hoover web design birth certificate
at wpsu.org. thank you!you makes programs like this possible. individual contributions are the single largest source of revenue for public television stations and the most reliable! help keep your local pbs station strong so that wpsu can
continue to bring you all your favorite national and locally produced programs. make your contribution now at 1-800-245-9779 or on the web strong so that wpsu can welcome to our town: lewistown. >> narrator: welcome tolewistown, pennsylvania, located in mifflin county,along the juniata river.
lewistown displays a vibrantsense of community and is proud of its history, its unmatchedbeauty, and its future promise. today, residents of all agesare actively celebrating their town's heritage and workingtoward its goals together. join us as local residentsshow and tell everything that makes theircommunity a great hometown. your friends andneighbors welcome you to our town: lewistown. support for our town:lewistown comes
from hostetler's truck bodiesand trailers, route 322, milroy, serving the lewistowncommunity for over 80 years. information at dkhostetler.com. kish bank, serving the communityfor 106 years, offering banking, insurance, financialplanning and travel services. kish bank, expect more. standard steel inburnham, pennsylvania, depending on the skills andresourcefulness of the people from our area communitiessince 1795.
valley view retirementcommunity, located in big valley,bellville, offering rehab servicesfor all ages. information at 717-935-2105. and viewers like you. thank you. >> forest fisher:i'm forest fisher. i'm the current president of the mifflin countyhistorical society.
and we believe that historyis our story, and i'm here to share some oflewistown's story. lewistown is situated atthe confluence of kish creek and the juniata river. and the pennsylvania canal,which was built in the 1820s, paralleled the juniata river. and lewistown became a junction, a main stopping pointalong the canal. some of the portions of ourtown, water street for example,
is where the wharfs, warehouses and other commercial activitieshappened for the canal. the first courthousewas erected in 1789. that is when thecounty was founded. it was a two-story logstructure, and the jail was in the first floor,and the courtroom was in the second floor. the second courthouse wasbuilt out in front of this one, actually, in this square, in thecenter of the square in 1789.
this courthouse that we arein now, this is the third. it was built in 1843. that is actually the same yearthat charles dickens traveled on the pennsylvania canaland passed through lewistown, which is one of thehighlights of the canal days. dorcas buchanan is the firsteuropean woman to settle in what became mifflin county. now, she was here in the 1750s. dorcas had a remarkable life.
she was widowed twice,and this was the frontier. she maintained atrading business. she lived to a ripeold age into her 90s. and she is buried inthe old town cemetery on a hand-made diamondshaped marker. dorcas buchanan actually ownedthe land that became lewistown. the museum of the mifflin countyhistorical society is called mccoy house. it is the birthplace of majorgeneral frank ross mccoy,
who was a soldier and diplomat. his home has heldthe collections of the historicalsociety since about 1972. the victorian parlor, forexample, is typical of the era in lewistown of thatage, in the mid 1800s. mifflin county hassomewhat of a history of the undergroundrailroad, and in 1836, a slave narrative waswritten by charles ball. he was a slave, and it waswritten by a local attorney.
we have an exhibit atthe museum that explains that early connection. and it appeared several yearsbefore "uncle tom's cabin." the stories that i recallfrom my great grandmother, who also lived here,that is where my interest and love of history came from. we have such a rich andvaried history that involves so many individuals who came andestablished their lives here. it's a community thathas grown over the years,
appreciates theirhistory and speaking from the historicalsociety's point of view, history is who we are. >> jeff hughes: hi,i'm jeff hughes. i grew up here in lewistown,pennsylvania, and now i work over the mountain, as they say. i recently had theopportunity to purchase a drone, an unmanned aircraft, and i thought it would be agreat opportunity to be able
to show lewistown from the air. [ music ] >> barbara harer: my name isbarbara harer, and i'm here to talk about the southhill's goose day fun fest. the fun fest is afree community event, and we incorporate localbusinesses, non-profits, schools, and we bringthem all together. this is our third year. and we started out justhalf a street beside the
historic courthouse. we had about 200 people attend. this year we are at rec park,and we had about 450 people. we also partnered up with merfradio, rocco pallotto called me and said he wanted to tryand break the world's record for the largest gameof duck-duck-goose. it was just a great eventfor the community and all of us involved as well. the goal of the fun fest is justto offer free entertainment.
we also have bandsthere, we have games for children, there's free food. senator corman hassponsored a bounce house. it's just a lot offun for all of us, even those who areputting it together. we enjoy the event. goose day has been part of the juniata rivervalley for centuries. this tradition is on september29th, if you eat goose,
you'll have prosperitythroughout the year. you know, a lot ofrestaurants serve goose. there is a lot of discountsat different stores. i was actually contacted threeyears ago by cher harpster, who is a member of rotary,and she said, "you know what? why don't we do this fun fest?" south hills was happyto sponsor it. so we're happy tobe a part of it. i cannot do it alone.
my volunteers arejust incredible. i actually get mywhole school involved, all my clubs areinvolved, my students, they just really stepped upto the plate and said, "hey, we want to be a part of it." i think it's really importantto show the students that, you know, we need to give back. maybe people don'thave a lot of money and can't give a contribution.
time is valuable. time has a price. so that is more thanadequate to give for a volunteer opportunity. so i hope that they continue it. i hope once they graduateand get their job, they remember theirtime with goose fest, and they continue it on,maybe with their children, or even where their business,where they're working,
and being a part ofit down the road. hopefully we can continueit for many years to come. >> brad williams: my name isbrad williams, and i'm here to speak about monument square and the stone fromlincoln's tomb. the square went bymany different names. it was market square,and diamond square, and farmer's market, andfinally became monument square when in the late1800s they decided
to put a monument there honoringthe soldiers and sailors of mifflin county thatfought in the civil war. when they were trying to raisesome money for this monument, the women baked pies, andchildren and kids saved pennies. the community came togetherand did that, a great thing. the cornerstone isactually a piece of granite from lincoln's tomb. whenever they wereredoing the tomb, robert burns hoover waspart of the logan guard.
the logan guard were thevery first responders to go to lincoln's aidin the civil war. hoover was a drummer boy,and later on a soldier. after that, he moved and settledin springfield, illinois. he was also chairman oflincoln's memorial foundation. he made this special requestto have one of the stones out of the memorial, becausemifflin county was the first responders to answer a call. his request was granted.
when it came to town in thelate 1800s, it was placed in the window of themifflin county national bank and stayed there until the timethe monument was built in 1906. when i was commander of mifflincounty veterans association, we decided to dosome restorations on the monument and the stone. we had the raisedletters inked and set in. we were responsible forgetting new cannon carriages. the cannons werenapoleon style cannons,
and they have serialnumbers that fall right in with the civil war era,but we are not exactly sure if they were actually in battle. so we put some new mortar basesup, and did the cannons over. lewistown being what it is,and all the great things that happened there, with thejuniata river, and the railroad, and all of that, and the loganguard, we figured the square, the monument square, is likethe diamond in the ring. i'm a life member ofvietnam veterans of america,
life member of disabledamerican veterans. the military backgroundmakes me proud. my whole family is military, clean back from therevolutionary war, they've always been involved. i was in the marine corps, andthere is nothing real special about me except ibelonged to a unique group of people calledamerica's youngest warriors. i actually enlisted justbefore my 16th birthday,
when i was 15, in 1971. i had to go to florida, i wasdischarged out of nas jackson, out of the marine corps. it's like a duck out of water. but every time i would startcoming home, as soon as i get to about virginia, i startseeing the mountains, i got this feelingof peace and relaxed. finally realizedafter a few years, this is where my roots are.
>> ed forsythe: i'm ed forsythe. i'm here to talk aboutrailroading in general, throughout the lewistownarea, mifflin county, and also the mifflincounty model railroad club. railroading in general prettymuch built this community. at one time, thelewistown freight yards and station were the end of theline for the pennsy railroad. we have the oldest train stationfrom the pennsylvania railroad, and it was opened here inlewistown in september of 1849.
been in operation ever since. it's currently ownedand operated by the pennsylvaniarailroad historical and technical society. amtrak still usesit as a station. so we've had a lot ofrailroading history here in all of mifflin county, and themifflin county model railroad club has sort ofreplicated the main lines of the pennsylvania railroad.
we have the replica ofthe lewistown station, and the lewistown yard. the old roundhouse thatburned down many years ago. we have a replica of therockville bridge in harrisburg. we try to give homage tothe history of the area. the railroad club started in the1960s by a group of gentlemen. they had a love of railroading. they went from house to houseworking on each other's layouts, and now we are located at3 west monument square.
we have a large 45 by 65 footho layout, and we also have a 24 by 26 foot o-gauge layout. at christmas time, when wehave our open house dates, thousands of peoplecome in, from this area, but also outside the area, andwe enjoy sharing what we create. it's not just about the trainsthat run, it's the artistry in building the layout,and the scenery details. we have had some very,very good artists who have helped createwhat we show.
i got the passionvery early in life. i got my first train sixweeks before i turned 2. i played with thattrain extensively at christmas time only. in high school i got intotearing that train apart to find out why it did notwork and subsequently, built a little businessdoing that and i still have that first train andit runs quite well. lewistown has alwaysjust been a small town
where you know practicallyeveryone. and i grew up in lewistown. i never had a desire to leave. lewistown and mifflin countyjust has always just been special to me, becauseof what we have here. >> deborah bargo: my name isdeborah bargo, and i'm going to tell you about thelewistown train station. the lewistown train station isthe oldest remaining structure that was built by thepennsylvania railroad company.
in 1849 it was erected, andit was used for freight only. in 1868, the building wasenlarged, and renovated, and was used then as apassenger rail service. i remember as a kid, my parentstaking my three sisters and i over to the train station,and what a thrill it was to see the trains andrun through the tunnels that went under the tracks. when you enter thebuilding, i mean, you're definitely steppingback in time, and you look
and you think boy, ifthese walls could talk, what wonderful talesthey would have to tell. the station itself is used, amtrak does rent a smallportion that faces the track. it is used as a waiting room. we here in our area have thesecond largest amish community in the state. the rail service is definitelythe amish mode of travel. we're also the closestto penn state,
so the penn statestudents often use it. it is actually a veryactive train station. we were the recipients ofa grant that was applied through downtown lewistown,inc., and we were able to obtain 20 gallons of paint and also $50 gift cardfor paint supplies. so over the past month orso, we have been working over at the train station. the grant had requested thatit be done during the month
of september, and ithappens to be the same month that the united way hadtheir day of caring. so we had a group of about13 people at that time. i have been working witha group in pittsburgh, and also with a group inharrisburg, and we are trying to add two more stops[train whistle blowing]. right now, we have one westboundand one eastbound stop, and it's hard for thepassengers to make connections if they're travelingbeyond those two points.
it's not an easy task, andwe've been working on it for several years, butwe're getting closer, and hopefully the, youknow, in the future, that we'll have thosetwo additional stops. i was born and raisedin lewistown. this area is so beautiful,it's definitely been kissed by mother nature; themountains and the rivers. i feel as though the peoplehere, we're a bond, you know? at wpsu.org. thank you!
you makes programs like this 1-800-245-9779 or about mountain bikingin the area. cooper's gap is an arealocated about five or six miles from lewistown that is in the mountain bikingcommunity thought to be one of the best places to ridein the state of pennsylvania. it's really nice becausei can get in my car, and drive for five minutes,
and then i'm riding theseawesome trails, which is great. life is stressful with work andfamily and it's just good to get out in the woodsand ride my bike. and i feel like a kidwhen i'm on my bike. i love the smell of thewoods, i love the silence, that's what i do to get awayfrom the stress of life. i can't tell you how manymiles of trails there are, but there are coursesin cooper's gap that are 20 or 30 miles.
you can ride all day and notduplicate any part of the track. the trails are nice, becausethere's difficult trails, and simple trails,so you don't have to be an expert toenjoy the trails. almost any skill levelcan ride the trails. and you don't always haveto ride bikes either. my family and i gohiking there quite a bit, especially through the winter,because they're so easy to get to and beautiful to hike.
the trails themselves arereally well maintained. there is a group in the areacalled friends of cooper's gap that takes care of them. they keep the trails clean. if there is a downedtree, someone will come up with a chainsaw, andcut a hole in the tree, so you can keep riding. every now and then,they build fun obstacles that you can ride,which is pretty cool.
there's nice parking areas, and one of the parking areashas a map, so you can see where you are, andwhere you can go. i was actually living in thearea, four or five years, before i discovered the trails and they were literallyfive minutes from my home. and i just had a friendwho likes to mountain bike, and he told me aboutthem, and voila, they were in my backyardpractically.
i've loved riding bikes allmy life, and as i grew up, when i was growing up i livedon the edge of the woods, so i was always ridingon trails as a kid. i started mountain biking wheni was in college because i went to penn state, and there weretrails in that area as well, and i never really stopped, andit was nice, when i moved back to the area, it was niceto find that i had some of the greatest trails inthe state, just a few miles from my home, andthat's cooper's gap.
i grew up in this area, and leftthe area for about six years, and we started ourfamily out of the area. and as the kids gotolder, and life got busy, we decided we wanted tocome back where it was quiet and peaceful and liferuns a little slower here. and it's just a greatplace to get away from the craziness of life. >> brando souders: hi, myname is brando souders. and my story is about howwe went to the world series
for our 13-year oldall-star team. i place centerfieldand first base for the mifflin county13-year old all star team. i've been playing baseballsince i was about 4 or 5. we've been playing togethersince we were about 8 or 9, all of us, and we used to be bigrivals in like little league. we have casey conner, he isabout six-three, on our team, probably the biggestkid on our team. he is a pitcher, and heis our first baseman.
colby bodtorf was oneof our great pitchers, helped us throughoutthe tournaments. brian yetter, he wasour home-run hitter, and he helped us throughoutthe tournaments too. scott reigle is our manager,and he helped us go throughout. he just told us to have funthroughout the whole thing. we played 18 games. we went 17 and 1throughout the tournament. in districts, we beatperry county 2 and 0,
and in states we went 5 and 0,winning over franklin township, philadelphia teams,and pittsburgh teams. in new york, we won oversome new jersey teams and new york teams there,and in the world series, we played teams from hawaii,north dakota, connecticut, and like all around the world. we have friends allaround the country now. so it was a greattime over there. when we were in the worldseries, we were losing 3 to 1.
we came back and won it 5 to 3,so it was a really close game. it was just one of the mostamazing things ever, you know, like winning it was justgreat for all of us. we just knew thatwe couldn't lose. like all the community andall the support and help, we knew we had tobring it back for them. we had a two hour fire truckride from wal-mart to milroy. we had like a ceremony there,and we thanked the community and our parents, andeverything there.
seeing all our neighborswas just really great. like they all supported us,and they all thanked us, and it was just great. as soon as everybodygot back to school, we had our lockersdecorated and everything. and everybody was justthanking us and stuff. winning the serieswas just amazing, and it was just a greatexperience for all of us. >> darla rickert: my name isdarla rickert, and my story is
about shining lightthrough the darkness. shining light through thedarkness ultimately is a whole bunch of light, and it startedas a mission outreach hosted through the freedom avenueunited methodist church. this is our 10thseason this year. and we're working ongrowing the lights. we have entertainment,festivities, horse and wagon rides,just a number of things where we've grown from 150volunteers and 1,500 people
down to see the lightsour very first season, to this past season, the 9th,we had over 300 volunteers and over 17,000 people down. it actually started as an idea for my senior girlscout gold award. when i came back from iraq in2006, my church was talking about mission outreach and whatcan we do in our community? and i said "well hey,what about this?" my favorite part isseeing the families.
the kids come down,they get to run around, they get to see the lights. they can touch the displays. we have hot dogs andhot chocolate there in the sweet shop. we have entertainment nightly. there is a train room, so theycan go in and watch the trains and see all the littlemini village people, and then they can enjoyjust walking around
and just enjoyingthe holiday season. so this award wereceived this year, it's the juniatariver valley chamber of commerce volunteeraward, and we received it for all the volunteer workand all the volunteer efforts that shining light throughthe darkness has done. so what's great about thistown is that we come together. it's not just oldergeneration, younger generation. it's a whole mixture,especially through our project.
you have every age come downand help set up the lights. we've had an engagementdown at the park. we had people come down totake their wedding pictures down there at the lights. it's their holiday. it's their favoritetime of the year. through shining light throughthe darkness, we have people from all over cominghome for the holidays. they can come down there,they can walk through
and enjoy all the festivities. and so it makes ita great place. makes it a great place to live. >> paul fagley: myname is paul fagley. i am here about thehistoric embassy theatre here in lewistown. the embassy theatre is one of the most iconicbuildings in lewistown. it was one of several theaters
that were here during theheyday, from about 1927 into the '50s, but it wasthe grand dame of theaters. it was more ornate,and more luxurious than any of the others. the embassy was designed much like the broadway picturepalaces in new york city. in fact, it copied many detailedfeatures from the big theaters but scaled them downto a small town size. the marquee has athousand lights on it.
when it was put in, it was said to be the most elaboratetheater marquee between philadelphiaand pittsburgh. so it was a very grand theaterfor its day in lewistown. starting in the 1950s,theaters starting closing through that time. the embassy was one thatmanaged to survive until 1981, when it finally went dark. the friends of the embassyformed about 25 years ago
and rescued the theaterfrom demolition. we didn't want to see itbecome another parking lot, and just an old faded memory. the idea is to have afunctioning historic theater with movies, stageproductions and concerts in it. we want to bringit back to life. it is expensive to do that. it takes a lot of money. it takes a lot of effort.
we restored the faã§adeof the theater, recreated the marqueeof 1,000 lights. we've also had projectsto fix the entire outside of the building, soit's now weather proof. we are now ready to moveinside and start working on it. a couple of yearsago, we were able to hire the finest historictheater architect firm in the country to doa concept plan for us. we're going to expand itfor stage productions,
concerts, children's theater. we're also going toadd an annex to it, to support additional functions, have a larger lobbyand concession area. so it will be more of amultiple use theater facility. we're really at that pointnow where the plans are done, and what we need now isboth the money and the help. we can even phaseit, if we need to. we don't need to have allthat money all at one time.
the theater is going to be100 years old in 11 years, and i think it would be great tohave this theater up and running and being a vibrantpart of lewistown at that time, oreven before that. lewistown has a lotof history to it. and a lot to be proud of. historic buildings arereally a tie to the past. it's understandable you can'tsave everything, but you pick out those things that areimportant in the community
and that's what you save. and the embassy isworthy of that. >> joyce ann hutchinson: myname is joyce ann hutchinson, and i am here to talk aboutthe lewistown community band. well, the band originated inthe lewistown elks building, and so we were the lewistownelks band for quite a while. and then we became thelewistown community band. we have about 50playing members now. we've grown a lotin the 25 years
that we've been in existence. we have some highschool students. i'll say from 15 to 16 on up to retired folks,so we have all ages. one of our band members, friedarichard, is sort of a historian, and i know that shehas done some things for the community band here. >> every town had a band. mcveytown to allensville, toalpharetta, milroy, yeagertown.
most organizationshad a band too. standard steel, orphan'shome, firemen's group. 1923, a man by the nameof palmer mitchell came to lewistown and started thelewistown high school band. this grew from about 14, 15 players to a bandof 60, 70 players. our athletic field in lewistownis named mitchell field, and the way i understand,it's the only athletic field that is named aftera band director.
>> joyce ann hutchinson:we play about 12 to 15 different concertsthrough the season. we play for church festivals. we play for fund raisers. one of them we play that ismy favorite is the christmas concert we do forthe ice festival, and we actually playit right here in this room, in the courthouse. and another one thatis a really big concert
for us is the let freedom ringconcert that we play in front of the embassy theatre. we play a myriad of things. marches, blues. gospel. whatever, you know? big pieces. victory at sea. things like that. and if anybody wantsus, they call.
if they have a special event that maybe we do aone-time-a-year thing, as opposed to some of theplaces that we do every year. i've lived in lewistownall my life. i guess i just love the smalltown people, and being here, and knowing everyone, and beingpart of the small town family. and i love being part of thelewistown community band. and i'm proud tobe from lewistown, and proud to be partof the band.
>> kevin conaway: my name iskevin conaway, and i'm here to talk about the americanviscose corporation. juniata terrace, thecompany town that was built up around it, and how myfamily has been a part of that from the beginningfor five generations. my great-grandfather,edward morgan, was a first generation american, and when the coal miningindustry essentially dried up in westmoreland county,he brought his family along
with him and started workingin the spinning department at the american viscose company. my grandmother was 16, andmy aunt was 17 at the time. they were some of the firstwomen to work in the factory which started in 1925,and why the factory was so important to the town. it was producing rayon. it was one of the firstcompanies to produce rayon, and a very importantfabric at the time,
because everything wasnatural before that, including cotton and linen. he was known mostly forplaying the piano, and it's said that along the streets ofthe block that he lived on, people would gather on theirfront porches in the evening to listen to him play the piano. so the great thingabout juniata terrace is that it had everythinga community would need. it had a school.
it had a church. it had a grocery store. it had a pharmacyand a soda fountain. and it had a beauty shop. in the 1940s, my grandmotherreturned to the hill after marrying mygrandfather, william conaway. he became a mechanic inthe engineering department. he was a well loved man,and i'm very proud of him. my grandfather was known best
for being very activein the community. he was part of theplayground association, often the kids would comeknocking at the door to ask for him to come out and play. my aunt sharon conaway talksa little bit about what it was like to grow up onthe hill in the 1950s. >> sharon conaway: all of uskids, art, and sam, and bill, all of us never hesitatedto bring any of our friends into the house.
they always welcomed them, momand dad, and they would sit, and they would actuallyplay games with us if we were playing games. >> kevin conaway:during the 1940s, the american viscosecorporation was really important to the war effort. the rayon that theymade was able to help the tires last longer,and really they were a part of winning world war ii.
both of my grandparentswere very proud that all of their childrenserved in the military. so when those boysreturned home, all of them started working atthe american viscose company. my dad, art, my uncle,sam, and my uncle, foster, as well as my uncle, bill. my dad took great pride inbeing a part of the union and being a committee manand representing people, and helping themhelp themselves.
one period, he was out of work for eight months,for doing that. it wasn't a happy time for ourfamily, but it was a proud time, because in the end, he wasable to help those folks. juniata terrace was a workingclass neighborhood, but everyone that came from therewas really proud to be a part of that community. here is my uncle, bill,with more on that. >> bill conaway: you know,we're proud to be hill people.
viscose people. juniata terrace people. whatever you want to say. viscose hill. yeah, the people from aroundhere are, like they come off of this, they are proud that they have been apart of this community. >> kevin conaway: much of the american viscosecorporation was wiped
out in the 1970s, due tohurricane agnes and the floods. the polyester part ofthe plant survived, and that was wheremy dad worked. my uncle, at thattime, lost his job. he then moved on to work for theborough, the juniata terrace, this company town thathe had grown up in. while he was there, there was afire in juniata terrace in 2014, they almost lost anentire row of houses. and he always remarks abouthow the community came together
and really supported them and that is just somethingi've seen many times on juniata terrace. when my grandfather passed away, everyone on the hillgave an amount to her, and it's just one houseafter another, gave an amount and they did that for everyone. it was a community thatcared about each other. you know, i'm proud tocome from lewistown.
like, my family is proud tocome from juniata terrace. when we decided to raise ourdaughter, it was important for us to come back here, and let her have the sameexperiences that we had growing up and being with our family,being with our grandparents, being surrounded bya great community. largest source of >> molly kinney: i'm mollykinney, and my story is about the mifflincounty library.
the mifflin county librarywill soon celebrate its 175th continuous year ofservice in 2017. we started out as anapprentice's library. there was a big apprentice guildhere in the lewistown area, and the wives of themasters started a library. and from there, we moved into a subscriptionlibrary for members. and then finally, webecame a free public library for the residents of the county.
we have offered womb to tombservice to the residents of mifflin county, andthe surrounding counties. one of our big focusesis with early literacy. we do story time for babies. we set a good foundationfor children. [ background conversation ] so that when theyenter elementary school and become independentreaders, they'll visit us for their pleasure reading,
as well as for theirschool assignments. when our current librarywas built, we needed a way to quickly tell peoplehow to get to the children's department. the children's librarianthen created a rainbow. well, the buildingneeded painting, and so we created arainbow of handprints, 762 handprints now makethe rainbow from the top of the stairs to thebottom, down the hallway,
around the corner, and intothe children's department. it was a way to involvethe community and a way to say this is your library. the public libraries in americaare one of the best tax values for its citizens, becausewe seem to do something with nothing all the time. there really is somethingfor everyone. when i think aboutmifflin county, i think about thebeauty of the area.
i like the peaceof the living here. i think the faith-basedorganizations are a real strength in this community,and the service clubs are some of the most generous, giving groups i've ever hadthe privilege of knowing. >> al hughes: my name is alhughes, and i'm here to talk about the united way dayof caring breakfast served by the kiwanis clubof lewistown. the breakfast is at kish parkout in burnham, and it's a way
that the united way kicksoff their annual campaign. the first year they did it,they just served these teams of people coffee and donuts. and they complained aboutthe coffee and donuts for a whole day of work, so the kiwanis club has alwaysbeen doing pancake festival, so they asked kiwanis to servea pancake and sausage breakfast and we've been doing it forprobably at least 10 years. this past year, theytold me it was
between 175 and 200 volunteers. the volunteers come fromindustry and other agencies, and they go out intothe neighborhood and do community serviceat different projects. when i transferred downhere with bell telephone, long time ago, they wantedtheir supervisor to be involved in community service, and i gotinvolved with the united way, and also with kiwanis club. we have focused primarilyon youth.
we do the christmasparade, we have a project where we do clothing for needychildren in the community. we have a thing forearly learning, where we distributeearly learning packets to day care centers,and things like that. i think lewistown is definitelya great place to live. my four children all graduated from chief loganin indian valley. three of them went to pennstate, which is very close by,
and you have theculture in penn state, that you can take part in. it's just a nice place to be. we enjoy it very much. >> debbie wilt: my name isdebbie wilt, and i'm here to talk about the lumina center. our primary objectiveat the lumina center is to provide free programmingfor the area children. that's it, in a nutshell.
it was started in 1994, by agroup of methodist churches. the outside of the buildingis absolutely fantastic. the art work was done bythe late dwight kirkland. and it is just so kid-friendly. i have to say it that way. and i think the communityreally appreciates it as well. we have a number of programs. during the school season, we are in what we call the kid'scafã© after-school program.
they arrive around 3:10, 3:15,and they're with us until 5:30. in addition to the physicalactivity, the homework time, one of the highlights of our program is ourhot meal that we serve. and we find that this is a very, very essential partof our program. and then when school isover, our first program in the summer is rainbow summer,that is for two weeks in june, monday through friday.
and believe me, the kidsabsolutely love this program. they come mondaythrough friday from 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. we do avariety of things with them, including crafts, biblestory, a hot lunch, again. they also get a snack. and in the afternoon,weather permitting, we take them to recpark swimming. everything that we offer isfree of charge to the kids. what we do for thekids, as well,
is we give them powerpacks of food. and that is food that iseasily prepared, and is given to the kids at the end ofthe week for the weekend. families struggle. and it ensures thatthese children have food for the weekends. twice a month, there are 85power packs given to students in lewistown elementary school. and i have to give credit to ourlocal kiwanis club for helping
to deliver these power packs to lewistown elementaryschool students. it is very important forme to be a part of this, because kids are my passion. i love every single one of them. and when they come throughthose doors, you know, expecting great things,we hope to deliver those. >> emily conaway:i'm emily conaway, i'm from mifflin county middleschool, and i am here to talk
about the husky helpers. the husky helpers is a club thatlikes to help their community. there is some sign-upsheets, and well, i thought it would be reallycool because i always kind of wanted to like dosomething like that. and help my community. and i just signed up for it. we do a couple ofdifferent things helping out in the community.
first, we go to theretirement home, william penn, and help out theresidents there. [ background sounds ] [ bell rings ] [ applause ] >> emily conaway: good job. the residents there liketo share their stories of like how they grew up here and everything, andit's really cool.
we do student tutoringwhere we tutor kids that need a little help. and then we alsodo some knitting. we knit hats for the babies. i really like theknitting part of it. i am a student teacherin the knitting one, because i already knewhow to knit so i help out the other kids thatdon't know how to knit yet. at the beginning of the year,
our teachers will take somesuggestions for what we want to do to help our community,and then well, we might do some. like my friend said, theice festival would be kind of cool to do a booth there. and well, so we mightbe doing that this year. i love growing up inthis area because there's so many friendly peoplein our neighborhood. we live near the school, so it'seasy to get there and get back. just love it.
>> willa adams: my name is willaadams, and i am here to talk about new visions center. we changed our name about sixyears ago to new visions center. when we started back in 1945, it was juniata foundationfor the blind. and at that time, we wereworking to help people who were blind or visuallyimpaired to learn a craft or business that theycould do in their home. throughout the years, we sortof branched out to help people,
not just visually impairedor the blind, but also people with other disabilities. the monies that we earn from that business is basicallywhat supports new vision center, and helps us to provide theservices in mifflin, juniata, and huntington counties, for people who are blindor visually impaired. we have 19 peoplewith disabilities. we have an in houseproduction where do sewing.
we finish textiles, suchas washcloths and blankets, and we also makewindow treatments. we make it at that facilityand we also install it. and we do that acrossthe commonwealth. beyond the production,we have people who work in janitorial services,and they go out and they work independently. and the other place thatwe employ people is photo i.d. center.
your photo licensing technician. so when you go toget your license, the people sitting behind thecamera that take your picture and hand you your license,those are our employees. it's just like trying to findan employee for any other job. we're trying to find theright person to fit our job. besides employingpeople with disabilities, we work with people who areblind and visually impaired. our job there is to helpthem stay independent
and stay in their home. and the biggest thingthat new visions supplies for those people, in myopinion, is getting them to their medical appointments. we have two drivers whowork 30 hours a week, transporting people totheir medical appointments. and then twice a month, wehave life support classes. it's a teaching andeducation program. recently, we had people whowere training guide dogs,
seeing eye dogs, and they showedthe group their little puppies that they were training. but i think the reallycool thing about new vision center is i'vebeen here a bit over 22 years, and i'm very proud andhappy to say that at the end of every day, i still feel like i've done goodthings for good people. >> peter ort: my name ispeter ort, and i am here to represent the rotaryclub of lewistown.
the rotary club oflewistown really is a philanthropic organization. we are just hereto provide support and help facilitatethe community at large. we do a veteran's day program. one of the club members decided that it would be reallyappropriate to invite a vet to enjoy a free lunchon the rotary club. it was a kind of a small start,
and then the programkind of grew from there. it's really kind of areaching out to the community and just showing them that wereally appreciate their service, and really to honor theveterans that have served. ryla is the rotaryyouth leadership awards. basically you take studentsthat are juniors and seniors in high school and we takethem to juniata college, and for four days, they aregiven really great instruction and training on leadership.
we've seen some really neatthings come out of that. we've had students that,they come back and want to do a service project. we had a young lady thatshe wanted to do something with the shelter box, whichis another rotary initiative. you can raise enoughmoney to purchase a box that gets basicallydeployed to a disaster area. they were able to notonly raise the money to purchase one shelterbox, which is over $1,000.
the club members wereso inspired by her story that they raised another $1,000 to purchase a secondshelter box. rotary works in conjunctionwith some other local entities. we've had a reallyneat, long tradition with the boy scoutslocally here. we have a very closecollaboration with the salvation army and isanother charitable organization that we like to try to reachout, and do things for them.
relay for life is a localinitiative, and it is designed to raise funds for cancer. we are there to supportthe walkers by giving them refreshments and serving coffeeand donuts and so on. and i am proud to say thatthis year we are going to see over 500 children's bookspurchased for the library for the children's department,and that was directly due to rotary raising the money.
so it's gratifying to see that. for me, rotary isreally about fellowship, being able to get togetherwith other like-minded people. but it goes muchdeeper than that. and really rotary has been ablessing to me and my family because it allows meto be able to do things that i can raise moneyfor different initiatives, but beyond that, i havethe ability to be hands-on. to see the history of the club,
for 95 years, what'sbeen going on. to see the good itdoes in our community, it just makes me proud that i'mable to be called a rotarian, and i'd love to bea part of the club. it's just interactingwith great people and doing great thingsin the community. >> roger herto: i'm roger herto. i'm a media teacher atmifflin county high school. i'm really happy to be in publiceducation at mifflin county.
i'm the media teacher there,and in addition to that, i have the honorof running mctv, which is a local governmenteducational channel. >> announcer: mctvis on the air! >> roger herto: it's beenquite a while coming. back in 1999, i got myteaching certificate and met with the superintendent atthat time, and he said we want to have a tv studiohere within the school. i went and visited governmenteducational channels all
across pennsylvania. we had been teaching kidsmedia for many years. we built a tv studio. we are very unique here. the station is fundedby lewistown borough by the mifflin countycommissioners, by the mifflin countyschool district, and with the financial helpof some local agencies, like mifflin county,communities that care.
>> announcer: psat testingwill take place on wednesday, october 19 in themorning at mchs. >> roger herto: we have 14 kidseach year that run our studio. our slogan at the stationis "if it's happening in mifflin county, it'shappening on mctv." government meetings locally areour main function right now. in the future, wehope to expand that. and then as far as theeducational part goes, school concerts, school plays,we put graduation on the air.
our studio is state of the art. we just did our first highschool sporting event the other night with student anchors, and students runningall the cameras, and the students in the studio. so to see them getthat opportunity for me is really,really a lot of fun. >> announcer: yeah,franklin with the early set and hart's able to capitalize,and put one down on him.
>> roger herto: my job is toteach the students what to do, and then get out of their way, and let them showwhat they can do. and it has been a lot of fun. we've turned out approximately30 kids now over the years that are now workingin the business, and that would nothappen in this area if we didn't have aprogram like this. so we are very gratefulfor the opportunity,
and more importantly, the kidsare making the most of it. and we are just getting started. i was born and raised inreedsville, left the area, like many of thestudents i teach now, thinking i wouldnever come back. i've been a lot ofdifferent places. could have ended up in alot of different places, but to raise a family, idon't know of a better place. my wife and i havebeen fortunate.
we're both educators. we believe in the localschool system here, and it has been an honorto do this, because working with these kids, and seeing whatthey can do is just a great, great experience. >> abby traxler: my name isabby traxler, and my story is about the miss centralpennsylvania scholarship pageant. the pageant started in 1977
and it was first named misstri-county when it was started, and now it is misscentral pennsylvania. in 2006, they added a teenportion to the pageant. my mom was miss tri-county, andi grew up wearing her crown, going in her room, looking inthe mirror, and just wanting to do it when i was older. and there is a princess program. so every year sincei was, i believe, 3 or 4 i was a princessin the pageant.
and now i can compete andactually hold a title. you start the day with a privateinterview with the judges. the judging portionstarts with fitness, where we do a little dance, andthey judge our physical fitness and how confident weare with ourselves. there is talent, where theyjudge artistic expression, and how talented we are. >> [singing] and we are led tothose who help us most to grow. >> abby traxler: thereis also evening gown,
where they judge our poise, andwe answer an on-stage question, which is a littlenerve-wracking. >> emcee: abby, if you could beon the cover of any magazine, which would you choose? >> abby traxler: all contestantsare required to have a platform. mine is called project abby. abby stands for anti-bullyingfor better youth. and i currently havebuddy benches in all five localelementary schools.
if kids are lonely, theycan sit on the benches, and their friends or otherclassmates are supposed to come up and invite themto play with them. my platform was inspiredby my issues with bullying. i've been bulliedsince a very young age, so i just like topromote positivity, and maybe we can end thisfor the future generations. every year, my favorite eventin lewistown was always going to see the pageant, andwatching the girls compete.
so that i can finallycompete, my first time was so fulfilling, andi was so excited. the community is so supportive of everything i dowith the pageant. i couldn't do it alone,and all the people in lewistown just supportme no matter the outcome. i've been first runner-upthree years at the miss pennsylvania'soutstanding teen pageant, and every time i come home,everybody is so happy for me.
and i couldn't askfor anything else. >> mayshell hogle: myname is mayshell hogle. today, i would like toshare my penny postcards. i have a personal collectionof some very unique postcards. some of them are datedback as early as 1904. back in the early1900s, postcards and written letters were away for people to correspond and keep in touch with lovedones, family and friends. you were able to send apostcard for one penny.
they shared birthdays, wellwishes, and holiday greetings. the postcards show a historyof the town, how people lived, and how it evolved and grew. it shows how the church andschool was very important to the people and theirfaith and their values. the postcards show earlydowntown lewistown, back whenever the trolleycar was still in lewistown. people used to ride the trolleycar to get from here to there. the postcard that is afavorite of mine is the one
of the american viscose. my father was employed there,and during the flood of 1972, my father came across theriver bridge in a boat. one of the postcards that i think is pretty funnyis a lady named dora sent a postcard of the jail to herfriend frank, and told him if he didn't behave himself,he would end in there soon. when i look at the postcardsof the early days in lewistown, it brings back alot of memories.
i've lived here my entire life. i really like the mountains,and the state parks. lewistown is a placethat i call home. >> patti burke: myname is patti burke. i'm a member of the wesleychapel united methodist church in lockport. my story is about wesley chapel,the history of the church. in 1828, a man by the name ofowen owens came from middletown. he was appointedto be a lock tender
for the pennsylvania canal. a methodist society out ofthe baltimore conference had [inaudible] preachers. owen owens offered landto them to build a church and our church wasbuilt in 1832. they only held servicesfrom april until october because of the badweather, and any means of transportation they had washorse and buggy or to walk. in 1955, we wanted more space.
so an addition was put on. and then in 1969, our majorproject was excavating underneath the old church, but they couldn'tget any machinery in, so they had to do it by hand. and my grandmother,viola brower, was one of the oldestmembers there. she was a member since 1910. and she helped dig that out.
and then in 1988, we purchaseda property across the church and made it intoa fellowship hall. then in 1990, we had renovations,new carpet, new pews. and then the old windowsfrom 1832 were replaced with new stained glass windows. and on june 4, 2017,we are going to be celebrating ouranniversary of 185 years. lockport is a small community.
people that went in 1832,there are still grandchildren, great-great grandchildren,coming to the church now. >> kenzie mccarter: i'm kenziemccarter, and i'm a local singer and actress, and mystory is about performing around mifflin countyand outside the area. i actually started singingwhen i was 4 years old at my preschool, which isa local church in the area, and i was a really shychild, like nobody thought that i was going to be ableto do a solo, but then i did,
and it just has kindof always been there. i've sang at a lotof different events. my first two-hourevent was really cool. the milroy firemen's festival. i also do a lot oflocal supporting events. i've done mifflin county bandboosters, which is really cool because a lot of my classmatesare in band, and to be able to support them and just singwhile they're doing their different activities andcrafts, it's a lot of fun.
i've also sang at lights inthe darkness for a couple of years now, down at kish park. and that is always funtoo, because, i mean, it's the christmas spirit,and everybody loves that. i'm hoping to get a band startedsometime soon, but right now, it's by myself with tracks ori started playing guitar too. i feel like in thelast couple of years, it seemed to really bloomin the area of the arts. julie ufema she has helpedme a long way supporting me
through the arts, stone archi got involved in theater in the park, whichis a lot of fun. i got to be involved intheir first teen production. it was a really coolexperience to be part of. i'm so excited forevolution art center to open under julie ufema. it's going to be a greatexperience for people in the area who are maybealready involved in the arts or want to find somethingnew to do,
and i think it's goingto be just so cool. to live in mifflin county andin lewistown, it's really cool because everybodyknows everybody. it has the small town feel. but it's cool when igo to different events to meet different people thatmaybe i wouldn't have met, or even just being involvedin different arts programs. i get to meet people that iwould have never dreamed of. some of my best friends.
>> phyllis johnson: myname is phyllis johnson. i am the president of the stonearch players board of directors, and stone arch playersis the lewistown area community theater. >> [laughter] whereare going to put her? [ laughter ] >> phyllis johnson: ourpurpose when we were founded was to bring live theaterto the community. this is our 50thanniversary season.
we do three majorproductions a year and we try to bring the audiencemystery, comedy, drama, anything that they might like. >> i asked you to beon time, annabelle. >> on time? with that death trapyou call a road, we're lucky to be here at all. >> phyllis johnson: stonearch started in 1967. the local people were talking,and they decided, you know,
the one thing we don't havehere is a community theater. thiory [assumed spelling] and paul olbrick [assumedspelling] had a background in theater, and so it started where they were just teachingacting, and they were going over scripts, untilthey finally decided that why don't we doa major production? they put on "themouse that roared." it was a success, and from thatpoint on, they just continued.
we were offered the buildingout at the community park, and we moved out there in 1982. we are trying to reach outto bring young people in, different people in,so that we can continue for another 50 years. a few years ago, under thedirection of julie ufema, we started a children'scamp, a theater camp. it became so huge,that by the third year, we not only had a children'scamp, we had so many kids
and they were so amazinglytalented, what we decided to do was to have aproduction for teens with teens, and they were 15 of the mostamazing young people i've ever seen. >> i want a line. >> i want a solo. >> i don't want asolo [laughter]. >> i want to go to the bathroom! >> phyllis johnson:they stole the show.
they showed that even in asmall community like lewistown, there is talent andthere is depth, and these kids just wantthe opportunity to shine. >> is this the right place? >> phyllis johnson: i've beenin the theater for 38 years, but i've never had asmuch fun as i've had when these last three yearsdealing with these students, and the teens, and the kids. it has just beenvery gratifying.
it's just an amazinggroup of people. from different walks oflife, who come together to do this amazingcreative thing. i don't know if i wouldbe friends with some of these people if i weren'tinvolved in the theater and my life would bethat much poorer for it. >> here i am, willing to giveher the benefit of the doubt, and she snuck a man in here! >> phyllis johnson:i moved to lewistown
when i was 15 years old. i made friends very quickly. these people arefriends to this day. lewistown has artists,photographers, dancers, thespians, we are an art center. and even though peoplethink we're just rural, there is so much culture andthere is so much talent here, that i think thatpeople who say oh, it's just central pennsylvania,i think they're missing a lot
if they don't lookbeyond that and see that it's a real gemhere in lewistown. >> riley cullen:i'm riley cullen, and my story is themifflin county high school marching band. i've been in theband for two years. this is my second year. i joined the band becauseboth of my parents were in marching band, and becausei wanted to try something new,
and i already kindof liked music. this year's showis space themed. we are playing some star trek. some star wars, andsome of the planets. >> one, and two, andthree, and four and five! >> riley cullen: westart practice mid-july, and we practice two days a week. then band camp starts, andband camp is for two weeks, five days a week andit's eight hours a day
in the scorching hot sun. the school year starts,we practice twice a week, and we do that for therest of the season. on friday, we have afootball game, and we perform, and we play in the stands,and then we go back home, and we go to sleep,and then we're up early again the next dayfor saturday morning practice, which is usually super earlyin the morning, like 9:00, and then we practice for twoor three hours that morning,
then we go to the competition. a bunch of bands willgo to a competition, and there are judges thatwalk around on the field and watch you from off thefield, then they judge us on how good we marchedand how good we played, and then we get scored on that. we had a star wars night atone of the home football games, and a bunch of membersof the 501st legion came. the 501st legion is a group ofpeople that professionally dress
up as star wars characters. it was really cool. [ cheering ] having my brother in theband is kind of weird. because i feel like icould tell him what to do, but i know he's not goingto listen to me [laughs], so even if i tried to help, he won't really, hewon't really care. but i try anyway sometimes.
my favorite part of being in marching band is all theother people in marching band, because they're all so nice. compared to a lot of theother kids i see in school, the people in marchingband are very, very nice. they're just great kids. there is nobody whodoesn't have a friend. there is always somebody for yousomewhere in the marching band. it's a nice area.
i feel like there'snot really anywhere where there is nothingto do or anything. it's a great place to live. >> narrator: and that'sour town: lewistown. a look at the mifflincounty community through the eyesof its residents. from hostettler's truck bodiesand trailers, route 322, milroy, information at dkhostettler.com.
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