Celebrating 90 Years—Countless Friends PRESERVING THE NATURAL BEAUTY AND WILDNESS OF THE WISSAHICKON VALLEY FOR NINETY YEARS. WINTER 2014 • VOLUME 23 • NUMBER 4 More photos from FOW’s th 90 Anniversary Gala inside! A MESSAGE from the D IRECTOR 8708 Germantown Avenue his fall, the Friends of the Wissahickon hosted a Gala Philadelphia, PA 19118-2717 Celebration with our friends and supporters at Valley Green Phone: (215) 247-0417 TInn to mark our 90th Anniversary. (See p. 8.) The gala was an E-mail:
[email protected] enjoyable way to highlight the many improvements FOW and our Website: www.fow.org partners made to the Inn throughout the year. It was also a fitting end to a year of special events and projects intended to highlight The mission of the Friends of the Wissahickon and celebrate our long-standing relationship with the community as is to preserve the natural beauty and stewards of Wissahickon Valley Park. wildness of the Wissahickon Valley and stimulate public interest therein. In the spring we organized a bird walk and a run on Forbidden Drive that drew 215 park users, and in the OFFICERS summer we hosted a Family Picnic in Roxborough’s Pachella Will Whetzel, President Field. Throughout the year we continued to hold workdays Liz Werthan, Vice President, Advocacy in the park, at which volunteers donated their time and Heidi Grunwald, Vice President, Finance labor to trail maintenance, trash removal, and habitat Robert Harries, Vice President, Governance restoration. Since 2011, over 5,100 volunteer hours have Jeff Harbison, Treasurer been devoted to the Andorra Natural Area alone, where Liz Werthan, Secretary past PRESIDENTS Cindy Affleck Charles Dilks Robert A.