St. Stephen’s Homeless outreach ministry is in need of donations!  Please see the attached list or ask Deacon Jeannie Sachs if you have questions.

Get tickets at www.avaopera.org! 

Please see below for some tragic news from our friends at Wyncote Farm, and a request for help:

On November 25, Farmer Nala Bloom of Wyncote Academy and Wyncote Farm was killed in a traffic crash. (The previous week, our urban agriculture teacher left for other responsibilities.)

Farmer Nick Lodise (pictured above) will be teaching urban agriculture at Wyncote Academy until further notice. However, Wyncote’s maple season starts in a few short weeks. We have over 300 maple trees identified as we enter our third season of sugaring. Tapping trees and collecting syrup is a responsibility that Nick and Nala would ordinarily be undertaking together. However, Nick will be covering classes and so we desperately need your help to collect sap.

Happily, we have two wonderful super volunteers to run our evaporator, and we have equipment, and the inspiring memory of Nala’s energy and hard work. However, we need you to sling some buckets. 

I’ll be donating the use of my van for the season. (The maple van was also damaged in the accident.) In first week of the new year, after our kick-off in December I still have classes to teach, as well, so we need you to sign-up. 

Please also forward this request to your network of people who care about environmental education and urban agriculture, which provides such wonderful learning opportunities to the students of Wyncote Academy and our larger community.  

Please call me at 215-778-3784 with questions. 

We will hold boils (open to the public, at which you can see the syrup made and taste it on waffles) on Sundays and Wednesdays (possibly starting as early as December 31 or the first week of January)  at the Ashbourne Tract at 7827 Old York Road, Elkins Park. We will also be training volunteers to use the evaporator (at the sugar shack on the Ashbourne tract) and how to jar the syrup (with the gracious support of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, whose kitchen we use.)

Of course, all this is dependent on the weather, sap flow and you.

Please step up. And please accept our gratitude for all you do. 

Sincerely, 

Adrienne (Redd) 

Online & Individualized Education, Community Outreach,

Co-founder Urban Agriculture at Wyncote Academy 

www.WyncoteAcademy.org 

215-778-3784