Great community response in a lean economy

It’s often been pointed out to me that the Local spends too much time on turmoil, not enough time on triumphs.

Allow me to recognize a veritable triumph in this year’s Chestnut Hill Community Fund Drive, which despite a certifiably terrible economy, managed to pull in $90,000 (that’s an exact, to-the-penny figure) for numerous community-based programs. That amount, I’m told, is the second-highest total on record for the annual drive.

There are a lot of people worth recognizing for this feat.

First, the co-chairs of the fund drive committee, Susan Bray and Chestnut Hill Community Assocaition president Tolis Vardakis. Vardakis and Bray organized numerous meetings, drafted letters and sent thank-yous to donors. They led the charge to solicit potential givers and pushed the drive close to its $100,000 goal (an amount reached only once in the drive’s history).

“We’re pleased with how well we did,” Bray told me. “We didn’t quite reach our goal, but we did well.”

Chestnut hill Community Fund president Jean Hemphill lauded the efforts of Bray, Vardakis and the many other members of the fund drive committee but also recognized that the healthy sum collected reflected a generous community.

“I think this is a real affirmation of the programs of the Chestnut Hill Community Association and the fund,” Hemphill said. “It shows that the people in the community have a generous spirit.

The Chestnut Hill Hospital was a major supporter this year, donating $20,000, by far the largest sum given. The large donation follows gifts in prior years totaling $10,000 and $12,000, respectively.

“They’ve been a tremendous partner,” Hemphill said of the hospital.

Hemphill also recognized how great the returns were given the poor state of the economy.

“I think people understand that, in this economy, organizations have it as hard as they have it,” she said, noting that many of the programs funded by the drive support local service organizations.

Indeed, the organizations aided by the fund — which include service organizations like  te Chestnut Hill Senior Center, community events like the Pastorius Park Concerts Series and even local schools like J.S. Jenks Elementary — are local. And 100 percent of those funds raised go directly to grantees. There’s no overhead at all.

These organizations, through the community’s generosity, will be able to fund programs that will benefit the quality of life of many in the area.

Congratulations, Chestnut Hill and all of the 565 donors who helped fund these important programs.           

Pete Mazzaccaro

Commentary: ‘Positively Chestnut Hill’ explained
by Greg Welsh

I would like to further explain why our association decided to become directly involved in the CHCA election process after quietly watching from the sidelines as the embattled community association became more and more enveloped in pointless negativity.

Frankly, a few members of the CHBA board suggested we stay far away from the internal conflict. They argued that we had no dog in this fracas.  The fact is, however, that we all have a dog in this fight.

This past year has seen much, long overdue interaction between our respective boards as well as members of the BID (Business Improvement District). Our organizations are all feeling the strain of the economic downturn. We agreed that the harsh tone expressed internally and publicly by some is not beneficial to Chestnut Hill. No one has ever blamed the other for a loss of business or a decline in community association membership.  In fact, last year we pooled our resources and worked together on the ‘Let’s Get Lit’ project, resulting in our best holiday tree-lighting season in years.

The AbZoolutely2 event was a success. This level of cooperation brought Mayor Nutter to our Avenue last September to present us with a special citation from City Council congratulating Chestnut Hill for being recognized as one of the top urban neighborhoods in the country. Part of his eloquent speech praised us for setting an example for other communities throughout the city.

Currently we are working together (including The Chestnut Hill Historical Society) to promote our first “Chestnut Hill Book Festival,” an event in July we hope will continue annually as our third major festival along with the Garden and Fall for the Arts festivals.

It was during these productive discussions that we realized the wedge separating our business/resident community has not been helpful. The claims in recent published letters in the Local that “the businesses have waged war on the residents,” or “intend to control the Local,” and “take over regulating zoning development” are baseless statements that only foster division in our community.

I cannot recall the last time our associations disagreed on an issue vital to Chestnut Hill.  We are one neighborhood. The candidates we are presenting are not carpetbaggers attempting to overrun Chestnut Hill. Many of the Positively Chestnut Hill candidates are your neighbors who live, work and send their kids to school here. It just so happens we operate our businesses on the Avenue and have a deeply vested interest in positive health, growth and vitality of our shared community. 

While the Avenue merchants are the visible face of Chestnut Hill, we recognize that we are but a part of this community; however, we believe that the interests of the CHCA and CHBA are shared. We are your neighbors who have similar goals: responsible residents and business owners who are exhausted and repulsed by the snarky, personal, rude and contentious attacks at meetings, on a blog and in our community newspaper that cause community volunteers to question why they ever volunteered.

Because we stand for all things positive for Chestnut Hill, it strikes us as more than ironic that a small minority on the CHCA board is floating the notion of breaking ranks and forming a separate association. This brings to mind Lincoln and Darwin.

One greatness of Lincoln (aside from the beauty of his writing) was his ability to see and state things simply. He understood that disunion would create more problems and that our great experiment in self-governance would be severely set back. We will solve our problems by calmly working together, not dividing.

Darwin proposed that for life to develop and evolve it needed to adapt to changes in the environment. Perhaps this is the time for our community organizations – CHCA, CHBA, BID, Historical Society, Parking Foundation and Garden District to look at our environment and explore solutions to our mutual issues. Competition is systemic to our culture, but co-operation is smarter. 

I feel that it’s time to realize that we live in one special community. We do not suggest that we have all the answers, but we can tell you that, as members of the CHCA Board, we will address those problems through civil, thoughtful and all-inclusive dialogue. Please read the bios carefully and see who is talking about divide and conquer and who is suggesting new approaches to move us in a positive direction. This is an opportunity to unite and help evolve our community, and we believe we’ve earned your support for the “Positively Chestnut Hill” candidates and independents.

By the way I have to shamelessly take advantage of this space to tell you that Chestnut Grill is having a Jenks Home and School Association Day next Tuesday; 20 percent of your total bill goes to help the school buy needed library books.

Greg Welsh is president of the Chestnut Hill Business Association.

On the trail to the secret Indian in the Wissahickon
by Larry Mendte

“An adventure?” My four-year-old son Michael was thrilled at the idea.

“That’s right,” I told him as I bent down to look deep into his wide eyes. “We’re going to find the secret Indian.”

I know Indian isn’t the politically correct term. But you have to admit going on an adventure to find the secret Indian sounds a whole lot cooler than going on an adventure to find the secret Native American.

Ten minutes later we were on the banks of the Wissahickon Creek in Chestnut Hill walking south from Bell’s Mill Road. We were on a rocky, dirt path that had been cleared by thousands of other travelers from before there was an America. Colonial soldiers, British regulars, Lenape Indians, explorers and hikers have walked the same path that my four-year-old and I were walking now. Across the creek, parallel to our path, is the Forbidden Drive, a gravel, fence-lined road that runs along the creek, past a covered bridge and the Valley Green Inn – all the way to Manayunk.

The path that Michael and I chose to walk is the one less traveled.

Horseback riders, bikers and joggers use Forbidden Drive. Dads on adventures with their sons use the unnamed trail to the secret Indian.

We walked up hillsides, across footbridges, over fallen trees and rested at a lookout point at the edge of a cliff before I admitted I wasn’t sure I remembered how to get to the secret Indian.

“But I know he’s looking out for us,”” I told Michael. ““He is always on the lookout.”

A young couple was hiking by, and I asked, “Did you see the Indian?”

“No,” the young man said and did a quick look around, “We’re looking for him too.”

The search for the secret Indian is a favorite pastime in Wissahickon Park.

For a short time, the couple and Michael and I searched together. We stopped another gentleman with a canteen and a walking stick, sure signs he had been around the park once or twice.

“It’s just south of the covered bridge,” he said as he pointed.

The young couple decided to take a different path than Michael and I. A three-year old was putting a crimp on their romantic stroll by asking things like, “Are you a mommy?” … and followed quickly by, “Why not?”

So Michael and I were on our own again, just the way we liked it.

And just when Michael’s four-year-old legs were giving out and he started to whine. I spotted the Chief.

“Look there he is!” I said and pointed straight up a steep incline of dirt, shrubs, rocks and trees.

Michael stopped whining, forgot about his tired legs and started straight up the hill.

I was going to take one of the trails up, but who was I to ruin the moment?

I climbed up behind Michael, grabbing a root with my hand, placing my foot on a rock, and all the time keeping one hand on my son so he didn’t tumble down the hill. After a few minutes we were on flat ground and standing next to a 15-foot-high, white statue of an Indian crouching on one knee.

“We found it,” he said excitedly, and then he sat down and studied the statue with all the wonder of a child’s eyes.

I love the statue. I was once told that the statue is Chief Tedyuscung, the leader and most famous member of the Lenape tribe that once hunted and fished the creek. Wissahickon is a combination of two words in Lenape, one word is for catfish and the other word is for yellowish water. The Lenape tribe could make anything sound pretty. Think how much nicer “Wissahickon” sounds than “Catfish swimming in yellowish water.”

It is also a nice thought that the statue is of the great Chief himself, but historians doubt it.

Although when I called the “Friends of the Wissahickon” to ask about the statue, Maura McCarthy, the executive director said, “Oh you mean Tedyuscung?”

“Wait, I thought it wasn’t him?” I said.

“I know,” she replied. “It’s just that when I was a little girl and my father would take me to see the statue, that’s what we called him.”

It seems I am just one in a long line of Dads who have taken a child to find Tedy.

And guess what? It turns out that all of the Dads and Moms who claimed it was the Chief may have been right after all.

Some research turned up a New York Times article from June 13, 1904, announcing that the ““statue of Tedyuscung, the Indian Chief,”” was being donated to the Fairmount Park Commission. Forget the guides that read, “mistakenly believed to depict” or “erroneously reported to be” Chief Tedyuscung. That is exactly who it was meant to be. But, it is important to point out, even though it is the sculptor’s depiction of Tedy, no one really knows what he looked like.

His story, however, is the stuff of legends.

Chief Tedyuscung was a great warrior and leader of the ten Delaware tribes. He learned to speak English and negotiated peace treaties with the settlers from Europe. Things were relatively peaceful in and around the Delaware Valley between 1756 and 1763 because of the treaty and the respect both the settlers and the Native Americans had for the Great Chief.

On April 19, 1764, Chief Tedyuscung was burned to death when the cabin he was sleeping in was set on fire. It happened in the Wyoming Valley of upstate New York. The tribes blamed Connecticut settlers, who were aggressively pushing west, for the assassination.

The death of Tedyuscung, the once-famous warrior who became a man of peace, caused a wave of distrust and anger that swept across the tribes and quickly turned into a call for revenge. Raids, massacres and all-out war followed. There was no tribal leader with the inclination, stature or knowledge of English to stop the killings that continued for decades.

It is appropriate that the statue of the Native American martyr sits above the valley that carries the Wissahickon Creek. For the creek and the surrounding park bring us back to those peaceful days when both Lenape and settlers hunted, fished and slept under the stars.

The Wissahickon is the closest we will come to seeing what Chief Tedyuscung saw.

It is truly amazing that the park exists within the borders of a major city. It is made possible by “the Friends,” who hold their memories dear and want to provide the same for their children.

“I still feel an emotional connection to the park,” and that is why Maura McCarthy now runs the FOW.

The Wissahickon Park is truly a Philadelphia treasure.

“It is something you just don’t see in other cities,” McCarthy explained. “London has Hampstead Heath and New York has Central Park, but neither of those great parks have the pristine experience of nature afforded in the Wissahickon.”

When you hike a trail in Wissahickon Park, you feel not only as if you have stepped out of the city, but also as if you have stepped back in time.

“It is a magical place where you can experience what the region was like before settlement,” is the way McCarthy explains it.

And that’s why the Indian statue is significant. The Wissahickon is the land as it was in the time of the Lenape — a time when catfish as big as cats scoured the bottom of the creek.

The Friends of the Wissahickon has been around since 1924. It is the oldest and only professionally staffed “friends” group in the country. There are 1,600 households that make up the FOW — one family lives as far away as Hong Kong.

“The park is an important memory to people around the globe. They want to make certain it is still there as they remember it when they come back.

And that’s what the Friends of the Wissahickon do. They preserve memories, not only of early America, but also of a wonderful childhood escape. They are preserving the memory for my son Michael of his secret Indian adventure. The members work with the Philadelphia Park Commission to care for the watershed, wildlife, trails, bridges, trees and artwork, including the Chief.

“In the late 1990’s up until 2001, Tedyuscung was a sad statue covered with graffiti. The ground around it was littered and barren because it was a popular spot for kids to party at night.”

But Maura and her “Friends” have changed all that, thanks to a massive cleanup effort. The statue has never looked better, and the area around it has been “enhanced and improved.”

The proud Lenape Chief looks as good as he did when the famous artist John Massey Rhind sculpted him in 1902. Rhind’s sculptures and fountains can be seen in cities and historical sites across the country. He sculpted the statue of John Wanamaker in Center City and several of the statues of Civil War heroes at Gettysburg.

In my humble opinion, the marble tribute to the Lenape Indians overlooking the Wissahickon is Rhind’s masterpiece. It was commissioned and given to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Henry, a prominent Chestnut Hill couple who were generous benefactors of the Wissahickon Creek Park.

They commissioned the marble statue to replace a wooden Indian statue that stood at the site since 1856, but was showing signs of age and weather damage. The Henrys wanted the new statue to last forever.

When you come upon the statue, it makes a dramatic statement. Hauled to the site in 1902 by workhorses, the statue sits on a bluff that was called Council Rock. This was the place where Lenape Indians were believed to hold their powwows.

The statue depicts Chief Tedyuscung, in full headdress, with his right hand up to his brow, shadowing his eyes, as he looks to the West. Because of the statue, most now call the site “Indian Rock.”

Some says this symbolizes the chief looking at the sun setting on the Lenape Indians. Others say he is watching as the tribes are pushed West by the settlers and eventually into oblivion. Still others think he is in the woodlands hunting and looking for game.

I like to believe he is on the lookout for Michael and, one day, for my younger son David and all of the children or children at heart who make the hike to recapture the simplicity of a time and place of long, long ago.

And I believe he keeps a lookout for those who come back after college, or moving away, or retirement to recapture a special moment of their youth, some bringing their own children, some coming from as far away as Hong Kong, to recapture the simplicity of a time and place not so long ago.

If you want to make the trip, you shouldn’t follow my lead from Bells Mill and straight up the hill grabbing on to roots and stones. There is an easier way that the Friends of the Wissahickon would like you to take so that you don’t trample on or disrupt the natural habitat.

Coming from the city on Germantown Avenue, take a left on Rex Avenue, which is just past the Borders at the top of the hill in Chestnut Hill. Take Rex until it dead ends at the park gate. Walk straight down the path and you will see a trail to the right with a steep incline, rock steps have been put in as part of the improvement project to encourage you to go this way. In a few minutes you will be next to the Chief.

“Most people like to take the path they learned as a kid. That’s not usually the path we recommend,” McCarthy said. But when I asked her what path her father would take, she laughed and said, “ot a path we would recommend.”

Maura and the FOW understand that finding you own path is part of the adventure.  

Part of the wonderment of the Indian statue is that it is hidden away, and when you get there you always seem to have it to yourself.

“Everyone likes to believe it is their secret place,” Maura said. But the truth is that more than three-quarters of a million people visit the park every year, and many of them want to “hike to the Indian.” So just be kind to the plant life on the way.

And remember, the Chief will keep a lookout for you.