Judy Lupas Art

This is a lady I’ve mentioned in the past.

Her name is Judy, she is an artist that has pieces on display in the Goggleworks in Reading and I came across some of her work while driving on Hanover Street in Pottstown.  Her work is colorful and inspirational and I’m thinking that if you need something for your home or for your place of work, then she is someone you should consider talking with.

You can check out her site, www.judylupas.com

Enjoy

mo

Franklin Commons

I received some information on a new building in Phoenixville PA, well, let me rephrase that, we all know Phoenixville is going through a major transition as many small towns  like Pottstown have been doing .  Buildings that were once industrial giants are now finding new uses and Franklin Commons is actually  an old building that has been given new life as a mixed use space.

We can visit the Franklin Commons to take a look around and have a light snack in their bistro which is  open from 7am till 7pm , except Fridays- oh and  of course I’m telling you about it just when it is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.  But lets go there after shopping in downtown Phoenixville!

I’m going to!

mo

Happy Thanksgiving

Boy Scouts in Gilbertsville

Here is part of  a great article in the Mercury by Sara Moran about some boy scouts who are spending some time clearing a trail.  Good Job kids!

Bright and early on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 15, Cub Scout Pack 36 armed themselves with shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows and began work on the nature trail that runs behind the Gilbertsville Elementary School. The young men from Troop 36 “adopted” the trail and will maintain and repair it from now on.

The nature trail was built by Eagle Scouts from the very same Troop years before and the new Scouts feel an obligation to maintain the site.

“This is a great conservation project for our troop,” said Matt Hetrick, committee member for the pack and owner of Hetrick Gardens. “The trail needs a fresh start and we want to be part of that.”

Please Drive Safely this Thanksgiving!

There was a bad accident on 724 the other day.  It is a terrible loss to the community when young people are involved in accidents that are deadly.  There is something wrong when kids die.  And yet, as the Officer in charge of the investigation of the accident on 724 has said, most accidents are the result of driver error.

Now I’m not blaming people who are involved in accidents.  Blaming doesn’t fix a damn thing.  But we have to  hold people responsible for being alert and practicing safe driving practices when they get behind the wheel.  Although I have to admit that even though I know we  all hold those same expectations for ‘other drivers’ I think that  we’ve  all  made  mistakes that if not for the grace of God could have been dangerous or deadly?

I’m so  sorry for the young men who were injured and I’m at a loss for something to say to the families that have to go through Thanksgiving without their boys.  But there is also another family that has to go through a challenge because of this accident and that would be Ms. Jones’ family.  She was hit when the SUV was involved in it’s accident.   If we don’t ask drivers to be responsible for their vehicles, and they damage other drivers in accidents, then where are we as a society?

Again, I’m not talking about  blaming because my heart is broken thinking of the pain in losing these kids.   I hope that the other boys who were involved in the accident are able to heal from whatever injuries they may have suffered without permanent damage- but I really hope and pray that the driver who had nothing to do with the accident, who was hit by a car that had gone up an embankment and then came crashing down in her lane of traffic- I hope Latasha  is okay!

Please look out for yourselves and for the rest of us in the community while  driving this Thanksgiving Holiday.  A lot of people are on the roads and Friday’s weather sounds close to freezing.  Just  please, take extra care and be safe!

love,

mo

Pottsgrove High Students in Sanatoga Road Crash

I’m sure no one wanted to hear about who the young men were, and where they were from.  It was bad enough to hear that two of them were dead in an accident that took place last night.  Well, we are now hearing that they were students at Pottsgrove High School.  The Superintendent has said that since the school is closed for parent conferences this week, that they will have staff on hand to counsel students who are hard hit by this news.

There are no names released yet.  I just checked to find out who the boys might have been and even though I knew they were local kids- my eyes filled when I read they were from Pottsgrove.  They had off this week.  They were having a good time with one another.

Nothing to say… this is the hard part about following news.  News is sometimes very sad.

mo

Last Night OJR Board Meeting

I’m not avoiding the subject.  I know that OJR hired a new Superintendent and he’ll start working on the 30th of November and in the meantime we have a man who I hoped would bring some peace to the community, but he honestly seems a little out of his league.

What league do I expect leaders of a School to be in?  I mean, it is a job like any other job, these aren’t hallowed halls that these folks are being hand picked for, it is a school, it is a business- nothing more. Right?

Well, no!  I think we expect things from our schools, and since schools are made up of their administrators and their teachers and their students that means I’m actually expecting certain types of behavior from the administration. and the teachers and the students and their parents.

Last night the large room where board meetings are held was packed to standing room only.  Lots of parents came along with their children because students were being honored for being on sports teams, or part of the band, or for their educational success, or their artistic success.  It was a crowded place!  And it was a great feeling to be there with friends.

Some of my ‘friends’ were talking about the new Superintendent who was there.  He shook hands and patted folks on the back and grinned a lot.  He didn’t say anything formally in the first part of the evening- and the crowd in the room got thinner and thinner as the night progressed.  As children were acknowledged their teachers and coaches gathered them out in the halls and snapped their photos.  Parents followed to take their  happy kids with certificates home.

I left and found my daughter coming out of the band hallway chatting with a friend about the evening.

This morning I find out that I probably shouldn’t have left.  Dr. Feick was paid an additional amount of money in order to find the new Superintendent.

Sheesh.  Couldn’t we just have given him a standing ovation?

I can’t imagine how my being present at the meeting would have changed that outcome, but it is just one of those things you kind of want to be present at.  But like I said, I ducked out with my  kids in tow and I went home.

I do want to mention that Boards conveniently place things that are going to cause a fuss in the community at the end of the evening.  They know that people have lives to attend to and they need to leave to go home.  They know that reporters have to get their stories in for the 11 o’clock news and they’ll leave without reporting on awkward issues.

You’ve heard that history is written by the winners, well, so are meeting agendas!

In OJR, the winners are those who were elected once upon a time.  There are no losers.  There are simply some confused people like me- people who attend functions at the school for the sake of their children.   And I saw a lot of happy fresh young faces- many of them caught my eye as I smiled and beat my hands in applause.  Would you believe those kids  smiled even harder!

Last night was a Board meeting and at the meeting some children were honored.  Those kids are what OJR is all about!  I’m glad I was there for them.

But you know what?  Every member of the Board stood for those kids, every member of the audience stood for those kids, and every teacher stood for those kids.

I’m glad I’m here at Owen J. Roberts!  I’d have applauded Dr. Feick and Dr. DiBartolomeo, but only because of the sense of pride I had in our students!

Go Wildcats!

mo

Stokesay Castle Open

 

This is a place I went to once in my life and I was frightened at the time thinking that the place was a real castle and would contain all the intrigue and evil spirits that the castles in my bedtime stories contained.

It turns out it was just a restaurant.

Now 40 years later I’d like to go back.  It just reopened on November 17.  It was in the hands of the Quade family and I suppose that that family had some health issues and they stopped running the place as a restaurant.  It went to auction a year ago and Jack Gulatti a businessman in the area decided to buy it and refurbish it.

I’m glad.  I look forward to going there.  I just hope that I can shake the ” it’s just a restaurant’ after all these years.

mo

Allentown Eagle Scout Versus Union Leader

Have you read this story?  This is one of those stories that makes you angry at unions.

Let’s lay it out.  There is a park in Allentown.  The park was getting pretty weathered, as we all are aware, parks are outdoors and the walkways and human spaces that get carved out of them fall into disrepair due to common entropy.  Weeds grow, poison ivy takes root and limbs and sticks and trash fill cleared out pathways.

So along comes a young man who is looking for a project so that he can become an Eagle Scout and he decides to devote his time and energy to cleaning up a local park.  I haven’t visited the park so I don’t know what it’s condition was prior to his efforts and I don’t know whether he put a dint in the mess mother nature wreaked through his work.  But I do know that a local union leader was annoyed.

Nick Balzano, or at least I think that was his name, and I have to tell you I’m so irritated I can’t be bothered to search to correct his name…Nick didn’t like it that a young non-union worker was working in the park.  He said that was a union job and he was going to file a grievance.

People were flabbergasted.  A young person finds a need, and invests energy in the activity and gets lambasted by a union worker for not being a union employee?

Can you believe this stuff happens?  Can you believe it happens in PA?

Heh, okay, I take back the part about being shocked this stuff happens in PA.

I’m just glad that there are some folks who still believe in supporting young men and women who try to do the right things in this world!  I can share with you that the Union has made an official announcement saying that the man who objected to the teen’s work was not speaking for the Union and he and his friends have resigned from their positions.

I actually read a  comment in one news source that was coming from a friend of the union leader who admonished the teen.  The commenter said something about ‘ cut the guy a break, he is just trying to save union jobs’.

Well, I can assure him that Mother Nature with all of  her weeds and her wind blown branches will continue to make plenty of work for Union members and Youth!

Sheesh!

mo

Sad Story about Local Teens in Car Crash

Two teenagers are dead and five others are in the hospital after an accident in Chester County. It happened a little before 9:00 Monday night on Route 724, near Sanatoga Road, in East Coventry Township. Police say an SUV carrying six teenage boys hit an embankment and rolled over, and then hit another car that was coming in the other direction. Two of the boys in the SUV were killed. Their names have not been released. Four other boys in the SUV and a woman who was driving the other car were all taken to the hospital. There is no word on their conditions.

I got this story from WFMZ Channel 69 News.  It is so wrong to hear about young people dying.  I can’t imagine the pain that the young men who were in the accident must be going through.  In one instant we can imagine they were having fun.  The next moment changed their lives irreparably.

We lose young people to illness, war, street violence and crime- but my guess and this is just a guess, my guess is we lose more young people  in driving accidents than in any other way. My respect and condolences to the families and friends who have to deal with the loss and the pain of this accident.

My advice is talk to your kids till you are blue in the face!  I want a media campaign that has parents Blue in the Face over Vehicle saftey!

Just think about it,

mo