The Spruce Hill Community Association May Fair is this Saturday in Clark Park, where there will be music, food, a moon bounce and raffle prizes ranging from injera to haircuts to an I-Pad 2.

The 53rd annual fair runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the “B” section of Clark Park, south of Chester Avenue.

Children, especially, should enjoy it because this year some new kids’ activities will be added. Bring your little ones to try out things like a moon bounce and an obstacle course and to participate in a variety of games. Live music for kids will include performances by Alex & the Kaleidoscope Band (1:40-2:20 p.m.) and Jay Sand of “All Around This World” (2:30-3:10 p.m.).

The fair will also include food from popular local vendors, arts & crafts, live music, an expanded book sale, a raffle, and a silent auction.

Live music performances, brought by Green Line Cafe, will begin at 11:00 a.m. The Whippoorwills and The Old Fashioneds will be entertaining the crowd with country and folk tunes.

A long list of items to be raffled off is on the Spruce Hill Community Association website and Facebook page.

Raffle tickets are available now at University Pinball (4008 Spruce St.) and last-minute tickets will be available at the fair on Saturday.

At the silent auction, you can bid on a night’s stay at the Gables Bed & Breakfast and a 155 CD set of Bach!

Finally, there will be a plant sale during the fair organized by the University City Garden Club.

Yesterday’s storm dumped a single-day record of 3.11 inches of rain on the Philadelphia area, breaking the previous record of 2.43 inches set in 1986, according to the Associated Press. Flooding and power outages were reported all over the region.

Perhaps the most visible remains of the storm in West Philly is the temporary pond in the Clark Park bowl. Yesterday’s rain led to the cancellation of youth soccer in the park and the leftover water might cause problems for the soccer league in the immediate future.

From Kathleen Turner of Friends of Clark Park:

Weather forecasts call for rain by mid-morning, so Youth Soccer has been canceled for today. Have a safe and happy weekend — see you next Saturday!

Saturday is “Love Your Park Day” in Philadelphia. For most of us, I suspect that every day is love your park day, but this one is official. That means that volunteers are needed.

Volunteers are needed at Clark Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Projects include cleaning the peripheral areas of the park to get them ready for spring and putting mulch around tree bases, beginning with the trees near the shuffleboard court at 45th and Chester. If weather permits, park benches will get a coat of sealant.

Help is also needed at Malcolm X. Park for a general clean-up from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at Barkan Park (50th & Spruce) from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Volunteers are also needed at Cedar Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help with the park gardens. Bring clippers and cutting shears if you have them. Other tools will be provided.

The Clark Park bowl will go to the dogs this Sunday with the second annual Lug-Nuts Weight Pull and a day of protective pooch maintenance.

Low-cost vaccines and microchipping ($20-25) will be available at the park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event, sponsored by P.A.W.S. Philadelphia and the Penn Vet Animal Welfare Society, will also include advice and deals on spay and neutering.

The highlight of the day is the weight pull, which kicks off at 1 p.m. No prior training is required to enter. No registration is required either. Just a willingness to strap on a harness. Everything from poodles to pit bulls to pomeranians are welcome to give the pull a try. Entrants receive free dog food. Free dog training and gifts will also be available.

If you have reveled in telling everyone who cared that the Charles Dickens statue in Clark Park was the only one in the world, these might be the worst of times.

A second Dickens statue, which disappeared some 40 years ago, has been fixed up and placed in Centennial Park in Sydney.

The author famously told his family that he wanted no public commemorations or testimonials. No statues. No buildings named for him. The Little Nell statue, commissioned in the late 19th century garnered accolades in public exhibits until settling into Clark Park in 1901 and there it remains, despite several attempts to move it to more prominent spots in the city.

The Sydney statue shows a contemplative Dickens holding a quill and scroll. The Telegraph newspaper reported last month that the statue was also commissioned in the late 19th century, but was removed in 1972 because of vandalism. Somewhere in transit the head was damaged and the statue was placed into storage until the company housing it went bankrupt.

The statue went missing until Sandra Faulkner, the president of the New South Wales Charles Dickens Society, began a public search for the statue in 2006.

“I received about three calls over the course of a few days from people who didn’t want to give their names but who knew the statue and knew where it was,” she told The Telegraph.

The statue turned up a year later in a private garden about an hour outside of Sydney.

Stonemasons spent the last four years making a new head, quill, scroll and finger for the statue.

The statue was replaced last month just in time for the novelist’s 199th birthday.