops, small concerts, community art projects, and huge festivals. 

We believe that Philadelphia is hungry for something more than “just another gig.” We believe that there are wonderful artists living right in our own community and that some of the greatest historical work deserves more attention.  And most importantly, we believe in your curiosity.”

GATE 13:14 is a monthly series of concerts that aims to bring “experimental, outsider, avant, unknown, forgotten, futuristic, and rediscovered types of music” to the community. It also “strives to build a space for conversation and discovery, an incubator for new ideas and an opportunity to explore extraordinary ones, and a place to cultivate new audiences and communities around this work.”

To learn more about this project and to donate, click here.

Pirate scene at the Haunted Garden (Photo by Elizabeth Campion).

One of the big neighborhood draws on Halloween night is the haunted garden near 46th and Springfield, where throngs of young and old come to get good and scared. This year the garden will move about 100 feet away to the seriously spooky basement of the Saint Francis de Sales School (more on that soon).

Everybody loves this event and it is getting bigger every year (literally thousands now), so more volunteers are needed to make it a success. This is a great chance to get involved with something that has become a West Philly tradition.

Squirrel Hill resident Elizabeth Campion, who has co-hosted the event for many years, has sent us a list of the ways you can help and the times people are needed:

• Trip to the wholesale store. The organizers are buying 3,000 candy bars and thousands of pieces of fruit. You need a driver’s license for this one. Bonus if you have a vehicle. Any time Wednesday afternoon, (10/30), through 1 p.m. on Thursday/Halloween.

• Moving decorations from a garage near 48th and Cedar to the site.  Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 4-8 p.m. Donate an hour or two if you can.

• Decorate!!! Help design and decorate sets. Wednesday evening, 10/30, from 6-9 p.m. and Thursday (Halloween day) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – whatever hour(s) you can spare.

• Stage carpenters. The organizers need one or two “stage carpenters” folks who know their way around duct tape, ropes, hooks and pulleys. Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 6-9 p.m.

• Distribute treats. This is an ideal job for seniors, or families. Volunteers wait for the visitor to say “Trick or Treat” and respond with “Happy Halloween” and a treat.  Show up 10/31 at about 4:30 p.m. and leave when we run out (about 8 p.m.).

• Actors. Actors bring the sets alive. Families and Frats can coordinate as Pirates for the “Shipwreck,” or as Wait-Staff and Customers at “Dooley’s Deadly Diner” or Scarecrows at the “Poisoned Pumpkin Patch.” “Actors” must commit 10/31, 4:30-7:30 p.m. All volunteers are asked to come in costume, but some costume items can be borrowed from the organizers.

• Photographers. The organizers need people who have their own cameras and are willing to upload their cards to the Picasa site. Technical support will be provided if necessary. Photographers must commit 4:30-7:30 p.m. on 10/31. Can work as a team as long as there is continuous and overlapped coverage.

• Pack. Saturday, 11/2, from Noon-4 p.m. If you can differentiate between a spider and a pumpkin, you can help sort and pack. You will be paired with Cub Scouts who can do the bending and climbing.

If you would like to help with one or more of these activities or if you have questions, please contact Elizabeth at: home.in.phila@juno.com