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College Settlement will honor Philadelphia congressman, Horsham business owner at Acorns to Oaks Gala Nov. 9

The College Settlement of Philadelphia in Horsham will honor a Philadelphia congressman and a Horsham business owner when it hosts it first “Acorns to Oaks Gala”

Nov. 9 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Philadelphia.

The gala is the first of what organizers hope will be an annual event to benefit College Settlement, a nonprofit organization that, for more than 90 years, has provided environmental education and summer camping programs for economically disadvantaged youth from the greater Philadelphia area.

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College Settlement manages 235 acres off Witmer Road in Horsham that accommodate three camps: the residential College Settlement Camp; The Henry J. & Willemina B. Kuhn Day Camp; and The Outdoor School, an environmental education and camping program offered during the spring and fall to area public and private school students. The camp experience, said Executive Director Roger Jackson, is designed to “foster personal growth and prepare young people to make a positive impact on the world.”

            During an evening filled with food, drink, musical performances, dancing and more, College Settlement will present its Leonard C. Ferguson Youth Advocate Award to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-2, who represents a large portion of Philadelphia, as well as Lower Merion Township and Narberth Borough in Montgomery County. Receiving the Anna Freeman Davies Founders Award will be Tony Colibraro, co-founder and co-owner of Colibraro Landscaping and Nursery, Inc. in Horsham, and a long-time volunteer and supporter of College Settlement.

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            With a record of legislation and accomplishments related to youth, Fattah will receive the youth advocate award named for Leonard C. Ferguson, College Settlement’s executive director from 1950 to 1982, who was devoted to children and the out-of-doors.

Fattah is the architect of the highly successful GEAR UP which aids underserved students in preparing for and pursuing a college education. It serves some 12 million students from sixth to 12th grades in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. He also is chief sponsor of the American Opportunity Tax Credit Act, a $2,500 tax credit for tuition and other expenses for college students or their parents. He also created College Opportunity Resources for Education, a Philadelphia city-wide initiative providing nearly $27 million in college scholarships to more than 14,500 students.

Colibraro will receive an annual award presented in memory of Anna Freeman Davies, founder of the College Settlement Camp. Born in Maida, Italy, he came to the United States in 1958 at the age of 16. He has been a friend to College Settlement and an active member of the greater Horsham community, including involvement in the Rotary Club of Horsham and the Greater Horsham Chamber of Commerce which work collaboratively with College Settlement.

            Gala guests also will get to meet two business women, Angel Crowder Packer and Tameka Swain, who grew up in Philadelphia and credit their experiences at College Settlement with helping them choose their life paths.

            Crowder Packer of Yeadon, Delaware County, who was raised in West Philadelphia, was referred to College Settlement by her 7th grade science teacher and worked as a staff assistant, then a counselor, from ages 14 to 24. “I absolutely believe that camp affected my life and path,” she said. “I feel that I broke an ugly cycle of teen parenting and low or no education. There were five of us. We were ultimately raised by my grandmother. She was a teen parent; my mother was a teen parent, having her first child at 15; my sister was a teen parent, having her first at 14. My grandmother, mother and sister all had no higher than a 9th grade education. Just for me to graduate from high school, walk down the aisle and have a diploma was a huge deal. If it were not for camp and being introduced to a world that existed outside of my own, I would have become another statistic.”  

                Crowder Packer is now is director of human resources at Spectrum Health Services, Inc., a nonprofit, community health center “in the backyard,” she said, “of where I grew up.”  

            Also speaking will be Tameka Swain of Philadelphia, who grew up in East Germantown, the eldest of five girls. Swain, who holds a juris doctor degree, is an associate director for the Contracts and IP legal department of Nasdaq OMX Corporate Solutions LLC in Philadelphia.    

            The gala will be held from 7 to 11 p.m., beginning with a cocktail hour featuring hors d’oeuvres and cash bar (free non-alcoholic beverages). The evening will include a dinner buffet and desserts, musical performances by young musicians from Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, silent and live auctions, a DJ and dancing with mini lessons.

                Cost is $75 and includes valet parking. Dress is cocktail attire. A limited number of tickets still are available and may be purchased online at www.collegesettlement.org/events, or by contacting Jan Finnegan, College Settlement director of development at jan@campmanagement.org or 215-542-7974. Directions to the Philadelphia Cricket Club, 415 West Willow Grove Avenue, Philadelphia (19118) may be found at www.philacricket.com.

                College Settlement was started in 1889, part of the settlement house movement in poor urban communities throughout the United States in the late 19th Century.  The settlement houses often were managed by college educated women helping immigrant families assimilate into urban life.  The settlement workers provided language classes, financial literacy, healthcare, childcare and even operated a bank and library branch right at the settlement house in South Philadelphia.

In 1922, property was acquired on Witmer Road. Originally called the Farm Camp, it was a place to get out of the city, farm the land and breathe the fresh air of what was then rural Montgomery County.

             The property now includes more than 35 structures, a lake, two swimming pools, an environmental center, a community based farm, and an adventure challenge course – an activity that is designed to encourage leadership, communication skills, and social development within a group. College Settlement also manages a site with more than 75 acres in the Poconos, north of Bloomsburg.

            For additional information about College Settlement, its history and programs, visit www.collegesettlement.org.

 

 

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