The swamp milkweed around the memorial stone in Stephen Girard Park went into the ground this June. Smooth blue aster and yarrow fill the sunny east side of that bed, with clustered mountain mint and foxglove beardtongue on the shadier west side. The volunteers who planted them expect the milkweed to stay fairly small this first year and eventually reach about 5 feet, topped with pink flower clusters.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, the same volunteers host a much bigger crowd. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation has named Stephen Girard Park the signature site for Love Your Park Fall Weekend. More than 100 neighborhood parks across the city take part, and the volunteer day at 2101 W. Shunk St. is the main event. The timing matters. Seven weeks before that Saturday, the neighbors behind the park filed to become a nonprofit corporation. Nov. 14 is the first big public day since then for a group that now has a legal structure and a planting plan measured in decades.
From a 2018 neighbor group to a 2026 nonprofit
According to WHYY, Girard Estates neighbors formed Friends of Stephen Girard Park in February 2018, with Elaine Fera and Ann Christinzio as co-founders. In 2019, WHYY reported the group was raising money for grass seed, hedges, bushes and plaques for memorial benches. That same year, about $600,000 in walkway, drainage, trash can and bench work was getting underway, following earlier lighting work.
On Sept. 27, 2026, articles of incorporation were filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State for Friends of Girard Park, Inc. The new nonprofit's stated purpose is "tending and maintaining Stephen Girard Park, protecting its natural environment, and educating visitors and the surrounding community," according to a legal notice published in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
That purpose covers more than cleanup. Education fits a group that has started posting plant-by-plant guides to its garden beds. Protecting the natural environment fits a park that has spent 2026 planning for its aging trees. Here is how the group's work has added up since 2018:
| When | What happened at Stephen Girard Park |
|---|---|
| February 2018 | Neighbors form Friends of Stephen Girard Park |
| 2019 | Friends raise money for grass seed, hedges and bench plaques; about $600,000 in walkway, drainage and bench work begins |
| End of 2025 | Park user survey for Fairmount Park Conservancy's Park Trees of Tomorrow pilot |
| April 22, 2026 | Trees of Tomorrow community meeting at PAX Cafe |
| May 9, 2026 | About 30 volunteers plus Girard Academic Music Program students clean, plant and mulch during spring Love Your Park Week |
| June 2026 | 1,000 native plants and 4 shrubs go into the park's garden beds |
| Sept. 27, 2026 | Articles of incorporation filed for Friends of Girard Park, Inc. |
| Nov. 14, 2026 | Citywide signature site for Love Your Park Fall Weekend |
The June beds are the newest layer in the park
The South Philly Review covered the spring work day on May 9. About 30 volunteers and students from the Girard Academic Music Program cleaned, planted and mulched parts of the park, and the paper reported that 1,000 more plants were on the way through a grant from the Xerces Society.
Those plants arrived. The Friends group's own write-up of its June 2026 "Planting and Painting for Pollinators" event says volunteers set 1,000 plants and 4 shrubs from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation into the park's existing garden beds. All of them are native perennials chosen to support bees, butterflies, moths and birds. The group says it never uses pesticides in the park.
The Friends' guide to the milkweed bed works like a walking map. Swamp milkweed fills the center around the memorial stone. Both swamp milkweed and common milkweed grow in the western Little Library bed. Established columbine sits north of the milkweed bed and Culver's root grows beside the liriope to the south. Next to the memorial stone is a Sichuan pepper tree, and the tree in the western section may be a pawpaw. The group explains why milkweed gets so much space. Monarch caterpillars can feed only on milkweed, and monarchs pass through Philadelphia on their migrations every year.
So the November volunteers will be working around beds that are only five months old. Those beds sit beside two older landmarks that WHYY described: the historic Gentilhommiere farmhouse and the Stephen Girard monument.
What Nov. 14 looks like, hour by hour
The GivePulse registration page for the signature event lists three jobs: planting trees, collecting leaves for compost, and picking up trash and litter. Tools, gloves and all other materials are provided, and the city says everyone is welcome. The schedule:
- 9 a.m. Light breakfast and volunteer check-in
- 9:45 a.m. Speaking program
- 10:15 a.m. Projects begin
- 11:45 a.m. Projects wrap up
- Noon Lunch provided
- 1 p.m. Event ends
Friends of Stephen Girard Park hosts the day with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Fairmount Park Conservancy. Citywide, cleanups begin Nov. 6, ahead of the kickoff weekend Nov. 13 to 15. The Conservancy has encouraged people to register early because some events have limited space. Registration for every participating park is on the Love Your Park Fall 2026 page.
Last fall, Gorgas Park held the signature event. The Conservancy's recap of that day counted more than 100 volunteers. They raked leaves and ginkgo berries, planted trees and shrubs, spread mulch, and stayed for food, music and play activities. That gives a rough sense of the crowd the signature title brings. Stephen Girard Park's spring work day drew about 30 volunteers.
Why tree planting is on the list
The tree work on Nov. 14 is part of a longer plan. Stephen Girard Park is one of five pilot parks in Fairmount Park Conservancy's Park Trees of Tomorrow program, along with Carroll, Dickinson Square, Elmwood and Jefferson Square. A park user survey at the end of 2025 and community meetings in spring 2026 were set up to guide where future trees go, which species get planted and how they are cared for.
"The park was also selected as one of five Philly Trees of Tomorrow recipients, since many of our trees are at the end of their natural life," Friends member Allison Traweek told the South Philly Review in May. The paper described the group's goal as a 30-year plan to plant eight to 10 new trees in the park every year. Separately, the Conservancy says a TD-funded implementation phase is expected to bring 150 new trees to parks in high-priority areas.
At eight to 10 trees a year for 30 years, the plan works out to 240 to 300 trees. A volunteer group alone would struggle to keep that up for three decades. A nonprofit with a written purpose and the Conservancy as a partner is in a better position to try, and the new corporation was filed just before the park's biggest volunteer day.
Volunteer Douglass Carman put it simply in the same South Philly Review story: "For me, the cover in summer provides a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city."
Frank Genzano and Love City Group work across Girard Estates. If you own a home near the park and want to know how the blocks around Shunk Street are pricing this fall, get your free home valuation, and we'll see you at the park on the 14th.
