Grant Helps Good Will Teach Kids Fire Prevention

Photo by Evan Brandt

From left, Rusty Layre, a career firefighter for Good Will Fire Company, Jaince K. Clare, an engineering specialist with FM Global insurance, and Kevin Yerger, chief of Good Will Fire Company, hold the recent fire prevention grant award.

Firefighters would rather prevent a fire than fight one.

Now, thanks to a check for $1,940 from FM Global insurance, members of the Good Will Fire Company can help teach young children how to prevent disaster.

Rusty Layre, a career firefighter with the company, applied the grant “after I heard about it from some other firefighters. We want little kids to know a fire is not something that just happens and they can learn how to prevent them.”

The money will pay for “fire prevent packets” for younger children, ages 3 to 7, said Good Will Chief Kevin Yerger. they include coloring books, crayons, book parks, all of which focus on different fire prevention and fire safety lessons, like conducting escape drills and not playing with matches, lighters or stoves.

“At FM Gobal, we strongly believe in the majority of property damage is preventable, not inevitable,” Michael Spaziani, assistant vice president of the company and manager of its fire prevention grant program, said in a press release.

“Far too often, inadequate budgets prevent those organizations working to prevent fire from being as proactive as they would like to be,” Spaziani said. “With additional financial support, grant recipients are actively helping to improve property risk in the communities they serve.”

Visit www.fmglobal.com/fireservice To learn more about FM Global’s Fire Prevention Grant Program, and other resources for the fire service.

Music and a Meal for $8? What Magic is This?

Photo by Evan Brandt

The sign...

Imagine this: It's a lovely spring evening and you want to take your significant other (or better yet, your whole family) out for a tasty dinner and perhaps some music.

Problem is, you've only got a few bucks in your pocket.

Maybe most of your entertainment budget went into your home's often-empty oil tank this year, or a malevolent pothole threw your alignment from here to the moon -- and back.

Quite the dilemma you face oh-seeker-of-mealtime-entertainment.

If only there was some place you could go, a place of "Good Will," where wholesome and delicately boiled carbohydrates, hand-rolled meatballs and the best jarred red sauce could be had for a song ... and with a song even....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The food...

Heed our words, oh seeker of music, mirth and meatballs, for your answer lies within reach.

It is none other than the return of that most marvelous and most melodious of meals; that mellifluous melange of melody and meal time, that provision of pasta perfection; that juggernaut of justifiably jammin' Jazz; that ....

... too much?

OK, sorry.

Ahem, let's start again.

The Pottstown Schools Music Association will present the second annual night of Jazz and Spaghetti on Saturday, March 29, at the Goodwill Fire Company, 714 East High St. in Pottstown.

Photo by Evan Brandt

The musicians....

Pottstown's high school, middle school and elementary school jazz bands will provide the music entertainment while the parents of the Pottstown Schools Music Association provide the pasta.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for children younger than 10 and children under 5 eat for free.

It starts at 4 p.m. and lasts through 7 p.m.

It will be three solid hours of auditory and culinary enjoyment; an one-a-year experience made possible by a small band of fearless volunteers and the equally fearless children of this community; children who have stepped forward, students who will to rise up, instruments in hand, straining mightily against the bonds of beat and baton which bind them to this earth; students who will issue musical notes which soar to the ceiling notes which.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The well-fed audience....

...what's that? Too much again?

Right.

So advanced tickets can be purchased.

You can get them by calling Debi Schiery at 610-505-3077. Or, you can buy them at the door.

So there is your choice, leave your loved ones at home, wallowing in spaghetti-less, Jazz-less misery, wondering if its even worth breathing in another day's air...

....OR.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The chefs....

You can fire up the family wagon (or the family bicycle as the case may be), heck, call up grandma and grandpa and crazy Uncle Fester, gather them all together and toddle on down to the Goodwill Fire Company, open up your wallet, enjoy some good food and some good music with your neighbors and help music education in Pottstown.

Just think what a big spender everyone will think you are.

Don't worry, we won't tell them what a bargain it really is....

And, if you still haven't figured out how much fun this is, below is a video I made of last year's event.

If this doesn't convince you to come, perhaps you should consider seeking professional help....