The new Water Shed on Wayne Avenue. (GIH | Rasheed Ajamu)
Germantown is known for its green spaces with programs like Prescribe Outside at Awbury Arboretum and 4 Elements Earth Education’s Coyote Tracks program, getting kids outdoors, and the We Walk citywide initiative, getting adults out walking in Germantown’s spacious parks.
But what about protecting those green spaces–the land, the water, and the air? Climate and environmental resilience could be at the top of people’s minds. Philadelphia saw record-breaking daily heat this past fall and drought levels that could worsen due to climate change.
The good news is that Germantown neighbors have been engaged in environmental justice issues and actions in various ways for many years.
To uplift that work, GIH compiled information on three groups working on environmental justice in our area and two groups working on water to look out for in 2025.
Senior Environmental Corps
The Senior Environment Corps (SEC) at Center in the Park has been steadily working hard for decades, testing water quality in Monoshone Creek, starting air quality monitoring this past year in the neighborhood, and testing soil in parks, private yards, and playgrounds.
David Schogel, who co-leads SEC with Fred Lewis, looks forward to continuing their air/water/soil sample studies. He’s also happy to get back to Snapshots Day, where SEC and Chestnut Hill College partner to host young people, very likely and mainly from John B. Kelly School, for a three-day event where seniors teach young people about the local watershed and presentations on their air and water testing.
The team also plans to participate in the Schuylkill Watershed Congress in 2025. There, they will present their work to the other members and inspire them to reach out.
Another goal for the upcoming year is to recruit new members by contacting other senior centers around the city.
SEC is developing a new website and plans to release it soon. It will provide a comprehensive overview of all testing and a streamlined way to contact them for all projects. SEC hopes the website will be a valuable educational tool for anyone who uses it.
Imhotep Charter STEM Ambassadors
The Imhotep Charter STEM Ambassadors are finding solutions for climate and environmental problems right now, in real-time and in real ways. And they’ve been busy.
Just this past year, they traveled to Nakuru, Kenya, and helped build a STEM lab at Saint Trizah Academy. They also helped develop clean water solutions for the places they visited.
Yousef Harris, a 12th grader and the Engineering Lead STEM Ambassador, says one of the moments that stood out was when they were at the school in Kenya.
“One of the administrators from the school (asked) could we make sure that this student specifically gets a pair of shoes because he never had a pair of shoes in his life. The student couldn’t have been older than ten, so he went at least eight years without shoes,” said Harris.
11th grader Nori Farmer and 10th grader Chloe Davis are also lead STEM ambassadors. They also attended the trip to Nakuru, Kenya, and shared their favorite things. Farmer loved creating a space for the students to practice some of the things they do at Imhotep.
As for Davis, she loved talking to the headmaster at the school, who noted they seldom see young people like them coming here and providing real solutions for them. She said the headmaster was shocked that they were actually providing them with something life-changing, which definitely made her feel good.
A favorite moment of the year for 11th grader Cyril Woodland was their STEM day for the entire school at Imhotep, introducing artificial intelligence (AI). Woodland said teaching hundreds of students their age about AI was very fulfilling to him.
Next year’s STEM week will be from March 10-14, 2025, and the theme will focus on AI, technology, and robotics and how it can sustain the future. The STEM Ambassadors will partner with Jefferson University and the Naval Academy to show examples of how AI and new technology will lead into the years ahead- and how Imhotep Charter students can be at the forefront.
In 2025, they would also like to return to Ghana to follow up on their water filtration systems and bring a new prosthetic limb they’ve created for a girl in the village. They also want to work on their biofuel solution project, which will turn waste and organic material into fuel or energy.
However, the main vision and goal is to continue cultivating minds and inspiring the young imaginations of themselves and their peers to build sustainable solutions and steward their communities into the future.
During this transitional period worldwide, Posey envisions the program and her students as forerunners in STEM and sustainability.
“I want to make sure during this transition, and when I’m talking about transition, this new transition of going into this technology era, that our students are well prepared to do the task of making sure that we are going about ethically solving these problems in a green way, (a) green thought process to solving these problems, and really pushing the boundaries of cultural bridges when we’re looking at solving these problems.”
Planet Philadelphia
Linda Rosenwein and Kay Wood never intended to be radio talk show hosts. Neither had experience in radio when they started G-Town Radio’s original program, Planet Philadelphia, in 2015. They were just very passionate about the environment and environmental justice.
Rosenwein is a retired psychologist who brings a background of some scientific contacts, an interest in the natural world, and experiences working with inner-city folks as a psychologist. Wood is an artist who has written graphic novels, including one called The Big Frack, about an oil company almost blowing up the planet with a PR stunt.
Tom Casetta, G-Town Radio’s station manager, went to one of Wood’s talks on her graphic novel and told her she should have a radio show. The rest, as people say, is history.
Just this past year, Planet Philadelphia won the Sustain PHL Sustainable Storyteller Award. The radio show has interviewed various guests, including the former president of Ireland and United Nations Special Envoy Mary Robinson, as well as local and national climate and environmental activists and organizers from the neighborhood and across the country.
They are always looking for people at the local, state, national, and international levels who can introduce them to a new topic or offer a different perspective on another topic. As Rosenwein says, they try to connect local issues to global and national ones and provide more context than is usually offered in most media about the environment.
“Everything turns out to be much more complicated than you think it is. And we don’t want to just give you the headlines or just the talking points because it turns out that is not really going to work in terms of changing our world,” said Rosenwein.
Wood makes a point that they really want to explore where regular people can actually influence and make a difference in environmental issues, especially in a state like Pennsylvania, where, she says, switching to cleaner energy sources is possible.
Rosenwein and Wood mainly want to inspire folks to think about the environment and not give up hope.
“I think we’re thinking about where the country and where do environmental issues go next and explore that in various ways, as well as wanting to provide hope and joy occasionally because a lot of people are pretty down at this moment in time because we’re not sure what’s going to happen with the environment. So we have to think where we can have influence in a positive way on the environment and just continue to explore new topics,” said Rosenwein.
Planet Philadelphia airs on the first and third Fridays of the month from 4:00-5:00 p.m. on WGGT-LP 92.9 FM and online at G-Town Radio’s website. You can also hear it on Villanova University’s radio station, WXVU, on Thursday mornings at 9:00 a.m. at 89.1 FM. Podcasts are available on Planet Philadelphia’s show archives page.
Wondering about water?
Residents of neighborhoods like Germantown, known for chronic flooding in some areas, realize they must be prepared for water emergencies.
Community leaders and organizers have been working with the Philadelphia Water Department and other offices to develop creative and tactical solutions to prepare for flooding and other climate emergencies.
In the new year, neighbors can look for two local organizations working on climate resilience and water-related issues and solutions.
The Water Shed
One is the new Water Shed (pictured at the top), part of the Waterways Arts Initiative in Germantown. This physical storefront at 5300 Wayne Avenue will serve as a resource center in the neighborhood. It opened in November of this year and will partner with community leaders to be a hub for flooding resources and climate resilience work. While there are no set hours now, look for more routine availability in 2025.
GREAT
The second is Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together (GREAT), which has worked on emergency preparedness and community resilience over the last few years. Within that, GREAT has created projects with neighbors on flood preparedness and water resilience, demonstrating how neighbors can work together if clean water is unavailable.
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Do you know other individuals and organizations working on climate resilience and/or environmental justice in Germantown? If so