Penn Branch Community Association (PBCA) is again selling ‘Penn Branch DC’ T-shirts as a fundraiser to support the ongoing maintenance of our community parks and also to offset costs for future community events like the Annual Block Party and the revival of our Annual Dinner Dance (2022).
This week we received official notice that PEPCO will soon install two electrical outlets in our very own 9-11 Memorial Park. This has been a 12-year effort led by Alberta Paul and others. Having electric will make our gateway community park a well-lit, more inviting gathering place. Also, we are asking everyone to donate an hour of time between 9am and 12pm, on Saturday, May 15th to help clean the park and plant new shrubs donated to us from the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS). Remember to bring your tools and extra lawn and leaf bags!
Also, we offer special thanks to our community donors. Penn Branch residents contributed over $500 to support the restoration and replacement of the bench in 9-11 Memorial Park. We wish to thank the following residents for their kind financial donations to help us replace the bench in 9-11 Memorial Park:
Can’t join us on Saturday, May 15th? Make a donation!
Mail your donation to:
PBCA
P.O. Box 6730
Washington, DC 20020-2325
Or Visit:
www.pennbranchdc.org/donate
As we move into the month of May, we celebrate the mothers, grandmothers, aunties, kinship caregivers, and other members of our community who provide love and guidance to us all. For those whose mothers have passed, we hope this can be a time to reflect on cherished memories. Happy Mother’s Day! A big ‘Thank You’ to the many neighbors who donated funds to improve our Penn Branch 9-11 Memorial Park! In the coming months, the PBCA Executive Committee will announce a fundraiser related to continuing to improve the park while celebrating families—past and present—who are connected to our community. We really look forward to seeing everyone at the park planting on May 15th at 9 am. Although CDC and city guidelines for outside mask-wearing have changed, since we will be working in a small space, please plan to wear a face-covering to keep all of our neighbors safe.
Please continue to be safe and take care of each other and I’ll see you at the meeting!
Stan Benton,
PBCA President
Last month PBCA Communications Director, Paul Grant was awarded a grant from DC Humanities, Oral History Collaborative Partnership to collect personal narratives from early Penn Branch families. The project, ‘We Are Penn Branch DC’ will focus on the stories of individuals who became residents of Penn Branch between 1945-1968.
About DC Humanities
The DC Humanities Oral History Collaborative Partnership funds projects that explore and preserves Washington, DC life, history and culture through interviews with the people who have lived it. Created in 2016 in response to a growing need to capture unrecorded Washington history, the DC Oral History Collaborative documents and preserves the stories and memories of DC residents as communities experience change and as residents age. The Collaborative increases awareness of existing oral history recordings and gives residents the training and financial resources they need to conduct new interviews. HumanitiesDC specializes in working with grantees who want to create new recorded stories or who want to dig into the archives and tell an old story with a new twist.
Why Oral History is Important?
Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies. These personal stories help fill gap between the major historical facts that we know and how real people experienced and understood these moments. As the Washington, DC area and continues to experience significant political, cultural, and economic change over the past 70 years, it is critically important we preserve the memories our most senior, and long-time residents and understand how the city’s evolution has impacted them.
The entire collection of stories will be archived in the permanent collection of the DC Public Library and the PBCA Executive Board is planning to host a public exhibition of the stories, once pandemic restrictions on public gatherings are released. Interviews will be filmed through October 2021 and participants will receive a $75.00 honorarium for their time.
To share your story, please contact:
Paul Grant | E-mail : [email protected] Tel.: (202) 888-3236
To learn more about HumanitiesDC, please visit:
On Saturday, May 15th at 9:00AM Penn Branch community members will meet to begin cleaning and restoration of 9-11 Memorial Park, located at the intersection of Carpenter Street and O Street SE. In addition to cleaning, we will plant and install new shrubs and park signage purchased through a recent $1,000 grant from the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS).
If you plan to join us, please remember to bring your gardening tools, including rakes, shovels, shears, trimmers as well as lawn and leaf and trash bags.
The PBCA board is also making plans to launch a community fundraiser next month. Your donation will help us to replace the deteriorating bench and install new pavers in the main walkways. If you can’t join us on Saturday, May 15th, please consider making a donation to help us restore and maintain the gateway to our community! To make a donation online, please visit: https://pennbranchdc.org/donate/
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Gallery: One of our last major community restoration of 9-11 Memorial Park took place on October 18, 2014. Many Penn Branch residents came out to help groom plants, restore walkways and flower beds.
