April 9, 2026 • 10 mins
April is Earth Month, and on this episode of Insight, we celebrate the beauty and impact of Philadelphia’s expansive park system. Joining us is Tony Sorrentino, CEO of the Fairmount Park Conservancy, to talk about how the Conservancy is caring for more than 10,000 acres of green space across the city—and how you can be part of it. From free Earth Month events to hands-on volunteer opportunities, there are so many ways to get involved this spring. The Conservancy is also leading a major effort to plant more than 800 trees, helping to improve air quality, expand the tree canopy, and strengthen neighborhoods across Philadelphia. Looking ahead, Love Your Park Week offers another exciting opportunity for community engagement, with events and volunteer activities happening in more than 100 parks citywide.
🌐 Learn more: myphillypark.org
📸 Instagram: @myphillypark
📘 Facebook: @myphillypark
🔗 LinkedIn: @myphillypark
🌳 Love Your Park Week registration: loveyourpark.org
Whether you’re attending an event, volunteering, or simply enjoying your neighborhood park, this conversation is your guide to making the most of Earth Month in Philadelphia while helping to protect and grow these vital community spaces.
🌐 Learn more: myphillypark.org
📸 Instagram: @myphillypark
📘 Facebook: @myphillypark
🔗 LinkedIn: @myphillypark
🌳 Love Your Park Week registration: loveyourpark.org
Whether you’re attending an event, volunteering, or simply enjoying your neighborhood park, this conversation is your guide to making the most of Earth Month in Philadelphia while helping to protect and grow these vital community spaces.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine ballad marl. April is National Donate
Life Month, and today we're highlighting the importance of organ donation,
including details of the upcoming Donor Dash. Will also share
an inspiring story from a young man who received both
a heart and liver transplant. Now we'll talk with Rancha
Dickerson of the Camden Parent and Student Union about helping
(00:21):
families step into leadership roles and drive change through an
upcoming power building boot camp. But first, here's a little story.
I was a kid and we drove through Philadelphia. We
were living in DC at the time, and we drove
to New York for an event, and as we came back,
we took the wrong turn and we ended up driving
(00:43):
into Philadelphia and we got lost in Philadelphia for hours.
But where we got lost was the Fairmont Park, and
I remember such a strong memory of the park. Was
so beautiful, people strolling down the sidewalks, the greenery everywhere. Wow,
there's a park in the middle of a city. I'll
never forget that memory. And then, of course I became
(01:05):
a Philadelphia resident for many, many decades and loved the
Fairmont Park in all of its glory, all of its beauty,
and all of the different resources and fun things you
can do. Well we're going to do talking about Fairmont
Park and especially as we talk about Earth Month Fairmont Park,
there's no better place to celebrate than our incredible park system.
(01:29):
Joining us as Tony Sarrantino, CEO of the Fairmont Park Conservancy,
to talk about exciting Earth Month events, a major tree
planting initiative, and how you can get involved in caring
for more than a ten thousand acres of green space
across the city. Tony, thank you for joining us here
today and I love we were talking beforehand. I love
your enthusiasm and I love your love of the Fairmont Park.
(01:52):
But tell us about the Fairmont Park Conservancy and how
does it support the Philadelphia park system.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, great, thank you for having me. The Conservancy this
wonderful organization. It's a nonprofit organization and its mission is
to champion the parks and open space of the City
of Philadelphia. There are ten thousand acres of open space citywide,
and we are a partner with the Parks and Recreation
Department for the city to help those parks come to life.
(02:19):
To be more vibrant, and we do it through planning
and programming and getting people out and about and active
and kind of loving their park.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, what's really great about Fairmont Park is not only
is it a beautiful green space, but you have so
many really unique programs that people may not know completely
know about. So fill us in what are some of
the things that Fairmont Park has to offer that perhaps
people don't know about.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, you're in the fifth largest city in America and
you've got ten thousand acres of green space in it
that in and of itself is really wonderful. So you
would not be surprised if I told you that there
was a great birding community in this lush green space.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And birding is like getting to be quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It is a big thing. It is a wonderful activity,
and it's open to kind of people of all backgrounds,
all abilities. And what's cool about Philly is, unlike New
York City, there's no central park in Philadelphia. We're like
a loose confederacy of neighborhood parks, and so they stretch
across this whole city and in every neighborhood there's always
things going on. It could be birding. It could be hiking, cycling, walking, running.
(03:24):
We have a program that fits just about every one
of those activities. There's arts, there's culture, there's salsa dancing,
you name it, we've got it. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Earth Month is happening in April, and I know you've
got a lot of activities related to that. Tell us
about something.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We do on April eighteenth in South Philadelphia at the
FDR Park where there's a beautiful system of lakes and water.
We have a community paddle boating in FDR Park and
so you can get down there, get on the water,
get into these like really beautiful heron boats that you
kind of paddle on your own volitional way to get
(04:01):
into the park, but also see the city from the park.
It's a beautiful view. A week later, on April twenty fourth,
in the same park, we are bringing salsa dancing out
on a Friday night, April twenty fourth. It's called Bilar
and it brings out several hundred people. There's a fabulous DJ,
there's teaching of the dance moves as well as professionals
out there demonstrating it. It is super fun, super active.
(04:26):
On April twenty eighth, you have an all level yoga class.
Yoga's become quite a popular thing in the park. There's
something about the open airness of kind of doing those
moves and those exercises. That's in the East Fairmount Park section.
So dancing, yoga, birding, boating, we've got it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Before we got started in the interview, we were chatting
out in the hallway and I loved how excited you
were about the possibilities of Fairmount Park and some ideas
that you have. You've been a CEO for about six months,
and I wonder if you could tell us what excites
you most about the work and what are some of
your priorities moving forward.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Thank you for that question. My priority is for Fairmount
Park to be the most vibrant, big city park in
the United States of America, active day and night, safe, welcoming, beautiful.
Aside from that, making sure that these ten thousand acres
also act as a kind of a sponge against an
ever changing climate. There's a really important environmental role that
(05:28):
parks play. Also, it contributes to the health of society.
You don't have to be an athlete to be out
walking in a park, but if you are an athlete,
we've got that too, and so my priorities are making
the park feel is open and welcome to all people
of all backgrounds. It's like the most democratic thing you
can do in a kind of city. So, you know,
I'm excited about that. I'll be honest with you. Our
(05:50):
city of Philadelphia, it has the infrastructure of one of
the great parks in the world, to say nothing of
the country. But what it needs is strategy, and it
needs fundraising, and it needs capital improvements. It's a big city,
it's an older city. Sometimes these things are a challenge
to kind of maintain for the greater good. I'm excited
(06:11):
to come in and play that kind of leadership role
in the city. I think whatever city you're in, if
you're the parks leader, you're a civic leader.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Looking head into May Love your Park Week is a
big opportunity for community engagement. Tell us a little bit
about what it is and how folks can get involved
in the more than one hundred parks participating.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Sure A Love Your Park Week takes place between May
ninth and May seventeenth this spring. It features more than
one hundred local park volunteer groups. They do cleanups throughout
the city and they're preparing Phillies parks for the very,
very busy season, so you don't have to have any
special tools or skills. You can go to our website
(06:50):
myphillypark dot org. You can sign up. You can be
matched to a park that would be of interest to you.
It's incredibly social. People meet, they get out, they have
a great time, and they're making their city greener and
more beautiful.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Now you've as what you mentioned, ben CEO for six months,
and I wonder if you can tell us a little
bit about what drew you to this job. I mean,
this is a big job, an important job, but also
something that really does contribute to the wellness of the city.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Well, the answer is almost in the question, in that
the wellness of the city is kind of a priority
for me. I'm a born and raised Philadelphian. I'm a
trained urban planner, and I've devoted kind of my professional
life to the civic institutions of the city. Some of
them have been museums, some of them have been universities.
There's been a cultural part of my career. I think
(07:42):
of the parks as kind of wrapping that all up together,
kind of in one bow. What drew me to the
job was trying to have a positive impact on the
city citywide. I love neighborhoods. I love neighborhood people. I
love the fact that our park system is made up
of these neighborhoods parks. I believe that parks are a
(08:02):
form of community and economic development. I think that we
owe it to our future generations to leave something better
than what we found. And the planet's going to get warmer,
the summers are going to get hotter and wetter. We've
got this incredible opportunity to steward the open spaces here.
And one of the most important things the city can
do is plant trees. We've got several hundred trees that
(08:26):
have been coming into going into the ground this year.
We have an incredible supporter, TD Bank has given us
the resources to actually get trees in the ground. The
canopy will grow, it will cool the city, it will
cool neighborhoods, it'll clean the air. These are things that
will outlive us, but we have to make these decisions now.
I'm very excited to be that in that role, to
have those resources.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and finally, you know that going out into nature
is very good for the brain and for the heart,
because wellness is all about being in nature, and a
lot of folks don't realize what a huge impact it
can be just to be in all that greenery, right.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It is a calming effect on the nervous system to
get out into nature. And the thing about Philadelphia city wide,
you have the Wissa Hicken Valley which is forested just
absolutely gorgeous. You've got Fdr Park in South Philly, really
meadowy with a lot of lakes and water, very calming,
beautiful birds down there, as on American Eagle in the
sky not long ago out down there, East Park, Pharmouh Park,
(09:25):
Cobbs Creek, Penny Pack, All of these parks around Philadelphia
all have their own character. Each of those characters are
good for the brain, they're good for the heart, They're
good for the body. They're good for the mind, they're
good for the soul. Another aspect about parks that I
like so much as how social they are. You could
show up at a park by yourself, out for a
walk and meet someone. There is a loneliness epidemic in
(09:47):
this country right now. Parks might be an antidote to that.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, if people want more information about all the things
we talked about all the Earth Month events and of
course love your park. Tell us how we can contact.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You can reach us at www myphillypark dot org. Myphillypark
dot org. Lots of resources and information on that website
of when to show up, where to show up, what
to bring. You don't need any special skills. You need
a little Philly grit, a little spirit, a little energy,
a willingness to kind of meet new people or show
(10:21):
up with a bunch of friends. It's really fun, it's
really good for you, and I don't know, I think
when people love their park, it's a way to love
their city.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tony Sorrentino, CEO the Fairmont Park Conservancy, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's a pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine ballad marl. April is National Donate
Life Month, and today we're highlighting the importance of organ donation,
including details of the upcoming Donor Dash. Will also share
an inspiring story from a young man who received both
a heart and liver transplant. Now we'll talk with Rancha
Dickerson of the Camden Parent and Student Union about helping
(00:21):
families step into leadership roles and drive change through an
upcoming power building boot camp. But first, here's a little story.
I was a kid and we drove through Philadelphia. We
were living in DC at the time, and we drove
to New York for an event, and as we came back,
we took the wrong turn and we ended up driving
(00:43):
into Philadelphia and we got lost in Philadelphia for hours.
But where we got lost was the Fairmont Park, and
I remember such a strong memory of the park. Was
so beautiful, people strolling down the sidewalks, the greenery everywhere. Wow,
there's a park in the middle of a city. I'll
never forget that memory. And then, of course I became
(01:05):
a Philadelphia resident for many, many decades and loved the
Fairmont Park in all of its glory, all of its beauty,
and all of the different resources and fun things you
can do. Well we're going to do talking about Fairmont
Park and especially as we talk about Earth Month Fairmont Park,
there's no better place to celebrate than our incredible park system.
(01:29):
Joining us as Tony Sarrantino, CEO of the Fairmont Park Conservancy,
to talk about exciting Earth Month events, a major tree
planting initiative, and how you can get involved in caring
for more than a ten thousand acres of green space
across the city. Tony, thank you for joining us here
today and I love we were talking beforehand. I love
your enthusiasm and I love your love of the Fairmont Park.
(01:52):
But tell us about the Fairmont Park Conservancy and how
does it support the Philadelphia park system.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, great, thank you for having me. The Conservancy this
wonderful organization. It's a nonprofit organization and its mission is
to champion the parks and open space of the City
of Philadelphia. There are ten thousand acres of open space citywide,
and we are a partner with the Parks and Recreation
Department for the city to help those parks come to life.
(02:19):
To be more vibrant, and we do it through planning
and programming and getting people out and about and active
and kind of loving their park.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, what's really great about Fairmont Park is not only
is it a beautiful green space, but you have so
many really unique programs that people may not know completely
know about. So fill us in what are some of
the things that Fairmont Park has to offer that perhaps
people don't know about.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, you're in the fifth largest city in America and
you've got ten thousand acres of green space in it
that in and of itself is really wonderful. So you
would not be surprised if I told you that there
was a great birding community in this lush green space.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And birding is like getting to be quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It is a big thing. It is a wonderful activity,
and it's open to kind of people of all backgrounds,
all abilities. And what's cool about Philly is, unlike New
York City, there's no central park in Philadelphia. We're like
a loose confederacy of neighborhood parks, and so they stretch
across this whole city and in every neighborhood there's always
things going on. It could be birding. It could be hiking, cycling, walking, running.
(03:24):
We have a program that fits just about every one
of those activities. There's arts, there's culture, there's salsa dancing,
you name it, we've got it. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Earth Month is happening in April, and I know you've
got a lot of activities related to that. Tell us
about something.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We do on April eighteenth in South Philadelphia at the
FDR Park where there's a beautiful system of lakes and water.
We have a community paddle boating in FDR Park and
so you can get down there, get on the water,
get into these like really beautiful heron boats that you
kind of paddle on your own volitional way to get
(04:01):
into the park, but also see the city from the park.
It's a beautiful view. A week later, on April twenty fourth,
in the same park, we are bringing salsa dancing out
on a Friday night, April twenty fourth. It's called Bilar
and it brings out several hundred people. There's a fabulous DJ,
there's teaching of the dance moves as well as professionals
out there demonstrating it. It is super fun, super active.
(04:26):
On April twenty eighth, you have an all level yoga class.
Yoga's become quite a popular thing in the park. There's
something about the open airness of kind of doing those
moves and those exercises. That's in the East Fairmount Park section.
So dancing, yoga, birding, boating, we've got it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Before we got started in the interview, we were chatting
out in the hallway and I loved how excited you
were about the possibilities of Fairmount Park and some ideas
that you have. You've been a CEO for about six months,
and I wonder if you could tell us what excites
you most about the work and what are some of
your priorities moving forward.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Thank you for that question. My priority is for Fairmount
Park to be the most vibrant, big city park in
the United States of America, active day and night, safe, welcoming, beautiful.
Aside from that, making sure that these ten thousand acres
also act as a kind of a sponge against an
ever changing climate. There's a really important environmental role that
(05:28):
parks play. Also, it contributes to the health of society.
You don't have to be an athlete to be out
walking in a park, but if you are an athlete,
we've got that too, and so my priorities are making
the park feel is open and welcome to all people
of all backgrounds. It's like the most democratic thing you
can do in a kind of city. So, you know,
I'm excited about that. I'll be honest with you. Our
(05:50):
city of Philadelphia, it has the infrastructure of one of
the great parks in the world, to say nothing of
the country. But what it needs is strategy, and it
needs fundraising, and it needs capital improvements. It's a big city,
it's an older city. Sometimes these things are a challenge
to kind of maintain for the greater good. I'm excited
(06:11):
to come in and play that kind of leadership role
in the city. I think whatever city you're in, if
you're the parks leader, you're a civic leader.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Looking head into May Love your Park Week is a
big opportunity for community engagement. Tell us a little bit
about what it is and how folks can get involved
in the more than one hundred parks participating.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Sure A Love Your Park Week takes place between May
ninth and May seventeenth this spring. It features more than
one hundred local park volunteer groups. They do cleanups throughout
the city and they're preparing Phillies parks for the very,
very busy season, so you don't have to have any
special tools or skills. You can go to our website
(06:50):
myphillypark dot org. You can sign up. You can be
matched to a park that would be of interest to you.
It's incredibly social. People meet, they get out, they have
a great time, and they're making their city greener and
more beautiful.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Now you've as what you mentioned, ben CEO for six months,
and I wonder if you can tell us a little
bit about what drew you to this job. I mean,
this is a big job, an important job, but also
something that really does contribute to the wellness of the city.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Well, the answer is almost in the question, in that
the wellness of the city is kind of a priority
for me. I'm a born and raised Philadelphian. I'm a
trained urban planner, and I've devoted kind of my professional
life to the civic institutions of the city. Some of
them have been museums, some of them have been universities.
There's been a cultural part of my career. I think
(07:42):
of the parks as kind of wrapping that all up together,
kind of in one bow. What drew me to the
job was trying to have a positive impact on the
city citywide. I love neighborhoods. I love neighborhood people. I
love the fact that our park system is made up
of these neighborhoods parks. I believe that parks are a
(08:02):
form of community and economic development. I think that we
owe it to our future generations to leave something better
than what we found. And the planet's going to get warmer,
the summers are going to get hotter and wetter. We've
got this incredible opportunity to steward the open spaces here.
And one of the most important things the city can
do is plant trees. We've got several hundred trees that
(08:26):
have been coming into going into the ground this year.
We have an incredible supporter, TD Bank has given us
the resources to actually get trees in the ground. The
canopy will grow, it will cool the city, it will
cool neighborhoods, it'll clean the air. These are things that
will outlive us, but we have to make these decisions now.
I'm very excited to be that in that role, to
have those resources.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and finally, you know that going out into nature
is very good for the brain and for the heart,
because wellness is all about being in nature, and a
lot of folks don't realize what a huge impact it
can be just to be in all that greenery, right.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It is a calming effect on the nervous system to
get out into nature. And the thing about Philadelphia city wide,
you have the Wissa Hicken Valley which is forested just
absolutely gorgeous. You've got Fdr Park in South Philly, really
meadowy with a lot of lakes and water, very calming,
beautiful birds down there, as on American Eagle in the
sky not long ago out down there, East Park, Pharmouh Park,
(09:25):
Cobbs Creek, Penny Pack, All of these parks around Philadelphia
all have their own character. Each of those characters are
good for the brain, they're good for the heart, They're
good for the body. They're good for the mind, they're
good for the soul. Another aspect about parks that I
like so much as how social they are. You could
show up at a park by yourself, out for a
walk and meet someone. There is a loneliness epidemic in
(09:47):
this country right now. Parks might be an antidote to that.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, if people want more information about all the things
we talked about all the Earth Month events and of
course love your park. Tell us how we can contact.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You can reach us at www myphillypark dot org. Myphillypark
dot org. Lots of resources and information on that website
of when to show up, where to show up, what
to bring. You don't need any special skills. You need
a little Philly grit, a little spirit, a little energy,
a willingness to kind of meet new people or show
(10:21):
up with a bunch of friends. It's really fun, it's
really good for you, and I don't know, I think
when people love their park, it's a way to love
their city.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tony Sorrentino, CEO the Fairmont Park Conservancy, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's a pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
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