A (National) Night Out on the Town

Photos by Evan Brandt

Kelise Smith, 16, and Pottstown High School classmate Deandre Sanders, 16, visit with mascots-in-training Trojan Men Aaron Diamond and John Oister during National Night Out celebrations in the park at Washington and Chestnut streets in Pottstown.

There were fewer National Night Out celebrations in Pottstown than there have been in the past, but the two that were held Tuesday night enjoyed overflow attendance.

At Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ, right across the street from The Mercury and an awfully convenient place to get a hot dog, there were so many people out front they were running out of sidewalk.

Erika Hornburg-Cooper, Judy Memberg and
Christopher Willman at the Beech Street Factory display, which was
"creating quite a buzz," according to Hornburg-Cooper.

And at the park at Washington and Chestnut streets a few blocks away, the music blared and people spilled out into the closed section of North Washington Street where food and useful information were being offered in near equal measure.

I had two favorite quotes from the evening, which floated up above the laughter of the kids and the gentle
murmur of adults agreeing with each other.

The first one came from Judy Memberg, the tireless and (most important) effective head of Genesis Housing Corp.

She said, in an almost off-hand way, "“We can rebuild every house in a block, but if we don’t rebuild relationships among neighbors, than we haven’t revitalized the neighborhood.”

Having joined Erika Hornburg-Cooper at the display for the Beech Street Factory project -- which will also be the new home of Hornburg-Cooper's art center -- Memberg was observing that it will take more than physical improvements to spruce up a neighborhood.

Investment in human capital is just as important -- something National Night Out highlights.

Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas, right, visits with Gloria Dunn

My other favorite quote came from Mayor Sharon Thomas -- whose church, Victory Christian Life Center, was the other primary sponsor of the evening.

She said, again without a lot of forethought, “National Night Out is very important so neighbors get to know each other instead of just passing each other getting out of their cars.”

The mayor is right, and its sad that she's right, but we have to learn how to get better at being neighbors.

I will admit that there are plenty of people on my block whose names I should know, and I don't.

As the mayor intuited, we are literally nodding acquaintances when we head to our cars and scurry into our blissfully air-conditioned homes.

When kids threw a rock at our front door and broke the glass several years ago, it was the neighbor across the street -- long moved away -- who charged out of his house and chased them while I tried to keep the glass out of the house.

I never did learn his name.

Here are the Tweets and video links from last night's events.

A Great Night to be Out Covering National Night Out

There is always some nice sidewalk chalk work at the National Night Out event at Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ at King and North Charlotte streets.

Every year, it seems, the celebrations, participation and organization of National Night Out events in Pottstown gets better and better.

I had the opportunity to attend three events this year, but this year I changed the order.

Last year, when I arrived at the event at First Church of the Brethren in my neighborhood last, my Councilwoman Sheryl Miller made me feel guilty.

So this year, I was sure to arrive in plenty of time.

This year, I shot most of my video there as well:


As always, there was lots of music and food and play going on at the park at Washington and Chestnut streets.

And Fifth and York had the giant cow from Turkey Hill.

And at Trinity Reformed UCC Church across King Street from The Mercury, the newest of the celebrations continued to provide my favorite chalk work of the evening.

I had a grand old time, and a few too many hot dogs....

Here are the Tweets from the evening.

Teen Program offers Free Home Repair

Christian teenagers from local churches will be working in the Pottstown area the week of July 24 through July 27 to provide free home repairs for qualifying home owners.

This will be the 10th year the Pottstown Community Youth Mission Week is providing this service to the community.

The teens and their adult leaders will perform voluntary home repairs for residents who, because of income, age or disability, cannot do the work themselves.

Eligible repairs include:

• Interior or exterior painting 
• Weatherization
• Minor home repairs
• Yard work
• Clean-out of garage or basement

Both labor and materials will be free to qualifying households.

The work will be done by a teams of approximately five teenagers and two adult leaders, members of church youth groups from Pottstown-area churches.

To find out how your home might be included print out this blog post to get a copy of the form below, or click here for a clean form which you can print. 

Return the form to Youth Mission Week, c/o Kate Hoffman, Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ, 60 N. Hanover St., Pottstown, PA 19464.

Non-profit agencies may apply. Call 610-326-2243 with questions or to see if your agency qualifies..

Applications will be taken until the camp is full.