Category Archives: The City of Reading Public Works Outreach & Education

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The Green Between the Courtyard

  By Abigail Grace Files • April 13, 2019 , , ,

On Thursday, April 11th two members of the Green Team went to Reading High School to present on how to reduce the usage of single-use plastics. We had a poster filled with facts and pictures of the effects of single-use plastics. When students would stop by our station we played a guessing game with them.

We started the game by showing them the 8 most common items dumped into the ocean. These items consisted of: plastic water bottles, plastic bags, plastic cutlery, and five other items similar to these. We informed students that plastics do NOT biodegrade, but instead they slowly break up over many years. When the plastics break down they turn into microplastics which release harmful chemicals into the waters. The chemicals harm our water quality, our animals, and our own health. After this information was distributed, the students participated in a guessing game where they had to guess how many years it took one of the eight single-use plastics on the table to break down. During the guessing game, we also presented to students alternatives to single-use plastics such as reusable water bottles and mason jars. When the student guessed correctly, they were given candy as a prize.

Doing this presentation was very rewarding to do because it was awesome to see the students learn about something that directly affects them. Most students were shocked at our facts and said that they need to change their usage of single-use plastics. We believe that this presentation will help to better Reading’s environment because now the students will want to reduce their usage of plastics.

The Green Team will also be doing a Community Clean up this weekend at City Park in Reading. If you are available, please feel free to stop by and help clean-up the city!

-The Green Team

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We became proud mums!

  By ypi5003 • April 10, 2019 , , ,

   

On 5 April 2019, we finally planted our plants into the pots we made. We washed away the dirt on our plants, then plant it into the plastic pot we made last time. There’s no dirt used in those pots, instead, we used rice hulls and perlite (some small round white balls formed by cracking of the volcanic glass during cooling) to replace dirt as they are some useful plant growth media and can help the plants grow more effectively in those pots. Then, we added water into the pot. All we have to do now is wait for the plants to grow!

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Episode Two of our Urban Planting Journey

  By ypi5003 • April 10, 2019 , , ,

          

On 29 March 2019, we decorated the hydroponic pots with pink spray to make them more presentable. We also made some larger pot for planting corn as they have larger and longer roots. We colored those pots by the black spray and we make holes on those pots so that water can flow out if there’s too much water in the pots.

 

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Surveying on Seventh Street

  By Abigail Grace Files • March 30, 2019 , , ,

What is Surveying?

This week, the Green Team went into the City of Reading to survey the residents. The South of Penn Taskforce gets volunteers to go throughout the city of Reading to survey the neighborhood. The point of the surveying is to get a consensus of how the community feels about SOP’s engagement work. South of Penn wants to know what they should change about what their work and what suggestions the community has to do so. This is an easy way to get the community’s thoughts without asking too much out of them.

Our Surveying Experience: 

On Friday, March 29th from 3-5 p.m., Abby, Katie, and Matt of the Green Team hit the streets to ask Reading residents about the South of Penn Taskforce. As a team, we went up and down 6th street, 7th street, Bingaman Street, and Laurel Street knocking on doors and trying to find participants. Of the two hours that we were outside, we were able to get 7 total surveys filled out. Tony Veloz, the South of Penn coordinator, told us that this was a good amount of surveys because only 20% of doors that are knocked on even answer the door. After a good amount of rejection, we finally got into a groove and got the 7 surveys. Mr. Veloz said that surveying is a great way for SOP to improve their Taskforce while also trying to get the community more involved. Of the 7 surveys that we got, all of the residents said that they would be willing to get more involved in their community, which is great news! Hopefully with the SOP events coming up in the next few months, residents will now come out and engage in their community more.

The surveying was a great activity and would be fun to do again in the near future. Our next service date will be on April 14th, from 1-4pm. The Green Team will be doing another community clean-up to help better the City of Reading.

Thanks for reading!

-The Green Team

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Make Reading Clean Again

  By ejm5773 • March 19, 2019 , , ,

On  Saturday, March 16th, we teamed up with the South of Penn (SOP) task force, and cleaned up the streets of Downtown Reading. We cleaned the streets for about two hours, to help make Reading look like the beautiful city it is. The amount of trash laying along the street was alarming, and is dangerous to the environment and city of Reading. 

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Outfall Outreach

  By rmw5588 • March 19, 2019 , ,

TeamOutfall Update! So far we have met with our Professor mentors and organization three times to discuss the project. While at these meetings we have developed a project outline:

Determine city parameters for outfall net, conduct Internet research to find municipalities using outfall nets, contact municipalities to learn the pros and cons of outfall net use, visit the prospective outfall net site in Reading, examine city drawing of outfall (if they exist) to calculate discharge, inventory commercial and do-it-yourself outfall net plans on the Internet, evaluate do-it-yourself design options: net materials, hole size, fasteners, etc, design a do-it-yourself outfall net that meets City requirements.

We have completed steps one, two, four, and five during our three group meetings. We are currently working on contacting other cities that have nets and independent research on how to make a net and what to make it out of.

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Team Clean Up helps Clean Up Reading with Barrio and South of Penn Task Force

  By Shawn Rutcosky • March 16, 2019 , , ,

Team Clean Up met today, March 16th, to participate in a Clean-up held by Barrio Alegria and the South of Penn Task Force to clean up litter and trash on the streets. We walked along a few streets picking up trash and litter from 10am to 12pm after we met up and signed in with the main groups. Our team of two people were able to collect two large orange trash bags full of the various types of litter that were polluting the streets of the City of Reading. We worked mainly on Bingaman Street and we were happy to volunteer and help our organizations with cleaning up some of the litter in Reading. We also look forward to some of the future Clean-Ups that will be taking place in the City in April and also to our interview with Tony Veloz on Monday, March 18th. Although it was a windy and slightly cold day, we were happy to help clean up the streets and help our organizations in the City of Reading.

Here we are during the clean-up: