12th Annual Pottstown Celebrates Young Children and YMCA Healthy Kids Day Set for This Saturday

There is lots of dancing at the annual Pottstown Celebrates Young Children and Health Kids Day.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness.

Spring has arrived and so has the time for the 12th Annual Pottstown Celebrates Young Children and Pottstown YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day which will be held on Saturday, April 21, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Pottstown High School, 750 N. Washington St.

The FREE community event is designed for families with young children. Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness or PEAK, Pottstown School District’s school readiness initiative, is partnering once again with Pottstown YMCA and the Pottstown Parks and Recreation Department to offer fun, family-friendly activities and resources from more than 85 community organizations.

There will be a petting zoo again this year.

Family entertainment will include a Quiver Farm petting zoo, bounce houses, Wacky Patti creating balloon art, Pure Fun Entertainment providing great music, face paintings from Health Partners Plans, mascots including Trojan Man, Red Cloud Kung Fu demonstrations, soccer, emergency vehicles including the medevac helicopter, and so much more. 

The YMCA will be providing an obstacle course and other fun fitness activities.

This year, PEAK is partnering with the Pottstown 7-Eleven as the main sponsor for the April 21 children’s celebration.

Valerie Jackson, the PEAK Coordinator said, “the generous donations such as those of 7-Eleven and our other sponsors make this day a success.” 

The YMCA will provide an obstacle course.

Other sponsors for this event include Pottstown Hospital Tower Health, Wawa store No. 8040, Costco, Giant and Wegmans of Collegeville. Jackson stated, “PEAK is about partnerships and this event is truly a partnership venture to bring the community together for the benefit of our families and children”

The Week of April 16 through April 20, 2018 is the Week of the Young Child, a children’s celebration organized by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The national event focuses on young children and their families by informing the public about early childhood programs and services.

Last year’s event drew thousands of individuals and organizers are hoping for an even larger crowd this year. FREE food and beverages will be available to keep families cool as they visit the various tables of organizations that connect families to resources. 

In addition to providing information about their organization, the tables will be filled with fun

Pottstown FARM will be among the many organizations
participating on Saturday.

activities and giveaways for both children and families to enjoy. Organizations in attendance will include Coventry Mall, Olivet Boys and Girls Club, ACLAMO, Pottstown Family Center, Pottstown FARM, Pottstown Police Athletic League (PAL), 422 SportsPlex, Health Partners Plans, Steel River Playhouse, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and many more.

FREE gift bags filled with school readiness information and activity sets will be provided by Uniting Communities for Kids, a joint school transitions venture between West Pottsgrove Elementary School and PEAK.

For more information, contact Miica Patterson at mpatterson@pottstownk12.org or call 484-987-5553.

For more information about PEAK, visit the website at PottstownPEAK.org or contact Valerie Jackson, PEAK Coordinator, at vjackson@pottstownk12.org or 610-970-6655.

PEAK (Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness) is a collaboration of Pottstown School District and community organizations that are working together to design and implement strategies that enable children to enter kindergarten ready to learn, and to engage Pottstown’s families. 

PEAK focuses its work in five interrelated areas: community outreach, family engagement, quality improvement, kindergarten transition, and health/wellness. PEAK’s overarching goal is to build an infrastructure that ensures all children in Pottstown enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Support Sought for Free Full-Day Summer Camp

Blogger's Note: The following information is provided by Kerriann Herdelin, Executive Director, Greater Pottstown Tennis & Learning

In years past, Pottstown School District has received large grants to run full day summer enrichment camps for six weeks for students who qualified.

Unfortunately, the School District does not have the resources this year to fund a full day program and will have to cut back to a morning only program this summer.

Nine community organizations have collaborated to continue to run a successful enrichment camp for the afternoon portion.

We have constructed a schedule that students will rotate daily to have access to each organizations offering, allowing the students to have various healthy experiences. Our camp will offer guest speakers, such as: Police Officers, Firefighters, Doctors, etc...

These community organizations below find it extremely important to keep the Pottstown students engaged in healthy activities throughout the summer and hopefully learn valuable lessons.

We hoping for local business sponsors to help with this important camp.

We have posted all this information on Greater Pottstown Tennis & Learning's Facebook page.

These are the organizations that are collaborating:

Pottstown School District
Pottstown YMCA
Community Health & Dental
TriCounty Community Network
YWCA Tri-County Area
Pottstown Regional Public Library
ArtFusion
Steel River Playhouse
Greater Pottstown Tennis & Learning

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Senior Center on the Move -- Twice

Volunteers from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Maugers Mille Road, gathered by Eagle Scout Brian J. Frampton, recently helped trim brush and clean-up the grounds around the future home of the Pottstown Area Senior Center on Moser Road. 

The Pottstown Area Senior Center will be on the move next month, but it won’t be the last time.

Fundraising and development plans for the center’s new building — the former Pottstown Health Club  at 288 Moser Road — have taken longer than expected and the center’s lease at the YWCA on North Adams Street expired in August, said Executive Director Brad Fuller.

As a result, the center will have to move to an interim location while the work on the Moser Road property gets underway.

Pictured in front of the new building last November are the capital 

campaign committee, from left, center director Brad Fuller, 

Hanna Hartman, Lillie Foster, Heather Chandler, Mary Highland 

and Ronald Barrett. (The Mercury/Kevin Hoffman)

Happily, that location is extremely well-suited to the center’s needs, said Fuller. It is the Berean Bible Church,  2675 E. High Street in Lower Pottsgrove.

Fuller said when he realized the center would not be able to move into the new facility before over-staying their welcome at the YMCA, “I went to the (Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities) and asked for their help. We have some very specific needs. It had to be handicapped accessible, be on a bus route, have off-street parking, that kind of thing and a number of churches offered to host us,” Fuller said.

In the end, it turned out that Berean Bible Church “had everything we needed,” Fuller said. “It has a health department-certified kitchen, a separate entrance, it’s all on one floor and it has a big gymnasium.”

Cleaning up around the future home of the 

Pottstown Area Senior Center was 

an Eagle Scout project for Brian J. 

Frampton, pictured here with 

the center’s executive director, Brad Fuller.

Seniors may get most of their programming at the church for as long as a year, Fuller said.

Although it took 10 months to get borough approvals for the renovations, Fuller said he is pleased to be expecting a temporary occupancy permit that will allow the center’s furniture and the administrative offices to be moved into the Moser Road property while the construction and renovation commences.

However, in a kind of “chicken-or-the-egg” conundrum, the center is also waiting on financing, financing which is going slowly because so far, the center’s capital campaign has raised only $425,000 of the $1.2 million needed.

That fundraising has been slow, Fuller believes, in part because people do not see progress with the building, something it will be difficult to do without the financing.

As the time to complete the project stretches out, Fuller noted that the irony is the actual construction work can be done in eight to 14 weeks.

Nevertheless, Fuller said he, the staff and many of the center’s members are happy to have such an appropriate facility at Berean Bible Church available for them to use during the transition.
“It really is a very impressive facility,” he said.

Berean Bible Church in Lower Pottsgrove

The move to that impressive facility begins next month.

Although the center’s programs and activities will be moving to the church starting Dec. 2; there will be no activities there on Dec. 11; Dec. 16 through Dec. 20 as well as Dec. 24 and Dec. 25.
The senior center offices in the YMCA will be open from Dec. through Dec. 13. After which, according to the plan, those offices will be moved to the Moser Road building on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20.

“The facility will allow us to do everything we currently offer, except for swimming, shuffleboard, (poker and BINGO),” Fuller wrote in an announcement to the members. The new temporary location also has air hockey, billiards, foosball and, “eventually, pickle ball.”

Those seniors who take TransNet to the center can still take it to Berean Bible Church and Fuller said “we are trying to arrange for a PART bus stop to be installed in a location close to the church.

 

Pottstown Heroism Recognized

Three complete strangers who came to aid of another complete stranger being attacked by dogs along Wilson Street in March were honored Tuesday night for their heroism.

It was just after 4 p.m. on March 15 when Kaitlyn Fadely of Royersford was visiting her boyfriend in the 600 block of Wilson Street and was "viciously attacked by three large dogs" inside the home.

She ran outside where Sarah Pecharo of Schwenksville was driving by and pulled over and distracted the dogs, whereupon they came after her.

Kurt Buchler of Foxtail Drive in North Coventry was at the YMCA on North Adams Street when he heard the commotion and ran over to help.

Buchler then tried to distract the dogs and ran a short distance to direct their attention to him and away from Pecharo.

He was successful, but they caught up to him and began to attack him.

That's when Franklin Street resident Nicole Jordan saw what was happening and drover her car toward the dogs, honking her horn, and scaring them off.

"Sarah, Nicole and Kurt came to the aid of a complete stranger, while risking their own lives" said Mayor Bonnie Heath, in reading the civilian Service Award commendations bestowed on all three. "Their actions are  both heroic and courageous."

As Heath read a description of the attack, Fadely, who was also present with them during the presentation, became visibly upset at the memory and was comforted by Pottstown Police Segeant Brian Rathgeb.

The three dogs have since been euthanized.

Child Care for College Students Helps the Whole Family

Blogger's Note: The following is brought to you thanks to Alana Mauger, Communications Director at Montgomery County Community College.

Montgomery County Community College’s West Campus in Pottstown recently partnered with the Freedom Valley YMCA at Pottstown and the YWCA-Tri-County Area in Pottstown to provide convenient and affordable child care for students currently enrolled at the College.

“Access to affordable and quality child care near West Campus helps provide our students who are parents with the tools they need to enroll and successfully accomplish their higher-education goals. They then become role models for their children,” said Dr. Steady Moono, Vice President of West Campus. “This service enables the College to have a positive multi-generational impact on many families in the local community.”

Both the YMCA and YWCA are located within three miles of the West Campus. Each facility will provide child care for the College’s students based upon its own program guidelines.

The YMCA, 724 N. Adams Street, Pottstown, will provide a Child Watch program for children of current Montgomery County Community College students from Monday throughFriday, between 8 a.m.-noon and from 5-8 p.m. while they are attending classes at the College or at the YMCA.

MCCC students must register at the YMCA as program members and present their College identification cards and class schedules. Students will be required to purchase punch cards that can be used for two-hour intervals, up to four hours total. Punch cards cost $35 for 15 two-hour visits, $50 for 20 two-hour visits and $75 for 30 two-hour visits.

The YWCA, 315 King Street, Pottstown, will provide child care for children ages 3 months to 5 years, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. for students currently enrolled at the College.

Students will be required to register at the YWCA and must present their College identification cards and class schedules. The fees are $50 for two half days per week; $65 for three half days per week; $80 for two full days per week; and $100 for three full days per week. The YWCA is a state-licensed child care center.

For more information, contact Lynn Seponski of the Freedom Valley YMCA of Pottstown at 610-323-7300, ext. 13, or lsponski@fvymca.org or Renee Spaide, Child Care Director of the YWCA Tri-County Area at 610-323-1888, ext. 204, or rspaide@ywcatricountyarea.org.

Learning About the Real Work World

From left, Eileen Dautrich, executive director of the TriCounty Chamber of Commerce with Rose Nodolski, Steve Batten of The Mercury with Zachary Haines and Main Street Manager Sheila Dugan with DaVenia McKim.

Blogger's Note: Our thanks to the tireless John Armato for this very interesting submission.

The Pottstown School District Community Partnership Worksite Program enables high school students to gain real life job experience as part of their school day program. Local businesses provide students the opportunity to develop the skills and employable characteristics by providing internships and shadowing experiences.

The program, which is run by teachers Kevin Pascal and Toni Rapp recently held an appreciation luncheon which was catered by the Pottstown High School Culinary Arts students. Local businesses and their representatives were guests of their student interns and included:

• Jen Smith representing Boscov’s Department Store, who helped teach Dave Emery, Stephanie Heimbach, and Donald Barthel.
• Bob Vitabile representing Redner’s Market, who helped teach Sarah Wilkerson, Michael Brant, Grant Sherman.
• Joan Daly representing Freedom Valley YMCA, who helped teach Marcus Benjamin.
• Executive Director Eileen Dautrich representing Tri County Chamber of Commerce, who helped teach Rose Nodolski. 
• Steve Batten representing The Mercury who helped teach Zachery Haines. Main Street
• Manager Sheila Dugan representing Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority, who helped teach DaVenia McKim.

Other business partners that were unable to attend included: Schuylkill Valley Sporting Goods, Liberty Thrift Shop, and Styles to Suit Salon.

During the luncheon, Rapp’s remarks addressed the business partners, “I cannot begin to tell you the invaluable service you are providing in allowing our students this work experience. You and the Pottstown School District are partners in providing our youth with the skills necessary to become valuable employee members of our community. It’s a cycle worth repeating. Students who live here will probably work here, and contribute to the economic growth of our community. We may not necessarily be able to control what goes on at the state, national, or international level but we can contribute and control what happens in our community. I would like to thank each of you for ‘you’ believing in Pottstown and believing in the vision we’re trying to create for our students.”

Pascal borrowed from the Bill Gates philosophy, “Bill Gates has said on many occasions that the high schools of today are obsolete. Training the workforce of tomorrow with the schools of today is like trying to teach students about computers on 50 year-old mainframes.”

Pascal reminded students and businesses alike, “one of the best tools for the times is the cooperative education experiences that our students have been fortunate to receive with our local businesses. Anything can happen in theory but reality takes experience. This is what the cooperative intern experience is all about.”

He reminded the students, “As global competition intensifies, the need of American businesses for even more qualified and skilled employees will also increase. Every day you should be asking yourself, ‘What are you doing to set yourself apart from the competition?’ With students competing in the global marketplace one must consistently increase their skills and marketability in order to compete in society.”

Danielle McCoy, Director of the Pottstown School District Career and Technical Education Department, expressed her pride in the students, staff, and business partners. “It is through community partnerships such as the one we have developed with our worksite program that provides students with real life learning experiences and helps to develop the workforce of tomorrow.”