Eric Tuwalski: What did Philadelphia learn from the 1997 Summit for America’s Future?

I wonder how many people in our region remember the President’s Summit for America’s Future that took place in April 1997 in Philadelphia. 

I was in my senior year of high school at Archbishop Carroll when I attended the opening kickoff ceremony April 27 in Marcus Foster Stadium and the initial cleanup efforts along Germantown Avenue. Several thousand people from my recollection packed the stadium looking to get an opportunity at being a part of more history in the birthplace of our nation. The initiative was led by the late Colin Powell, who at this time was revered with high esteem by many citizens as the epitome of a natural-born leader after his honorable service in the United States Army and advising the First Gulf War as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush. 

I remember briefly hearing about this initiative taking place in Philadelphia from the local news, but I never knew I would be one of several students asked by my school administration to represent Archbishop Carroll at the event. We started our morning with the Sunday Celebration of the Eucharist at our school’s chapel, followed by the bus trip to Marcus Foster Stadium. The crowd grew and grew waiting to see our elected leaders and officials on stage for this event as local media hailed this as monumental and positive for Philadelphia. We must have waited patiently for about forty-five minutes on the football field until they all appeared out on stage like rock stars. I saw the late Archbishop of Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua delivering the opening prayer, followed by Mayor Ed Rendell, late U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, former governor Tom Ridge, former first ladies Roselyn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. A higher amplitude of cheers and roars came when President Bill Clinton with First Lady Hillary Clinton and Vice President Al Gore with Second Lady Tipper came front and center on stage. The uproar of excitement made us volunteers motivated and ready to clean up the neighborhoods in Philadelphia. 

All of the speeches given were passionate in calling for volunteering in local communities and to practice good citizenship by looking out for your neighbors and to respect one another. Colin Powell concluded the ceremony with the theme calling all of us to volunteer. We proceeded to exit the stadium by walking several blocks to our designated area to start cleaning up the neighborhoods around Germantown Avenue. We were given our complimentary President’s Summit for Future American t-shirts to wear, along with yard tools, brooms, paint cans, paint brushes, trash bags, and a boxed lunch. Each elected leader had a designated zone to operate for cleanup. Our elected leader for our work zone area was former Governor Ridge. 

We went to work in a neighborhood right off Germantown Avenue. We must have worked for a good four hours cleaning up and disposing trash in the neighborhood. Several neighbors came out to assist us and showed gratitude for the time and efforts we put in to help them clean up their neighborhood. One neighbor I recall told us they do all they can to clean up only to find vandalism, auto theft, and drug dealing taking place on their streets. I listened to their stories as we worked and thought to myself at that time, do these neighbors feel this summit to be an effective tool to help with volunteering to keep the streets clean and safe in Philadelphia? 

After looking back at this event twenty-eight years ago and with more clarity, I think there is a price for government officials getting involved with these types of projects. This approach takes out the most essential part of volunteering: the family. Brushing aside the families, they ask for government subsidies and taxpayer money to help revitalize a community. The results speak for themselves as the citizens do not benefit from the false sense of hope and help from the government, even from elected officials and civic leaders in Philadelphia. We cannot turn a blind eye away from all the garbage and waste piling up on city streets and say this is a gorgeous city. Another purpose of the summit was to help at-risk children and we could draw a strong correlation with at-risk children and low education results from our local schools still existing today in Philadelphia. 

Volunteers from across the nation were told to clean up their neighborhoods in their respective cities when they returned from Philadelphia. Are we not called to do this act on a daily basis by looking out for our fellow residents and assisting in community safety with our local law enforcement? 

As adults we learn from school, especially civics classes the emphasis on civility and looking out for our fellow citizens. We are called to serve based on our shared American values since the beginning of our nation’s birth. Yet our elected officials in this region seem to do this on a daily basis, as they talk tough on cleaning up the neighborhoods, however, they are never brought onto the stage to be held accountable to say they are sorry for letting the citizens down who had their properties destroyed and ruined by theft or vandalism. We can also lay blame on the soft-on-crime prosecutors who make bad deals with defense attorneys, offering many chances for convicted individuals to become repeat offenders. We also cannot forget the need to call to support our local police department. 

I strongly suspect our local media prefers to bury the tapes and recordings of this three-day event. The possible embarrassment of the bad mark it leaves on Philadelphia. I suggest we use this as a lesson plan for local schools to use that it does not take an elected official to motivate us to volunteer, it takes the love of a family, mentors, and our teachers to encourage volunteer work as a practice of good citizenship. 

Eric Tuwalski, Ed.D. is the Social Studies Department Chair at Archbishop John Carroll High School.