Volunteer "friends" groups highlight park histories, restoration and summer programming

Members of local 'friends' groups and park boards used the Cheltenham presentation to describe decades-long volunteer efforts to restore and program neighborhood parks.

Mindy, representing Grove Park's local group (introduced by the parks director), traced Grove Park's use as a passive neighborhood green space and detailed community activities including a pee-wee soccer program, spring picnics and an annual Monarch Festival. "Friends of Grove Park was started in 2005," she said, and volunteers have helped plant trees, establish a pollinator garden and maintain the park's community calendar.

Olga, introduced earlier as a Thomas Williams Park Friends representative, presented a longer history of that 9.13-acre site. She said the property was transferred to the township by the school district and dedicated as a park in 1971; the park retains original stonework and trace elements from the school property. Olga described archival donors and early Quaker trustees, noting Anthony Williams's bequests that helped sustain local schools in the 1700s and 1800s.

Doug Oler, board president of High School Park, summarized the volunteer-driven restoration that converted a burned and vandalized former high-school site into an 11-acre native-habitat park. "It's an 11-acre gem," Oler said, and he outlined a 2026 program slate that includes Arts in the Park (May 31), plant sales, bird walks, a summer concert series and regular volunteer workdays.

Speakers emphasized that the parks' current condition and programming depend on a mix of township maintenance and volunteer stewardship, and they urged residents to participate in workdays or to join friends groups. Several presenters noted archival materials (photos, master-plan documents and a 2010 grant for meadow restoration) as sources for the historical narratives.