Planned Parenthood Honors Marvin and Terryl Marsh as Volunteers of the Year

Marvin and Terryl Marsh accept the
Volunteers of the Year Award.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Southeast Pennsylvania.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America honored the Rev. Dr. Marvin Marsh of Pottstown's First Baptist Church and his wife Terryl Marsh with the organization's nationwide Volunteers of the Year Award recently.

Dayle Steinberg, CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, introduced the couple to the audience at Planned Parenthood's National Conference in Washington, DC.

The two have donated over 2,600 hours of service to Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, which serves Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery and Delaware Counties.

Dayle Steinberg, CEO of Planned Parenthood
of Southeastern Pennsylvania

“What makes Rev Marsh and Terry Marsh so extraordinary and worthy of this national recognition is the vast array and sheer diversity of support they offer and the 100 percent effort they give to all they do,” said Steinberg.

Rev. Marsh has served on PPSP’s board of directors for the past seven years. 

In their time volunteering, the couple has raised the volume of the community’s progressive religious voices through involvement in advocacy initiatives, including grassroots activities, media outreach, and visits to elected officials. 

 Rev. Marsh hosted a workshop for clergy on reproductive loss, recruited new clergy supporters, and instituted the first clergy internship at PPSP. 

 Having Marvin and Terryl in the Surgical Center weekly greatly enhances the patient experience, and both patients and staff express immense gratitude to the two for their presence and sensitivity.

PPSP is grateful for the Marshes' ongoing contributions and celebrates Planned Parenthood's national recognition of their work.

Pottstown Schools Eye 0% Tax Hike ... Next Year

Blogger's Note: OK, so those of you who read these things and have grown used to me putting notes into the "Storify" of my posts to fill in the blanks between the Tweets, but that function was not working tonight.

Also, it wasn't my idea but the meeting resulted in the lead of this story, visible up there in the headline, being buried at the bottom. Rest assured, it will be right up on top when I write it up for the newspaper.

So a few notes:

• At one point I Tweeted that nine positions would be cut under the proposed school budget and at another that 11 would be cut. The right number is 11, nine classroom assistants, one secretary and one teacher.
• The African author to whom Franklin Principal Kevin Downes was referring is Wingari Maathai, who won a Nobel prize and fostered the "green belt" movement in Africa.
• I didn't mention him by name, but as many of you know, the chairman of the finance committee is Board Vice President Dennis Wausnock and he listened in from a hospital bed as he is pretty ill.
• So first of all, send him your best wishes, he has been a public servant for a very, very long time, and second of all, Twitter didn't give me room to put Wausnock's name in the Tweet. We're all pulling for you Dennis.
• And although I couldn't resist putting in that board member Andrew Keefer works for a foreclosure law firm, I had intended to flesh out his comments in the notes. What he also said was "PSERS, debt service and building roofs, that's what this comes down to. Those are the three reasons the budget is increasing this year. The district continues to get more blood out of a stone but we have no wiggle room."

That said, remember, to click the "Read More" blue story bar at the bottom for the juicy stuff, here is the Storify:

Officer of the Year, 150 Years of Weitzenkorn's, Downtown Redevelopment Proposal and More Borough Council Happenings

Out of Focus Photo by Evan Brandt

OK, so it's not the best photo, I'm not blind, but we wanted the handshake people. At left is Police Captain Bob Thomas, and then Police Chief Rick Drumheller congratulating Michael Breslin as Pottstown's Police Officer of the Year. Look for a full Mercury story on Breslin, most likely by police reporter Caroline Sweeney, in the coming days.

And now, on to the Storify. Remember to click the blue "Read Next Page" bar at the bottom to be sure you see every single spine-tingling Tweet!

Hill Hosts Open Track Night Friday

Blogger's Note: The following announcement was provided by The Hill School.

On Friday, May 9, beginning at 6 p.m., The Hill School will host the first-ever Pottstown Community Track and Field Night at the School’s William West Hauser ’81 Track. 

The event is free and open to all area youth ages 0-13. 

No pre-registration is necessary; all participants will be asked to register upon arrival, when they also will receive a free t-shirt.

Participants will be able to compete in races of various distances, as well as in the long jump and football throw. There will be an area on the track’s infield for younger contestants to do a shuttle-run race, while older participants will run on the track. 

Races will be run by age group. Additionally, complimentary refreshments will be available for

participants to enjoy, while Dallas Fries and Kona Ice will be on hand to provide concessions for families.

The Hill School’s Director of Athletics Seth Eilberg has seen other communities host similar meets and proposed the idea of The Hill hosting a community meet.

“We have seen other communities run similar events, and we thought that, with our new facility, we could run a Pottstown track night,” Eilberg said. 

“The Hill track and field program is thrilled to open our new track to the Pottstown and greater Montgomery County community. We hope that area youth who enjoy running will come out for a fun family night of competition and a celebration of the enthusiastic spirit of our proud community.”

Event parking will be available in the YMCA parking lot; at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, located on the corner of Jackson Street and Mintzer Street; and along Sheridan and Mintzer Streets. Hill School security will be on hand at the various parking areas to direct families to the track.

The Hill School would like to thank the following local businesses for sponsoring the event: City Entertainment, Cutillo’s Restaurant, Dallas Fries, Kelly’s Sports, Little Italy, and Weitzenkorns.

Spadt Leaves, Vlahos May Replace Him, Pottsgrove High School Project Approved, All In a Night's Work

Photo by Evan Brandt

Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners Chairman Bruce Foltz, right, reads from a plaque of appreciation outlining the 13 years of service by Commissioners Jonathan Spadt, whose resignation was unanimously accepted by the board Monday night.

The Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners accepted the resignation of Jonathan Spadt Monday night after 13 years of service, and hopes to replace him with James Vlahos, a former area Republican leader and former member of Pottstown Borough Council.

At the same meeting, the potential dispute over how much the township would charge the Pottsgrove School District in fees for its $28 million renovation and expansion of Pottsgrove High School appears to have been settled when the township offered to cut its fees in half to $220,000.

You can read about it all, and more, in this Storify of live Tweets from last night's meeting.

Hungry? Get Grumpy

Photos Courtesy of John Armato

Adriana Douglas and Briana Gribble look at the secret ingredients and get to work      

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

What do these food items have in common – goat cheese, Ruffles potato chips, pork chops, and cherry preserves?

They were the secret ingredients in the Pottstown High School Culinary Arts second annual Chopped contest sponsored by Grumpy’s Restaurant at 137 High St. in Pottstown. 

Get Chopped Winners Isaiah Robinson, Keelan Warren with
Superintendent Dr. Jeff Sparagana Gene Dugan ( Mr. Grumpy )
and High School Principal Dr. Jeffery Hartmann

Gene and Sheila Dugan, owners of Grumpy’s, challenged the culinary arts students to a real-life experience with the task of creating a menu dish to be served at the restaurant. 

Once the students received their secret ingredients, they are given 60 minutes to create, prepare, plate, and present their creation to a three person judging panel.

The winners of the event have their sandwich featured as a special menu item at Grumpy’s Restaurant. 

This year’s winners Keelan Warren and Isaiah Robinson also received a recipe book, a bag of culinary utensils, and a $50.00 cash award.

“We wanted to start this competition for the students to give them a way to take the skills they are learning in class and put to real-life application," Shelia Dugan said.

"Only two years old, this event creates a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm for everybody involved. Grumpy’s is proud to partner with the Pottstown School District in providing students quality, real-life educational opportunities," she said, adding, "as an added benefit to the Culinary Arts Department, Grumpy’s will donate $2 for the sale of each sandwich to the Culinary Arts Department.”

So many sandwiches, so little time....

Judging this year’s event were High School Principal Dr. Jeffrey Hartmann, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jeffrey Sparagana, and Gene Dugan – aka Mr. Grumpy.

“This is my first year experiencing this event and I can feel the excitement and enthusiasm that the students have for the challenge," said Culinary Arts teacher Jackie Mathias, Culinary. "This is a great real-life, learning experience and at the same time a fun and enjoyable way to learn the art and skills of food preparation.”

“Developing partnerships with our community members that lead to rewarding educational opportunities for our students is a focus of the Career and Technical Education Department,” said Director Danielle McCoy.

Later this year, the students will have a grand unveiling of their new creation at Grumpy’s Restaurant.

In addition to the winners, students participating in the event included: Ryan Krause, Adriana Douglas, Robbie McCoy, Derek Piechota, Jaime Caballero, Gary Beekley, Terri Chestnut, BriAnna Gribble, and Ronni Yerk.

Front row, from left: Chef Jackie Mathias, Briana Gribble, Ronni Yerk, Robert Leonard McCoy III, Derek Piechota, Ryan Krause. Back row, from left: Terri Chestnut, Isaiah Robinson, Keelan Warren, Adriana Douglas

Tis the Season for Spring Concerts

The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra during the Holiday concert, director Will Einhorn.

Like the flowers, the April showers and tree pollen, spring brings many things.

And one of the more enjoyable of them are school district spring concerts.

With a son in the band and jazz band at Pottstown High School, I attended the spring concert on Tuesday, April 29.

But before we get to videos from that performance, a note from Will Einhorn, director of the

The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra performed at the
Coventry Mall over the holidays.

orchestra at Pottsgrove Middle School:

I would like to cordially invite you to The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra's Spring Concert next Wednesday May 7th. 

This concert will be taking place at 7:30 p.m/ in the PGMS Auditorium.

Our concert will feature a wide variety of classical, show tunes, and pop music. 

Some of those selections include "Over the Rainbow" from Wizard of Oz, and "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. 

This year the orchestra is at 70 members which is the largest group we have had in many years and next year we are projecting 80-85 members. 

This is not possible without your continuous support of the music program. The students and I thank you for this and all that you do and would love to see you there if possible.

Indeed, the music program in the Pottsgrove School District is growing by leaps and bounds -- so much so that one of the major aspects of the $28 million high school renovation is to expand space for music programs.

And if you would like to hear how they sound, here is a video of their performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, presumably from the Holiday Concert in December.




As for Pottstown's concert, I was happy to be able to enjoy some of the Concert Choir and Show Choir performances, which I don't often get to see.

Here is a segment of the Concert Choir singing "Abraham, Martin and John."



And here is their final number, "Shenandoah," a personal favorite of mine.



In the intervening time, the Flute and Clarinet ensembles played, but without their beloved director, Nancy Mest, who broke her arm and is recovering from surgery, so I sent her a shout-out.:




The concert band played something unusual, a Native American-inspired piece named "Songs of Earth, Water, Fire and Sky," which featured Pottstown School Board member Ron Williams, who is part Apache, in Native American dress reading a creation myth narrative while the band played.

Here is how it began:



Then the Concert Band fulfilled a long-expressed wish of Public Relations Coordinator John Armato, by playing a medley of Blues Brothers tunes. (But John missed the performance. Lucky for him, it is one of the few performances I recorded in its entirety. You're welcome John.)




The Show Choir, which dances (who knew?), then did an old Jackson 5 number:




Which was followed by a surprise performance by James Rodgers, Nicholas Parsons, Randy Mercado and Dylan Mauger, the male members of the Show Choir, who sang "Just My Imagination."




Finally, my old favorite, the Pottstown Jazz Band took the spotlight and debuted a new song, "Zoot Suit Riot," which I have posted in full here, given that it is a new number.