{"id":795502,"date":"2026-07-12T12:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795502\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:44:10","slug":"mlb-all-star-funding-expands-north-philadelphia-tree-house-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795502\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB All-Star funding expands North Philadelphia Tree House Books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Tree House Books in North Philadelphia will expand its free literacy programs for children and families through a MLB <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/all-star-game-2026-philadelphia-events-citizens-bank-park\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All-Star Game<\/a> legacy project, allowing the nonprofit to serve more families after outgrowing its space.\n<\/p>\n<p>Tree House is one of six Philadelphia organizations sharing $5.5 million in MLB and Phillies Charities legacy funding tied to next week\u2019s All-Star Game, the first held in Philadelphia since 1996.\n<\/p>\n<p>Phillies Charities and Tree House Books marked the expansion with a ceremony Thursday at the 21-year-old giving library and literacy center.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Tree House Books offers free literacy programs and has been working with limited space for years. Since its founding, Tree House evolved from a used bookstore into a nonprofit offering free literacy programs for North Philadelphia children and families. Plans for expansion started after the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for community programming at Treehouse led to waiting lists.\n<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Tree House books reported serving over 120 young people through programs that include book drives, literacy initiatives and after-school activities.\n<\/p>\n<p>Executive Director Michael Brix said the organization realized after the pandemic that it needed more space to meet the growing demand.\n<\/p>\n<p>The expansion will add two floors to Tree House Books and create the All-Star Legacy Literacy Clubhouse, which will include new spaces for children, teens and tutoring.<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-747044\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/philadelphia-all-star-literacy-clubhouse-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"A poster board outlines the plans for renovations of Tree House Books\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"  \/>Inside the upcoming renovations of Tree House Books looking at the plans for the All Star Legacy Clubhouse. (Chelsea Lubbe\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the Phillies wanted to partner with us it was a no-brainer we were like this is an amazing connection and over the past several years,\u201d Brix said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Brix explained that Tree House Books builds alongside the community.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhilly is a sports town. We\u2019ve been connecting with the Phillies through literacy, so we know their commitment to community. I think as citizens and civic leaders, we are trying to make the best Philadelphia we can,\u201d Brix said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[93335,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-795502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-all-star","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}