Big Help for Little Crum Creek

Susan Kelly is President of the Board of Friends of Little Crum Creek Park. Photo: YunJoung Park

Since 1998, Susan Kelly has worked to improve Little Crum Creek Park, Swarthmore’s largest park, located on the eastern edge of town between Harvard and Yale avenues. 

Kelly has organized volunteers to clean streams, stabilize banks, remove invasive species, and plant trees and shrubs. As part of Swarthmore’s Environmental Advisory Council and other groups, she has coordinated several work days a year and built a list of many hardy locals who don’t mind getting dirty: the Park Pals. 

But that didn’t seem like enough.

“Parks survive and become well-used places of fun and enjoyment for communities if they’re loved and have friends,” Kelly said. For years she thought a nonprofit support group could help the park thrive for the community. But she was busy with other things. The thought germinated slowly.

Last year, Ross Schmucki, borough council member and chair of the Public Works Committee, brought up the idea of a Friends group to support the park. That was the nudge Kelly needed. 

“I knew I needed people committed one hundred percent to form a working board, where you’re willing to get wet and dirty,” Kelly said. She went looking, and several people signed on. A local attorney offered to complete all the legal work pro bono.

COVID-19 slowed the process, but this summer the group’s nonprofit status came through. Friends of Little Crum Creek Park is now an official 501(3)(c) organization. 

Demi and Ella Tourchiev enjoying the creek. Photo: Susan Kelly

“We’ve created a mission statement, a logo, a Facebook page, and rented a post office box,” Kelly says. “Our Park Planning and Maintenance Committee has already held two workdays and is working with an intern to assess the native, non-native, and exotic invasive species in the park and decide further remediation steps.”

“I admire and respect Susan’s dedicated work organizing teams of community volunteers to maintain and improve the Park,” Schmucki says. “The Friends of Little Crum Creek will foster a legacy of natural beauty and outdoor enjoyment for all in our community to enjoy.”

In the meantime, Kelly enjoys watching people find refuge in Little Crum Creek Park from the stresses and isolation of the pandemic. “It’s been great to see it being used more than ever during the school year, with families taking breaks for ‘field trips,’ having picnics, and kids finding treasures in the stream.” She has seen the park become not only a place to have fun but for people to connect with nature.

“I’ve always called the park the jewel of the town,” Kelly says. With the Friends organization supporting it, she is confident it will get even better.

To support the park, send a tax-deductible donation to:

Friends of Little Crum Creek Park
P.O. Box 107
Swarthmore, PA 19081

Checks should be made out to Friends of Little Crum Creek Park.