PA Local Heroes is a monthly feature sponsored by Ballard Spahr. Installments appear first in PA Local, Spotlight PA’s weekly newsletter that takes a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
Years ago, Gweny Love got fed up with the litter she’d pass as she walked her dogs. She saw overfilled trash cans, trash bags ripped open by racoons, dog droppings, and clogged sewers. On windy days, debris would blow around and on hot days, the garbage would reek.
Tired of all the grime and refuse, the lifelong resident of the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Mantua sprung into action.
She started picking up the trash, then she rallied her neighbors to join her, recruiting them one by one.
“I decided if we want clean streets, we have to be the ones to do it,” Love told Spotlight PA.
Since then the cleanups have expanded to include local university students and staff, sometimes involving up to 60 people. There are about four to six cleanups a year.
Love hopes to eventually recruit more volunteers through social media, but for now relies heavily on word of mouth, emails, and flyers.
The cleanups are one of the efforts run by Mantua Worldwide Community, a nonprofit founded by Love in 2015. The organization promotes the arts, environmentalism, and public health through local programs like community gardens that teach youth the science behind growing.
These efforts have earned Love a nomination for our PA Local Heroes series, sponsored by Ballard Spahr.
Love said her family emphasized cleanliness and responsibility during her childhood in Mantua. Saturdays were for chores and grocery shopping, while Sundays were for family and play.
The routines taught her to care for her surroundings, and instilled in her a sense of responsibility toward her household and community. Given this background, spearheading efforts to beautify and enrich Mantua came naturally to her as an adult, she said.
To Love, cleaning the neighborhood goes beyond making it look better.
“It's not just me being annoyed with litter, it's me being responsible enough to know what we do now will impact future generations and everybody must be socially responsible,” Love said.
Love wants to see more people assume responsibility for their neighborhoods. Everyone, regardless of age, background, or ability, can make a difference, she argues.
This is why “worldwide” is in her organization’s name, she explained: “As people are inspired to do good, promote environmental awareness, and create positive social change by being a part of Mantua Worldwide, the hope is that they would spread that influence back in their hometowns and wherever they may go in the world.”
Her projects have made her a fixture in the community.
“Everybody in Mantua knows Gweny Love,” said Walter Tsou. “She’s kind of a force to be reckoned with. People know her, know the kind of work she does, and she’s a believer in the potential of her community.”
Tsou is a physician and former health commissioner of Philadelphia. He first met Love about 20 years ago at an exhibit on violence prevention, where she was featured. The subject of her exhibit? Improving Mantua.
She’s stayed the course ever since, and sees the cleanups as part of a broader movement to encourage community care and engagement.
Communities seeking change need not “look somewhere in the sky or on the ground or to the left or to the right to see who's going to save us,” Love said. “We are the ones we've been looking for.”
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