Meetings
• West Middlesex High School class of 1965 meets for lunch at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Middlesex Diner in West Middlesex. Spouses are welcome. Info: Beverly Chlpka, 724-962-4806.
• Farrell High School class of 1961 gathers for lunch at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Legends Sports Pub & Grille, 3601 E. State St., Hermitage. All classmates, spouses and guests are welcome.
• Brookfield Senior Group “Over the Hill Gang” meets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 20 at the firehall on state Route 7 in Brookfield. Lunch will be available for $3. There will be bingo and cards with prizes.
Dr. Nicola B. Nicoloff will discuss “Current Concepts in Cardiology.” Please note the change in the date. The group is meeting the third Friday of this month instead of the fourth Friday. All seniors are welcome.
Fundraisers
• Church of the Beloved Disciple, 1310 S. Center St. Ext., Pine Township, holds a soup fest from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 17. Cost is $6 a person or $5 if you take your own spoon and bowl. Cost includes a beverage and dessert. All surplus soup will be sold for a donation beginning at 6:30 p.m. Take your own containers. There will also be a basket raffle.
• St. Anthony’s Church bakers are taking orders for their holiday bake sale. Orders are to be picked up between 2 and 6 p.m. Nov. 18. Orders are being taken for breads, pumpkin and apple pies and cinnamon rolls. To order, call 724-347-5835 or 724-342-7391.
• Sonny’s Dreamcatchers Relay for Life/American Cancer Society fundraiser team will be set up at the Orchard Manor bazaar Nov. 20-21 in Grove City. The team will be selling fudge, cinnamon rolls, fruit dumplings, pies, jewelry, tie dyes and more. Info: 724-974-8864 or 724-974-8799.
• The Stoneboro Lion’s Club holds its 61st annual pancake and sausage supper from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 21 in the cafeteria of Lakeview High School. This is an all-you-can-eat meal served with juice, coffee, tea, milk and cookies. Cost is $7 for adults at the door or $6.50 in advance. Tickets for children younger than age 12 at the door are $3.50 and $3 in advance. Tickets available from any Lion’s Club member. Also available will be packages of freezer-ready whole hog sausage at the door for $2.50 a pound to take home. Proceeds will help with many local projects, groups, organizations and individuals.
• Brookfield United Methodist Church, 6951 Grove St., serves an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 21. Menu includes spaghetti, meatballs, salad bar, bread and butter, beverage and homemade dessert.
Cost is $7 for adults and $3 for children ages 6 to 12. Takeout orders available beginning at 3:30 p.m. Ticket info: 330-448-1001.
Kids stuff
• The Mercer County Family Center presents its annual Book Buddies Book Club. Parents and children ages 3 to 5 are invited to explore the benefits of early literacy through books, songs, activities and crafts. The program will be held at these times and locations:
• 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Dec. 8 in Reynolds.
• 10 to 11 a.m. Dec. 9 in Greenville.
• 2 to 3 p.m. Dec. 9 at Commodore Perry.
• 2 to 3 p.m. Dec. 10 in Jamestown.
Information or to pre-register, call Emily Jackson at 724-588-1018, ext. 1312, by Nov. 27. Registration is limited.
• West Hill Ministries presents Veggie Tales Operation: Christmas Child party from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Come have breakfast and see the latest Christmas video “St. Nicholas — A Story of Joyful Giving.” Help pack Christmas shoe boxes for children around the world. Take a shoe box and/or something to put in it for a child. Give a small toy, hard candy, toothbrush, hair clips, soap, wash cloth, etc. or just come and lend a hand. The goal is to pack 30 boxes.
• Learn about the wonders of the natural world with your child at McKeever Environmental Learning Center, near Sandy Lake, at 2 p.m. Sunday. You and your child will have a chance to experience nature through a series of partnered games and activities. Topics include how animals survive nature and how to tell trees apart. The event is geared toward children ages 6 and older. Adults must work with their children. This event will take place mainly outdoors so come dressed for the weather. Wear appropriate footwear for spending time off the trails. Participants will meet in the parking lot in front of the dining hall.
Info: www.mckeever.org or call 724-376-1022.
Class
• Buhl Community Recreation Center, Sharon, offers a lifeguard/CPR recertification Nov. 28. Water prelims are at 9:45 a.m.; water test at 11:15 a.m. and CPR test at 12:30 p.m. Info: 724-977-1631.
Community
Things to do
- Community
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Extension offers ‘Dining with Diabetes’
Back by popular demand, Penn State Cooperative Extension is offering a low-cost series of classes, “Dining with Diabetes: A Program for Adults with Diabetes and their Families,” to teach those with type 2 diabetes how to manage their disease.
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Sisters pretty accomplished
The most nerve-wracking moment in a pageant is when it comes down to the last two girls on stage, and 17-year-old Caroline Collins has stood in that spot three times in her life.
After two first-runner-up places in the National American Miss Pennsylvania Pageant, the pressure was really on for the Shenango Township girl the third time — her younger sister, Lexi, had taken the pre-teen crown in Harrisburg the day before in her first pageant run.
But Caroline wasn’t disappointed this year. In August, the Collins family celebrated the crowning of two daughters when the older sister was named Miss Pennsylvania Teen, and they all couldn’t be happier.
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‘Rat Packer’ pays homage to friend
When Jerry Chiodo was in the hospital, shortly before he died, Sirjio the Entertainer, his friend for 40 years, stole into his room one night after Chiodo’s family had left, and sang “New York, New York,” to him.
“I promised him right then, ‘I won’t let people forget you,’ ” Sirjio said.
Sirjio, of Farrell, has made good on his promise by creating the Jerry Chiodo Memorial Scholarship, a non-profit charity that plans to present music scholarships to high school students interested in careers in music.
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Pet project
There are two new faces at Strayhaven Animal Shelter in Hempfield Township, but they don’t belong to any cats or dogs.
Greenville-area residents Kristen Weaver and Todd Dunlap have been working as the shelter’s new managers since May, and they’ve already completed some upgrades to the property at 94 Donation Road.
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Car club hosting national antique car event here
Antique and classic cars are no strangers to local roads this time of year as old car enthusiasts cruise on sunny days.
Next week, expect to see not one or two cars as you drive around town, but dozens.
The folks who put on the Father’s Day Car Show will be hosting a national classic car tour Wednesday through Aug. 27 that will be based in the Shenango Valley.
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Flying fortress
“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” 88-year-old John Grosbeck said in a weak voice that was filled with emotion.
It was the first time Grosbeck had been on a bomber since 1944, he said. The local stop was part of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s “Salute to Veterans Tour,” and on Tuesday and Wednesday people had the chance to buy a seat on a flight aboard the “Aluminum Overcast” B-17G.
The Aluminum Overcast is at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pa., through today and will be at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport Sept. 14 and 15. Ground tours are offered for a small fee but are free to all veterans. -
Teen wins two World Open baton twirling titles
Brianna Colbert, daughter of Steven and Melissa Colbert, Hermitage, won World Open Three Baton Twirling and World Open Flag Twirling titles at the National Baton Twirling Association’s America’s Youth on Parade at Notre Dame University, July 20-23.
This National and World Open baton competition held in South Bend, Ind., had thousands of twirlers from all over the United States, Canada and representatives from other countries as well. While there,Simone Esters of Hermitage and Marissa Pierce of West Middlesex, members of the Shining Star Competition Team, represented Pennsylvania in the Miss Majorette of America Pageant, founded in 1945.
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Blues will fill air
The Sharon Arts and Music Initiative’s inaugural Sharon City Blues Fest, like its headliner, is “The Real Deal.”
Grammy Award nominee John Primer will take the stage along with local and regional blues musicians on Sept. 11 in downtown Sharon.
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Teaching with technology
Technology in the classroom is always changing and one Greenville teacher has spent the last three summers learning new skills through a program limited to a select few.
Jan Abernethy, a fifth-grade teacher at East Elementary School, was one of 75 teachers nationwide chosen to attend the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute, which is held at a different location each year.
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Actors visit Camelot
The magic and mysticism that abounds in the King Arthur legend has been just as prevalent in the life of a woman who has written a three-part play chronicling the history of Camelot’s famed ruler.
Youngstown native Carol Weakland said she’s been working for 12 years on the play that premiered last weekend: “The Arthurian Trilogy Part One, Arthur and Merlin: The Making of a King.” She was never able to assemble a cast to play the demanding roles or “whittle down” the lengthy script into a compact but complete show. But this year, everything came together.
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Extension offers ‘Dining with Diabetes’
