When someone says, “Pennyslvania Horticultural Society” what comes to mind? The Flower Show? Older ladies from the Main Line? It’s okay if you made those associations (I did too), but you’re quite wrong. The truth is that PHS members range in age and socio-economic status and that the Society as a whole is vibrant and energized.
Under the direction of new president Drew Becher, PHS is reinventing itself as a major player in Philadelphia’s urban gardening scene. Part of that reinvention comes in the form of Tanya King and Michelle Nicoletto.
King has worked with PHS in the Shows Department for many years and understands the misconceptions people have about the organization. When it was suggested that Member’s Day be opened to the public (and renamed the Fall Garden Festival), King seized the opportunity. Using her passion for landscaping and events planning, she recruited more vendors and devoted herself to making the Fall Garden Festival what it should be: an extravaganza of music, nature, and community. She looks forward to this year’s event with girlish excitement and calls the combination of the “soft beauty” of nature and “rugged hustle” of the event’s planning “orgasmic.”
Then there’s Michelle Nicoletto a Development Associate working to enhance the Young Friends program. Though her language isn’t as colorful as King’s, Nicoletto shares her passion. Also excited by the change in guard at PHS, Nicoletto sees an opportunity to reach out to a sector of Philadelphia’s population that is young and deeply committed to promoting social change through environmental iniatives. She explains that the purpose of Young Friends is twofold: to provide education and social opportunities for members and to encourage volutneerism. And she has reason to be optimistic about their purpose: a recent survery shows that members are more interested in volunteer opportunities than happy hours.
Though they are just two members of an extensive staff, King and Nicoletto give us all reason to reconsider our preconceived notions of PHS. They also give us reason to visit the Fall Garden Festival on September 11.
