Since 1993, the Swarthmore Centennial Foundation has awarded a $6,000 college scholarship – now named after its late founder – to a Swarthmore high school senior with an exemplary record in both academics and community service. An essay describing the student’s experience in Swarthmore is the heart of the application. Anya Hooper is this year’s recipient.
Anyone who has driven into town has surely noticed the sign declaring that Swarthmore is “Tree City USA.” Naïvely, I always assumed we were THE Tree City, but it turns out that there are more than 3,400 of them across the country, and 115 in Pennsylvania, that have met the exacting standards of the Arbor Day Foundation. We’ve decided to poll our readers to select Swarthmore’s Favorite Tree, as nominated by a panel of experts. We urge you to see as many of the candidate trees as you can before voting.
In the midst of the tumult and restrictions of the last few months, many Swarthmoreans have been looking forward to cooling off — and experiencing some normality — at the Swarthmore Swim Club (SSC). Will it open, and if so, when? The answer is yes, on Monday, June 29.
Have you seen colorful traffic safety signs displayed on lawns throughout South Media and other parts of the Wallingford Elementary School (WES) community? Twenty-six WES students, all residents of South Media, conceived of, designed, and created the signs during the fall term of the SMArt (South Media Art) program.
The Strath Haven High School Class of 2020 had a senior year like no other, and they had a graduation ceremony like no other. Class members never expected to finish their last high school classes remotely, and they never imagined watching their own graduation on a computer screen at home. But the one-hour commencement video produced by the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District is full of joy, energy, music, and humor. The video was released at 5 p.m. on June 5, after a slow stream of graduates, each accompanied by two family members or friends, received their diplomas one at a time in the SHHS auditorium.
June 19 is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas finally learned that, two and a half years earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation had legally set them free. If regular Juneteenth commemorations have been held in Swarthmore, they have not been announced in the pages of this newspaper, which record observances and public celebrations of Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. I would like to change that.
Why do you call the police if someone falls asleep in their car at a fast food drive-thru? Couldn’t an employee or someone in one of the other cars tap on the window to see if he was okay? Have we already forgotten how cops kicked in the door and shot up Breonna in Louisville while she was under the sheets trying to sleep?
On Tuesday, March 24, Tom Shaffer of Rutgers Avenue in Swarthmore started feeling sick. This is an account of his illness and subsequent recovery, edited from near daily Facebook posts by his wife, Virginia Thompson, while she was at home in Swarthmore with their two kids, both in their twenties. At first she called her posts “Update on Tom,” but after a while, she started titling them “The Tom Report.”
The Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board wants input from the school community. The Board asked Superintendent Lisa Palmer to prepare a survey to be emailed to families (which you may have already received). The results will inform the board’s decision about whether and how to revise the 2020-21 school calendar. Also, Board president David Grande announced the creation of two new diversity and inclusion committees, one community-wide and the other a school board committee.
Swarthmore has been home to at least eight Guggenheim winners over the years. The distinguished fellowships have been awarded since 1926 in the humanities, sciences, and arts. In 2020, 175 people, out of an applicant pool of about 3,000, were granted fellowships. Author and Swarthmore resident Ben Yagoda is one of the award recipients.
Swarthmore Borough Council approved a plan on Monday to construct “parklets”: portions of roadway blocked off for outdoor restaurant seating. Swarthmore Town Center (STC) developed the proposal to help struggling restaurants in the borough. Parklets will increase the number of patrons restaurants can serve during the next phases of reopening.
At the Swarthmore Borough Council meeting on June 1, council member Sarah Graden read a special statement from the Swarthmore Human Relations Commission.
The Swarthmore College website proclaims that its community “thrives on open dialogue, shoulder-to-shoulder discovery, face-to-face exploration.” This approach, as well as the 8-to-1 student to faculty ratio, has helped the college garner a reputation as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. But its hands-on, intimate learning had to be modified once the college transitioned to remote learning.
A lot of guys have let themselves go during the pandemic. Gray roots, unkempt nails, bellies flopping over the waistband of baggy sweatpants. But not this guy. Whatever it takes, no matter what kind of crazy the world throws my way, nothing comes between me and looking good for my Lady Love. How good? Well, fellas, do you come down to breakfast every morning dressed in a tuxedo – the one you wore on your wedding day?
For this survey, we took a look at some of the issues of the past decades that filled the Letters to the Editor section of the Swarthmorean with the most passion and words. The survey showed consensus or near consensus on the most recent bones of contention.
A 69-year-old Wallingford man perished in a house fire on Wednesday, June 3. The house, in the 300 block of Morris Lane, caught fire in the wake of a powerful thunderstorm, according to Garden City Fire Chief Patrick O’Rourke. The alarm was called in by a neighbor, he said.
About 20 years ago, the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College started to see plantings destroyed by deer. Today, I would guess most homes and gardens in the borough have experienced browsing deer. Many of you have deer devastating your plantings. The ultimate solution to protecting your garden from deer is to fence them out.
Wallingford-Swarthmore School District Superintendent Lisa Palmer reported in an email to WSSD families on Sunday that “a hurtful and disturbing video...is circulating within our community.” School district officials forwarded the video to the Nether Providence Police Department on Thursday, May 28. The department is investigating. Chief David Splain said that the results of the investigation will be presented to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office to determine if a crime was committed and whether to file charges.
The Swarthmorean is seeking an associate editor to work part-time (20 hours/week) assisting with many aspects of writing and producing the paper, which has been published every week since 1893.
