Name: Rosemarie Conry, call me Rose!
Occupation: Transportation Broker. I spend my days bidding for trucks to move freight from the shipper. My head account is Target.
How long have you lived in Bridesburg
Coming up on 11th year!
Originally from…
Grew up in Kensington with stops in Tacony and Wissinoming. Once I got married, we moved to Bridesburg and have been here since.
Favorite street/place in Bridesburg?
My street! The 2800 block of Kirkbride Street. We have big front porches and I love sitting outside talking with neighbors, having friends visit. Outside of my block, I love the beer garden at Krick Wuder under the lights. And I can’t forget the Bridesburg Cougar fields, I’ve spent a lot of time there watching my kids play sports!
Hobbies…
I take Zumba class at the Rec, and try to get some reading in for me-time. But most of my free time is spent supporting and fundraising for neighborhood organizations – Post 821 Auxiliary, Stars and Stripes, Bars and Pipe, the Home and School Association. My major hobby is probably driving my kids to their hobbies football, softball, hockey, and baseball!
Favorite Bridesburg event/tradition?
Definitely the Memorial Day Parade – and the two weeks leading up with the 5K, Cow Chip Bingo, the actually parade. Community all comes together, everybody is out. I also love the tree lighting. friends come from outside the neighborhood just to see it.
Most looking forward to with the new park?
Once this is all completed, it’s going to be awesome to connect to other parts of the city. It will get more people active and outside exercising, biking…something we don’t see know. There are walkers, sure, but they’re only going around the block without many views. I’m really excited for the meadow portion of the park too. It will be extraordinary for deep thinking, just getting away into nature, go veg (I like the idea of that!) I like that there will be community things there. We don’t have that accessibility to open space in Bridesburg now. Sure there’s fields at the Rec fields are always occupied so you can’t easily use them. Neighbors have no idea how much open space is there and will be wowed by it!
What got you interested in this park work?
Yvonne updated us that it was happening! I said “You’re kidding me, they’re finally going to do something back there?” My family has lived in Bridesburg for a long time, and all the time I’ve been visiting the park site and Cokies site was a forbidden area. It was a place the kids went to go drink. Hearing the progress from Yvonne made me think it was something exciting, and I wanted to be a part, have my voice heard and do something to help.
What excites you most about the work you’re doing?
Bridesburg has always be solid neighborhood, but that has drifted a bit lately, I think. We’re set in our own ways, don’t want strangers coming in or change. After going to Akron, and meeting with the residents there, it changed for me. I saw how working together opens people’s minds to new opportunities. I see the new Riverfront Park doing that in Bridesburg. And because our voices are being included in the process, it can help us to embrace our differences and strengthen our sense of community. You’re showing us that we matter in this, our voices will be heard and it’s all really exciting.