ArtFusion presents holiday party & holiday show: The Secret Life of Trees
This comes from ArtFusion 19464, a GREAT place to get fun, unique, and beautiful holiday gifts!
Take a peek into the Secret Life of Trees
ArtFusion 19464’s annual holiday show opened November 10 and will be on display in their main gallery through January 5, 2013. The challenge of this show was to interpret the theme of “the secret life of trees.” 38 local artists responded with an amazing breadth of work, from oils and watercolors to recycled sculpture and ceramics. One piece will be awarded a $100 best in show prize, sponsored by Fulton Bank, Pottstown branch. Other show sponsors are: Window Sponsor Dolan& Mayerson, P.C.; NCG, Inc.; Wolf, Baldwin & Associates; and Keller Williams Realty Group.
Participating artists include: Alita Abruzzese, Denise Bennett, Roselyn Cadoff, Mary Chisak, Arline Christ, Richardson Comly, Phillip Compton, Danielle D’Aries, Peter Ehlinger, Cassie Eshelman, Teresa McWilliams Farina, Lisa Foster, Gail Fronheiser, Bob Hakun, Susan Klinger, Mary Kosar, Virginia Gaudiello, Joe Hoover, Millie Lea, Judy Lupas, Ellen Marcus, Charles McCann, Donna Meyers, Geoffrey Meyers, Cari Myford, Harriette Nadler, Beverly Nuzzo, Carol Ross Noyes, Gwendolyn Parrish, Joni Peters, Jackie Pierson, Sue Ploppert, Barbara Rambo, David Ruser, Jodie Scharadin, Dora Siemel, Connie Worth, and Arleen Yeager.
The community is invited to the official opening reception for this show on Friday, December 7 from 5-8pm. This fun event is ArtFusion’s annual holiday party. Refreshments will be served. That evening is also the perfect chance to start your holiday shopping. Although this event is free, ArtFusion does ask that you RSVP to 610-326-2506
Artist Leigh Ritasse will be creating caricatures during the party as a fundraiser for ArtFusion. A black and white head and shoulders image is only $20. That evening ArtFusion will also be collecting donations of canned goods for a food drive run by the Pottstown Keystone Chapter 565 of Vietnam Veterans. This food will go to local veterans and their families for the holidays. They are asking for non-perishable items like instant potatoes and stuffing, cranberry sauce, cornbread mix, etc.
ArtFusion 19464 is a 501(c)3 non-profit community art center. The school offers day, evening and weekend classes to all ages. The goal of these classes is to help students develop their creative skills through self-expression and independence. ArtFusion’s gallery hosts rotating shows featuring local artists. The gallery also sells handcrafted, one-of-a-kind gift items. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-3pm. The gallery is closed Sunday and Monday.
Celebrate National Small Business Day & “Buy Local” this Saturday!
Did you know that shopping at small, local businesses keeps more of your money circulating in the local economy and helps keep those businesses in business? Every purchase means something to those entrepreneurs. Plus, it’s nice just getting to know the folks who have invested in your town for many years or have taken a chance starting a new business more recently. The holidays are a perfect time to show that you care about sustaining the economic health of your own community by BUYING LOCAL. Below are a few ways you can “Buy Local,” have some fun, and feel part of a growing community of intentional shoppers.
1) This Saturday is National Small Business Day, and there will be a Cash Mob unfolding in downtown Pottstown. Here’s how you can take part…
VISIT the Pottstown Visitor Center located at 17 N. Hanover Street, before you begin your downtown shopping, any time from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
PICK UP your “Shop Local” cash mob sticker, a map of the Downtown Pottstown Shopping District and detailed instructions on how to play the “Where In The World is Captain Buy Local and Small Biz” game while you shop throughout downtown Pottstown. (Yes, there is actually a superhero called Caption Buy Local and his sidekick Small Biz. Hey, this is Pottstown, and we have superheroes.)
PICK UP special offers and holiday treats that will be offered to Cash Mob participants throughout the day by various merchants.
RETURN your game entry with the approximate amount of money spent by you and your family during the Cash Mob to either the Visitor Center office, or Grumpy’s Hand-Carved Sandwiches, 137 E. High Street, when you are finished with your Cash Mob shopping. The BUY LOCAL organizers want to tally how much is spent in the downtown this Saturday. Remember, the School District spent $55,000 this past spring with their BUY LOCAL challenge; these efforts literally pay off for our merchants!
2) The Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority is running a holiday 5 for $25 Raffle. This is another way to Buy Local, only you can win some big bucks for yourself. Here’s how this works:
BUY a $25 Raffle Ticket at the Visitors’ Center at 17 N. Hanover Street or at Cole’s Tobacc0 or call Sheila at 610-323-5400 c/ 484-948-6061
SPEND $25 at each of 4 different, participating downtown merchants who are listed on the ticket.
SAVE your receipts.
BRING YOUR RECEIPTS AND TICKET to the Visitors’ Center, Cole’s or Grumpy’s or a participating merchant when you are done shopping. You have until December 22nd at 5 pm to do your shopping and turn in your ticket & receipts!
- All money collected from this raffle will be used to support the Hometown Holiday Events 2012.
- ONLY 300 Raffles will be sold. Last sale date is December 22 at 12pm.
- 1st prize is $2,000; 2nd prize is $1,000; 3rd prizes will include merchandise & gift cards.
- The drawing for prizes will be held at The New Visitors’ Center at 17 N Hanover St. at 7pm, December 22, 2012. You do not have to be present to win.
Anonymous donor to support YWCA Literacy Programs with your help!
A campaign to boost the literacy programming at the Pottstown YWCA began this past week and runs through December 11th. Here’s how it works:
The Mercury and several of their Town Square bloggers, including Positively Pottstown, are talking about literacy – reading and writing. We’re including this link for our readers to click on. It takes you to a page that looks like the one shown at the bottom of this post. When you type in your valid email address, an anonymous donor will give $1 to the Pottstown YWCA literacy programs. It couldn’t be easier! (And please tell them that Positively Pottstown sent you. :-))
In case it hasn’t been obvious by now, I’m a big fan of reading and writing. I’ve been actively writing short stories, novels, memoir, essays, and poetry since about 1996, and I have been an active reader all my life. I still keep my Nancy Drew collection close at hand.
As a teen I went through, yes, a Harlequin Romance phase – boxes and boxes of them during the summer months when there was a used book store in the North End Shopping Center. You could turn a box in for credit and cart home the next batch. Then there was all that college reading, although that’s all a bit fuzzy now…
As a full-fledged adult, though, I’ve been through a Willa Cather phase, a Jack Kerouac phase, a Dawn Powell phase, and an extended journey through American road trip stories. There are tons of them – fiction and nonfiction. Quite recently, I went on a Flannery O’Connor jag and moseyed through The Complete Stories, a National Book Award winner. If I had to recommend just one story for you to read, it would have to be “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” It is taut and chilling.
What I love best about getting to know an author’s work is that it always seems to lead me to find out more about their own lives. Understanding where they grew up, what their family life was like, and what made them tick as a human being leads to all sorts of fascinating connections and a better understanding of their writing. For instance, Flannery O’Connor’s Catholicism greatly influenced her work, but she also had some major mother-issues! The mother characters in her stories are usually really irritating and often wind up dead. O’Connor suffered from lupus and lived at home with her mother until her premature death in 1964 at the age of 39.
Well, I could go on and on… the thing is, if you, too, have been touched by some great books, please give others in the Pottstown area the chance to experience the same thrill of seeing a story unfold on the page and in their imaginations. Click here, plug in your email and let that anonymous donor give $1 on your behalf to the Pottstown YWCA’s literacy programs. You will be helping to write a great big happy ending for this campaign!
Pottsown’s Hanover Square opens new model home this weekend!
Stop by Hanover Square this Saturday, November 17th for a ribbon-cutting
and to see their new model home from 11 am-6 pm.
Hanover Square is at the corner of S. Hanover Street and South Street.
This is a GREAT housing option for those who want a well-priced, new home in Pottstown – within walking distance of the community college, Steel River Playhouse, ArtFusion 19464, and lots of great restaurants!
And mark your calendar now for the next Positively!Pottstown Happy Hour at Hanover Square’s Model Home on THURSDAY, December 13 from 5-7 pm.
Let’s continue to welcome Cornell Homes to the neighborhood!
Pottstown Area Artists’ Guild meeting this Tuesday
The November meeting of the Pottstown Area Artists’ Guild will be held Tuesday, November 20th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. It will take place in the Boyer Gallery of The Hill School’s Center for the Arts located at Beech and Sheridan Streets in Pottstown. (See directions here.)
After a short business meeting, artist Loretta Gable Englerth will be demonstrating her techniques in watercolor and other mediums. Loretta is a self-taught artist, born and raised in Chester County.
The meeting is free and open to the public. You do not have to be an artist to attend. Those simply having an interest in art are welcome. The PAAG was founded in 1960. Its mission is, “to promote, inspire and support the artistic spirit within the community.” If you have any questions, need more information, or need directions, please call Barbara Tschantre, president of the Pottstown Area Artists Guild, at 610-764-7586.
SENIOR FOLLIES! SENIOR FOLLIES! THIS WEEKEND!
Seniors Just Want to Have Fun!
Zany, high energy antics this Saturday and Sunday only
Steel River Playhouse
245 E. High Street, Pottstown, PA 19464
“Let’s Start the New Year Right,” according to the members of Steel River Playhouse’s 55+ theater troupe which performs its semi-annual Senior Follies this weekend. The troupe forecasts 2013 through popular songs, zany and campy antics, and as much laughter as they can generate.
Basic Information
“Let’s Start the New Year Right” will be performed this Saturday, November 17 at 7PM, and this Sunday, November 18 at 3PM in the Newberry Loft at Steel River Playhouse, 245 E. High St., Pottstown, PA 19464. Tickets range from $8-$12. More information and tickets are available on-line at http://www.steelriver.org or by calling 610.970.1199. Tickets are also usually available at the door.
Semi-Annual Public Performances
The Senior Follies troupe performs publicly twice yearly as part of Steel River Playhouse’s education program. This performance is directed by two veteran performers and directors at Steel River Playhouse, Deborah Stimson-Snow, Artistic Director, and Steve Reazor, Education Director.
“This is part of our education program, so everyone who wants to gets to participate in some way. We have costumes and music, and, frankly, it’s as much fun putting it on as it is watching it in the audience,” Marta Kiesling, Executive Director, said. “But the seniors take this opportunity seriously, even if fun and laughs are the objective. Their energy and enthusiasm is infectious.”
Great for Groups
Laughter truly is contagious. For performers and audience alike. Come and share, and bring lots of friends!
Family Services Needs Volunteers for Income Tax Program
This comes from Family Services of Montgomery County…
POTTSTOWN, PA, November 12, 2012 — The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, a free tax assistance preparation service provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through Family Services, is seeking volunteers.
Through the VITA program, trained volunteers assist low-to-middle income individuals and families in the preparation and electronic filing of simple income tax forms.
“There are many ways you can help at VITA tax preparation sites,” said Kathy Cael, Family Services’ VITA site coordinator. “Volunteers can complete and file tax forms, greet clients, organize paperwork, and assist with other administrative tasks.”
Volunteer tax preparers will receive free instruction and training to become Certified IRS Tax Preparers. Volunteer greeters will welcome clients and assist the VITA site coordinator with administrative tasks. Greeters should be friendly and customer service-oriented.
No experience is necessary. All VITA volunteers must be 18 years of age or older, computer literate, and able to commit to one four-hour volunteer shift per week for the 13-week tax season. Early afternoon, evening and weekend volunteer shifts are available at two of Family Services’ VITA preparation sites (Pottstown and Eagleville).
For more information on volunteering with VITA, please contact Kathy Cael at 610-326-1610 ext. 222 or kcael@fsmontco.org.
Since 1900, Family Services has been caring for children, seniors and families in Montgomery County who face everyday emotional difficulties or physical hardships. The agency’s innovative social service programs make a positive difference in the lives of 16,000 Montgomery County residents each year. For more information, call Family Services’ Pottstown Office at 610-326-1610 or visit www.fsmontco.org.
Elvis Tribute Show at Elks Lodge #814 to benefit Mercury’s Operation Holiday
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
On December 1, 2012, BACK BY POPULAR DEMANDAND TO BENEFIT THE MERCURY’S OPERATION HOLIDAY:
Elvis In Concert Tribute & Dance! Jeff Krick returns to the Pottstown Elks Lodge #814 for this special event.
Tickets only $ 20.00 each. Doors opening at 6:30pm and show time 7:00 – 11:00pm.
For tickets and information contact Tom Coyle at 610-306-9361 or the Elks at 610-326-3258.
Many saw Jeff as the headlining performer at this year’s 4th of July celebration in Memorial Park. Hope to see you there for this great cause and fun night!
The Pottstown Elks Lodge #814 is located at 61 E. High Street, Pottstown, PA.
100% of the net proceeds will be donated to The Pottstown Mercury’s “Operation Holiday,” which provides food and gift cards to the less fortunate.
Belle Rouge Salon hosting wine & cheese education evening
Belle Rouge Salon is hosting a night of wine and cheese education. It will be held at their salon at 257 E.High Street this Friday, November 16th from 7-9 pm. There is plenty of parking in the Borough lot across the street, on the corner of High and Charlotte, across from The Farmers’ Market.
Tickets are $25 per person with partial proceeds being donated to the Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities. For more info contact Tracy Williams @ 610 326-5400 or bellerougeonhigh@gmail.com.
Positively Pottstown blog 