Vol. 66 NO. 48 ■ November 28, 2013
southphillyreview.com
Happy Thanksgiving
NO RESERVATIONS
■ Chef Brendan Mullan, who has spent more than a decade at Queen Village-based Bridget Foy’s, shares the recipe for his seasonal Egg Nog Cheesecake. See page 29.
Mayor Michael Nutter snips the green ribbon, with Andrew Jakscon School Principal Lisa Kaplan to his right and proud parent Melissa Wilde cheering behind him as the green roof garden gets a grand opening.
SPORTS
S ta f f P h o t o b y K at h r y n P o o l e
Diggin’ school
■ Two local high school football teams expect a well-played Thanksgiving Day duel.
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Two parents helped a rooftop renovation pick up steam at a Passyunk Square school. ■ By Bill Chenevert R e v i e w S ta f f W r i t e r
H
undreds attended the Green Roof Garden Fall Festival at Andrew Jackson School, 1213 S. 12th St., Saturday afternoon, including parents, neighbors, neighborhood
civic organizations and even Mayor Michael Nutter himself. The highlight of the event was the unveiling and ribbon-cutting of an empty roof space that has been converted into a functional roof garden full of planters and laid with pavers. The event was the culmination of many months of effort on the behalf of a few dedicated parents driven to give back to their school and improve the lives of the site’s nearly 400 students. With the idea that students will benefit from lessons on sustainability, agriculture, and biology, the project has turned an otherwise unused space into a point of pride for the public school. During Nutter’s brief speech before cutting the green ribbon with garden shears, he stressed the importance of projects like these and how inspiring it is to see parents and neighbors giving back
Cultivating a worldly approach
to schools that, across the city, are struggling with dwindling resources. “Our number one concern is the future of our children,” the second-term mayor said. “Folks are not going to be distracted or deterred” from doing good and that we simply must “put politics aside and work for our children.” A great deal of the momentum for this project came from two sociology professors in the district who are married and have a kindergarten and first grade student in the building. Melissa Wilde and Stephen Viscelli, of the 1300 block of Dickinson Street, have been in Philadelphia since 2006, and were able to use their affiliated university’s resources along with a grant they received to get the See GREEN PARTY page 10 >>
An East Passyunk Crossing resident traveled to Qatar for an educational summit, and is now sharing the information with his young learners and staff.
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