Weber Dances Her Way to Girl Scouts Gold Award

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

Since the age of 3 Pottstown High School Senior Emily Weber has had a passion for the preforming arts. 

Emily Weber

Her passion, along with a warm caring heart, helped her earn the coveted Girl Scout Gold Award. 

The Gold Award is the highest honor in Girl Scouts. It is awarded to fewer than 6 percent of scouts annually. 

One of the requirements to earn this honor is to complete an 80-hour project where the scout demonstrates extraordinary leadership through a Take-Action project that has a sustainable impact in their communities. 

This project typically takes a scout one to two  years to complete. 

Weber created, organized and taught a six-week dance camp, named, Care to Dance? 

She partnered with Steel River Playhouse during the summer of 2018 to host the camp. 

She had over 45 students in grades 1 through 12 participate. 

Age group classes were held twice a week, teaching a difference dance style each week. 

At the end of the program each attendee received a participation patch that Emily personally designed. 

Her efforts also helped to support the Steel River Playhouse. 

Emily received great feedback from students and parents alike, along with Steel River Playhouse staff who noted her dedication and passion for wanting to share the joys and value of dance. 

Along with giving students an opportunity to try different styles of dance, the program introduced families to the many programs available at Steel River Playhouse

Bringing Barth the Good News

From left, Phillip Shiffler, Jaelyn Kennedy, Emily Weber and Jorge Mundo.  They are all Barth fourth graders who applied for and were chosen to serve for one month as Barth Network Newscasters.

Well, as we here at The Mercury endeavor every day to get a handle on the new "digital age" of news, it seems that the kids over at Pottstown's Barth Elementary School may be ahead of us already.

Thanks once again to the efforts of Pottstown's most relentless cheerleader, John Armato, FOB, (Friend of this Blog), we have yet another example of the kind of things going in Pottstown Schools which do not always rise to the top of the local media's priority list.

In this case, John tells us about fourth grade Barth students Jorge Mundo and Jaelyn Kennedy who, he writes, are well on their way to starting a career as television news anchors.   

The fourth graders, under the sponsorship of Carol Fazioli and Hayley Quigley, produce the Barth News Network daily television program which is broadcast to all Barth classrooms.  

The students are learning valuable public speaking skills as well as performing a school community service, he says. (And they may also be training as my replacement.)

John tells us that students must apply to become members of the news team.   

The news anchor position is one of many business oriented responsibilities that Barth students take on as part of the community and business model program which has been a foundation for Barth student activities.  

Students are "paid" with “Barth Bucks” which then can be redeemed at the student store for school supplies.  

But remember kids, the news never sleeps. Also remember, that you may get paid more in "Barth Bucks" than you ever would in real dollars if you decided to become a newspaper reporter...