THERE IS A CHANCE FOR POTTSTOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT TO GET A LARGE GRANT FOR PROGRAMMING RELATED TO THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN PARENTS OF YOUNG STUDENTS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. PLEASE COME OUT TO ONE OF THESE COMMUNITY MEETINGS TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS!
The Pottstown School District and its community partners offer many resources for parent/child education and support, so that our students can get a good start academically, socially and emotionally. The Kellogg Foundation has funded the School District with a grant to determine how the home-school partnership can be strengthened, to find out what can be done to increase family participation, and to improve support for all children’s growth and development from birth through grade 3.
Four community conversations will be held at the end of May (5:30 to 7:30 pm on Tuesday, May 27 at the Pottstown Middle School, Wednesday, May 28 at Connections on High, Thursday, May 29 at Barth Elementary School and from 1-3 pm on Thursday, May 29 at the First Baptist Church). To succeed, we need Pottstown School District parents/caregivers from all social and ethnic groups to participate, to share their ideas, including the kinds of activities they want to participate in and what can be done to help them participate.
What is learned from these conversations will be shared with other community agencies and used in re-designing School District programs.This information will also be used as the basis to apply for a major grant to create programs parents said they want for themselves and for children 10 years old and younger. They key is to get as diverse a group of parents/caregivers to participate in these conversations, and to get as many of them to participate as possible.
Please come out, let’s talk and have your voices heard for our kids…their brighter future. For more info, contact 610-256-6370 or jbennett@pottstownsd.org.
Pre-K through Third Grade Parents/Caregivers in the Pottstown School District, what do you need to help your child succeed? Let’s talk…in a relaxed setting, with a FREE hot meal, raffles, giveaways and childcare.
Join us at any of these community conversations from 5:30 to 7:30 pm on Tuesday, May 27 at the Pottstown Middle School, Wednesday, May 28 at Connections on High, Thursday, May 29 at Barth Elementary School and from 1-3 pm on Thursday, May 29 at the First Baptist Church. For more info, contact 610-256-6370 or jbennett@pottstownsd.org.
For more info, contact:
Jane Bennett
PEAK Community Engagement Coordinator, Kellogg Planning Grant
Pottstown School District, 230 Beech Street, Pottstown, PA 19464
610-256-6370, jbennett@pottstownsd.org
If you are looking for a fun, action-packed skill-building camp for your budding basketball player in grades 4-9, now is the time to sign up for theSkills on The Hill Girls’ Basketball Camp!!
In case you didn’t know, I am the varsity girls’ basketball coach at The Hill School in Pottstown, and I will be running the camp with my sister, Michele Repko Dunleavy. We both have played the game at the high school and college levels and have many coaching years between us. Michele was named PAC-10 Coach of the Year in 1996!
The camp will run from June 17-20, from 9 am – 3 pm. The cost of $235 includes lunch, a t-shirt, and supervised swim daily, in addition to guest speakers, skill-building, and games. Michele and I ran a summer camp at Princeton Day School for 5 years so we are a well-oiled machine! Your daughter will have tons of fun and learn — just what you want from a summer program.
If your son would like to go to hoops camp too, there is a boys’ camp running the same days/times. They will also be teaching younger players – boys and girls – from 1st-3rd grades, so check that out as well if it fits your family’s needs.
The brochure can be found here. It’s got all the info you’ll need to sign up. If you have any questions, feel free to email srepko@thehill.org.
This comes to us from ArtFusion 19464. For quite some time I have been curious about what we know about the Lenni-Lenape in Pottstown. This looks to be an informative, fun, and fascinating way to re-connect with the Native Americans who lived upon and walked this land before us.
Native American Memorial
In 1859, workers clearing a mound in an area on the south side of the borough unearthed skeletal remains and artifacts of an ancestor of the Lenni-Lenape people. Over the next twelve years many more remains and artifacts were unearthed in this area. Many of the remains and items were initially exhibited locally, but over time they have been lost.
In 2000, then mayor Anne Jones headed up a campaign that resulted in the Memorial currently located at the intersection of South Franklin Street and Industrial Highway. The site sits on land generously donated by the family of Mr. Tim O’Conner, owner of Humphrey Flag Company.
The memorial, which was originally dedicated on May 5, 2000, is an acknowledgement and a recognition of the people whose spirits inhabit those grounds. Unfortunately, in recent years, the memorial has been neglected. In an effort to bring new life and attention to this memorial, Ron Williams and Clanmother Star Harbach have organized a re-dedication of the memorial on May 3 and a pow wow on May 3 and 4. Williams says: “The Memorial is my primary objective. The Pow Wow is a way of creating interest. I am hopeful that in time we can do more to make this memorial a local landmark that we can be proud of. It should be a place of cultural awareness. Future plans will include warm weather monthly story-telling circles, new plants representing the indigenous features of the pre-colonial period, a medicine wheel, lighting and a sculpture representing the culture of the Native Americans, for starters.”
The rededication ceremony will begin at 9am on Saturday, May 3 at the site, which is at the corner of Franklin St. and Industrial Highway near the river. Frankie and Johnnie’s has generously offered the use of their parking lot for those who want to attend. Afterwards the festivities will switch to Memorial Park.
The pow wow will take place from 10am-6pm on Saturday and from 10am-5pm on Sunday at the Veteran’s Memorial in Memorial Park. Visitors will be treated to dances from many different tribes. In between the dances, a storyteller will entertain and educate with traditional tales. Guests will be able to shop at different Native American vendors, who will be selling leather crafts, jewelry, beadwork, instruments, wood sculptures, herbal teas and more. Author Gretchen Hardy will be selling signed copies of her book. Buttons& Beads: Lenape Princess Wynonah and the Future President, an historical fiction book illustrated by Zoungy Kligge, takes what is known of these intrepid ancestors and weaves them into one Lenape woman, Wynonah, who becomes their collective voice. A portion of the sales of her book will be donated to the Memorial fundraiser. There will also be an interactive education tent run by Laura and Ron Buckwalterwhere visitors can learn more about the Lenape people. Outside of the main pow wow site, other local groups including ArtFusion 19464 will be set up.
The event will begin with a Grand Entrance and opening ceremony at 12pm on Saturday. Following the opening ceremony, there will be a Veteran’s Dance, where military veterans and those currently serving are invited to participate to honor their service. The dancing will continue until 6pm. At 7pm, group Spirit Wing entertain the community with a free concert open to the public. The pow wow on Sunday will also begin with a Grand Entrance at 12pm. The events that day will end at 5pm.
Clanmother Star will MC the event and Joe Camaho will be whip man for the event, a ceremonial position responsible for lining up the dancers for the Grand Entrance. Medicine Horse Singers will drum for the dancers.
The entrance fee for the pow wow is $5, cash only. Children 6 and under are free. Visitors can park in the Memorial Park lot and at the lot by the Carousel building on King Street. There will be a free trolley running from the Carousel parking lot up to Pottsgrove Manor, where the annual May Day festivities will also be taking place on Saturday.
Please note that the back gate at the Veteran’s Memorial in the park will be closed to the public. All events will run rain or shine.
The organizers and dancers ask that visitors only take pictures when they are told it is allowed, as a matter of respect. Those who do not follow these rules will be escorted from the event.This is a pet friendly event. Well-behaved pets on a leash are welcome, and owners are asked to be courteous and clean up after their pets.
All funds raised during this weekend will go toward establishing an annual celebration and the maintenance and improvement of the monument. The site will be updated to make it a place of learning, with a regular schedule of storytelling and other events that will take place on site. The pow wow will be an annual event, in an effort to continue the recognition of what was lost.
In conjunction with this effort to create the awareness of the Native American contribution to the history of this nation, Representative Mark Painter will also be presenting a resolution in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on June 2, to recognize this year as the 90th anniversary since Native Americans were granted full United States citizenship. Until 1924, Native Americans were not citizens of the United States, but on June 2, 1924 Congress granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. under the Indian Citizenship Act.
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