Free Tickets to Sensory-Friendly Seussical Available

From left, show producer Bob Decker, Casey Fenoglio, Community Wellness Program Manager from the Pottstown Hospital, Aram Eker, Sherri Morret and foundation executive director Joe Rusiewicz. 

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Foundation for Pottstown Education.

The Foundation for Pottstown Education recently received funding which will provide free tickets for local students with special needs and their families to attend the first ever Sensory Friendly Performance of the Pottstown School District performance of Suessical the Musical.

The funding is being provided through the generosity of a Community Wellness Grant from the Pottstown Hospital Tower Health, the Pottstown chapter of AMBUCS and Mr. and Mrs. Aram Ecker.

On Thursday, March 5th the Pottstown School District will present a special showing of this year’s musical. This will be a "sensory-friendly" performance that is designed especially for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, sensory sensitivities, or other disabilities. Patrons will enjoy the show together with family and friends in a welcoming, inclusive, and relaxed space. The show will also have an interpreter for individuals with hearing impairments.

Environmental conditions will be modified by maintaining a low-level house lighting in case guests must get up and move around, by eliminating harsh changes in theatrical lighting, through the avoidance of large sound and visual effects, and by the replacement of the 22-piece orchestra with two keyboards. 

House rules will be relaxed so that audience members can freely respond to shows in their own way and without judgment. They will be welcome to move around, get up, sing, or dance.

Tickets may be obtained by contacting Foundation Executive Director Joe Rusiewicz jrusiewicz@pottstownk12.org or by contacting the district’s special education department at 610-970-6625. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Casey Fenoglio, community wellness program manager from the Pottstown Hospital Tower Health, stated that “funding this event aligns with the community’s need to improve the health of all of our community members. Partnering with the Foundation and the school district in making this musical accessible to students can help with social inclusion, stress reducing and creating a positive emotional experience.”

Aram Ecker, who is a member of the Pottstown AMBUCS stated that “they are proud to partner with the Foundation as it aligns with our organization’s mission of inspiring people to conquer challenges related to mobility and independence.” Ecker and his wife Donna are longtime supporters of the musical program in the Pottstown School District.

Rusiewicz indicated that when he first heard of this performance for the children of the district, he knew that the Foundation needed to support the program. “I think that this is such a great opportunity to include all of our local students. I applaud Bob Decker, Chris Sperat, the actors and stage crew for making this event happen.”

The district musical is being held on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.;  Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, March 7 at 2 p.m.

Tickets for these performances can be purchased on the Pottstown School District’s website.

About FPE: The Foundation for Pottstown Education’s (FPE) mission is to support, promote, sponsor and carry out educational, scientific or charitable activities and objectives within or related to the Pottstown School District. Visit www.foundationpottstowned.org for more information about the Foundation for Pottstown Education. You can also follow FPE on Facebook and Twitter.

Five Pottstown DECA Students Headed to Nationals

From left, Pottstown High School students Dylan Maximenko, David Hicks, Kishan Patel, CyeNyla Hall, Jayniana Williams the recent DECA state conference in Hershey.

David Hicks

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Five Pottstown High School students will be heading to the DECA Nationals in Nashville, Tenn. as a result of their recent performance in Hershey.

Twenty two members of the Pottstown High DECA Club, an association of marketing students under the direction of Co-Advisors Vickie McShea and Kevin Pascal, participated in the DECA State Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Senior David Hicks earned an opportunity to compete at the national event in Nashville Tennessee by placing first in the Entrepreneurship category.

Jayniana Williams

Joining him will be Junior Jayniana Willams, who placed third place in Hospitality and Tourism and Senior Angelica Calel for her Gold Award in the School-Based Enterprise category.

Seniors Alex Olvera and Emily Weber, who placed third in the Project Management Community Giving category, will also be going to nationals.

The Hershey competition involved students taking a 100-question content test and situational role-playing competitions.

Angelica Calel

Some students also participated by doing a written event which consisted of a 15-minute presentation during the conference and a 10-20 page research paper prior to the event on a specified topic.
The top four contestants in individual categories and teams in team events move on to the National competition held in Nashville, Tennessee.

During the test, the students have 60 minutes to complete a 100 question multiple-choice test.

Alex Olvera and Emily Weber 

After they complete their test they are given two role playtimes. The role play acts as an interview.

The student is given a hard copy scenario to prepare for the role-play during this time the students have 10 minutes, for individual events, and 20 minutes for a team event. Throughout the role-play, the judge asks the student a series of questions in relation to the role-play scenario.

At the state conference, Pottstown High School also received a gold level for the Plan of Action. The Plan of Action consists of a multitude of things, including raising a certain amount of money for the charity.

Pottstown Finalists Include:

Name	Place	Category
Angelica Calel	Gold Level	School-Based Enterprise
David Hicks	1st	Entrepreneurship
Jayniana Williams	3rd	Principles of Hospitality of Tourism
Alex Olvera and Emily Weber	3rd	Project Management Community Giving

Award Winners Include:

Name	Award	Category
Dylan Maximenko	High Role play B	Principles of Marketing
Kishian Patel	High Role play B	Entrepreneurship
CyeNyla Hall	High Role play A	Accounting
David Hicks	High Role play A and B	Entrepreneurship
Jayniana Williams	High Role play A and B	Principles of Hospitality and Tourism

Regional Planners Eye Intersection Improvements

Traffic and intersection improvements were the words of the night Wednesday as the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Commission reviewed two studies -- one in the works and one already complete -- on the subjects

Last January, the regional planners received a completed report from the multi-state Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) on the 18 worst intersections in the eight municipalities that comprise the local regional planning group.

Intersections in Pottstown in need of improvement.

John Cover, acting director of the Montgomery County Planning Commission, said "I don't want this study to sit on a shelf, I'd like to see a success story come out of it."

As a he result, he urged the planners to review the list and single out a few projects for which funding could be sought. Lower Pottsgrove representative Tom Troutman said he would like to see some intersections get better lighting.

He suggested two intersections on Bleim Road, one with New Hanover Square Road and the other with Pleasantview Road.

New Hanover Supervisor Kurt Zebrowski agree, and noted that the intersection of Route 73 and Middle Creek Road would be a good candidate for such treatment.

Pottstown Councilman Ryan Procsal suggested improvements to the intersection of East High Street and Armand Hammer Boulevard, a busy intersection in front of Armand Hammer Boulevard.

Price estimates for the project range from $20,000 to $300,000.

Ultimately, the planners agreed with Cover's suggestion that an expert from Montgomery County be invited to the next meeting to outline how Montco 2040 Implementation Grants county grants geared toward infrastructure can be best obtained, and which intersections stood the best chance of getting funding.

This map of peak traffic at intersections along High Street shows the highest volumes in the afternoon at Rupert Road, at far right, and Armand Hammer Boulevard, further left.

In the meantime , DVRPC has engaged in a more focused study -- of the High Street corridor from the Berks County line to the Limerick Township line.

An progress report offered up last night indicated that DVRPC has conducted counts of vehicles, heavy vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles; turning movements parking capacity and crosswalks. Crash diagrams and rates are still being developed. The first public meeting on the study will be scheduled in May.

In the meantime, the traffic count indicates that the busiest intersections are during the afternoon peak
rush hour are with Armand Hammer in Pottstown and Rupert Road in Lower Pottsgrove, both of which are likely connected to westbound Route 422 commuters returning home.

This map shows the highest volume of pedestrians crossing
High Street  occurs in the afternoon in downtown Pottstown.

The opposite is true of heavy track traffic, which peaks in the morning, with the heaviest flow again being at Armand Hammer Boulevard, followed by Berks Street and Quarry Road in West Pottsgrove.

Top bicycle traffic occurs during the afternoon peak and is centered around central Pottstown and the intersection of East High and North Hanover streets, and those streets immediately adjacent.

Not surprisingly, the same is true of pedestrian traffic, it peaks in the afternoon rush and is centered in the borough core.

A New Boat Ramp for Norco

The planners voted unanimously to endorse a letter recommending North Coventry's application for a $60,000 state grant to replace and improve the Schuylkill River bot ramp and dock in Riverside Park between the Quoit Club and Little League fields.

Perennially under repair, it was finally taken out of commission during a storm flood last year, said supervisor's Chairman Jim Marks.

He said the project was initially estimated to cost $30,000, but as the design progressed, and the need to make the facility handicapped accessible swelled the cost to $100,000.

The grant being sought from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by the regional recreation committee would cover $60,000 of that cost, with in-kind services and cash matches from the township, the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation and the Schuylkill Highlands Conservation Landscape Initiative.

New Medical Offices and New Emergency Services Building Being Considered in Douglass (Mont.)

Douglass Township Manager Pete Hiryak told the planners that the township has seen a presentation from developers who want to build a four-story medical complex at the intersection of Route 100 and Grosser Road.

No formal plans have been submitted, but it does comply with zoning, he said.

Further, Hiryak said the township supervisors are looking at plans to demolish the aging -- and leaking -- Gilbertsville firehouse on East Philadelphia Avenue and building a new emergency services center for police and fire on the site.

Township police are currently located in the municipal building a few blocks west. The site could even include housing for ambulance services as well, he said.

Initial price estimates came in at $4 million, but the price has been cut to $2.5 million, said Hiryak.

Road Projects Delayed in New Hanover

Township Supervisor Kurt Zebrowski informed the planners that PennDOT has delayed a project to replace the New Hanover Square Road bridge, originally set to be undertaken this year.

Instead, it has been pushed back to January of 2021. It is expected to take 12 to 14 months once it gets underway.

Also delayed are the improvements to the intersection of Route 73 and Route 663 (North Charlotte Street), including a new traffic signal.

Zebrowski said the delay for the project, which was scheduled to begin this spring, "will only be a couple of months. It will still get done this year."

Following in Upper Pottsgrove's Example?

Gregory Churach told the planners that twice each year, volunteers in Upper Pottsgrove undertake a roadside clean-up under the auspices of the Ocean Conservancy, which is trying to keep litter out of the ocean.

He said a student released in January estimates that Pennsylvania has 500 million pieces of trash along its roadways. "Thirty percent of that is cigarette butts and another 30 percent is plastic wrappers," Churach said.

He said the average Pennsylvania highway as 2,500 pieces of litter per mile, and the average local road has 1,600 pieces per mile.

He asked if other townships that are part of the regional planning group might be interested in undertaking similar clean-up efforts.

Information about how that could be done will be distributed among the group for discussion at the individual municipal level.

And with that, click here to read the Tweets from last night's meeting. 

Pottsgrove World Language Curriculum is Thriving

Photo by Evan Brandt

From left, Pottsgrove language teachers Lisa Merritt, Colleen Krum and Natacha Dubuisson with a display put together by their 7th grade World Language students about what they are learning in the exploratory class.

It's been a year since the Pottsgrove School Board decided to return the teaching of French to the school district.

Tuesday night, some of the district's language teachers offered a report on how things are going.

Seventh graders take a class split into trimesters, in which the students sample German, Spanish and French, said Spanish teacher Colleen Krum.

The students are learning how the three European languages are related to each other, and to English, and that is also helping to improve their vocabulary in all four languages, she said.

A student survey among the seventh graders revealed a desire for more languages -- and snacks.

Natacha Dubuisson, who teaches French, said her surveys showed that 80 percent of the seventh graders hope to continue with the language in high school. Further, she said 62 percent of her high school students have also indicated a desire to continue with the language.

High School Principal William Ziegler said the staff will know in just a few days whether that desire shows up in the class selection students there are now completing.

Like the seventh grade class, Dubuisson said her class teaches about cultures of French-speaking nations around the world.

Nevertheless, she said when she asked the students why they want to take French, "50 percent say it because they want to go to Paris," she said with a laugh.

And with that, click here to read the Tweets from last night's meeting.

Changing of the Guard on Tap in North Coventry

Photo by Evan Brandt

Matt Deichert, who will be the officer-in-charge when Chief Robert Schurr officially retires next month. He is standing here after being introduced to the audience at Monday night's township supervisors meeting.

The times they are a-changing in North Coventry Townshipp.

Two long-time employees are hanging up their hats.

Township Manager Kevin Hennessey and Police Chief Robert Schurr have both submitted their retirement papers.

During Monday night's supervisors meeting, chairman Jim Marks said the supervisors have narrowed the number of applicants for Hennessey's job to four.

All four candidates will be interviewed by the supervisors on Friday, March 6.

As for the new chief, that decision has not yet been made, said Marks. In the meantime, officer Matt Deichert will be the department's officer-in-charge, with an eye toward making him the chief, Marks said.

With Deichert's promotion creating a vacancy, the supervisors agreed to promote part-time officer Stephanie Vitali to full-time, and to seek a part-time officer to fill her position in the shift.

In other police business, the supervisors voted to approve a settlement with officer Jesse Smith, currently a part-time officer, who previously worked as the township's canine officer.

Smith filed a labor complaint saying he was due overtime wages for time spent caring for the canine. Hennessey said previous practice had been to provide a vehicle and pay gas for the canine officer, but Smith's complaint was based on recently decided labor law.

Hennessey said even if Smith had only been granted a dollar, legal fees could have surpassed $50,000. Instead, the township agreed to pay $10,000 in Smith's legal fees, $7,500 in back pay and $7,500 in damages.

The supervisors also agreed to award a 1 percent merit pay increase to 13 non-uniform employees, including Hennessey, above and beyond the 2 percent pay raise provided in the new year.

Thirteen was also the number of people who stood up and urged the supervisors to adopt a resolution provided by Fair Districts PA volunteer Patricia Rooney.

The resolution calls for the creation of a citizens panel to draw the legislative districts after this year's Census is complete. The districts drawn up by the legislature after the previous Census, widely recognized across the nation as being among the most gerrymandered, were ultimately thrown out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which re-drew the districts for the most recent election.

But those districts will expire after the new Census and those in the audience worried that the legislators would once again draw districts using partisan voter data.

The supervisors thanked those who spoke, but took no action.

And with that, click here to read the Tweets from last night's supervisors meeting.

History Professor Offers More Nuanced Insights Into Black History During Lecture at Pottsgrove Manor

Photos by Evan Brandt

West Chester University history professor Tony Thames Taylor shows how images of African Americans during the time of abolition shaped the debate and affected thinking about the issue.

It's not unusual during Black History Month to hear the names of icons like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass invoked with justifiable reverence.

They were, without a doubt, great Americans.

But Tonya Thames Taylor would have you know that black American history, all American history in fact, is more than a few names on a plaque or in a glossy-covered biography.

It is also all of the other unnamed people -- nearly all of them in the case of African-American history -- that make up equally important parts of the American story and are, all too often, left out of our history books.

From 1619, when the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia, to 1836 when fully half the American economy depended on the unpaid labor of enslaved people in the cotton fields, African-Americans "despite being a small percentage of the population, had a huge impact on the building of America," she said during a talk Saturday at Pottsgrove Manor.

"Cotton? We built that. Railroads? We built that. The White House, the Capitol building? We built that," Thames Taylor said.

Thames Taylor, founding director of the West Chester's African American Studies program and member of the executive committee of the Frederick Douglass Institute there, said one of the traps of the study of American history is to focus on the famous names, like Douglass and Tubman.

"We look at the big names when we teach history, and it is used to objectify the narrative of African-American history, to say that they stand out as the exception, and not the rule," Thames Taylor said.

She even noted that although Frederick Douglass is "the most photographed man in American in the 19th century," and photos of Harriet Tubman abound, in both cases, "nearly all of them are of them being older. When someone is viewed as older, they are seen as less of a threat. Harriet Tubman ran away when she was 30 years old and died in 1913. There is a much longer narrative there."

"We have to take notice of the language that we use, and even the iconography," Thames Taylor said.

She provided examples of that iconography in the form of abolition literature, nearly all of which showed enslaved peoples as nearly naked, on their knees, begging for "a savior" to free them.

"It provides a narrative that enslaved peoples had no agency in their freedom. That they were the recipients of benevolence, and that freedom was bestowed upon them," she said.

It paints a picture of a people who were "beneficiaries instead of architects. It tells a story of people who were given their freedom. They did not earn it."

"We don't know the names of the first enslaved people who sought their freedom, of the first African-American abolitionists, but they were there," she said.

A poster brought by Thames Taylor shows an

advertisement for the sale of human beings.

There are uncounted thousands of African-Americans  who took charge of their destiny and escaped slavery on their own, as well as those who stayed and, at great danger to themselves, helped those who chose to leave, she said.

"Did you know that 85 percent of those who could serve in the Union army did so? That does not sound passive to me," Thames Taylor said.

The language used in history is equally important.

One example is the word "slave" itself. When someone is identified as a "slave" (or "an illegal" for that matter) "it objectifies them. Calling them 'enslaved peoples' humanizes them," she explained.

The fact that the names of most enslaved peoples are not recorded, except on balance sheets, made it easy to erase them from the written history of this country.

One such balance sheet was recorded on June 20, 1768 at Pottsgrove Manor. On that date, said historic site director Neil Hobbins, the names of 13 enslaved men and women were recorded on an inventory of property.

"The individual lives of Margaret, Nancy, Flora, Andrew, Arch, Guinea, Cesar, Ishmael, Mulatto Peter, Cato, Cudgo, Black Peter and Adam were never recorded, but the exploited work these men and woman performed has transcended through time to shape the narrative that is being told here at Pottsgrove manor," Hobbins said.

In fact it is the inclusion of servants quarters at Pottsgrove Manor that captured Thames Taylor's imagination two years ago when she visited the site for a "Twelfth Night" celebration.

"I'm from Mississippi. We don't do Twelfth Night. But when I went up to the third floor and saw the recreation of the servants quarters, where the enslaved people lived, I was fascinated. We shut the place down that night," she said with a laugh.

"So when they called as asked me if I wanted to come and give a talk I was like 'oh yes,'" she said.

That's because she wanted to talk about how "American history has been packaged. Things like how George Washington never told a lie," she said.

Tonya Thames Taylor with photos she took of her first visit

to Pottsgrove Manor during a Twelfth Night Celebration.

Highlighting achievements of people like Douglass and Tubman, while worthwhile, doesn't tell the
whole story, Thames Taylor aid.

"When you highlight them as the exception. It makes them seem not real. It takes away intelligence and agency from the larger group," she explained.

It's important to remember that among that larger group, whether it was the Underground Railroad or the Great Migration north, the story most often told is of those who left. Equally important are those who stayed, she said.

They built their own churches, housed, clothed and fed those escaping slavery and, later, those who came south to help with Reconstruction, to fight Jim Crow and to take a stand in the Civil Rights Movement.

"They had networks, they built communities, they had skills," she said. It's important to also remember that studying history creates the illusion of forward motion.

"My cousin said the other day, talking about our grandmother, how she is glad she didn't have to live in her time. And I said 'do you know how to grow your own food?' We talk about 'food deserts' in urban areas and we should remember that the people who came north had skills, knew how to survive and live off the land and in just two generations, we've lost that ability. We have to be careful about how we define progress," Thames Taylor said.

Some of those who came to the greater Pottstown area, against their will or by choice, built lives for themselves against incredible odds.

Thames Taylor  encouraged the study of local history, because the study of individuals in your own backyard can allow us to break through the stereo-types that the national narrative can often create.

"As Michelle Obama once said: 'it's hard to hate up close.' People may have objectified 'slaves,' but they often had warm feelings for people who lived in their household and they saw every day," she said.

In fact, she cited a couple highlighted last year in The Mercury, as part of a feature on the Flickinger family, which is maintaining and improving a forgotten African-American cemetery in South Coventry.

Here is an excerpt from that article:

It begins with an American ship's capture of three French slave ships in the waters off Cuba in 1800, a time that the U.S. was teetering on the brink of war with France.

In command of the American ship, the Ganges, was a man named John Mullowney, an

Joseph Smith's indenture papers.

abolitionist who brought the ships -- the Prudent, the Dispatch and the Phebe, and the more than 100 captured Africans -- back to a prize court in Philadelphia where he hoped a similarly abolitionist-minded federal judge would set the captives free.

They were set free but as Africans with no possessions, money or knowledge of the culture, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, to which they had been released, indentured them for a period of several years to people who would teach them a trade and help them adjust to life in America.

Among those so indentured were Joseph and Faltimir Ganges, so named by the court after the ship that had rescued them.

The pair were taken in by Francis Nichols, an Irish immigrant and Revolutionary War hero who served with George Washington during the siege of Boston; spent a famous winter at Valley Forge; survived Benedict Arnold's failed attack on Quebec — where he was captured and nearly died of illness — and scouted the British position prior to the Battle of Monmouth.

Nichols came to Pottstown from Philadelphia in 1783, on the same day the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending war with England.

"Nichols bought the home of John Potts Sr. — known today as Pottsgrove Manor — and 200 acres of the estate that included orchards and fields, farm buildings, a grist mill and a saw mill," according to a 2014 Mercury article about his life.

Nichols was 67 when he took in Joseph and Faltimir, who took the name of Smith after completing their term of service, most likely in a house at the Southwest corner of High and Hanover Streets where the former Security Trust Bank building now stands.

The African Union Church burial ground

off Coventryville Road.

Ironically, in 1819 Mullowney, the captain of the Ganges which rescued John and Faltimir from slavery in Cuba, later moved into that same house that Nichols had owned and in which Joseph and Faltimir Smith had lived.

After they completed their apprenticeship, Joseph and Faltimir married. They were eventually able to buy land in Douglass (Berks) Township, west of Pottstown, and turn it into a prosperous farm.

According to an 1880 remembrance in The Pottstown Ledger uncovered by Daniel Flickinger, Joseph Smith "drove team for Joseph Potts and his sons, the proprietors of Glasgow Forge."

After the trees on Poole Hill above Pine Forge were cut to make charcoal for the forge, Smith purchased between 16 and 18 acres and founded a farm known for the sweetness of the fruit grown there, according to the Ledger article.

Joe and "Faltie," as she was called, raised three sons and a daughter there.

The couple and their family were among those "members of the congregation who walked to the church from Pottstown every Sunday," said Bruce Flickinger.

"They chose their own name. Can you imagine the conversations they had, the agency required to chose your own name rather than keep one given to you by strangers?" Thames Taylor said. "They had a successful farm, they helped built a church. These people had networks, they built their own communities out of nothing."

But despite these efforts and these successes, African-Americans, the descendants of those enslaved people, still struggle to achieve the American dream, largely because of the way things are stacked against them, said Thames Taylor.

For example, although African-Americans make up just 12 to 15 percent of the population of Alabama, they comprise fully 96 percent of its prison population, Thames Taylor said.

She pointed to the debate about Civil War statues as another example. Those statues were put up decades after the war, when lynchings and Jim Crow laws and segregation were the reality of the day, most often by the Daughters of the Confederacy, a group of people intent on preserving the legacy of the antebellum south, and the memory of the slavery that made it possible.

"Up here, you guys call them 'monuments' and to me, that's like a mountain. Something that's there. But down south, they are called 'memorials' and a memorial is something you remember, something you honor," Thames Taylor said.

"I often say the south lost the war militarily, but they won it socially," she said.

African-Americans have had to continue that fight for equality of opportunity socially, through Jim Crow, segregation, the civil rights era right up to today.

I'll end with how Thames Taylor began, with video of her leading the audience in a verse of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which became popular during the Civil Rights Movement and which she called "the black national anthem."

For John Armato, Who Was Recognized for 50 Years as a PHS Wrestling Coach, 'Every Second Counts'

Photo by Emily Overdorf

John Armato, at center, was recognized Saturday for 50 years of coaching Pottstown High School's Trojan wrestling team. The crowd above swarmed onto the wrestling mat after Principal Danielle McCoy asked anyone whose life he had touched over those 50 years to come forward.

Photo by Austin Hertzog

The Pottstown High School wrestling room
will be dedicated in John Armato's honor.

Anyone who has ever had John Armato as a wrestling coach over the last 50 years knows his favorite saying: "Every second counts."

"It means never giving up, whether its on the wrestling mat, or at work. It means make the most of the time you have," he explained to this non-wrestler.

It would be hard to find anyone who has made better use of his seconds.

Since 1969, Armato has been guiding Trojan wrestlers both to victory and teaching them how to hold their heads up high even in defeat, knowing they have tried their best and never backed down from a challenge.

Photo by Emily Overdorf

Julianna Figueroa, Pottstown High School's first female
wrestler to earn a medal in a boys wrestling tournament,
gives her coach a hug.

Armato's service to this district, where he was hired almost right out of college, has been
extraordinary.

In addition to his coaching, he has been a public speaking teacher, a teachers union leader, an athletic director, a director of co-curricular activities, a director of community relations (a post he currently holds despite not being paid) and, most recently, as a school board member.

His presence is ubiquitous.

Rare is the community event in Pottstown that does not include a visit from Armato, who feels strongly that the school district should be represented in all aspects of life in Pottstown. And when he cannot be there, his absence is noticed.

Photo by Emily Overdorf

Former Pottstown High School wrestling coaches present 

John Armato with the new sign, built by the high school's engineering
and automotive students, dedicating the wrestling room to him.

So when he reached the 50-year milestone, Pottstown noticed and few were absent.

Eight of Pottstown's nine head wrestling coaches showed up to recognize Armato's decades of service as assistant coach.

There was even an appearance, via video, by legendary wrestler Dan Gable.

As Armato will eagerly tell you (and Wikipedia confirmed), Gable's college career record was 117-1, with his only loss being in the final match of his final season.

Photo by Evan Brandt

John Armato and Danielle McCoy watch a video message
wrestling legend Dan Gable, made just for Armato.

And at the 1972 Olympic Games Gable won all six of his matches without giving up a point.

There was Gable, on the wall of the Earl Strom Gymnasium, which is named after 1945 Pottstown High School alum Earl "Yogi" Strom, who went on to be known as one of the greatest referees in the history of the NBA (again, thanks Wikipedia), thanking Armato for his years of coaching.

"I've read his stuff and admired him for years. I say his name of think about him just about every day. For Dan Gable to know my name ... wow, that's really something," Armato said later.

Which is not to say that Armato has not had some success himself as a coach.

One of the many, many, many former wrestlers to return for the festivities was Paul Green.

Photo by Emily Overdorf

John Armato with Paul Green,
who was PIAA State Champion in 1984.

Green is the 1984 PIAA Wrestling State Champion.

Other former wrestlers formed a parade of well-wishers both during and after the ceremony.

I overheard one tell Armato "Congratulations coach. You deserve it. You made my life."

That says as much about the kind of mentor Armato has been over the years to so many people, as it does about his coaching ability.

That was a point made evident by Pottstown High School Principal Danielle McCoy, an alum of the school and it's first female principal.

Photo by Austin Hertzog

Pottstown High School Principal Danielle McCoy, giving
John Armato a taste "of what he hates -- attention."

But she didn't start out wanting to be an educator, that came later, thanks in part, to Armato.

"John Armato was my teacher. He was also the person who paved the way for me to become a substitute teacher, which set me on the path not just for my career, for my calling," McCoy told the crowd.

"He didn't do this when I was in high school. He did it when I was 35 years old. You see, that's what makes him so special. Once you're his student, you're always his student. He is always there for you, and I am not the only person in the room for whom this is true," she said.

But don't take my word for it, listen for yourself:

Photo by Emily Overdorf

Former student and current Alvernia wrestling coach Seth Ecker 

congratulates John Armato on 50 years as a wrestling coach.

McCoy knows what Armato does for his students from personal experience, and not just her own. Armato he also coached her sons.

One of  those sons, Seth Ecker, went on to become a wrestling coach himself, first at his alma mater, Ithaca College, and then a little closer to home, when he became Alvernia College's first-ever wrestling coach, building a program there from the ground up.

Ecker was on hand Saturday to say thank and congratulations.

He was one of a very large crowd.

"For a few minutes tonight, we're going to give John exactly what he hates -- attention," McCoy joked to that crowd.

And when McCoy asked anyone whose life Armato had touched over the last 50 years to come forward for a photo, it was like a stampede.

That was more than attention. It was love.

Photo by Austin Hertzog

John Armato lets his emotions leak out.

It was hard not to get choked up, seeing generations of an entire community express their appreciation, their admiration and their thanks for years of unwavering dedication.

And neither John, nor I, quite managed it.

I doubt we were the only ones.

And while he may not love being put in the spotlight, I suspect when John got back home Saturday night, "curled up on the floor" of his den after, snacking on some chocolate-covered raisins, he may have reflected on these being some of his favorite seconds out of those 50 years.

He might even say to himself: "not bad for the little Sicilian kid from Brooklyn."

Photo by Emily Overdorf

When a whole crowd of people whose lives you've touched come out to say 'thank you.' It looks like this.