When looking for ways to get involved in his community and use his communication skills, senior nontraditional communication studies student Thomas McHale need look no further than his backyard. McHale has almost always lived in Tacony Creek and always appreciated the natural environment around him. Now, he is working with the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership and the Fairmount Park Conservancy WeWalkPHL program in order to pursue his passion for environmental advocacy and education.

What is the nature of your work?

I have begun working with a group that basically is the main group that stewards Tacony Park. They are a nonprofit group called the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership. The watershed runs from north of Philadelphia in Montgomery county through Jenkintown where it’s the Jenkintown Creek and the Tookany Creek. That’s what the original Lenni Lenape native Indigenous tribes that lived in this area called it. Once it crosses over into Philadelphia here, it’s referred to as the Tacony Creek where it makes its way down through the neighborhoods of East Oak Lane, Logan, Fern Rock, Olney and to the east, Lawncrest and Lawndale and then eventually runs through Frankford and dumps into the Delaware River

So TTF watershed partnership, they maintain the parks, they organize volunteer cleanups, they remove spray paint, they maintain the trails. They’re also involved in obviously checking the quality of the water itself. My position with TTS is I am a walk leader, primarily. So, basically, we lead community walks in the park. One of the concerns that inhibits people from using the park is safety because we do live in an urban neighborhood where there is, you know, the threat of crime and things like that, many people are hesitant to venture out into the park alone. So, to address that issue, we lead group walks, and then myself and my wife, Savannah, we lead the walks together. We’ve organized a great group of people in the community. We get everybody out walking for a couple hours every week, which is then a great way to get feedback on other community issues and concerns.

The position with Fairmount Park Conservancy was opened because of me already working with TTF. Their partnership, so to speak, with Fairmount Park Conservancy is one of the satellite parks that is involved in the city-wide WeWalkPHL program. The WeWalkPHL program is what I described as far as our community walks, but they’re city-wide and Fairmount Park Conservancy oversees those during peak seasons.

How and why did you first get involved?

I started at Temple in the spring of 2021 and that’s also when I did the first full season with TTS and WeWalkPHL. It was in Dr. Gratson’s 1111 course, we were working on, you know, potential places where you might want to reach out and network and get some information. While doing those exercises, a position became available, so instead of making it a hypothetical I just said, “very well, I’ll actually apply for a position.” I had already had a personal relationship with a lot of the people who work with TTF. I enjoyed following TTF on Instagram and seeing updates that were being made to my home park while I wasn’t there. My wife and I got closer to the people running TTF through social media, so we developed a friendship with them and started getting involved. So when the position became available, it was as much as just saying, “hey, I’m free,” and you’ve got the job.

How has Klein supported your involvement?

I’d say what’s had the greatest effect on me as a Temple student over these past three semesters has been the feedback and support of the administrators and the faculty. They have such an encouraging optimism that it inspires and puts a good type of pressure to want to, you know, continue achieving. Being reminded of that has been the most beneficial thing to me as a student who had been out of college for quite some time. When returning you almost judge yourself, you doubt yourself, you know? Getting into an environment like this and getting that type of encouragement and feedback from professors and other students, it’s just empowering, and it’s inspiring, and it just makes you feel a sense of belonging.

In particular, definitely Dr. Gratson and grateful to professor Lu Ann Cahn, Career Center, excellent advice from her. This semester, I’m very much enjoying all of my classes, but two in particular and that is Protests, Resistance, and Social Movements with Dr. Jason Del Gandio and Speech Writing with professor Jeffery Stingerstein. Both of those are helping me improve my writing skills.

What have you learned from this work that will help you in the future?

I think specific to TTF, what I’ve learned working with them over the past year that’s been most beneficial has been reaching out to community members from, as I mentioned, very diverse backgrounds, and being more aware of different needs in an intercultural neighborhood. That’s really what’s been most of an educational experience with the TTF Watershed Partnership. It’s sort of giving me an opportunity to get my foot in the door in different outreach opportunities within the community.

What is the best part of your work?

The best part, I mean, it’ll be cliché, I’m sorry for the lack of originality, but the best part has been the friendships that we’ve been fortunate enough to make with members of our community who we would otherwise have never met. These are neighbors just a few minutes away who now we speak to all week long, looking forward, you know, to our times on the trails out on the trails that we get to spend together. It really gives you a sense of belonging and feeling like you’re a contributing member of a community. Not just that you live in a place, but you are a part of that place.

Responses were edited slightly for length and clarity.