District Principal Goes Worldwide
Hurffville Elementary School Principal Jeff Pollock Gives Live Tour at Philadelphia’s Independence Park
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Jeff Pollock admitted to being nervous. The Hurffville Elementary School Principal had reason to be. On Monday, July 24, 2017, Pollock was the guinea pig guide for the Friends of Independence National Historical Park’s (FINHP) very first Facebook Live tour of the historical Philadelphia landmark.
“I just don’t want to get anything wrong,” said Pollock, a member of the non-profit FINHP and a volunteer tour guide for five years, on the morning of the tour. Later, he was more relaxed. “As soon as it started, I was good.”
Pollock could probably do the tour in his sleep. But knowing his efforts were being filmed and broadcasted live, worldwide, was enough to give him some butterflies. But he was happy he was the one given the job when the group announced the live broadcast.
“When they decided to do this, they came right up to me and said, ‘We know you’re going to be doing this for us,’” Pollock said of how he was selected. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ I was the first person who came to their mind. People say I have that energy. I guess that’s a good thing.”
Pollock has been visiting the park since he was 10 years old – “I would just go into the city and play in the park with a bunch of friends,” he said – but it wasn’t until he was at a Philly Pops concert a few years ago and saw a Friends of Independence Park brochure that he decided to take on a larger role.
Now, the veteran educator and Washington Township native does one or two evening tours per week from the middle of June through Labor Day. His tour includes an overview of the park, and the story of the impact it had on the country when Philadelphia served as United States’ capital from 1790-1800. He says he’s had tourists from all over the world and nearly every state in his groups, and that is what he enjoys the most.
“Meeting the different people from all over, that makes it special,” said Pollock, who has a minor in Early American History from Glassboro State College. “That and learning. I continue to learn more and more about the history of the park and Philadelphia. And I have a great love of history.”
In addition to the tours that Pollock does for the general public, he also takes on a special role in relation to the school district, serving as tour guide for each of Washington Township’s six elementary schools for their fifth-grade field trips to Philadelphia. He gives those tours to approximately 50 students twice per day over the course of six days throughout the spring.
- WTPS -