Month: May 2013

Pottstown Memorial Day Parade begins at 10 am; service to follow

Pottstown’s annual Memorial Day Parade will begin at 10 am tomorrow, May 27th. Following the parade, a Memorial Service will be held on the island in Memorial Park near the intersection of Manatawny and Third Streets.

The parade starts at 10 am in front of Goodwill Fire Company on High Street, near the intersection with Bailey Street, goes to Manatawny Street, turns right,  crosses over King Street and into the park. It lasts about 45 minutes – 1 hour. If the parade is cancelled because of rain, the service will be held at Goodwill Fire Company.

Beginning around 6 am, KYW 1060 AM will announce if the parade will be cancelled due to inclement weather.

Please come out and remember those who have served our country – that’s what this holiday is all about!

Hill Student Philanthropy Council awards grants to local nonprofits

Here is some great news brought to us by The Hill School, where the Student Philanthropy Council has been learning how to be an effective philanthropist with Pottstown area nonprofits as the beneficiaries. For more info, click the link at the end of the next paragraph. As a resident and board member of PDIDA, I am personally grateful for the grant to PDIDA, which will help us implement some measures to improve safety and the downtown experience for visitors and residents.

Led by co-presidents Nabil Shaikh ’13 (Reading, Pa.) and Auguste Boova ’13 (Pottstown, Pa.), The Hill School’s Student Philanthropy Council (SPC) recently presented checks totaling $10,000 to four local nonprofit organizations to help fund those entities’ educational and community programs: Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority ($2,110); The Growing Center ($2,690); Montgomery Child Advocacy Project ($2,500); and the Pottstown Cluster of Religious Organizations ($2,700).  Read more about the recipients of the 2013 grants.

The SPC was established in 2009 through a gift to The Hill School courtesy of Charles A. Frank III, Hill ’59, and his wife, Betty. Hill student participants solicit and evaluate local nonprofit requests for funding, and then award a total of $10,000 in grants each year. Last year, through the Franks’ leadership and the generosity of  several other donors, The Student Philanthropy Council became an endowed program at the School with the establishment of The Student Philanthropy Council Endowment in honor of Kay and David Dougherty.

20th Annual National Senior Health & Fitness Day at the Pottstown YMCA

The Pottstown YMCA, a Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA Branch at 724 North Adams Street, will host a Senior Fitness Day on Wednesday, May 29 from 9 am – 1 pm.  This event is free for ages 55 and older and open to the community.

The YMCA staff invites you to come tour and try free classes like Water Walking, HydroFit, Walking with Weights or come play Pickleball.  Area vendors from our community such as AAA, AARP, Canine Partners, Comfort Keepers, Mainline Financial, PMSI, Silver & Fit, Walmart Pharmacy and the VNA, will be present to help increase participants knowledge of common conditions associated with aging.  For a detailed schedule of activities, please call 610.323.7300,

Join the Y by May 31st and save $75 – www.PhilaYMCA.org!

The Pottstown YMCA is a participating Silver & Fit Facility.

The YMCA mission is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

Call for Artists: “Art on the Hill -The Pottstown Art Show”

The 3rd annual open juried event, “Art on the Hill-The Pottstown Art Show” is being presented by the Pottstown Area Artists Guild in collaboration with the Hill School Center for the Arts from Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 9, 2013. The opening reception on May 31st from 5 – 9 pm is free, open to the public, and includes music, food, beverages and a 7 pm awards ceremony where the show’s outstanding artists will be recognized with prizes of over $1,000.

Awards are Best of Show ($250), First Place ($200), Second Place ($150), Third Place ($100), 6 Honorable Mention Awards ($50), Hill School/ Curators Choice Awards ($100), and Arthur & David Nuzzo Award for photography ($250). Ellen O. Nelson, The Hill School Boyer Gallery Coordinator and Art Department Chair, will be this year’s Juror.

The show is open to all area artists, both members and non-members. Artists may submit up to 3 pieces of artwork but the 3rdpiece must be $250 or less. All artwork must be for sale. Artwork can be delivered to The Boyer Gallery on Tuesday, May 28, from 2-7 pm and Wednesday, May 29, from 9 am- 12 pm.

New this year: In “Scenes of The Hill,” PAAG will designate a small section of the art show to art painted en plein air at The Hill and art that depicts The Hill School. Artists are also invited to paint en plein air during the week of the art show on The Hill School campus. Call BarbaraTschantre for more information about plein air painting at 610-764-7586.

Please visit the Pottstown Area Artists Guild website, www.paag.info, to view their prospectus for more information on artwork size requirements, cost to submit artwork, and other information.

The art show will be open daily 11 am to 4 pm from Saturday, June 1 through Sunday, June 9 at the Boyer Gallery in the Hill School Center for the Arts at Beech and Sheridan Streets in Pottstown, PA.

Using Mindful Management to Control Routine Costs

This article is brought to you by the Pottstown chapter of SCORE, “Counselors to America’s Small Business.” SCORE is a nonprofit organization of more than 13,000 volunteer business counselors who provide free, confidential business counseling and training workshops to small business owners. Call 610-327-2673 for the Pottstown SCORE chapter, or find a counselor online at www.pottstownscore.org.
Use Mindful Management to Control Routine Costs

You’re very meticulous when it comes to providing quality service or products to your customers.  So why treat your routine administrative expenses the same way?  Every extra dime or dollar you spend on supplies, photocopies, postage, etc. adds up.  Taken together, those “little things” can take a huge chunk out of your profits.

Stiff competition and thin profit margins have made running lean a necessity for most small businesses, so it’s important to establish smart buying habits from the outset. The steps are not complicated, nor do they require fancy financial formulas. Cutting costs is all about common sense.  You just have to know where to look.

Here are five ways to save your small business money on the simple things:

1)    Avoid buying only name-brand items in small quantities. Shop for bargains online. Superstores like Office Depot, Staples and Office Max offer “store brands” at reduced prices. And when you establish an online account, they’ll often send coupons worth $10 or $20 off orders of $100 or more.

2)    Don’t photocopy high-volume items that you can print for less. Copies typically cost five to 15 cents each, even if you do them yourself, including paper, toner, labor and maintenance. Printing can lower costs to three cents or less. The biggest cost items are forms, flyers and form letters that you think you use in small quantities. But if you photocopy a few dozen per week, that can be thousands per year and you could save by having it printed.

3)    Think of your inventory as company cash sitting on a shelf or in a warehouse doing nothing. Costs include storage, insurance and taxes, among others. Keep good records and regularly root out dead items.

4)    Express shipments for next morning delivery are costly. Consider next afternoon or maybe two- or three-day service.

5)    Review vendor relationships at least annually for Internet services, phone, wireless, DSL, shipping, legal, printing and other day to day expenses. Prices and package deals change and you may be overpaying.

Spending wisely on your routine expenses also helps you be more alert for ideas that will make other aspects of your operations more cost-effective.  It all adds up to better value for your customers, and a healthier bottom line for your business.

Schuylkill River Sojourn celebrates 15 years

This comes to us from Laura Catalano at the Schuylkill River Heritage Area…

SCHUYLKILL RIVER SOJOURN

 WILL CELEBRATE 15 YEARS OF CELEBRATING THE RIVER

From June 1-7 over 200 paddlers will take a Civil War Odyssey down the Schuylkill River

In June, the Annual Schuylkill River Sojourn will celebrate 15 years of celebrating the river.  As always, it will bring a flotilla of colorful kayaks and canoes from Schuylkill Haven to Philadelphia from June 1-7, stopping along the way in river towns and parks. The event will be highlighted by programming at every stop on the region’s role in the Civil War.

For 15 years, the sojourn has been organized by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, in Pottstown, in order to draw attention to the river as a beautiful natural, historic and recreational resource. Over that time period, more than 3,000 registrants from 20 states and Canada have participated.

This year, over 200 paddlers will take all or part of the weeklong, 112-mile guided canoe/kayak tour. A record number, 59, will make the full trip, launching their kayaks from Schuylkill Haven on June 1, traveling through five-counties (Schuylkill, Berks, Chester, Montgomery and Philadelphia), and bidding goodbye to the river at Philadelphia’s Boat House Row on June 7.

Each day, a maximum of 100 boats will be on the water—a sight that is welcomed by people who cheer the sojourners on at bridges and roadsides along the way. The paddlers will visit a number of communities in the region when they stop for lunch and camp out in riverside parks.

 “Over the years, the Schuylkill River Sojourn has gained a reputation for being one of the best sojourns in the state,” said Schuylkill River Heritage Area Executive Director Kurt Zwikl. “It has made a significant impact on this region, encouraging recreational boating on the river, and spawning the development of the Schuylkill River Water Trail.”

 A water trail is a waterway that is prepared for recreational boating with boat launches, maps and guides. The Schuylkill River Water Trail has been recognized by the American Canoe Association as a “Recommended Water Trail.”

One reason the Schuylkill River Sojourn is highly regarded is that it has a strong educational emphasis. Each year, programs focusing on the river’s history, culture or environment are incorporated into the lunch and evening stops. The public is invited to attend all programs at evening campsites at no charge.

This year’s program theme is A Civil War Odyssey, in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first evening, spent at a Port Clinton campsite, sojourners will hear about a regiment of coal miners who tunneled under the enemy. The following night, they’ll watch a one-woman play about Hopewell Furnace during the Civil War era. They’ll learn about the First Defenders at the Gibraltar campsite, see a living history program on Civil War buglers in Pottstown, discover the region’s role in the Underground Railroad in Mont Clare, and meet Gen. George Meade in Conshohocken. (See attached for a list of public programs).

Highlighting the lunch programming is a presentation by Gettysburg National Historic Park Superintendent Bob Kirby on the park’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg. That will take place at 12 p.m. on Monday June 3, in Reading Riverfront Park, in Reading.

While the Schuylkill River Sojourn is clearly a recreational endeavor, its primary purpose is to draw attention to the river as this region’s most critical natural resource and a source of drinking water for over 1.5 million people. Studies show that when people paddle a river, they are more likely to be concerned about the health of that river, and to take measures to protect it.

The Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, managed by the non-profit Schuylkill River Greenway Association, uses conservation, education, recreation, historic and cultural preservation and tourism as tools for community revitalization and economic development. www.schuylkillriver.org/sojourn.aspx.

Support local Vietnam Veterans Chapter 565: Eat at Wendy’s today from 5-8 pm

Our local Vietnam veterans take care of the memorial in Memorial Park; they participate in Memorial Day programs at local schools; they annually replace the flags at veterans’ plots in area cemeteries; they properly retire used flags; and they are instrumental in Memorial Day and Fourth of July parades.

Please consider supporting these efforts!

And mark your calendars for Sept. 20, 2013 when the exhibit When We Were Soldiers will open at ArtFusion 19464 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. ArtFusion is looking for Vietnam veterans to participate in numerous ways. Sponsorships are also still available. Call ArtFusion at 610-326-2506.

 

Register today for River Sojourn to avoid late fee!

15th Annual
Schuylkill River Sojourn
Friday May 10th is the last day to register to avoid the late fee! 
2013 Sojourn Theme: A Civil War Odyssey 

 June 1-7, 2013  

 Register online now

or

Download a mail-in registration form  

 
  • Register by May 10 to avoid a late fee.  Registrations received after May 10 will be automatically charged a $10 late fee. No registrations can be accepted after May 25.
  • There are plenty of spaces available for Tuesday June 4 through Friday June 7. Learn more about these days. Registration is full for the first three days and full-trip.
  • Click here for more information, pricing, itinerary, or photos.

The Schuylkill River Sojourn is a 7-day, 112-mile guided paddle from Schuylkill Haven to Boathouse Row in Philadelphia that is organized annually by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.  Participants can register for one day or the entire week.

Photos: 2012 Sojourn Courtesy Jeremy Quant

West End Alley hosts The Nostalgics tonight!

West End Alley, Pottstown’s newest nightclub, proudly presents The Nostalgics!
Friday, May 10th – 6pm
107 E. High Street
Pottstown, Pa 19464

Step back in time and enjoy the rich sounds of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin as well as other Neopolitan favorites. Dinner and dessert will be served along with light refreshments.

BYOB-beer and wine only please!

Visit www.ticketpeak.com/wea
to purchase your tickets online with your choice of seating!

Please contact us at 484-925-1100 with any questions or to purchase tickets in person.

Cheers!
Hattie & Ed

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