MLK Day of Service - 2013

Youth members of Moriah Baptist Church shuffled through dead leaves on Monday morning. Clearing away branches and pushing aside roots, they scavenged hundreds of broken bottle pieces from a small ridge in the Ottinger Tract: an isolated portion of Fairmount Park in Shawmont.
To Mimi Volker, a 16-year resident of the neighborhood, Shawmont itself feels pretty secluded. Reflecting on her historic Schuylkill riverfront community, Volker smiled. "It's kind of the land that time forgot," she said.

Volker was one of several locals who worked with students to restore habitats as part of a cold Martin Luther King, Jr. day of service. Ivy Ridge Green, a local greening collective, hosted the volunteers for a conservation project at three locations: the Ottinger Tract and the Schuylkill Heritage Bike Trail in Roxborough, and Germany Hill in Manayunk. At the sites, students – including those from St. Joe's University and Penn Charter – planted trees, cut invasive vines, and picked up trash.

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