MetLife Foundation Supports Expansion of Green Schoolyard Initiative

 

PHILADELPHIA - Mayor Michael A. Nutter, Deputy Mayor/Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. William R. Hite, Jr., and The Trust for Public Land’s Jeff Danter, Senior Vice President and Atlantic Seaboard Division Director, announced the expansion of the City’s innovative Green2015 partnership and celebrated the latest accomplishment in the initiative, the pending completion of a new green schoolyard at the William Cramp Elementary School.

 

“Making Philadelphia the greenest city in America involves infrastructure changes, innovative partnerships and creating healthy, sustainable spaces, and it is also about creating opportunities where children and families can play and learn,” said Mayor Nutter.  “Thanks to the hard work of our City departments and our partners, we celebrate the work at hand as well as the work ahead to support more green schoolyards and play spaces.”

 

The School District of Philadelphia also announced plans, pending School Reform Commission approval, to invest $5 million in capital funding over the next five years to support the development of 20 additional green schoolyards in partnership with The Trust for Public Land (TPL). . .

 

Private support for the first ten ‘pilot’ sites in the Green2015 initiative came from The William Penn Foundation, MetLife Foundation, The Otto Haas Charitable Trust, the National Recreation Foundation, and numerous other donors. The Trust for Public Land has committed to raising an additional $1 million per year to support community involvement in the design process, to oversee design and construction, and to establish seed funding for stewardship at each completed site.