Saturday was the inaugural day for the Borough’s newest event, Media Open Streets! After yet another rainy week at the end of an incredibly rainy summer, it was a gorgeous, clear morning, and families came out in numbers to ride and walk along the streets – which were closed to vehicle traffic – and to enjoy activities along the way! The route spanned from Jackson Street & Providence Road on one end to Glen Providence Park at the other. 

At the Glen Providence entrance, we were lucky to have as neighbors: plein air painters with Media Arts Council, light bike repairs with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, wool spinning with the Media Historical Society, and frisbee-throwing robots!

In the park were yoga with First United Methodist Church of Media, salsa and more yoga with Salsa in the Suburbs Dance Studio, and performances by the Media Theatre!

Thank you to Transition Town Media and other volunteers for all of their hard work organizing this event!

Here are a few photos from the event – click on any for a closer look!

Photos by author

We have monthly nature walks (or volunteer days) in Glen Providence Park, year-round! We’ve documented our Winter Bird Walk in January and Spring Cleanups in March and April – here we recount our other  2015 Nature Walks through July, including a photo gallery. Make sure to join us for some of our upcoming 2015 events – they are always free and open to the public!

February – Winter Nature & History Walk

Our 80th Anniversary History & Nature Walk may have been our coldest walk yet – in the teens with a cold wind! But we had a wonderful (intrepid!) group, and Marcia Tate and I had great time sharing information about the park. Attendees included a first-time visitor to the park, and a man who had not visited in 25 years. The snow started falling as we were finishing.

May – Spring Nature Walk

Led by Gary Stolz, we saw 28 species of birds including a Solitary Sandpiper(!), 4 species of turtles, a bullfrog, and a (likely pregnant!) Garter Snake, on a lovely spring morning! Many native plants were in bloom including Silverbell, Flowering Dogwood, Redbud, and Black Cherry trees; Trout Lilies, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, yellow violets, and even Trillium! Seventeen people joined our walk, which was part of Transition Town Media’s Happiness Week.

June – Tree Walk

It was a beautiful summer afternoon for a fun and educational tree walk, led by David Hewitt! A wealth of information, David fielded dozens of questions about trees and their identification, as at least 22 adults and children also explored some of the park’s springs, the pond life, damselflies and more. We saw Bluegill (fish) nests in the pond, flying ants emerging from a tree stump, learned how to tell American Sycamores from London Plane Trees, and so much more about trees!

July – Herpetology Walk

Twelve adults and 8 eagle-eyed kids had a delightful (early!) morning learning about and looking for reptiles and amphibians with Kyle Loucks! We found American Toads, Green Frogs, Bullfrogs, Dusky and Red-backed Salamanders, and Snapping and Painted Turtles – along with an amazing variety of fungi. We were able to safely pass the amphibians around for a closer look, before gently returning them to their habitat, in a clean plastic container – any lotion, soap, and even oil on our skin can harm them.

Thank you to everyone who attended these park events, and to our wonderful volunteer walk leaders! You can see photos in our gallery below – click on any photo for a closer look.

Throughout November, we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on Facebook. There is some overlap with our list from Thanksgiving 2012, and so much more to add – it is amazing how much there is to be grateful for! Here are those daily posts – these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

27 Days of Thanks in Glen Providence Park
We are thankful for…

Day 1: … the local schools who use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom, teaching their students a love of nature, science, art and more. Thank you Media Elementary School, Springton Lake Middle School, Media Providence Friends School, Penncrest High School – and homeschoolers!

Day 2: … Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandson of park donors George and Eleanor Butler – for his generosity in sharing his grandparents’ photo albums with us and donating their golf clubs to Springhaven Country Club (which they founded!), and for sharing his recollections from his childhood in Glen Providence Park.

Day 3: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for repairing the concert stage (damaged in July from a fallen 110-year-old tree) in time for our August concert this summer, for their support of our events and activities, and for their many years of caretaking and managing their 11 parks with over 600 acres(!) of open space for the public.

Day 4: … Taylor Memorial Arboretum in Wallingford, for generously growing and donating 75 native trees and shrubs this year for habitat restoration plantings by Friends of Heinz Refuge, CRC Watersheds, and Friends of Glen Providence Park.

Day 5: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors: Media Recreation Board, Media Rotary Foundation, Diego’s Cantina, Seven Stones Café, and Shere-e-Punjab Indian Restaurant, who made it possible for us to revive the decades-long tradition of free summer concerts in Glen Providence Park!

Day 6: … Samuel L. Smedley, who with great foresight and wisdom in 1927 urged regional planning for open space, and spearheaded the creation of Delaware County Parks & Recreation, which was used as a model nationally for its excellent planning. He personally helped create and plan Glen Providence Park.

Day 7: … all that Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association has done for 44 years to protect, conserve, and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area! Its initiatives include annual streams cleanups, riparian reforestation, advocacy, education, and stream monitoring.

Day 8: … our Nature Walk guides who volunteered their time to lead our walks this year: the ever-helpful Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County, John Wenderoth, Ted Cavey, Stephanie Gaboriault, Marcia Tate, Aura Lester, Kyle Loucks, Holly Hoffmann, Chris McNichol, and Charles Randall.

Day 9: … our donors, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, events, and activities!

Day 10: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their guidance, mini-grants, donations, and support for our native plantings over the past 3 years – helping us to combat streamside erosion, restore habitat, provide food for wildlife, and  beautify the park.

Day 11: … the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts for their years of involvement in Glen Providence Park going back to at least 1939 – with hikes, cookouts, award ceremonies, meetings, and community service. In the last 2 years, Brownie Troop #5248 and Minquas District Boy Scouts have volunteered in the park!

Day 12: … the wonderful bands who have performed at our Summer Concert Series the past 3 years: Philadelphia Brass, Springfield Clarinet Quartet, the Obsoleets, Me3, Ken Delmar & the Cheers Big Band, Perseverance Jazz Band, Sonoma Sound, and ViVaCe Strings!

Day 13: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us all these years later to read about the geology, landscape, flora, and fauna of Glen Providence Park as it was in the 1800′s! He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 14: … our Invasive Plant Removal volunteers, who meet most weeks to work in the park. In the past 2 years, they have cleared 179 packed contractor bags (and counting!) of invasive plants – keeping trails clear, liberating native plants from strangling vines, improving habitat, and beautifying the park.

Day 15: … the Delaware County Institute of Science, an amazing organization that has been all volunteer since 1833!  Its members have been studying Glen Providence Park since long before it was a park – a 1928 Chester Times article about the valley indicated that “Naturalists, from all over the country, attending the Delaware County Institute of Science, make a study of it.”

Day 16: … Delaware County Planning for their thoughtful work on the Delaware County Open Space, Recreation & Greenway Plan, and on our neighboring Mineral Hill Area Master Plan. Glen Providence Park and future generations will be better for it!

Day 17: … Transition Town Media, for all they do to build community and resilience, from their FreeStore, to workshops, to their lovely Annual Candlelight Gratitude Banquet for local nonprofits.

Day 18: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work on October 31, 1935 and continued for at least 25 years, and by all accounts really loved Glen Providence Park. He served as park guard, care taker, supervisor, and park ranger – personally building picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife, and creating the 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park!

Day 19:  … all of the volunteers who have spent their free time working for Glen Providence Park through the years – our dedicated committee members, the dozens of people who have helped at our 11 volunteer days, and all those who volunteered in the park before us!

Day 20: … those who have made our historical research possible, including the Media Historic Archives, the Delaware County Historical Society, and the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library – and Delaware County, PA History for sharing our history-related facebook posts.

Day 21: … the American Chestnut Foundation, for their work to restore this majestic native tree! Chestnuts were called the Sequoias of the east, and they were once the dominant tree species in Glen Providence Park. We have found two surviving trees so far!

Day 22: … the Pennsylvania Amphibian & Reptile Survey (PARS), for their work to gather data for the study and conservation of our amphibians and reptiles! We are glad to have chosen PARS for our 2014 citizen science project.

Day 23: … Media Lions Club and McCarrin Chiropractic, for continuing Glen Providence Park’s longest-running tradition – the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt started in 1954! The Lions have worked since 1917 to fight blindness, and on many other community projects.

Day 24: … the Academy of Natural Sciences, for preserving and researching a wondrous amount of natural history, including early 1900’s microscope slides from Scroggie Run (now Broomall’s Run), and for their generosity and hospitality in showing us those slides.

Day 25: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and other living things in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park!

Day 26: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve and enhance Glen Providence Park – our Facebook fans, those who read our newsletter and website, and those who have attended our concerts and history & nature walks!

Thanksgiving Day: We are so thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight in 1935 donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, to be preserved for future generations.  There would be no park without them – we are incredibly grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!