Avondale Garage Gets Greener
Located in what was once the home of the Avondale Fire Department, the Avondale Garage Youth Center provides creative, academic, and career development programs for middle and high school students across Southern Chester County. Staff and volunteers contribute to mentoring their young participants, helping them discover new opportunities and learn valuable life skills.
“The Garage Community & Youth Center (The Garage) is honored and thrilled to be a recipient of Community Project Funding from Congresswoman Houlahan’s office,” said Kristin Proto, Executive Director. “The Garage serves as a liaison between the community and our families, promoting the equity and inclusion of an underserved and marginalized population. With this essential Community Project Funding support, The Garage will continue to renovate our Avondale facility with improved stormwater management through a rain garden and green roof, as well as environmental educational opportunities that come with an outdoor classroom space. Our organization has been providing support through after-school programming for over twenty years, and with the help of the community, friends, and partners like the Sixth Congressional District, we look forward to another twenty years!”
As part of this funding, The Garage added raised rain garden beds filled with a Laurel Valley Soils custom container soil blend. These attractive and colorfully planted beds are constructed from stylish rustic steel, which also functions as a safety barrier between the busy street and the Garage. But the beds’ real magic happens unseen. These raised beds were built over a section of sidewalk that was removed and excavated down to bare earth. The beds contain 75 cubic yards of soil media, which will act as a functional stormwater reservoir that will capture rainwater and then slowly release it into the ground. This is a great benefit to the whole borough, which is a high-risk flood area.
