Month: April 2011

Wyndcroft classmates return for 50th Reunion this weekend

Please welcome guest blogger Susan Storb to Positively!Pottstown.  Susan grew up in Pottstown and went to The Wyndcroft School back in the 1950s.  Her father was born and raised in Pottstown and ran Storb Travel Service for many years, and her grandfather represented Pottstown in the State Legislature.  Susan is married to retired architect Michael Horn, lives in Philadelphia, and is committed to the revitalization of Pottstown.  As a current Board Member at the Tri-County Performing Arts Center, she hopes to spend two days a week in Pottstown, working on behalf of the theater and town.

Wyndcroft Classmates Return for 50th Reunion This Weekend

By Susan Storb

A few people, who had the good fortune to grow up in Pottstown in the 1950s and attend The Wyndcroft School, recently decided to organize a reunion. It will be held at Brookside Country Club this Saturday, April 16.   We have about 40 people coming.  Most of those attending still live in the vicinity of Pottstown but some are coming from as far away as California, Arizona and Georgia.

“There was a whole group of us who grew up around Rosedale Drive who wanted to see everyone again,” said Lisa Longaker Brandin.  “Not everyone went to Wyndcroft but everyone is tied to our childhood in some manner.”

“Pottstown was a great place to grow up,” added Holmes Raker.  “There weren’t many organized activities for kids back then so we had to invent our own games.  We played in everyone’s backyard, wandered through every creek bed and knoll and just had to show up for dinner.  It was great!”

On Saturday there will be a bicycle tour of Pottstown starting at Tri County Bicycles, home of Bike Pottstown, at 256 E. High Street.  It will conclude with hoagies at the Ice House (of course) and a tour of the Tri-County Performing Arts Center.   There will be time during the day for people to drive through their old neighborhoods and maybe even tour their old houses.  Then those who attended Wyndcroft will get a special tour of the school conducted by the headmistress, Dr. Kathleen Wunner.

“We are just thrilled that this group of alumni is coming back to see Pottstown and see how the school has changed” said Damaris South, Director of Development. “We had lost touch with some of these graduates so it will be fun to meet them for the first time.  And, it is inspiring to see that everyone who attended Wyndcroft has such fond memories of their childhoods.  Even Latin class taught by Mr. Snively!”

Any proceeds above and beyond the cost of the function will go towards Wyndcroft’s fund raising efforts.

SALSA & more in Pottstown this weekend!

On Thursdays, we’ll be putting the spotlight on some entertainment & recreational possibilities for your weekend in Pottstown.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14

Thursday Night Karaoke at Chummy’s/Sunnybrook , 8-11 pm. Sam and Tim DJ this cool event. Drink specials and more.

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Join Remi and Star and the Calle Sol dancers at the Starry Ferrari Third Friday Salsa Social In Pottstown at the Ballroom on High, 310 E. High St., 2nd floor. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Food will be set out buffet style at 7:45 pm, first come, first served. Salsa lesson at 8 p.m. Dancing to salsa, bachata, merengue, cha cha, reggaeton, and more till at least 12 a.m.! DJ REMI! They had over 100 people at last month’s party! BYOB. ABSOLUTELY NO UNDER-AGE DRINKING! IDs checked at the door. Under 18 must be under the supervision of a parent. Security on Site. Admission: $12 Dress code: Dress to impress. NO boots or sneakers, no hoodies, low slung jeans, please.

World War II Swing Dance at Sunnybrook Ballroom. 8-11 pm, Tickets $24 on sale at Phillies Fire Co. For Info Call 610-323-2229

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Dinner specials at The Brickhouse, in the historic Security Trust Building, 152 E. High Street. Friday & Saturday Nights: Country Fried Steak Entree-$13.99. Sunday Nights: Brick House Rib-Eye-$12.99

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

Women’s Self Defense Class, 1-2 pm, Pottstown Karate Club, 21 N. Hanover St.  Sponsored by Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization.

First Suburbs meeting: Help make Pottstown’s voice be heard

The Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project is holding a public meeting Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm with Housing and Urban Development Region III Administrator Jane Vincent to call for fairness in regional housing policy.

The Statement of Purpose on their website declares:

“The Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project is a regional coalition of community leaders from developed suburbs that have joined together to harness their communities’ power by directly engaging citizens to affect policies and practices that will lead to the stabilization and revitalization of their communities.”

The First Suburbs Project has galvanized communities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Pottstown is a member of this coalition and will be taking a bus to the meeting, which will be held at the JP Mascaro and Sons Building in Audobon. To get on the bus, which will leave Borough Hall at 6:30 pm, call the Borough at 610-970-6511.

To read some prior blog posts about the challenges facing Pottstown and other First Suburbs, check out the following links:

Community Gardens & First Suburbs – the start of a (long) conversation

First Suburbs: Affordable Housing Notes from NJ

First Suburbs – Challenges of Rental Housing

First Suburbs, Keim Street Bridge & Keystone Blvd. Extension

Pottstown Elementary Schools Compete in Reading Olympics

The parking lot at Souderton Area High School was overflowing with cars last night, but it wasn’t for a baseball game or even for the school play.  Instead, over 500 area students and their families were gathered for Reading Olympics, with about a fifth of them coming from Pottstown.  The yearly event, sponsored in our area by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, brings students together to test their knowledge of an extensive book list. 

“We are thrilled to have one of the most successful and growing programs in the county that supports reading. In 12 years, we have more than quadrupled the number of participating students,” said Maria Johns, who organizes the event for the MCIU’s Division of Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development.

Reading Olympics

For my own daughter, who is in fourth grade this year, the reading frenzy started in the fall, when she and about 20 of her classmates decided to give up valuable recess time and tackle a reading list of more than 40 books.  The list includes Newbery Award-winning books like Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and kid favorites like Bunnicula and Judy Moody.  The event not only encourages kids to read, but gets them to read beyond what they would normally choose for themselves.  The favorites from this year’s list for my daughter were Rules, Flush, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and When You Reach Me.  The intermediate unit, along with reading specialists, librarians and grade level teachers select the book list each year, read the books themselves and then devise the questions. 

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Although the event is a celebration of reading rather than a contest, with teams accumulating points to earn ribbons, the kids take it very seriously.  Some questions last night, like the one about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, were met with knowing smiles, while others left teams scratching their heads for the answer. 

Eleven teams with a total of over 100 kids competed from the five elementary schools in Pottstown: Barth, Lincoln, Edgewood, Franklin and Rupert. The hard work of teachers and students alike went into making the whole event a success. 

For more information about the event, you can visit the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.  And, if you have a budding reader in your home, at any grade level through high school, you will want to check that website for the 2012 list which should be out in May.

Urban planners to study Pottstown’s riverfront

A group of urban planners earning continuing education credits will soon be studying Pottstown’s riverfront and coming up with concepts for the Borough to consider – all free of charge. Last night Borough Council voted 7-0 to endorse the Borough’s participation in the online class.

Rutgers University’s Professional Development Institute (PDI) offers a range of courses to urban planners and other land use professionals from all over the United States and the world. They recently put out a call for communities who had land use and design challenges that could be the focus of one of their 5.5 week urban design studios.

As The Mercury reports today in “Urban planners ‘assigned’ to Pottstown riverfront as case study,” there has been much talk in the past year about the Urban Land Institute’s 2009 report that urged the Borough to create “a place of magic” on Pottstown’s riverfront. The PDI class will look at the numerous physical constraints and possibilities along the river, while learning urban design concepts from instructor Matt Wanamaker, a principal of the Philadelphia urban design and place-making firm Brown & Keener.

Brown & Keener’s home page states its mission simply:
“Envision futures.
Raise civic expectations.
Create agendas for change.
Make great places.”

As “the client” the Borough should end up with multiple concepts along with rough sketches from the class. Local officials, such as Chris Huff from the Planning Commission and Councilor Joe Kirkland, will be able to participate in the online discussions and respond to questions as they arise. The goal for the Borough is to get some realistic and fresh ideas that will spur community discussion about its vision for the riverfront. The class was announced on the PDI blog last week and had 7 people signed up within a couple days, according to Leo Vazquez, Director of PDI at Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. If all goes well, there could be other opportunities to collaborate with PDI in the future – a win-win for the professionals taking PDI courses and for Pottstown.

Last call: Tix for The Gallery School’s Fashion Plates 5 fundraiser

Join The Gallery School for their 5th annual fundraiser Fashion Plates 5: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s happening this Sunday, April 10 from 1-4pm at Brookside Country Club at Prospect and Adams Streets in Pottstown.

Please note: tickets are not available at the door. All tickets must be purchased by Friday, April 8 – that’s today! To get your tickets online, click here.

This year’s theme is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the fashion show will feature pieces for him and her, courtesy of Boscov’s, and modeled by members of our community. Magical Sight and Sound will bring their musical expertise to the afternoon, and guests will be treated to a fabulous dance demonstration. Remi Rosales, co-director of the Salsa Dancing and Zumba program at the Ballroom on High and his student, Karen McArthur, will dance Remi’s salsa choreography to Ban Ban.

Your ticket includes lunch, dessert and an special endless cocktail “Tiffany Punch.” (There will also be a cash bar.) Guests will be treated to great door prizes and have the opportunity to bid on some fabulous silent auction items.

Bring a friend! Purchase two tickets for only $100, a $20 savings! Individual tickets are $60 each. Tickets for children under 12 are $30, and men are welcome, too! Your support helps The Gallery School fulfill their mission of making the arts accessible to everyone in our community.

A Vision for Pottstown: What do YOU see?

As part of the Heritage Action Plan that’s being developed with funding from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area and William Penn Foundation, representatives from lots of organizations and institutions in town got together for a workshop last month, where we talked about our individual visions for Pottstown.

A vision statement should answer these questions: What do we want to create? What do we want our community to look like?

Below is a summary of the workshop participants’ visions for Pottstown. There seemed to be consensus around the idea of a future Pottstown with a safe, clean, revitalized, business-friendly downtown that promotes heritage resources and is accessible by various modes and attractive to families and young people.

1. Envision Pottstown as a revitalized place; focus on downtown; clean up blighted properties. Need for occupied storefronts downtown.
2. Have Pottstown’s streets be clean, welcoming, attractive and safe to bring people into town; heighten police presence; create safe link between Hill School & downtown.
3. Project a new, positive, business-friendly image.
4. Develop and promote a sense of place.
5. Promote a garden feel to Pottstown.
6. Build on existing arts and culture as economic development tool.
7. Envision Pottstown as a place that works together with existing assets/resources.
8. Pottstown should be the cultural leader in the region. Must coordinate offerings.
9. Move drug treatment center to new location.
10. Give Pottstown a progressive image. Add a new twist in arts, culture & sustainability that ties into the trail, natural resources & Pottstown’s history (pie, steel, railroad.)
11. Promote health and healthy living, farmers’ market, bike-sharing program, vibrant streetscape, activity on streets, eyes on the street. Create comfortable atmosphere, place where families are active, walking on streets.
12. Enhance and create transportation linkages, especially to improve foot traffic for businesses; be pedestrian-friendly; improve way-finding. Highlight the airport as a resource. Create a multi-modal community.
13. Market studio & residential space to art students; need more bars/entertainment for young people.

WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR POTTSTOWN?

Tri-County for a Cure Team Gets Ready for Yoga on the Steps

If you’ve seen a bunch of women dressed in black yoga garb and pink bandanas running around downtown Pottstown in the last few weeks, you aren’t imagining things and we aren’t being invaded by pink ninja yogis.

It’s the Tri-County for a Cure team, headed up by local yoga instructor, Barbara Kosciewicz of High Street Yoga and filmed by photographer Melia Rios-Lazo, of Priceless Moments Photography. I am lucky enough to be one of these team members, and we’re busy getting ready for the Yoga on the Steps fundraiser for Living Beyond Breast Cancer that will be held in Philadelphia on May 15th.

Image by Melia Rios-Lazo from Priceless Moments Portrait

Last year’s event drew over 1,200 yoga enthusiasts to the Art Museum in Philadelphia to do yoga and raise money for Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a non-profit dedicated to support services for women in treatment and beyond. While many breast cancer organizations focus on finding a cure, LBBC is different. According to their mission statement, their goal is, “To empower all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life.”

Kosciewicz found out about the Yoga on the Steps event late last year and got a couple of friends, jewelry artist Carrie Grabowicz of Hammi Jammi Jewelry and Joy van Ruler, an artist who designed this year’s team logo, to join her on the steps of the Art Museum. This year, the team has 20 registered members and there is room for more. Fellow yoga instructor, Stephanie Smolik of Yoga-for-Every-Belly, is a team member as well.

So, what does all this have to do with pink-headed yogis running rampant through the streets of Pottstown and encouraging business owners, the mayor and borough manager to strike a yoga pose?  Actually quite a bit. The excitement was all about the video the Tri-County for a Cure team is making to raise awareness about breast cancer.   

Image from Living Beyond Breast Cancer

The impetus for the video was a conversation before one of Barbara’s classes about how funny it would be to do yoga in random places around town. Before long the idea had grown to involve raising awareness and funds for the Yoga on the Steps event and the team, Tri-County for a Cure.

Honestly, the first day of filming, I think many of us (myself included) were a little nervous about the idea of being filmed or photographed in yoga poses, but with Melia’s enthusiasm and skill, we all quickly got into the spirit of the day. Before we knew it, we were sitting in prayer squat near the door of a Septa Bus in front of Borough Hall.

We had a schedule, but also grabbed unsuspecting people along the way, and I was amazed at the support we found. We even convinced the UPS driver to pose with us near the police station, and some college kids on the steps at Montgomery County Community College.

“We attracted attention, beeps and awareness. Everyone we came in contact with was supportive of the cause and gave yoga their best shot,” said Kosciewicz. “We talked to people who were survivors, who had family members that were survivors or had lost someone to breast cancer.” 

She continued, “At the end of each day filming I walked away energized, but also with the understanding that Breast Cancer is a terrible disease and something that has affected everyone. I would use the word ‘powerful’ to describe the filming days.”

Even Positively Pottstown’s own Sue Repko joined us at Riverfront Park for some quiet meditation on the last day of filming. We also got Borough Manager Jason Bobst, The Schuykill River National and State Heritage Area staff, and most of the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation staff out to do yoga on that 70 degree Friday we enjoyed a few weeks ago.

photo by Lisa Engle

The whole experience was, well, something amazing to experience.  We got so many people to come out of their stores, offices, and comfort zones and be a little silly with us for an important cause. Barbara summed up the days’ filming this way (and I agree wholeheartedly): “I enjoyed the interaction with each and every person; the willingness of EVERYONE to do something for breast cancer and for Pottstown’s revitalization.”

The video is set to debut at the next Positively Pottstown Happy Hour on April 15th at the Academy of Massage Therapy and Bodyworks and High Street Yoga, which shares the space on the second floor of the massage school.

For information about the event in May, or to learn more about the organization’s services and mission, you can visit Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s webpage at www.llbc.org

If you can’t wait till April 15th for the video and want a sneak peek of the coverage, you can check out the Mercury’s coverage of the day, or visit the Tri-County for a Cure facebook page for links to the local news stories that ran about the filming

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