Since its inception in 2015, Newtown Square in Bloom (NSiB) has strengthened our community through volunteer participation in beautification, historical awareness and civic pride. NSiB raises funds and secures grant money for a number of planting projects, such as the floral hanging baskets on our town center streets, the Newtown Township welcome signs, and St. Albans Circle.
Volunteers from many of the Township’s organizations and businesses join in to help plant flowers and trees, develop our trail network, clean up parks and streams on Arbor Day, weed and maintain the Drexel Lodge Park Butterfly Garden and help enhance the significance of our historic buildings.
Most recently, NSiB announced it is the recipient of a 2024 “Healing the Planet” $4,000 grant from The GIANT Company and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful. The 2024 Healing the Planet Grant Program, funded by The GIANT Company, aims to invest in tree plantings across The GIANT Company’s operating areas in Pennsylvania. Trees provide numerous benefits to the environment, such as water and air quality, health benefits and an enhanced overall quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.
Newtown Square in Bloom will use the grant money to replant 33 native trees and 30 native evergreens on the one-mile-long tree corridor between the Goshen Walking Trail and Goshen Road, where many of the ash trees had to be removed recently due to the Emerald Ash Borer, a green jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on the ash species. The female beetles lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and their larvae feed underneath the bark to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native area, it does not cause significant damage to trees. But outside its native range, it is an invasive species and highly destructive to European and North American ash trees. Before it was found in North America, very little was known about the Emerald Ash Borer.
Work on this Newtown Square in Bloom project will be done with assistance from Newtown Township Public Works, Newtown Township Environmental Advisory Council, Newtown Township Parks and Recreation, and Shade Tree Commission and will be completed by the end of November of this year. “This grant will help provide better air quality, filter stormwater runoff, prevent water puddling on the walkway and create an automobile noise buffer,” said Paul Seligson, Chairperson of Newtown Square in Bloom. “A total of 76 applications were received, making this a very competitive process. We are extremely grateful to PA Representative, District 168th, Lisa Borowski, for helping our township secure this grant.”
This project was funded by The GIANT Company and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s “Healing the Planet” grant program. The GIANT Company and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful awarded a total of $108,243 in support of 32 projects focused on tree planting projects. Funding for the grants was provided by customers at GIANT supermarkets, Martin’s and GIANT Heirloom Market stores, who agreed to round up their grocery purchases to the
nearest dollar from March through May.
To learn more about getting involved and volunteering, visit the Newtown Square in Bloom Facebook page and visit their website: NewtownSquareInBloom.com.