The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA – If Halloween is your thing – or if it’s not, too – the coming weekend is filled with events intended to make you smile and, in some cases, help others.

A wide variety of Halloween holiday-themed events are planned for both children and adults, as the list below shows. For those looking for alternatives to Halloween, some area churches have scheduled those as well. And at several events, food or financial contributions will be collected to benefit local organizations and causes.

• These events have been added to The Post calendar.

Thursday, Oct. 28

An annual Halloween safe house for area children, sponsored by the Genesis Health Care centers, will be held Thursday from 5-7:30 p.m. at Sanatoga Court and Sanatoga Center, 227 and 225 Evergreen Rd. (respectively), Sanatoga PA. The free event features trick-or-treating at the rooms of some of the facilities’ residents, games, a mildly haunted house, and food. For more information, call 610-718-0900.

Friday, Oct. 29

Trick-or-treating and a costume contest are on the agenda Friday from 5-7 p.m. at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets, West Lightcap Road off the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, Limerick PA. The “Halloween Spooktacular,” as the event is being called, includes prizes for best costumes provided by the Famous Footwear Outlet, Lindt Chocolate, Maidenform, Nike and other merchants. The event is open to “children of all ages,” promoters say. Registration will be held near the food court from 5-6:30 p.m. For more information, call 610-495-9000.

The 20th annual Halloween Safehouse, Treat Trail and Food Drive – with a vampire theme – will be held Friday from 6-8 p.m. in the Freedom Valley YMCA at Adams and Jackson streets, Pottstown PA. The event is open to all children age 12 and younger, but they must be accompanied by an adult. The donation of a canned food item, which will be given to local pantries for families in need, is the price of admission. For more information, call 610-323-7300.

A witches’ brew (tea, that is) will be served up with a history of witches in America on Friday beginning at 6 p.m. in the Gilbertsville Tea Room, 1259 E. Philadelphia Ave., Gilbertsville PA. Guests are invited to wear their best witchy costume for the occasion. Tickets cost $30, plus tax and gratuity. Advance reservations, and a 50-percent deposit are required. For more information, call 610-369-0678.

Students of the “A Step In Time” dance studio, 2423 E. High St., Sanatoga PA, will do the spooking Friday and Saturday from 6-9 p.m. during a haunted house fund-raiser being held at the studio. A $5 admission fee will be charged, and all proceeds benefit the studio’s dance company. For more information, call 610-323-6732.

Saturday, Oct. 30

What has become an annual Halloween dance for historic Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Sanatoga PA, will be held Saturday from 7-11 p.m. at the ballroom. Tickets purchased in advance cost $25, and at the door, $32. Cash prizes will be awarded to the night’s best costumed man and woman, so plan to dress the part. For more information, call 484-624-5186.

A Step In Time haunted house, in Sanatoga PA, 6-9 p.m. See Friday’s listing.

The Phoenixville Area Time Bank, a non-profit community group, is sponsoring its fifth annual “Halloween Bash” fund-raiser – a night of music, dancing, food, and beverages – Saturday from 7-11 p.m. at Franklin Commons, in Phoenixville PA. The band “National Bird” will be featured. The evening includes a silent auction and drawings for prizes donated by area merchants. All proceeds benefit the Time Bank. Tickets are $25 in advance, or $30 at the door. For more information or to make a reservation, call Coordinator Margo Ketchum at 610-608-9281. www.pa-timebank.org

Sunday, Oct. 31

The Halloween program at the Daniel Boone Homestead, 400 Daniel Boone Road, Birdsboro PA, is planned for Sunday from 1-4 p.m. with some old-fashioned partying, according to Interpretive Coordinator Amanda Bowman. It consists of pumpkin and face painting, stories told ’round a campfire, and play with 18th Century toys and games. Children in costume are welcome, and all will be encouraged to make the rounds to the homestead’s various historic buildings to collect a treat or two. Tickets for the event cost $4 per child age 3-15, and $3 per adult (considered age 16 or older). For more information, call 610-582-4900.

See the scary-crow products of the fertile imaginations of Skippack PA area residents Sunday at 3 p.m., as village merchants present the first- through third-place prize winners of their Create-A-Scarecrow contest. The awards ceremony will be held, and all scarecrow entries will be on display, in front of the village Christmas tree at Floral and Hardy Florists, 4007 Skippack Pike, Skippack. For more information, call 610-484-0797.

“Light In The Night,” an evening of free and safe Halloween activity for children, will be held Sunday from 6-8 p.m. in the Spring City Fellowship Church, at the corner of Bridge and Glass streets, Spring City PA. Free fun games and prizes will be offered, as well as free hot dogs and treat bags. The event is jointly sponsored by he Spring City Fellowship Church, the Living Hope Community Church, the First United Church of Christ, and the Royersford United Methodist Church.

The Stowe (PA) Brethren in Christ Church, 527 Glasgow St., Stowe PA, will conduct a free “Lite The Nite” party as an alternative to Halloween on Sunday from 6-8 p.m. at the church. The event is open to the public, and will include music, food, fun and candy, organizers say. For more information, call 610-326-4383.

Photo from Clipart.com

SANATOGA PA – Dozens of families and their children turned out Sunday (Oct. 24, 2010) in surprisingly warm weather and very high spirits to enjoy Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s annual Fall Festival – its Halloween party before Halloween – in a slightly new location, the upper portion of Sanatoga Park near the municipality’s baseball and soccer fields off South Park Road, Pottstown PA.

In years past the festival has been conducted near the band shell in the park’s lower section, off South Sanatoga Road. There was no musical entertainment planned for this year, allowing the event to be regrouped closer to favorite playground equipment near the upper fields. At one time or another every swing was filled with a smile (above), and every slide echoed with laughter.

Everyone, and the kids in particular, seemed to revel in the new site, and no one missed the music. Instead, they took away hats and animals and toys, all crafted by a skilled balloon artist (top). They giggled up and down Park Road as they rode a hay wagon (above) pulled by a township tractor. They created their own crafts (both below) beneath an awning that provided ample shade from an Indian Summer sun.

And they played games like bean bag toss (below) and web-a-spider for small candy prizes. There were no losers, by the way.

Proving he was a braver politician than most, township Board of Commissioners’ Vice President Bruce Foltz volunteered, or maybe was roped in, to be a judge for an accompanying costume parade (below). He had help from former board President Tom Troutman, Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott, and municipal building Receptionist Jen Corley. “They all just look so great,” Foltz said. “It isn’t easy picking winners in this group. There are so many good costumes,” Elliott added.

Entire families decided to play dress-up (below), many using their ingenuity and materials found at home.

Ribbons were awarded to those dressed in the most creative, scariest, funniest, and prettiest outfits. And true to Elliott’s words, extra ribbons were handed out to others in costume that judges thought should have been winners too.

The Post took a total of 44 different photos at the event; see them below, simply by clicking once on a thumbnail image to enlarge it.

SANATOGA PA – An annual Halloween safe house for area children, sponsored by the Genesis Health Care centers, will be held Oct. 28 (2010; Thursday) from 5-7:30 p.m. at Sanatoga Court and Sanatoga Center, 227 and 225 Evergreen Rd. (respectively), Pottstown PA, according to Admissions and Marketing Director Earl Stingel.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

The free event features trick-or-treating at the rooms of some of the facilities’ residents, games, a mildly haunted house, food, and generally “freaky fun,” Stingel said. For more information, call 610-718-0900.

Photo from Clipart.com

SPRING CITY PA – “Light In The Night,” an evening of free and safe Halloween activity for children, will be held Oct. 31 (2010; Sunday) from 6-8 p.m. in the Spring City Fellowship Church, at the corner of Bridge and Glass streets, Spring City PA.

Free fun games and prizes will be offered, as well as free hot dogs and treat bags. The event is jointly sponsored by he Spring City Fellowship Church, the Living Hope Community Church, the First United Church of Christ, and the Royersford United Methodist Church.

SANATOGA PA – Because Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s trash hauler, J.P. Mascaro and Sons, will observe the Labor Day holiday (Sept. 4-6, 2010; Saturday through Monday), the first garbage pick-up of September will be held Sept. 7 (Tuesday), the township announced this week on its website.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Leaf and yard waste collection for the month will occur on the same day, the township reported.

Those taking advantage of leaf collection should not put leaf bags at curbside until the night before the scheduled pick-up. Persons with more than 10 such bags are asked to call the township in advance, at 610-323-0436, so Mascaro crews can be notified.

Trash collection normally is scheduled on Mondays. Leaf collection normally occurs only on the first Monday of the month.

Photo from Clipart.com

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POTTSTOWN PA – The Pottsgrove School District contender for the title of queen of Pottstown’s Independence Day parade, Sydney Coleman, will hold a fund-raising car wash and bake sale Saturday (June 26, 2010) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, Buchert Road, Pottstown PA.

The cost of washing your car is only $3, and the baked goods have various prices. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Independence Day Committee in Coleman’s name to advance her candidacy as queen.

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POTTSTOWN PA – Large crowds turned out for both the festivity and solemnity of the Pottstown PA Memorial Day Parade during Monday morning (May 31, 2010) on High Street, and the accompanying tribute to the fallen in Memorial Park downtown.

Photos by (and The Post’s thanks to) Fred Remelius

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POTTSTOWN PA – Sydney Coleman, Pottsgrove High School‘s candidate for queen of this year’s Independence Day celebration in Pottstown, hopes you’re hungry.

Coleman will conduct a fund-raiser, to benefit the Pottstown Fourth Of July Committee and defray its activities costs, on Monday (May 17, 2010) from 4:30-7:30 p.m. at the McDonald’s Restaurant on High Street in Pottstown.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Ten percent of the sales during the evening are being donated by the restaurant to the events through Coleman’s penny-a-vote campaign, which ultimately will determine whether she is named queen. Every dollar raised represents 100 votes for Coleman, so “I really need to get a lot of people out there,” she wrote Monday (May 10, 2010).

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POTTSTOWN PA – Area residents are turning the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, officially observed tomorrow (April 22, 2010), into a two-day love-in of the planet. Events are planned in Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, at the Pottstown campus of Montgomery County Community College, among Pottsgrove School District students headed for Virginia, at the county Cooperative Extension office in Collegeville, and with a movie in Valley Forge.

Earth Day, now sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based Earth Day Network and seven civic group partners, was founded in 1970 by then U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin as a college campus “teach-in” on the need for conservation amid a growing variety of environmental problems. It has flourished annually since, and this year is expected to include 289 different, coordinated campaigns and thousands of observances nationwide.

Here’s a sampling of what’s on tap locally.

Today at Pottsgrove High School

The timing could not have been more perfect.

Whether by coincidence or design, selected students from Pottsgrove High School are scheduled to leave today on the school’s annual advanced biology class trip to Wallops Island VA. They’ll spend the next three days involved in ecological studies at the Marine Science Consortium, a residential environmental learning center and field station on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Participants themselves paid for the trip, which was authorized by Pottsgrove’s Board of School Directors.

Today at MCCC

Montgomery County Community College will host an “Earth Day Block Party” from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at its West campus, 101 College Dr., Pottstown PA, that’s free and open to the public. The event features student and faculty-created displays and activities, including carbon footprint calculations, database research tutorials, and information on composting and recycling.

Community organizations, including the Greater Valley Forge Transportation Authority, the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area (SRHA), and Montgomery County government will also participate, providing information on the Schuylkill River Trail, public transportation, carpooling, and the county’s land development plans.

The college will also sponsor a farmer’s market with vendors selling local, organically-grown fruits and vegetables.

Thursday at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary

Students at Lower Pottsgrove will decorate and then distribute 500 grocery bags donated from Sanatoga Thriftway, 2190 E. High St., Pottstown PA, teacher Shari Costanzo reports.  The otherwise ordinary grocery bags will be decked out with Earth Day slogans and accompanying artwork that encourages shoppers to recycle rather than discard the bags. Thriftway shoppers will receive the decorated bags that afternoon and evening.

The school has conducted the same project during the past 10 years, and receives overwhelmingly positive comments, Costanzo said. “Hopefully,” she added, “someone will think twice before throwing out a student’s artwork and re-use the bag.”

Thursday in Collegeville

How does a green thumb become even greener? Montgomery County’s Master Gardeners are ready to demonstrate the variety of ways.

The gardening group’s class on “Going Green” will be held at 7 p.m. in the Maple Room of Penn State Cooperative Extension at the 4-H Center, 1015 Bridge Rd., Collegeville PA. The session, naturally, will focus on environmentally sound growing practices. The cost is $20, and advanced registration is required. For more information or to register, call 610-489-4315.

Thursday in Valley Forge

“The Revolutionary River,” a new Public Broadcasting System documentary about “the extraordinary story of the Schuylkill River” – sponsored in part by the Pottstown-based Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area – will be screened at 7 p.m. in the visitor’s center of Valley Forge National Historical Park, 1400 Outer Line Dr., King of Prussia PA. The movie is free and open to the public.

The film has yet to be televised, although negotiations are already under way to air it on PBS stations in Pennsylvania. The 47-minute production is the first of a six-part series that explores various National Heritage Areas in the eastern United States.

The same movie will be shown earlier in the day, at 11:15 a.m., in the South Hall Community Room of Montgomery County Community College in Pottstown.

Photo from dohosurf.org

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