Tom Hals submitted a photograph of a common garter snake coiled in a tree in the Crum Woods. He said that the snake appeared to be several feet long. While garter snakes tend to be smaller, they can grow as long as five feet, so this one must have some longevity.
The focus topic of Monday night’s Wallingford-Swarthmore School District meeting was the district’s continuing exploration of later start times. In her second sleep study presentation, Dr. Denise Citarelli Jones, WSSD director of secondary education, informed the audience of the progress that the sleep study task force has made now that half of the investigation is complete.
Strath Haven High School junior Lauren St. Claire’s beautiful graphic creations will help the SHHS Class of 2021 with its coffee fundraiser this holiday season. She created three coffee label designs in my Graphic Design 3 class using a drawing tablet and iMac computer. The Class of 2021 is selling three different types of coffee, all inspired by student experiences.
Heard about the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led organization fighting to stop climate change? Learn more about the group and its exciting, creative agenda at a panel discussion on Thursday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Swarthmore Friends Meetinghouse, 10 Whittier Place.
Swarthmore College undergraduates coached by members of the faculty have been rehearsing and will soon perform three concerts in the fall 2019 Elizabeth Pollard Fetter chamber music series. The first concert in the series will take place on Saturday, November 16, 8 p.m. at Lang Concert Hall. “Critical Mass,” an ensemble of seven students coached by James Blasina will undertake works by de Machaut, Monteverde, des Prez, and Byrd.
Since the 1970s, A Better Chance - Strath Haven has provided educational opportunities for students from across the U.S. to attend Strath Haven High School and reside in Swarthmore during the school year. ABC Scholars are selected among applicants for the program through a highly competitive selection process, which looks at academic and leadership potential as well as need. This year’s incoming class includes two 9th graders, Amayah Wade and Assane Wade (yes, they are twins, and come from Landover, Md.) and 10th grader Teghan Sydnor of Voorhees, N.J., who joined ABC when a student transferred to another school.
The many-worlds interpretation of quantum cosmology requires that there be many, perhaps an infinite number, of worlds, new ones arising from each quantum interaction. Constellations, a play by Nick Payne opening November 8 at the Players Club of Swarthmore, is an artful riff on this notion, using multiple short scenes to portray divergent outcomes of each event. The result is a wittily complex structure used to tell a very simple story: two people meet, take up housekeeping together, break up, get together again, settle down, face the future. At least, in several of the multiple universes that are all equally possible, they do several of those things.
Kevin Robert Evans expected to die in prison. Sentenced at age 17 to life without parole for his role in a botched and fatal robbery, the 61-year-old Chester native spent more than 43 years in Pennsylvania prisons. But in 2016, the United States Supreme Court overturned the automatic life sentences of all juveniles, and Kevin began to realize that his freedom might one day come. In May of this year, he was released, and now, with the help of some Swarthmore residents, Kevin Evans is building a life for himself for the first time.
Under the auspices of APPRISE Senior Community Services of Delaware County, Swarthmore Mayor Marty Spiegel will give an overview this Monday of changes in Medicare Advantage plans & Medicare Part D drug plans for 2020. The session will be held at Swarthmore Public Library at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 11.
Author, entrepreneur and activist, Judy will tell her story from living in an Eskimo village in 1969, moving to Philadelphia in 1970 to cofound the Free People’s Store (which became Urban Outfitters), founding the farm-to-table White Dog Cafe in 1983, to her current projects in supporting our regional economy. Judy’s talk will include the importance of moving from “me to we” as individuals and a society in order to address the historic challenge of climate change and build an inclusive, self-reliant and life-sustaining economy in the Philadelphia region.
Dr. Benedicte Grima, a linguist, ethnographer, and translator, has combined her skills and mined her experiences in decades of work with diverse cultures here and in Asia to produce three books: two scholarly works on Pashtun culture and now, a new novel which explores life in flux and translation between America and northern Pakistan. Dr. Grima will present her new book in free talks this month at the Swarthmore Campus and Community Store, Saturday, November 16, at 3 p.m., and at the Swarthmore Public Library on Wednesday, November 20, at 7 p.m. Both sessions are free.
At Monday’s Swarthmore Borough Council meeting, Mayor Marty Spiegel read a proclamation declaring Saturday, November 9, 2019 as Ed Jones Day in Swarthmore. He presented the proclamation to Donna Kay Jones, Ed’s widow (left), who was in attendance along with six former mayors of the borough and members of the Centennial Foundation, which Ed co-founded. There will be a memorial service on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Swarthmore Friends Meetinghouse for Ed, who served Swarthmore as mayor and in many other leadership posts in the borough, county, and state.
Itching to get started on holiday shopping? Next Sunday, November 17, you can support local artists and craftsmanship at the 8th Annual Green Sunday Holiday Fair, held at Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third Street in Media. It’s a festive, relaxed and friendly space, an eco-friendly alternative to the frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Delaware County is governed by a five-member County Council, which is responsible for all legislative and administrative functions of the County government. On November 5th, an unprecedented three Council seats are up for grabs. Democrats seek their first Council majority in history. We asked both Democratic and Republican candidates several questions of interest to Delaware County voters.
