To help Philadelphia residents celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, the city plans to supply 250\u00a0block parties with\u00a0semiquincentennial-themed hats and shirts,\u00a0plus a range of other supplies including water guns, hula hoops, athletic equipment, sidewalk chalk, books and seeds.<\/p>\n
It’s part of the city’s Block Party Bonanza initiative, which aims to foster neighborhood pride. Block parties that adhere to the theme of “Life, Liberty and Happiness” \u2014 a nod to the Declaration of Independence \u2014 and occur between May 23 and Oct. 3 are eligible to receive supplies.<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Tyrese Maxey says he’s ‘Philly all the way,’ but still roots for the Cowboys<\/a><\/p>\n Selected block parties also will receive free memberships to the YMCA of Greater Philadelphia, $250 ShopRite gift cards and merchandise from the city’s sports teams. Volunteers from the city’s\u00a0Phambassador<\/a>\u00a0program will be on hand to help with set up and clean up.<\/p>\n “Block parties continue to be a beloved tradition in Philly and represent the very best of our city,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center and Philadelphia250, a program promoting semiquincentennial celebrations. “How about we 2026-ify the block party. \u2026 What if we could also bring our country’s birthday party right to where people are?”<\/p>\n \nTo be considered, block party organizers must apply online<\/a> to host a block party and provide a petition signed by at least 75% of the households on the block. All parties must fall between 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and meet other\u00a0requirements<\/a>.<\/p>\n Organizers that gain approval also will receive an email containing a link to apply for the Block Party Bonanza. Applicants will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis, but the date and locations of the parties will be taken into account to ensure celebrations occur throughout the city’s neighborhoods, Ott Lovell said.<\/p>\n The Block Party Bonanza initiative also will support 25 so-called “Super Block Parties” for the winners of last year’s Clean Block Contest.\u00a0Philadelphia250 will help Super Block Parties book\u00a0DJs, vendors and other activities.<\/p>\n Also, five block parties will be held at Extended Day\/Extended Year schools. They will have food, games, music, family-friendly activities and giveaways. Up to 600 students can attend.<\/p>\n Mayor Cherelle Parker promised that the city’s 2026 summer \u2014 which includes the\u00a0World Cup<\/a>, MLB All Star Game, PGA Championship and\u00a0semiquincentennial<\/a>\u00a0celebrations \u2014 will be a “legacy experience.”<\/p>\n “We will reach neighborhoods in every corner of this city as we demonstrate to the world what unity and celebration look like right here,” Parker said. “… This is party time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To help Philadelphia residents celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, the city plans to supply 250\u00a0block parties with\u00a0semiquincentennial-themed hats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9410,744,5016,69,4001,71,70,9880],"class_list":["post-149835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-block-party","tag-government","tag-parties","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-250","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-semiquincentennial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}