Some are living in their cars. Others have made a temporary home in a tent.
But not all of Solanco's homeless are stereotypical. That's because the way homelessness is defined has changed, at least when it comes to school children. As the first cold wave of the winter settles over the Southern End, the local Coats for Kids program is helping make the season more bearable.
This week, the program began its annual distribution of coats, hats, and other winter clothing. The program, now in its 27th year, makes new and gently-used clothing available to anyone who needs it. Solanco's students have begun using the district's newest physical education equipment.
They started working out in the high school's new weight room earlier this month. The room is used by team members after school and is part of the district's regular physical education curriculum. They haven't made their Christmas wishes yet, but members of the Southern Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce have asked Santa for an early December gift. Pete Rush said last week. "We'd like clear weather on December 5," member Pete Rush said last week. Rush is helping organize the chamber's fourth annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The ceremony will be held at the TownsEdge Shopping Village, Quarryville, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 5. A contractor started tearing down a house on Quarryville's Park Ave. this week to give children in the adjacent elementary school more room to play.
The project will also give the Solanco School District additional parking space for Quarryville Elementary School and the district's administration office. The faculty of Swift Middle School has announced the names of students earning honor roll distinction for the first marking period of the 2014-15 school year.
Fourteen young women from the area will compete for the title of Miss Solanco 2015 later this month. The pageant will be held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 29, in the Solanco High School auditorium.
This year's contestants are, in order of appearance: AJ Beyer knows pressure.
Beyer, who will play the title role in Solanco High School's performance of Sherlock Holmes, realizes he is just the latest in a long line of actors to play one of fiction's best-known detectives. It's easier to work from life than a photograph.
But she's willing to draw from a photograph if the building is long gone, artist Anita Reed said last week. "It was gone before my time," Reed said last week. Volunteers at Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church will again serve as a relay point for donations collected for the Rev. Franklin Graham's Operation Christmas Child.
"This will be our sixth year as a collection point," said church member Dan Henry. "We accept boxes from churches, other groups, and individuals." Providence Township is closer to linking two sections of the Enola Low Grade rail trail.
Last month, Providence, Bart, and Eden townships were awarded an $180,000 Community Recreation and Conservation Program grant. Two houses owned by Quarryville Borough brought less than their appraised values when they were sold last week.
The brick rancher at 19 E. Fourth St. sold for $115,000. It had been appraised at $140,000. The white Cape Cod at 9 E. Fourth St. brought $82,000. It had been appraised at $139,000. Both homes were sold at public auction. About two dozen people attended the Veterans Day commemoration in Quarryville's Memorial Park on Saturday morning, November 8.
The ceremony was the first in recent memory to be held in the borough. Organizers are hoping to bag their fundraising goal for Swift Middle School.
"We would like to raise $12,000 but even $9,000 would be nice," teacher Theresa Sosko said last week. Sosko and fellow teachers Alison McPherson and Melissa Tucker are helping guide the project which will bring in money to help fund school activities. When she took over the position 19 years ago, Beverly Wimer had help from her predecessor.
Now Wimer is willing to do the same thing for the person who follows her as the client contact person for the Solanco Meals on Wheels program. But so far, the program hasn't been able to find anyone willing to take the volunteer position. Organizations across the Southern End are planning Veterans Day commemorations.
There are two events planned for Saturday, November 8. The Quarryville Lions Club will host a ceremony at the entrance to Memorial Park, S. Lime St., Quarryville, at 10 a.m. This will be the first Veterans Day commemoration in Quarryville in recent years. When they take to the stage this week, Smith Middle School students will help their audience dig its way through ancient civilizations.
In Dig It!, adventurers Taki (Hannah Hargraves) and Tut (Nicole Kudia) start with an exploration of Ethiopia. There they encounter a skeleton (Sophia Steinhauer) who wakes up and takes them on a journey through the cultures that created the modern world. The family of artist Anna Rentschler has donated more than 60 of her works to the annual Southern End Community Association fundraising auction.
The late artist was interested in the preservation of farmland and the environment, said her daughter, Debbie Bachman. One of the busiest pieces of apparatus in Quarryville's fire station is older than many of the volunteers who use it.
And the older of the fire company's two pumpers is showing its age. "The frame is starting to get in bad shape," fire chief Joel Neff said last week, "and the entire engine is too far gone to refurbish." That work would also have to include an enclosed cab for the fire crew, and an automatic transmission. |
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