MAKING HIS ROUNDS ON THE WEST SIDE – Volunteers of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s Ringing Hill Fire Company took on the happy duty Sunday (Dec. 18, 2011) of accompanying Santa Claus on his annual visit to residential communities within its coverage area (above). Wearing sunglasses to reduce the glare of a bright morning, the jolly elf found families along Lynn Drive near Pottsgrove High School had arisen early to see him and say hello (below). They were rewarded for the effort with small gift bags filled with goodies.
A parade of Ringing Hill apparatus (above), featuring Santa at the center, made its way across portions of the township for several hours, bringing joy and good cheer.
POTTSTOWN PA – Who says mascots never have any Christmas fun?
Chip, and a friend.
Chip, the sparkling, diamond-headed mascot of Diamond Credit Union, headquartered on Medical Drive in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, was the break-dancing spectacle of the credit union’s recent Christmas party. Chip waltzed into a conference room filled with employees and food, and – accompanied by Santa Claus himself – proceeded to bust a move to a holiday record by the rap group Run DNC.
The file was uploaded Monday (Dec. 20, 2010). Radical, dudes.
SANATOGA PA – The Sanatoga Fire Company used to invite Kris Kringle to brave the cold to which he’s so accustomed, sit atop a fire engine, and drive throughout Lower Pottsgrove Township tossing candy to children and their parents waiting at the roadside. Firefighters called it a “Santa Run.” Now, for both safety and convenience, it could become known as the “Santa Stops.”
The fire company has announced that, rather than randomly roam township roads looking for Santa’s audience, it will plan to stop with him Saturday (Dec. 18, 2010) at a series of 19 locations at specified times. “We hope in this manner we will be able to have a safe area for those who come out” to see St. Nick, a brochure said, and it also allows parents to take their children for his visit “at a time convenient to them.”
The prime worry, though, is increased traffic on township roads that threatens both firefighters and families. “We are quite concerned about the safety of the children and our members due to the volume of traffic” for what used to be the Santa Run, the brochure added. Santa Stops eliminate most of those hazards.
The planned times and stop locations for Dec. 18 are:
Rosewood and South Sunnybrook roads, 10 a.m.;
Donna and Noel, 10:30 a.m.
Maple and Oaktree, 10:30 a.m.
Heather and Bradley, 10:50 a.m.
Creekside and Brookview, 11 a.m.
Welsh and Oak, 11:10 a.m.
Pinehurst and Raleigh, 11:20 a.m.
Sanatoga village, 11:30 a.m.
Pebble Beach and Julie, 11:40 a.m.
Blackberry and Commons, noon
The Kepler Road entrance to Walnut Ridge, 12:05 p.m.
Allison and Shelly, 12:20 p.m.
The Buchert Road entrance to Walnut Ridge, 12:25 p.m.
Oakdale and Woodmere, 12:45 p.m.
The office area at Rolling Hills, 12:50 p.m.
Oakdale and Rivendell, 1 p.m.
The barn area at Windhaven, 1:15 p.m.
Sanatoga Fire Company at East High Street, 1:30 p.m.
and Shaner’s Trailer Park on East High Street, 1:40 p.m.
In case of rain, the stops will be scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 19.
SANATOGA PA – As Saturday evening (Dec. 4, 2010) drew closer, Nathanial Bartholomew (above at left) and his brother Alexander, got more and more excited. They were going to meet Santa! And they were going to have spaghetti for dinner!
Who can blame them if they spent just a little more time with the spaghetti?
The boys, sons of Lower Pottsgrove Township residents Catherine and Nathanial Bartholomew, were among a few hundred people (below) who turned out at the Sanatoga Fire Company, 2222 E. High St., Pottstown PA, between 4 and 6:30 p.m. for the firefighters’ annual “Spaghetti With Santa” fund-raiser. They weren’t the only ones, by the way, with a little sauce on their mugs; plenty of adults were messy too.
The Crooked Hill Ridge Runners, as members of the fire company are known, hold several events throughout the year to supplement the organization’s revenues. Santa’s dinner ranks with some patrons as among the most popular. All township firefighters and fire police – at Sanatoga and the Ringing Hill Fire Company – are volunteers who donate their time to conduct the dinner and other activities, just as they do in battling blazes or training for them.
So it was no surprise to find the Sanatoga kitchen (above) packed with an array of helping hands, who did everything from ladle out tomato sauce and meatballs, to filling roll plates and salad bowls (below), and serving dinners to anxious and hungry guests (further below).
Santa, the primary honoree and the guy whose lap was the most favored sitting spot in town, held court from a makeshift throne and nearby Christmas tree in the fire station’s entrance hall. He was the first person kids were likely to see as they walked through the door with their parents. Some were smiling; many had wide eyes and dropped jaws as Santa waved and offered his best “ho-ho-ho.”
Township Fire Marshal Lew Babel (above at right) stopped by for a chat. Was it rain or reindeer they were discussing? No one quite knew …
POTTSTOWN PA – Santa’s making his list and checking it twice, and to be sure he gets a reasonable impression of how just good you’ve been this year, the folks at the Pottstown branch of the Freedom Valley YMCA suggest that you join him for breakfast.
The Y’s “Breakfast with Santa” event will be held next Saturday (Nov. 27, 2010) from 8-11 a.m. in its building at 724 N. Adams St., Pottstown PA. Proceeds from the pancakes and sausage breakfast it serves will benefit the YMCA’s Seahawk National Swim Team. Tickets are available at the YMCA in advance or at the door; $5 for ages 12 and older; $3 for ages 3-11; and free for children age 3 and younger.
POTTSTOWN PA – St. Nick beat the turkey to Coventry Mall.
St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, the Big Elf … whatever you’d prefer to call him, he arrived well ahead of Thanksgiving and can now be found daily, seven days a week, in the Center Court of the mall at Routes 724 and 100 in North Coventry PA, just south of Pottstown.
He’ll occupy a throne there, listen to children’s requests, and be available for photographs too, Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.; and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The mall also will host a breakfast with Santa on Dec. 4 (2010; Saturday) beginning at 9 a.m. in its Food Court. Kids can remain after breakfast is finished to decorate a Christmas stocking. Tickets for the breakfast, which must be purchased in advance, are available at the mall’s Guest Services office. For more information, call 610-327-0700.
LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – In a holiday rite of passage that spans many years, about a dozen volunteers of the Sanatoga Fire Company left the warmth of their homes early Sunday morning (Dec. 14, 2008) to make merry on the streets and roads of the township.
Santa Claus was their guest of honor.
Township Fire Marshall Lew Babel talks about the fire company’s annual tradition of serving as Santa’s chauffeur in a 1:22 video. Press the play button.
SANATOGA PA – Mary Ann Imes drove just a few miles east from her Pottstown home Saturday (Nov. 22, 2008) to do some banking at the National Penn Bank branch, 1830 E. High St., and ran into Santa Claus. He was making the rounds in the company of branch manager Hanna Hartman, greeting children and adults alike with a wave, a smile, and the usual ho-ho-ho. But, no, he wasn’t handing out cash samples as gifts. “Too bad,” said one man with a smile as he exited the bank. “I coulda used some.”
"I Went To Lower Pottsgrove Elementary"
The Facebook page for alumni of the school that once was located on North Pleasantview Road in Sanatoga, but is now home to Coventry Christian Academy.
