The Passyunk Square Civic Association (PSCA) is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation. The mission of PSCA is to enhance the quality of life in the neighborhood, preserve the neighborhood’s unique historic character and to promote a cohesive community of residents, businesses and institutions.
Regular Meetings
First Tuesday of the Month (except July & August)
6:30 PM
Meetings are held at:
South Philadelphia Older Adult Center, E. Passyunk Avenue at Dickinson Street map it
BOARD OF DIRECTORS;
Christine Knapp, President
Christine has lived in Passyunk Square since June of 2006 after buying and renovating a house on the 700 block of Earp St. She chose to move to the neighborhood because of its great culture and diversity, walkability, and abundance of restaurants. During the day, Christine is the Manager of Public and Client Relations for a U.S. Department of Energy project on energy efficient buildings at the Navy Yard. Naturally, many of her interests in the neighborhood have to do with making it cleaner and greener.
Pam Zenzola, Vice President, Events Committee
Pam moved to the neighborhood in November 2008, becoming immediately involved with the Passyunk Square community. While living in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Horsham or Philadelphia, Pam always gets connected with the local organizations. Why? Because Pam believes her home is not just her house but her community as well.
Pam is excited to be the Chairperson of the Events Committee. Contact Pam if you want to have a good time while organizing a happy hour, plant sale, or many other types of events for the community.
Karin Morris, Acting Secretary
Karin Morris has lived in Passyunk Square since 2002, and works as the Manager of the Office of Smart Growth at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Originally from Cleveland, Karin has a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. She enjoys gardening, hiking, reading, and fulfilling all her earthly needs south of Washington Avenue. Karin heads the planning committee.
Angel D’Ippolito, Treasurer
Angel moved to Passyunk Square with her husband in 2007 after having lived in the Bella Vista area for six years. She grew up in Berks County, Pennsylvania and moved to Philadelphia after graduating from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University. She is a business and real estate lawyer, a child advocate, and a lover of plants, music, food, good wine, cake decorating, photography, travel, animals, friends, and family. Angel is looking forward to working with the community to bring positive change and growth to our incredible neighborhood.
Andrew Emma, Beautification
Andrew moved to the South Philly area where generations of his family were raised in August of 2005, after finishing his Bachelor’s Degree in Geography & Urban Studies from Temple University. He discovered his love of community beautification a few years later, and from then has become increasingly interested in making Passyunk Square serve as a model of sustainability for Philadelphia and beyond. He enjoys way too many things to list here, such as sports, music, delicious food, and anti-consumerism, but lately they’ve all been surpassed by his greening ambitions. All you need to know is that he wants your ideas, whether it’s creating more community gardens, planting more trees, recycling more items, or meeting more good people, and he wants them to become realities.
Dan Pohlig, Communications
Dan and his wife, Alison Fritz, moved into the Passyunk Square neighborhood in 2008. Born in the Roxborough section of the city, Dan grew up in Upper Darby, attended St. Joseph’s Prep and has a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University. Throughout his career, Dan has been a teacher, coach, and roofer as well as the Policy Director on a statewide U.S. Senate campaign, the head of multi-year journalism project and currently the Director Research and Media Placement for a major political consulting firm. In his spare time he helps with outreach for the South Philly Food Co-op and is on the vestry of Christ Church Philadelphia. Dan works to publicize and promote the efforts of the civic association and is interested in recruiting others who would like to write stories about life in the neighborhood for this website. You can contact him by emailing dan.pohlig (at) gmail.com (put in the subject line: “I want to write for Passyunk.org!”).
Mary Elizabeth “Mary Beth” Bongiovanni, Education
Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni has been an elementary teacher leader in Philadelphia area independent schools for 18 years as well as a pedagogical coach and educational consultant to the Philadelphia School District. Having just completed the Principal Certificate Program at Temple, Mary Beth is now enrolled full time in a doctoral program in educational administration. Mary Beth is studying how to design and implement a culturally proficient educational program by crafting with faculty a new model of school government. She is interested personally and professionally in working with parents, neighbors and partners to introduce new patterns of civic engagement and sustainability into elementary school culture. Mary Beth has lived in South Philadelphia for the last six years with her partner, Jennifer Baker, and their five-year-old son. She is an advocate for students in schools and an advocate of action oriented educational reform.
Chris DiCapua, At-large
Chris moved to Passyunk Square in 2007 after living for a number of years in the suburbs. He was attracted to the neighborhood because of its vibrancy and the sense of community it offers, its proximity to Center City and his work, as well as its many terrific restaurants, bars and cafes. He has been slowly updating his home, which is located on Columbus Square. He is currently the Vice President of the Columbus Square Advisory Council, and serves as that park’s liaison on the PSCA Board. By day he is a professor of Spanish at Community College of Philadelphia, where he also chairs the College’s Department of Foreign Languages.
Sarah Anton, Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Sarah has lived in Passyunk Square since 2003. She enjoys advocating for arts and culture, cooking, and general adventuring in the neighborhood. She looks forward to encouraging the creation of interesting sites and places, working to make the neighborhood clean and safe, planting trees, and meeting lots of her neighbors.
Open, Secretary
COMMITTEES
Beautification
Clean-ups, plantings, banners, block efforts
co-chairs: Andrew Emma and Sarah Anton
Communications
Membership, public relations
chair: Dan Pohlig
Zoning
Monitoring zoning change requests
chair: John Digiulio
Safety / Passyunk Square Town Watch
chair: OPEN
Trash & Recycling
chair: Aliza Narva
Planning
Convening stakeholders to help choose what we want the area to look like in the future
chair: Karin Morris
Fund Raising/Sapling Program
For association activities
chair: Open
Education
Supporting schools in the neighborhood
chair: Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni
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Passyunk Square Civic Association
PO Box 18052, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Washington Avenue to Tasker Street & 6th Street to Broad Street
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Passyunk has also been known as Passayunk, Passyonck, Passuming, Passajungh, Perslajongh, Passajon, and Paisajungh. All related to the Native “pachsegink”, meaning “in the valley” or “place between the hills.”
Copyright © Passyunk Square Civic Association
A non-profit 501(c)(3) group
P.O. Box 18052 Philadelphia, PA 19147
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