Rebuilding Together Philadelphia: http://www.rebuildingphilly.org/
Thanksgiving is celebrated on the third Thursday of every November. This year I attended Penn’s Friendsgiving, a spin on the traditional holiday. This is a paid entry event between $5-6 dollars. The proceeds of the event are donated to a charity each year.
This year PennDesign teamed up with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia to host Friendsgiving. The event resulted in nearly $1,000 dollar donation to Rebuilding Together Philadelphia which will go towards helping local homeowners repair and maintain their homes. This organization also has volunteer positions for those interested in taking a more active role in the rebuilding and maintaining the communties around them.
For international students this is a wonderful event to introduce them to this holiday tradition. Thanksgiving is as much about a specific set of dishes as gathering people together around one table to celebrate eachothers company. This is really wonderful as a mixer for the school. Students from different programs can enjoy a meal with eachother making new connections and learning ideas from a different field. Luckily enough I met several City Planning students amongst all the Architects and Landscape Architects which seemed to overwhelm the event.
All in all it was a lovely evening with the wonderful surprise of continued giving and opportunity with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia!