Category: People

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.

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

Wines of the Finger Lakes class this Thursday

Local wine consultants and educators, Dean and Lisa Foster, are offering a class on Wines of the Finger Lakes this Thursday, March 31 from 6:30-9:30 pm in Pottstown. The class costs $35 per person and reservations are required in advance. Call or e-mail for more info or to register: 610 469 6164 or Vintageconnections@comcast.net.

Through their blogs, “Vintage Connections Wine Info,” and “Grapevine” in the Pottstown Mercury, Dean and Lisa provide information and recommendations about wine, wine events, and the world of wine, primarily in the Montgomery, Berks, and Chester Tri-County Area of Southeastern Pennsylvania. They also focus on affordable and accessible wines, mostly priced under $20 and sometimes under $10, and available at PA Wine and Spirits stores or at wineries located in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Their consulting business, “Vintage Connections,” provides wine education, wine classes and seminars, educational food and wine pairings, wine tastings, and other customized services. If you haven’t been to one of their classes yet, you’re missing out on a very enjoyable opportunity to get over that hump of being intimidated by the sometimes overwhelming world of wine!

A night of Harp Music and Yoga for a good cause

designed by Joy van Ruler

The Tri-County for a Cure team, which is raising money for Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Yoga on the Steps, is hosting a night of yoga and harp music. 

Barbara Kosciewicz, of High Street Yoga will be leading the group in yoga accompanied by Betsy Chapman on the harp. 

Here are the details:

Tuesday, March 29th

7pm

First Presbyterian Church

750 North Evans Street

Suggested donation $20

There will also be raffles ($), items for sale and refreshments. 

For more information, visit Tri-County for a Cure on facebook.

Public input wanted on District’s Task Force on Facilities

Note: Sorry to be kind of quiet lately. I’ve been “snowed under” with school work. Should be coming up for air again in a couple of days! SR

Last spring School Board President Rick Huss announced the formation of the Board President’s Task Force on Facilities and appointed James Bush to lead the effort. The mission of the Task Force is to visit, collect data and analyze all of the Pottstown School District’s facilities, including the Annex and Administration Building, without preconceptions, in order to make informed, educationally-sound and fiscally-responsible recommendations to the School Board about the future of the elementary schools.

So far, the Task Force has visited all the elementary schools. Last Monday night (Jan. 24th) I had the opportunity to tour the high school and learn more about the Task Force and how they’re approaching their mission.

First, the Task Force itself is a large and diverse group. Second, they’ve got very big binders filled with details and reports about the capacity, weaknesses and costs of each building in the district. I regret not having made it to any of the elementary schools, but all of the agendas, meeting summaries and some reports are available here on the District’s website. Third, I learned that Pottstown has a really amazing high school. The building is light, clean and modern, having been updated and expanded in 2001. Its diverse programming prepares students along the whole educational continuum with life skills, technical and academic training that will get them to the next level that’s appropriate for them.

One really interesting aspect of the high school’s physical plant is that Pottstown Community TV uses 4,800 square feet of space there and pays $1,000/month to the School District to do so. PCTV is owned and operated by the Borough through a contract with Mark Pollock. The lease arrangement is a pretty sweet deal compared to the going rates for commercial/ retail space on High Street or in the region. While this local programming is certainly a benefit to Pottstown and the larger region that it reaches, PCTV’s activities are completely separate from the high school’s operations. From what we were told on the tour, PCTV does not benefit any students, involve any students, or have anything to do with the educational mission of the District. On the one hand, regardless of where PCTV is located, at this time it is a taxpayer-subsidized operation, whose current contract was a sticking point in Borough Council’s recent budget talks. One might ask, “Does it really matter if it’s coming from Borough taxes or School taxes?” On the other hand, now is the time to re-think its location in a school, where the educational mandate is clear and every option for cost savings must be considered.

It was stated at the meeting that the District currently uses a total of 12,534 square feet for administration. I would expect that the possible availability of 4,800 square feet for administration or the re-configuring of students/classrooms would be on the table in discussions this spring.

The President’s Task Force on Facilities meetings are open to anyone and allow for public comment and questions. The next one is on February 7th at the Middle School. I urge everyone to get out to the meetings that will continue through the spring and to get up to speed on what has already been reviewed, so that there will be a critical mass of informed citizens ready to take part in the discussions that are on the horizon. No less than the quality education of Pottstown’s youth and the financial future of the town are at stake.~

Feb. 2, 2011. Please note this comment and clarification received from Superintendent Dr. Reed Lindley:

“Seems that the statment “involves no students, not connected to the educational mission,” is somewhat of an overstatement. PCTV recently received a grant from the Health and Wellness Foundation to work collaboratively with the High School in the development of a live AM “cooking show.” While the details are still being finalized, this project is directly connected to the educational mission, and would involve students from more than one academic/career program at the High School.”

Positively!Pottstown Happy Hour this Friday

Hi, Folks —

It’s 2011 and time to re-connect, catch up, and throw ourselves anew into this crazy endeavor known as the revitalization of Pottstown. 🙂

The next Positively!Pottstown Happy Hour is this Friday, Jan. 28th at The Gallery on High at 254 E. High Street. The fun starts at 5:01 pm and goes until 7:30 pm. We’ve extended the event by a half-hour for those who are fighting Friday night traffic to attend. Thank you to Erika Hornburg-Cooper and Cathy Paretti for welcoming us into their space!

We’re about 50-strong at this point, and it’s not too late to send an email to positivelypottstown@gmail.com and say you plan on stopping by. Just bring yourself, a friend or two, a smile, and $5/person to cover food; any profits will go to The Gallery. We’ll be featuring cornbread muffins and wings from Martha’s Famous at 259 E. High Street.

This Friday night, warm up with cool art and cool people at The Gallery — see you then!

Literary dreaming

Okay, I’m here amid the snow-covered Green Mountains, hanging with my writing buddies at the end of  a long day of readings and workshop, and I get to spinning out part of my dream scenario for Pottstown’s revitalization. This particular version includes a writing center in Pottstown, where my buddies and other writers – maybe they’ve published books, maybe not yet – can stay in a gorgeously renovated Victorian bed/breakfast writers’ retreat for 1-4 weeks, for a modest weekly fee. Writers are always on the lookout for a reasonably-priced retreat, where they can get some work done. (Maybe we’d entice them with a tour of The Hill School, where Tobias Wolff spent some time, or maybe a trip to Shillington, home of John Updike.) We might even be able to get some writers to visit a class in the schools, do a program at the library, or give a reading at night. Some of my people here like the sound of all this. And, you never know — if we built a solid network of authors who had already been to Pottstown, the next step might be to invite them all back, along with others, and begin hosting an annual literary arts festival. Wouldn’t that just turn the world’s perception of Pottstown on its head? Would make a really good story, too…

Pottstown Roller Derby Rockstars

What started out as a quick facebook status update after a particularly tough day at work has turned into a force to be reckoned with.

When P Hitty (then and alternately known as Patty Fetterman) posted, “Bad day at work… anyone want to start a roller derby team??” she really didn’t imagine that she had put into motion the Pottstown Rockstars Roller Derby Team.  She met friend, neighbor and owner of Funky Lil Kitchen, Tonda Woodling, for a few drinks, and the idea sounded even better.  Woodling (who sports the derby name:  Hillbilly Hustler) had actually been looking to join the Philadelphia Liberty Belles Roller Derby team, but with the distance and the time commitment being an obstacle, thought her dreams of roller derby had been dashed.

Pretty soon, they found that a roller derby veteran was living in Pottstown and wanted to get back on her skates, so the two enlisted the help of  Lida Addison (who goes by the derby name of “Low-blow Lida” ) and got a group of 7 women together at The Brickhouse.  They wanted to figure out if they could really start a roller derby team right here in Pottstown.  Apparently, they could.  Fast forward a few months and plenty of planning and practicing; the team now has 19 members ranging in age from 25 to 40, with more of the women on the 40 side than the 25.

Fetterman describes the derby experience as something between nostalgia and girl power.   Listening to her talk about how much fun (and what a workout) derby practice is makes me wistful for the endless childhood days I spent at the roller rink.  The local rink where I grew up, Guptill’s Arena, was an old blueberry farm that had been converted into a roller skating nirvana, and amazingly holds the Guiness World Record as the largest indoor skating rink in the world.  I clearly remember lacing up my beautiful white leather skates with the purple and pink yarn pom-poms my mom helped me make out of leftover yarn. 

Of course, roller derby is quite a bit tougher than those elementary school skating sessions, but the feelings might just be the same.  It is almost enough to make me think even I could be a roller derby rock star (almost being the key word).

This coming Saturday, you (and I) can get that old feeling back again and hang out at Pheasantland Roller Rink and see what roller derby is really all about.   The Rockstars are raising money to get their team registered with the WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association) and get their apprentice status in the league.

The event starts with an open skate from 3:30 to 4:30 and then the Rockstars will take the rink for a demonstration.  At 5pm, you can pay $3 to go up against either Low-blow Lida or Busty Cage (known in real life as Nikki Henry), who are the veterans in the group.  There will also be a bake sale and raffles all to help the team get into the WFTDA league.  The raffles listed for this event are pretty amazing-everything from a Starbucks gift basket to a trip for 4 to Mexico (yes, to Mexico).  You can check out more information about the event and the team by visiting their facebook page at:  www.facebook.com/pottstownrollerderby

Here’s the rundown of the event:

Location: Pheasantland Roller Rink

551 Manatawny Road, Boyertown, PA  19512

Their website:  www.pheasantlandrollerrink.com

Time: 3:30-6:30

Admission: Donation to the team.  Bring some extra cash for the raffles, bake sale and more.

Skate rentals are only $1 and they have inline and quad skates available.

Writing camp

Well, tomorrow I leave for 10 days in Vermont, where I’ll be attending lectures, readings and writing workshops pretty much from 8 am – 9 pm every day. All books, all writing, all words, all the time. About a month ago, I was in town at a meeting, and I described this low-residency master’s degree program (I do this 10-day gig twice a year; this time next year I’ll be giving a lecture & a reading and will get my degree.) Someone at the meeting – I won’t name names! – looked pretty horrified to hear that I think this is just about the best way anyone could ever spend 10 days 🙂

But will I really be leaving Pottstown behind? Impossible! I’ll be checking email and even posting here from time to time. The truly awesome news, though, is that Rosemary Keane, who took us on a whirlwind tour of some parks in Amity, Douglass, New Hanover and Boyertown last summer, will be filling in as a guest blogger. I know you’re in really good hands; she has some excellent posts lined up. The first story, which will be posted first thing tomorrow morning, is about a group of Pottstown chicks who really know how to roll! Thank you, Rosemary, and welcome back!

WPAZ is back!

Pottstown’s got its radio station back. After going silent more than a year ago, WPAZ at 1370 AM returned to the airwaves yesterday afternoon. Check out The Mercury’s coverage here.

After months of hard work and negotiations, the nonprofit WPAZ Preservation Association changed its name to Community Broadcasting Group and recently purchased the station from Four Rivers Broadcasting.

General Manager Rick Rodgers and Station Manager Ross Landy have planned a line-up of old and new shows and increased local sports coverage within a 24/7 interactive format. The tentative official “opening” will be January 8th; keep an ear out then for new and returning personalities and shows. In the meantime, they’ll be running music and promos.

The station’s website is wpazradio.com. And you can find them on Facebook here.

Congratulations to Rick, Ross and everyone involved – looking forward to the programming!

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