Grays Ferry Crescent Skate Park grows roots with help from FedEx, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Schuylkill River Development Corporation

Friday, the Schuylkill River Development Corporation (SRDC) will lead a volunteer day featuring FedEx team members working to complete landscaping around the Grays Ferry Crescent Skate Park in preparation for the park’s much anticipated Grand Opening on May 31, 2014. As many as 50 volunteers will spend the morning hard at work, from planting shrubs around the park, to tree pruning and general cleanup. Their efforts will add new green space to the Grays Ferry Crescent trail segment, ensuring needed shade and erosion control around the skate park.

Since its soft opening last fall, the Grays Ferry Crescent Skate Park has become a staple recreational spot for local Philadelphians. SRDC is part of a grant program sponsored by FedEx and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to address pressing urban environmental challenges and one of 16 nonprofits selected from across the country by FedEx and NFWF to receive support in 2014. This project is just one example of SRDC’s efforts to beautify Philadelphia’s lower Schuylkill Riverfront.

The Grays Ferry Skate park has served as a well-utilized recreational spot in the Philadelphia area, and its popularity is only expected to grow as additional work is completed and the Grand Opening takes place. By joining forces with FedEx and the NFWF, SRDC is helping transform Grays Ferry into a place where local Philadelphians can enjoy for years to come.

Over the past five years, FedEx and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) have leveraged over $14 million to support more than 60 projects. In 2014, FedEx and NFWF grants will total over $1 million, and will be matched with grants from local municipalities and agencies to yield over $9.3 million in support of these critical environmental sustainability projects.

FedEx and NFWF provided grant funding to SRDC for similar projects in the Philadelphia area, and also leveraged local matching sources to increase the total benefit to SRDC. Through the Grays Ferry Crescent Skate Park project, FedEx volunteers in Philadelphia will join an estimated 700 FedEx team members from 15 other cities supporting projects in their communities.

Also this spring, continuing their sustainability efforts, FedEx is serving as national sponsor of the 2014 Arbor Day Foundation Community Tree Recovery program.  In the wake of natural disaster, the program focuses on the environmental recovery by restoring urban forests and community trees, which play a critical role in community health, local ecology and environmental sustainability.