Hi- apologies to everyone for the late notice.

Our February 2016 meeting will be Tuesday February 23rd at 7 PM at the SOSNA office 1901 Christian Street. We will have up updates on Park Friends Network and event programming.

We will *also* be meeting for our regularly scheduled first-Tuesday- of the month meeting on Tuesday March 1st, also at the SOSNA office.

Hello…

After hibernating for the last few months, the Friends of Julian Abele Park are resuming meeting for 2016. Unfortunately, we are *not* able to have our first-Tuesday-of-the-month regular meeting, as the President and Treasurer are out of town.

We have not picked a new date as yet, but will inform you when it is chosen. We will have an update as to event programming and general park news.

Thanks for your patience; we look forward to 2016 and hope that you can join us.

Regards,

Cliff Eyler, President
Friends of Julian Abele Park

Tomorrow, Tuesday November 3rd is Friends of Julian Abele Park Meeting; 7 PM @ SOSNA Office, 1901 Christian Street.We’ll be discussing the Saturday November 14th “Love Your Park!” cleanup and bulb-planting. This will be our last meeting for 2015; hope you can make it.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday October 6th at 7 PM. We’ll be meeting at the SOSNA Office, 1901 Christian Street. On the agenda: plans for “Love Your Park”, Saturday November 14th, and discussion of park maintenance next year.

Fall 2015 Newsletter

State of the Park:  We cannot thank enough our neighbors and volunteers who pitch in, every season, to shovel snow, pull weeds, plant flowers, weed, pick up trash, water and maintain Julian Abele Park.  As we continue our efforts to make Julian Abele Park a center of our neighborhood’s social and recreational experience, we encourage you to join us in looking after our park.

President’s Report
We have achieved 501(c)3 status with the IRS and may now collect donations directly; please support us and our work by donating atwww.julianabelepark.org – look for the donate banner towards the bottom of the home page.

You might have noticed that our website looks different; over the summer several of our volunteers re-designed the site to make it easier to get updated information about what’s going on in the park. We’re still working on it, so come back frequently….

Our Farmer’s Market for 2015 suffered from rainy Tuesdays. We thank our friends at Highland Orchards http://highlandorchardsfarmmarket.com and Other Animal Coffee www.otheranimalcoffee.com for their perseverance and support of the market. Tell them you appreciate their coming.

Unfortunately, our plants, shrubs and trees suffered a lot this year. We lost at least a dozen of the border shrubs and many of our groundcover sedum have been overrun with weeds. At our October 2015 meeting we hope to share a more complete review of our plantings. Any time you can volunteer for upkeep would be appreciated during the remainder of 2015.

We participated in Philadelphia Parks and Recreations “Love Your Park” event in May and will participate in November- thank you to our volunteers and especially Joe Sinkus for his support of and guidance in our seasonal plantings and our spring bulbs.

Over the summer, we partnered with SOSNA for a “National Night Out” event in August and a “Summer Social” in July.

Our September 19th Julian Abele Park Sidewalk Sale, organized and run by our friends and neighbors was a nice success. We’d like to also thank “Little Italy” food truck @ 6th and Chestnut for their providing breakfast and lunch food items.

Our Treasurer, Phil Frank, has been supporting our efforts to create a budget and to pay off our outstanding debt. Secretary Jim Quinlan has been instrumental in the success of our 501(c)3 status.

Continuing Improvements and Future Plans

Behind the scenes, we have received approvals from the City of Philadelphia for the installation of public bike racks along 22nd Street. Purchase and installation of the racks is dependent upon raising the necessary funds.

We also have a quote to convert our park lighting to LED lamps/fixtures but do not have the funds to go ahead with that project.

Beginning this Fall and continuing over Winter we will be looking at how we can improve the gardens and replace dead shrubs and plant material.

Upcoming Events @ Julian Abele Park

Saturday October 10th- Southwest Center City Tree Pruning Club will be reviewing the trees at Julian Abele Park.

Saturday October 31st: Southwest Center City Run. We especially look forward to this every year….Julian Abele Park is the Start/End of the event.

http://www.swccrun.org/

Saturday November 14th, 10 AM-Noon “Love Your Park”
We’ll be planting bulbs, working on the lawn and preparing the park for winter.

Julian Abele Park

……is among the city’s newest designated parks. Located on 22^nd Street between Montrose and Carpenter, it was formally dedicated in 2008. We’ve been working with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, PA Horticultural Society and you, our neighbors, to create a passive recreational park and public entertainment venue.

About Julian Abele

Julian Abele Park’s namesake was a distinguished architect whose projects included the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the campus of Duke University. Mr. Abele was raised here and lived his life nearby in Southwest Center City. He and some of his projects are depicted in the park’s mural.

Friends of Julian Abele Park

We are your friends and neighbors interested in improving our neighborhood by providing a peaceful green space for everyone to enjoy.  We meet the first Tuesday of the month at the SOSNA office, 1901 Christian Street, at 7pm. We’re actively seeking new members and hope that you will join us!

Find Out More

Find out more at our website: www.julianabelepark.org

Keep up with park news at www.facebook.com/fojab (Friends of Julian Abele Park)

Follow us on Twitter: JulianAbelePark.

Join us on Saturday, September 19th from 10 am to 2:00 pm for a sidewalk sale! There will be a large assortment of gently used children’s clothing, toys, books, adult clothing, accessories, and household goods. Items will be very reasonably priced and all proceeds will go to the Friends of Julian Abele Park for park maintenance.

Last Farmer’s Market of 2015 Season- Tuesday September 8th, 2-7 PM

We’d like to thank Highland Orchards and Other Animal Coffee for their support (and perseverance on abnormally rainy Tuesdays this year) for our farmer’s market. Please come over and stock up on their fine products and thank them yourselves.

First, a big “Thank you!” to our dedicated volunteers, who have spent time revising our website over the Summer.

Visit us often, as we made the change to more easily update our website with current information, news, and events. This is still a work in progress as we transfer over existing information and images from the older site.

Please tell your friends and neighbors; subscribe to our Twitter feed @JulianAbelePark and please like us on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/FOJAB

Thanks to all of our volunteers for the work they’ve done this Summer- whether organizing events, working on the website, weeding (!) and watering, we can’t do anything without you.

Join us in September at our monthly meeting, which will be on Tuesday September 8th at 7 PM. If the weather holds, we’ll meet at Julian Abele Park; if not, the SOSNA Office at 1901 Christian Street.

Every Tuesday from 2-7pm — May 26th through thru early September 2015.