Delaware County begins its 45th annual summer festival next week on Wednesday, June 12, with a performance by the Delaware County Symphony. The Fabulous Grease Band performs the following night, and thus begins a two month long series of shows Wednesday through Sunday nights with several daytime performances as well.
Today is a big day for us at The Swarthmorean. Ever since Todd and Rob purchased the paper at the start of this year, a primary goal has been to increase our following. This means providing great community coverage in any format you want — print or digital.
Think of the stereotypical World War II flying ace: dashing, handsome, focused, fearless, tireless, and beloved by everyone he knows. You’re imagining a Swarthmore native known to the Miller family as Uncle Harry. He was handsome and slight, full of swagger and charisma. His heroic tale started more than 75 years ago, and the last chapter is still being written.
Among dozens of opinionated and voluble contributors of posts to social media site Nextdoor Swarthmore, only three Swarthmoreans rose to comment at the Monday work session of Swarthmore Borough Council. Isabel Paynter, who ignited a virtual firestorm with her original post recounting her frustration at being given a ticket for parking at a non-operable meter last Tuesday, spoke first during the public comment period at the opening of the Council session on June 3.
Compendium Boutique has closed the 6 Park Avenue location, and on May 1 opened a new main location at 134 East Market Street in West Chester, Pa. “Swarthmore was a really good place for me to start, but not necessarily a place to grow,” owner Emily Scott explained. “I have a lot of great followers, and am very thankful for them, but in order for the business to expand I needed to find a bigger market … with more foot traffic.”
D. Patrick Welsh Real Estate invites neighbors from Swarthmore and beyond to celebrate the firm’s 60th anniversary with a bash this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Drinks, hors d’oeuvres catered by Occasionally Yours, baklava made by Gassia Melkissetian, and cookies baked by Dave Welsh himself make the real estate office one of the highlight of the June 7 First Friday in Swarthmore.
Opening next weekend (with previews beginning Wednesday) at Hedgerow Theatre is The Game of Love and Chance, an 18th century classic script by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux that has all the elements of comedy of manners: mistaken identities, misplaced suspicions, cheeky servants, and true love. In this translation and adaptation by Stephen Wadsworth, pandemonium rises to new levels.
You’ve seen the signs this spring. Slate grey with crisp white type, looking less like a notice of something for sale than of a service offered, they represent Compass. And at the bottom of those Compass signs displayed around the Wallingford-Swarthmore area you will likely see the name of Heidi Oberdiek Foggo or Erica Kaufman, both veteran real estate agents.
Perhaps parents were a bit misty, but the weather was as brilliant as the future for the 395 graduates of the class of 2019 at Swarthmore College’s 147th commencement last Sunday, May 26.
The many were reminded of their enduring debt to the few in two local Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday. Rose Valley mayor and career Army officer Tim Plummer led the Pledge of Allegiance, read a succinct appreciation, and joined a couple dozen residents in planting small flags at the base of a half-staff Old Glory at the town’s veterans’ memorial.
OLLI at Widener presents its June seminar series beginning Thursday, June 6, and continuing each Thursday during the month.
At its May 28 meeting, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board heard a proposal from representatives of Delaware County Community College on Tuesday regarding the proposed purchase of the massive building which was originally home to Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School.
Delaware County Democrats and Republicans each have reason for optimism after the May 21 primary. Both parties’ turnouts were significantly higher than in the record-setting 2017 primary, the first election after Donald J. Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in November 2016. Republican turnout was 20% higher than in 2017, while the Democratic vote surged more than 30%. Total turnout was up in 45 of the county’s 49 municipalities.
Have you heard the buzz about sunflowers? They are garden showstoppers but are also wonderful for pollinating insects — especially native bees, whose numbers are in steep decline. The Swarthmore Horticultural Society has decided to make this the “Summer of the Sunflower” to raise awareness of the role the flowers — and the bees they attract and protect — play in the health of a diverse habitat.
The Swarthmore Tree Committee for several generations has been the custodians of the borough tree canopy, particularly as it relates to our street trees and borough-owned trees, but also in offering help and advice on trees throughout our town.
Notre Dame de Lourdes Church on Fairview Road in Swarthmorewood was vandalized early Sunday morning, May 19, apparently by a single male wielding a can of black spray paint. On the side wall of the church he spray-painted “#ProChoice,” while more extensively inscribing the glass front doors with “You do not have the right to decide how others live. #ProChoice.”
Twenty-three years ago, $13,000 was all the annual operational support the Swarthmore Fire & Protective Association needed from the Borough of Swarthmore. Today, that need has ballooned to $240,000. The reason? Payroll expense.
Come join the band for great music-making this summer as part of the 38th Annual Summer Band and String School, conducted by top music educators from the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District at Strath Haven High School from June 24 through July 23.
Hedgerow Theatre Company’s Theatre School is now enrolling students from age 8 through high school for summer classes offering high-energy fun and high-caliber training in creating and performing theater art. Two summer sessions allow students to learn the fundamentals and the intricacies of storytelling through theater, then putting them into action with public performances at Hedgerow‘s facilities in Rose Valley.
The votes have been tallied, and Swarthmoreans have chosen three books for various levels of readers for the inaugural year of “One Book, One Swarthmore.” A week-long festival of events beginning June 7 will celebrate unity, involving readers of all ages in activities promoting conversation about the books and their relation to the theme of this year’s program, “I, Too, Am America” (inspired by the Langston Hughes poem, I, Too).
