Category: Events

The Happenings!

The TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce has two events coming up this month. On March 23rd, the REACH group has a luncheon at Sunnybrook Ballroom 11:30-1:00 featuring Leslie Richards, General Manager of SEPTA. There is also a Boyertown Area Progress Dinner on March 30th at 5:00 pm until 8:30 at La Massaria at Bella Vista Golf Course. For more info on either event, see the Chamber website https://business.tricountyareachamber.com/events/calendarcatgid/11

Hobart’s Run is holding Block Clean-ups on May 7th and 21st. They are always happy to lend equipment if you would like to host your own block clean-up, too. There will also be a Neighborhood Summit on May 14th, and don’t forget the Community Yard Sale they are hosting on June 4th. For more information on any of these events, go to https://hobartsrunpottstown.org/news-events

Montgomery County Community College (West Campus) will also be holding a community clean-up on April 23rd at 11:00 am, with participants meeting at North Hall. To celebrate MCCC’s West Campus 25th Anniversary, there will be fireworks in Riverfront Park April 21st.

The show Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 opens at Steel River Playhouse on Friday, March 11th. For tickets, go to https://steelriver.secure.force.com/ticket#/events/a0S3l00000FLalIEAT

This is the final weekend for the All-District show Shrek: The Musical being staged in the Pottstown High School auditorium. Tickets may be purchased at https://www.showtix4u.com/events/15289

The Pottstown Housing Coalition is looking for Pottstown residents to participate in a survey about their experience interacting with the Borough website, as well as the Licensing and Inspections department. To take the short survey, please go to https://s.surveyplanet.com/tdvrzbib

The Montgomery County Partners for Homeownership is holding a free virtual workshop entitled MORTGAGES – What you should know! on Tuesday, March 8th at 6:00 pm. For more info, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtdOivrD8sHdZETJR7Sb0DJpLmHSyzjrvN

ArtFusion 19464 is running their eight-week Create with a Cop art series and a new session begins April 7th. Contact ArtFusion for more information at (610) 326-2506.

There will be a community clean-up day and an Art Fair at Edgewood Cemetery on April 30th beginning at 9:00 am, and many hands are needed. The Art Fair will benefit the cemetery maintenance fund. For more information on Edgewood and how to support the efforts there, go to https://www.facebook.com/edgewoodcemeterypottstown/

Schuylkill River Greenways will be hosting the International Paddling Film Festival in Riverfront Park on May 21st, complete with Kayak programming and a sale on last year’s kayaks. In addition, the Schuylkill River Sojourn begins the third week of June. The sojourn will hit Pottstown on the evening of June 20th. For more info, go to https://schuylkillriver.org/

The Pottstown YMCA will be hosting a blood drive on March 17th from 2-7 pm, and the address is 724 N Adams Street. The next day, there will be a Family Night activity there, too. For more information, call the YMCA at (610) 323-7300.

A Bit of Everything

Upcoming Community Events

In no particular order, here are a few upcoming community events and announcements:

Pottstown Housing Coalition is asking for community participation on a survey regarding interactions with Pottstown Borough and the borough website. The survey can be found here: https://s.surveyplanet.com/tdvrzbib

Hobart’s Run will be holding a community yard sale June 4th (rain date will be June 5th) to benefit Edgewood Cemetery and other Hobart’s Run programming. It will cost $10 a table and be held on the grass at Edgewood Cemetery. There will also be an art fair and community clean-up event at Edgewood Cemetery on April 30th. For more info, go to: https://hobartsrunpottstown.org/ or follow Edgewood Cemetery at https://www.facebook.com/edgewoodcemeterypottstown.

Montgomery County Community College (West Campus) has a number of event’s coming up: a Spring Open House will be held April 9th; Come celebrate the 25th anniversary of West Campus with fireworks and food trucks at 8:00 pm, April21st on the campus; The Challenger Center is expected to open this year, so an event is being planned for August 26th-27th. 5th and 8th grade classes can interact with the center virtually sometime in March. https://www.mc3.edu/choosing-montco/our-campuses/pottstown-campus

The Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the Pottstown Progress Luncheon on February 16th at Sunnybrook Ballroom. For more info, go to https://business.tricountyareachamber.com/events/details/pottstown-progress-luncheon-2022-856681. On February 11th, the REACH group of the Chamber will have a field trip to see Disenchanted at Steel River Playhouse. For more information on joining REACH or other events, contact Alice Funk at the Chamber, alice@tricountyareachamber.com.

The Winter/Spring session of classes are about to begin at ArtFusion 19464. These will include some free programs for kids. There will also be a show and an associated fundraiser titled “Revival” made up of upcylced art and furniture. For more info, go to https://artfusion19464.org/.

Steel River Playhouse is holding auditions for an upcoming show and is looking for a diverse cast. Here is the flyer for the auditions:

Steel River has some great shows coming up. For tickets and information, please go to the website, https://www.steelriver-playhouse.org/.

Vaccine clinics are held every Tuesday and Thursday at Bethel Community Church. For information: https://egov.montcopa.org/3748/Vaccine-Clinic-Directions-and-Parking-In

Mosaic Community Land Trust is looking for a person to serve on its Board in the position of treasurer. If you or someone you know would be interested, please contact Tracy Purdy trcpurdy@yahoo.com.

Operation 143 is holding a food drive all through the month of February. For information on items needed and their mission, please go to: https://operation143.org/.

Pottstown Regional Library has a variety of fun and free programming for children, youth and adults. To learn more, go to: http://www.eventkeeper.com/mars/xpages/M/MONTCO/ekp.cfm?curOrg=MONTCO&curKey1=Pottstown%20Public%20Library

To catch up on the local happenings every week, join Porchcast Pottstown Thursday nights at 6:00 on YouTube, Facebook Live or in person at Pottstown United Brewing Company. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2UbXqAsqiV4vtlyjyJbOGA.

Do you have an event you would like us to share? Contact Tracy Purdy at tracy.purdy@temple.edu with all of the information and we will post it on our blog and Facebook page. Or tag Positively Pottstown in your posts!

Hometown Garden Tour!

If you are like me, by this time, you are pretty tired of being at home. During Covid19, our family has gratefully enjoyed the drive-in movies at Sunnybrook, and we have hiked almost every trail in a ten-mile radius of Pottstown, but we are ready for something new.

This upcoming weekend, July 18th, is the Pottstown and Boyertown Home Garden Tour. This is a tour of ten of the areas most interesting private gardens, past winners of the Grow For it Garden Contest, organized by Mosaic Community Land Trust, Building a Better Boyertown and Sponsored by the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation. The self-guided tour runs from 8:00 am to noon and can begin in either Pottstown or Boyertown.

Tickets are $10 per person in advance, $15 on the day of the tour. Social distancing should be practiced and masks worn while in the gardens. To purchase tickets, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pottstown-and-boyertown-garden-tour-tickets-109187326232

For more information, email info@mosaicclt.org or contact Mosaic Community Land Trust on Facebook.

Get Your Tickets for The Historic Pottstown Holiday Tour

historic holiday tour image 2019

Tickets are on sale now for the Historic Pottstown Holiday Tour which will be Sunday, December 8, from noon until 5:00 pm.

The Borough of Pottstown boasts many stunning, historic buildings – and
many will be festively decorated and warmly opened to the public tour.
All proceeds will benefit the Third Annual Pottstown GoFourth! fireworks festival in Memorial Park. (See below for details on how to enjoy the various holiday activities). This year’s festival will have a “Sunny 2020” Woodstock theme, planners say. In the meantime, holiday lovers can get in the spirit on December 8, beginning with a tea at the Elk’s Club, 61 E. High St., between noon and 3 p.m.

A trolley, sponsored by ROG Orthodontics and Pottstown Area Rapid Transit, will shuttle historic house tour-goers to about one dozen stops throughout the Borough while Pottstown historian Mike Snyder shares fascinating stories about our town’s past. The trolley tours will begin at 1:00 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m., both leaving from Emmanuel Lutheran Church at 150 N. Hanover St. Cookies and punch — and raffle baskets — will be offered at Emmanuel, too.

Event planners note that the tickets are selling rapidly – with more than one half of the Historic Pottstown Trolley Tour available seats already taken.

A self-guided tour of the historic properties, all lovingly decorated for the season, may be taken between 1 and 5 p.m. A shuttle service will be provided to those interested, courtesy of Tompkins VIST Bank and Pottstown Area Rapid Transit. “This is a wonderful opportunity to peek inside some of Pottstown’s fantastic homes, many of which are perfect examples of architecture ranging from Queen Ann Victorian to Revival styles,” says Jo Bathurst, chair of the GoFourth! Historic Pottstown Holiday Tour. “The property owners who are participating will pull out all the stops to showcase these Pottstown gems. We truly appreciate their generosity in welcoming guests into their homes.”

“Even if you can’t enjoy the tour in person, you can show your pride in our beautiful community by purchasing the 2020 Pottstown Historic House Tour calendar, beautifully photographed by local artist Carol Brightbill,” adds Amy Francis, Pottstown GoFourth co-chair.

small calendar front 2019         small calendar back 2019

An Undervalued Asset in Our Community

 

My youngest daughter came to us during her Junior year in high school, disgruntled and restless about what to do the following year with her school schedule. She only needed a few more credits to graduate, and was looking at her options. She considered moving to a cyber charter school, trying to graduate early, and even home schooling, briefly. She went in to discuss it with her guidance counselor, who suggested she look at a dual-credit program the high school had set up in cooperation with Montgomery County Community College. The way it worked, she would take all her classes at the college, and the classes would count not only toward her high school graduation, but toward college credit as well. We would be required to pay regular tuition at the community college to participate in the program, but for a full year of college credit, it was a bargain price by any standard, so my daughter immediately enrolled. My daughter, as well as my husband and I, consider the year she spent at MCCC to be of incredible value.

The main campus is located in Blue Bell, but the college has its West Campus located right here in Pottstown, just off the Hanover Street exit of 422, and convenient to all the High Street restaurants and stores, at 101 College Drive. It is home to an art gallery, theater, library and bookstore, as well as the recently added Sustainability and Innovation Hub. Many of MCCC’s students live in Pottstown, but many more come into Pottstown from surrounding communities. The college offers degree programs in many areas of education including Business Administration, Education, Psychology, Criminal Justice, Mathematics, and many others. In addition, academic programming at West Campus’s University Center allows students to take a selection of courses and pursue a range of degrees offered by Albright University, Alvernia University, and Chestnut Hill College.

The college also offers credit certificate programs that can be completed in Pottstown in Medical Assisting, Human Services, and Addictions. There are Continuing Education programs, summer camps, a Culinary Arts Institute (located in Lansdale), as well as online courses. The college also offers events for the community, two of which are coming up next week. There will be a College Jump Start event beginning June 17th and running through the 21st (see flyer below), as well as the upcoming Community Career Fair on June 18th. For more information on either of these two events, contact Christine Morris at cmorris@mc3.edu or call (610)718-1802.

To stay connected with what is being offered by way of events, follow this link, or go the the MCCC website, and click on the For the Community tab.

Montco College Jumpstart

Montco Community Career Fair

Get out there and Go Fourth!

Help Support the Festival

 

The Pottstown GoFourth! Festival is many festivals – a music festival, a food festival, a kid’s festival and a 4th of July festival – all rolled into one giant festival!

Entirely funded by donations and sponsorships, without a penny of taxpayer dollars, this year’s GoFourth Festival will begin at 11:30 a.m., immediately after the Rotary Club-sponsored July 4 parade beginning at 10:15 a.m.

Fireworks cost about $1,000 per minute in addition to ancillary costs such as security costs, permits, and traffic control.  “We cannot begin to fund this festival through bucket collections alone,” says co-chairperson Amy Wolf, adding that the volunteers still are seeking two headlining fireworks sponsors of $10,000 each (or one official and extraordinarily generous sponsor at $20,000).

Volunteers have raised about $35,000 toward a $55,000 goal that will ensure a spectacular, old-fashioned fireworks display by International Fireworks of Douglassville, Pa., at 9:15 p.m. in Memorial Park on Thursday, July 4, as part of the Third Annual Pottstown GoFourth! Festival.

Putting on a community festival of this size takes a village! To volunteer with festival set-up (July 3), during the festival, and/or festival break-down (July 5) please visit http://www.pottstowngofourth.com/volunteer.

Help Support the Fireworks and The Pottstown GoFourth! Festival

Area businesses and citizens play a vital role in ensuring the success of this year’s all- volunteer led effort to throw a spectacular July 4 event for the community and guests.

Tax-deductible donations can be made by donating online at PottstownGoFourth.org, or by sending a check made payable to the TriCounty Community Network (TCN); donors should note “Attention: GoFourth” in the memo line on the check.  Checks may be mailed to Pottstown GoFourth! Festival, PO Box 1362, Pottstown, PA 19464.

Businesses or individuals may sponsor various entertainment providers and activities – and in exchange they will receive outstanding publicity and other benefits including (for upper level sponsors) preferred seating during the fireworks display.  To learn more about becoming a sponsor, go to PottstownGoFourth.com or email PottstownGoFourth@gmail.com.

Similarly, quality arts and crafts vendors will feature their wares, but additional artisans are encouraged to participate. Again, the PottstownGoFourth.com website provides relevant information. Vendor applications can be found at: www.pottstowngofourth.com/vendor-apps.

Friends of Pottstown GoFourth! Festival can purchase GoFourth! merchandise, including the popular hats, which always sell out quickly, at https://www.pottstowngofourth.com/gofourthgear while supplies last.

Please look for updates about Pottstown GoFourth! at www.pottstowngofourth.com and at www.facebook.com/PottstownGoFourth and http://www.twitter.com/GoFourthFest. 

Event Information

Go-Fourth-color-800

This year’s festivities will be kicked-off with the singing of the National Anthem by Jo Ann Bathurst at 11:30 a.m., immediately followed by the crowning of the 2019 Royal Court. Homecoming Queens and Kings from the Pottstown, Owen J. Roberts, Boyertown, and Spring-Ford school districts are encouraged to compete through fundraising to be named King and Queen of the Pottstown GoFourth! Royal Court – and the second-highest fundraisers will be named the Prince and Princess of the Court. Students are conducting their own fundraising drives through activities that may include collection cans at local venues, a car wash, bake sale, and so forth. All funds must be submitted by the end of the business day on Friday, June 28, at VIST bank, 258 E. High Street, Pottstown. All Royal Court competitors may appear in the July 4 parade. Winners also will receive two passes for VIP seating for the fireworks show and a Pottstown GoFourth! Festival gift bag including an official Festival t-shirt.

Last year’s diverse, professional live entertainment was a real hit with attendees.  This year’s line-up includes:  Anakai and the Grooveyard; AfroBear presented by Montgomery County Community College; Stephanie Grace, presented by Pottstown Parks & Recreation; Hector Rosado & Orchestra Hache; and Funktion.

The festival is jam-packed with activities geared toward families, including the noon to 5 p.m. return appearance of “Grandpop Bubbles,” a performance artist who creates enormous bubbles to delight young and old alike.  Grandpop Bubbles’ performance and all of the children’s activities for the day are being generously sponsored by ROG Orthodontics. Other attractions will be inflatable rides and attractions, from noon to 8 p.m.; Rainbow the Clown face-painting artists from 1 to 5 p.m.; and a Rain Gutter Regatta presented by Pottstown Cub Scout Packs 249 & 146 from 5 – 7 p.m. Community members interested in participating in the Rain Gutter Regatta please contact Raymond Rose at 484-366-7096.

In addition, local non-profit organizations will offer games, prizes, and giveaways.

The U.S. Hot Air Balloon Team will have a balloon launch of multiple balloons from the park around 6 p.m.

The all-important food offerings have grown quickly, and this year the vendor fare will include pizza cones, Asian dumplings and rolls, BBQ, ice cream, Latin food, banana whip, burritos, and more.  The popular Sly Fox Beer Tent also will return.  There are still a few spaces left for food vendors. For more information please visit: www.pottstowngofourth.com/vendor-apps.

This year’s Featured Community Partner is The Colebrookdale Railroad, which will offer short runs from noon – 4 p.m. (adults $10/children $5) and a Fireworks Express Run at 7 p.m. starting at the Colebrookdale Railroad Boyertown Station. Fireworks Express passengers will enjoy VIP seating for the fireworks display. For more information or to purchase tickets please visit www.colebrookdale.com.

The 2019 Pottstown GoFourth! Festival would like to recognize the following top-level sponsors to-date:  Gold sponsors include (in alphabetical order), Hobart’s Run, Precision Polymer, Reading Orthodontic Group, and Wolf, Baldwin & Associates; silver sponsors include American Keg Company, Key Bank, O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei, PC, Sager & Sager Associates, the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board, The Victory Bank, and Tompkins VIST Bank;  bronze sponsors include the American Heritage Credit Union, Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust, PA Industrial Equipment, and PECO.

The Pottstown GoFourth! organization is a Pennsylvania not-for-profit corporation, operating under the 501 (c)(3) umbrella of the TriCounty Community Network, which manages all GoFourth! finances and reporting.  Co-Chairperson Amy Francis emphasizes that not a penny of taxpayer money supports the July 4 festivities, which is why fundraising is so essential.  “No Pottstown Borough funds help to pay for this celebration,” Francis says.  “It is completely funded by sponsorships and donations made by businesses and individuals who want to offer our greater Pottstown community a fun, family-oriented event — a happening that showcases all the positive community spirit and amenities Pottstown has to offer.”

Parties interested in marching or driving in the Pottstown Rotary Club July 4th parade should contact pottstownrotary@gmail.com as soon as possible to register. There is a modest registration fee that will cover traffic control and other related expenses.   The parade will begin at 10:15 a.m. at High and Adams Streets and continue west to Manatawny Street – and participants as well as spectators will be encouraged to continue on to the King Street entrance of Memorial Park to participate in the GoFourth! Festival.

The Rotary Club also will hold its 27th Annual Duck Race on Manatawny Creek the afternoon of July 4, with a 4 p.m. duck launch.  By selling duck sponsorships, the Rotary will benefit charities in the greater Pottstown area – including Pottstown GoFourth.  To purchase a Rotary duck, go to pottstownrotary.org or purchase a duck at the GoFourth festival on July 4; to make a parade contribution, please send a tax-deductible donation to the Pottstown Rotary Community Endowment Fund (PRCEF) via P.O. Box 227, Pottstown, PA.  19464.

Pottstown GoFourth! Festival also will sell 2019 duck ticket and Pottstown GoFourth! Festival merchandise, including newly designed collectable Pottstown GoFourth! Festival baseball caps (while limited supplies last), at the Pottstown and Douglassville Redner’s markets on Sunday, June 16 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday June 30 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

(While there is not a rain date for the entire festival, the rain date for fireworks only will be July 7.)

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