All in People of Swarthmore
Neighbors from Swarthmore and surrounding areas made their way to Umoja Park for a rally and march in support of Black lives. The rally was held on July 19 in part to commemorate the July 16 birthday of Ida B. Wells and her life-long commitment to activism, abolition, and education. Amy Beth Sisson, writer and former attorney, spoke about Swarthmore’s intimate history with racism, from segregated schools to discriminatory policies at the swim club. She left the crowd with these words: “We need to own our considerable history of racism, so that we can do better.”
Underneath the newspaper’s name, the Swarthmorean banner reads “Serving Swarthmore and Surrounding Communities Since 1893.” This publication seeks to support and lift up the community it represents. I find that a noble mission and ambition for a local paper. When I learned that the position of associate editor was available, that mission drew me in.
Since 2000, Swarthmore resident Lawrence Katz has been a guitarist for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, a group you most likely know for songs they recorded before Katz joined them, such as 1992’s “Where Did You Go?” or 1993’s “Someday I Suppose.” The band’s sound is sometimes punk overlaid with ska horns, sometimes straighter ska but with rock-and-roll guitar solos. This is a story of his musical journey, including how he found Swarthmore.
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.”
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.
A marathon plus five: That’s how many miles you have to run to cover all the streets in Swarthmore. Will Starr did just that earlier this month, embarking a journey that he named “Swarthmore in a Day.”
Although the award ceremony is put off until September, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently announced its Preservation Achievement Award winners, which include the renovation of the “Lazaretto” in nearby Tinicum. Bill and Carol Menke, of Ogden Avenue, were landscape architects for the project. Bill notes that this was one of the last projects they undertook before closing their business, Menke & Menke, LLC, after a nearly 35-year run.
As is becoming widely known, the masks most needed by medical personnel are N95 respirators that, when worn correctly, filter out 95% of particles that can cause disease. But simple cotton face masks are in demand as well. A well made cotton mask worn over an N95 mask can extend its lifetime. Now, three local women are busy over bobbins and foot pedals making masks.
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Home energy use accounts for an estimated 20 percent of a household’s overall footprint. These days, with the dire warnings about climate change a part of our daily consciousness, many people are working on ways to substantially reduce the size of their carbon footprint. In doing so, they can reap some cost savings as well. Phil Coleman, president of aFewSteps.org, an expert at energy efficiency, sets a high bar for his neighbors. I should know, I live across the street from him.
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Pamela Boyce Simms, an environmentalist, activist, herbalist, leadership coach, and neurolinguist who recently moved to Swarthmore, envisions Community Supported Enlightenment (CSE) as preparing people for the problems that will inevitably come with climate change. And she sees plant medicine as a portal to a larger mission of self-transformation.
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Jill Gaieski has worked for the state attorney’s office in Broward County, Florida, and collected DNA from Bermudians. She has started an organization to fight gun violence, served (almost) two terms on the board of the Swarthmore Co-op, and earned her advanced sommelier certificate at the Wine School of Philadelphia. Since a swearing-in ceremony on Monday, January 6, she is now a Swarthmore Borough Council member as well.
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It’s Thursday evening at the Swarthmore Community Center, and Michelle Frumento is getting ready to teach “drop it” to a room full of humans holding the leashes of excited dogs. This is beginner manners, one of several dog-training classes Frumento has been offering out of the community center for the past five years. Manners, not obedience.
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How to inventory a whole year? What to remind you of, and what to skip? What would you rather forget, but maybe shouldn’t? What have you already forgotten that might interest you to recall? Collecting (recollecting) these happenings and lives and milestones is a way to consider what we have accomplished and aspired to and worried about as a community, as we take the first steps into 2020. To think about where we have succeeded, where we have more work to do, and where we might want to start all over again.
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Later this week, in a pretty Victorian house on Park Avenue in Swarthmore, a group of six women artists and makers will carry half the furniture upstairs. They’ll move the remaining tables and cabinets around until they’ve created just the right backdrop. Then they’ll begin arranging their work: jewelry, handbags, photographs, candles shaped like pinecones and beehives. Hat stands, tea towels, bowls made from salvaged wood. By Thursday evening, they’ll be ready to pour the wine, set out the cookies, and welcome the public. The fifth annual Handmade Holiday Home Sale will have begun.
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An unofficial theme has emerged in this Thanksgiving week issue of The Swarthmorean: community. We talked with two Swarthmoreans who recently moved back to the borough about what this place means to them, and both of them cited a sense of community as a special quality of the town.
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“I was invited to throw out the first pitch this year for the Swarthmore-Nether Providence T-ball game…I throw out the first pitch, and then they throw all the balls at me.” Such are the pleasures and perils of life as a small-town mayor. Marty Spiegel has been serving as mayor of Swarthmore since February, when Borough Council appointed him to replace Tim Kearney, who resigned after being elected state senator of the 26th district. On November 5, Spiegel was elected to the position by the borough’s voters.
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When I moved to Swarthmore in June 2000, our real estate agent gave us a year’s subscription to The Swarthmorean. I remember how happy it made me to leaf through those pages. The articles, the ads for local business, the calendar, and the classifieds were all windows into this new, unknown community I was joining. In the nearly 20 years since, I have looked forward every week to getting the paper. Even as I came to know my neighbors, get drawn into local organizations, and see my kids’ procession from first grade at SRS all the way through the high school, I have counted on The Swarthmorean to inform me, enliven me, and help me feel connected. My goal as editor will be to continue these missions and to broaden outward.
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SWARTHMOREAN SUMMER TRAVEL SERIES
On Memorial Day, my good friend Alex Schaff and I set out from Swarthmore for the enchanting hills and meadows of New England, with the goal of visiting and talking with dairy farmers and cheesemakers. Alex, who suggested the trip, is a prospective veterinarian and a master’s student of dairy science at Colorado State University; I work as a cheesemonger at DiBruno’s in Philadelphia. So one could say the idea didn’t just come out of the blue!
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It was a fantastic day of celebration across Swarthmore and surrounding communities, featuring awards, parades, races, swimming, music, and lots more. The Swarthmorean has the recap, including a slideshow capturing moments from Swarthmore, Rose Valley, and Rutledge.
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The Swarthmore Centennial Foundation is pleased to award the Edmund Jones Scholarship to 2019 high school graduate Lena Lofgren. Here is her winning essay about her life in Swarthmore.
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