Religious Movement: Christians in the Harrisburg area are eschewing old church buildings to meet in bars, homes, and renovated commercial properties. What’s driving the change?

January 31, 2019 | by Lizzy Hardison

On a still Sunday night in January, the Stage on Herr buzzed with alternative rock as concert lights blared on an empty stage. A handful of 20 and 30-somethings, drinks in hand, made small talk as they waited for the evening’s program to start.

They weren’t there for a concert or dance party, which you can find at the Midtown performance venue almost any night of the week. Instead, they were settling in for church.

The Hummelstown-based church The Bridge has held Sunday evening services at Stage on Herr, one of the performance venues within the House of Music, Arts and Culture (HMAC), for the past year. They know that a bar and rowdy concert venue isn’t a typical place to hold a worship service. But according to its leaders, that’s not a problem.

“There’s no boundary on what a church has to look like in our world,” said Alyson Wert, The Bridge’s midtown campus pastor. “When we were looking for a venue, no space was off limits, and no idea was off the table.”

The Bridge is hardly the first church to plant itself in a quirky venue or swap out organ music for contemporary praise songs. A growing number of congregations have left historic church buildings in favor of non-traditional, mixed-use spaces in recent years, participating in what religious leaders say is a broader re-invention of white, evangelical and mainline churches for an increasingly secular American public.

As a recent announcement by Harrisburg’s United Methodist Conference shows, even long-established churches are starting to look for a change in scenery.

The Susquehanna Conference of the UMC said in December that it would consolidate 10 congregations across Harrisburg as it prepares to sell off their historic church buildings. The congregations will meet in one location starting this spring, and church leaders eventually hope to open five new worship locations around the city.

It’s unlikely that any of the new campuses will have steeples or stained glass. Conference leaders are scouting out community centers, schools and entertainment venues instead.

“Basically, it’s taking church out of the context it’s always been in,” said Shawn Gilgore, communications director for the Susquehanna Conference. “We’re looking for spaces and places that that aren’t intimidating to people who are looking for a spiritual community.”

As other churches in the Harrisburg area have already shown, there’s almost no limit on what space can become a house of worship. Since 2005, Harrisburg’s Brethren in Christ Church has met in a converted car dealership on Derry Street. The rapidly growing, Lancaster-based church LCBC—shorthand for Lives Changed by Christ—recently announced plans to purchase an ice skating rink in Mechanicsburg and convert it into a campus with a 700-seat sanctuary. (Its leaders declined to comment for this story.)

Up on Allison Hill, Wildheart Ministries holds fiery, jam-band style worship in an Instagram-worthy mansion on S. 13th Street. The circa-1900 estate is also command central for Wildheart’s community service projects and houses missionaries working in Allison Hill.

Gilgore estimates that the movement of churches out of traditional church buildings has swelled in the past decade. For many churches, the motivations are just as much spiritual as they are financial.

NEW POSSIBILITIES

Data from the Pew Research Center show that the American public is becoming less religious with each passing year. Devout Baby Boomers and Generation Xers still log regular attendance at Christian worship services, but a growing minority of Americans say they do not identify with any organized faith. As a result, overall church membership—especially in white, evangelical churches—has dwindled over the past two decades.

Coupled with the 2008 financial crisis, stagnant or declining membership numbers have forced many churches to find creative ways to cut costs.

The UMC Conference in Harrisburg, for instance, calculated that it had just 400 members across its 10 church locations before it announced its consolidation plans in 2018. That figure was a far cry from its membership rolls a few decades ago, when a single church would likely count hundreds of parishioners.

With only a small congregation to support its maintenance, a historic church building can siphon precious resources from clergy salaries or outreach programs.

These factors have led the UMC conference to drastically reimagine what a church can look like. Unloading 10 of its church properties and leasing newer, smaller spaces will give the church more flexibility to ramp up ministerial programs across the city, Gilgore said.

That’s what happened for Harrisburg’s Brethren in Christ Church, which in 2005 moved from a church building in Bellevue Park to a converted car dealership on Derry Street. The church’s new facility was four times larger than the previous one, opening up new possibilities for worship and outreach.

“Our ministry just went on steroids,” said senior pastor Hank Johnson. “We were doing a lot at the old church, but our capabilities just shot up—not just because of [space], but because new people came in with new ideas.”

Johnson also said that divorcing a church from its physical home can help a congregation ask tough questions about belief and religious belonging. After all, what makes a church a church when all the physical trappings of its sanctuary are gone?

For BIC members, Johnson said, the answer to that question lay in helping their underserved neighbors. The move to Derry Street helped them interrogate their priorities and led to a new wave of outreach programs.

For instance, BIC had long dreamed of providing free medical care to impoverished Harrisburg residents, according to Lynda Gephart, the church’s pastor of congregational life. That never came to fruition at their old space on Chestnut Street. But the energy that arose from their new location, she said, bred a partnership with a mobile medical clinic. To this day, it visits the church once a month to offer patrons free medical and dental care.

Gephart pointed to another, more mundane factor that drove BIC’s real estate hunt: parking. Many inner-city churches struggle to provide patrons with enough of it, she said, but a commercial property or strip mall storefront often comes with acres of surface lots.

Indeed, it’s hard for a church to grow if its congregants can’t find a convenient way to get there. But other religious leaders say that traditional church buildings also can stifle a congregation by alienating non-believers or skeptics.

When The Bridge first launched its Midtown campus in 2016, it held services in an old church building at Green and Cumberland streets. The space met the congregation’s needs well enough, but leaders said they wanted to be in a multi-purpose space that was trafficked by a larger segment of the community.

They scouted locations in Midtown, including the Broad Street Market, the Midtown Scholar and empty storefronts. In the end, they landed in HMAC, where they can host services either in the Capital Ballroom or the Stage on Herr.

Pastor Justin Douglas said that church leaders didn’t blink at the prospect of worshipping in a bar, which, on any other night of the week, may host a death metal band or drag show.

If anything, Douglas said, the unconventional location is a natural fit for a church that prides itself on questioning many long-held Christian rituals.

The Bridge doesn’t offer communion every week, for example, and its leaders don’t operate in a strong hierarchy. They don’t accept monetary offerings during services, for fear of alienating members who can’t afford to give (those who wish to support the church can give online instead.)

But as Douglas sees it, the reimagining of church spaces is part of a broader reconfiguration of Christianity—one that’s taking place as religious leaders try to attract younger, more socially conscious congregants who, for personal or political reasons, may be skeptical of Christian institutions.

He said that many churches today have alienated younger members by taking hardline stances on issues like LGBT rights or abortion. Removing a church from a physical church building, Douglas said, can signal to current and prospective members that a congregation is ready to meet its members where they are—physically, politically and spiritually.

If that means setting up shop in a neighborhood watering hole, he said, so be it.

“I don’t care if you have an alcoholic beverage in your hand in the Stage on Herr instead of a pew in a church with a stained-glass window,” Douglas said. “The destination for us and other churches is the same. But the vehicle can look very different.”

As the UMC Conference starts to scout new locations this spring, its leadership team will try to follow the same method of meeting people in places that are familiar to them, including ones that are secular.

The goal, according to Gilgore, is to make a day of worship feel like a seamless part of a person’s busy routine — not a disruptive chore on a Sunday morning.

“I think people nowadays are looking for new ways to do things they’ve always done,” Gilgore said. “We’re saying, ‘You can still do church this way, but here’s a way that is less intimidating, more welcoming, more community-driven way that’s more like what you do on the other six days of the week.’ We’re taking the church out to the people, in whatever way that takes place.”

Healthy Life, Happy Life: CEO Jeannine Peterson has guided Hamilton Health through many moves, tremendous growth.

January 31, 2019 | by M. Diane McCormick

It’s not easy, asking staff to wait a few days before cashing their paychecks. Jeannine Peterson was working hard to right the financially struggling Hamilton Health Center, collecting old debts and downsizing operations.

The year was 2000, and veteran health care policymaker Peterson had been asked by fellow Hamilton board members to step in temporarily. She was clearing up a $2 million deficit while also trying to convince staff to stay. To which they responded: “Why should we stay if you won’t?”

“I had to do some soul searching, and they were right,” Peterson says now. “How could I sit here and say I was just there on a temporary basis, seeing if I can keep the doors open? If I’m able to or not, I’m still riding off into the sunset.”

Today, Peterson is CEO of an ever-expanding federally qualified health center with a $22 million budget, providing physical, mental, dental and vision health services to 38,500 people through 95,600 visits in 2017. Hamilton Health employs 280 people, recently opened a new satellite clinic in Perry County and, this year, will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Blank Canvas

A group of Harrisburg-area doctors and dentists founded Hamilton Health in 1969. They saw the need for a medical center serving the underserved, especially those without insurance.

Hamilton Health Center started in a trailer and then developed a habit of moving to larger quarters as it outgrew each space. About five years into her job, Peterson had another idea. She envisioned a large, modern facility that Hamilton could grow into. At the same time, the Community Action Commission identified health care as a primary need in Harrisburg’s Allison Hill. There, a sturdy but rundown former state print shop and warehouse went up for sale—67,000 square feet of blank canvas.

“Everybody thought I lost my mind,” Peterson said.

The community declined to contribute, forcing Peterson to be less ambitious in her goals. So, Hamilton took on the project itself, building out 30,000 square feet in Phase I with $16.5 million in financing cobbled from federal, state and county governments, a Fulton Bank loan and $1 million of its own equity.

Today, visitors to the facility on 17th Street in Harrisburg enter via a bright, soaring lobby. Departments include pediatrics, women’s health, behavioral health, dentistry and the new vision center. The underserved remain Hamilton’s primary demographic. Sixty-five to 70 percent are enrolled in Medical Assistance (Medicaid).

Through longtime partnerships, Hamilton also serves students in the Harrisburg school district, preschoolers in Capital Area Head Start and elderly residents of Harrisburg Housing Authority apartments.

The space that opened in September 2012 was supposed to last 10 years, but “people just kept coming and coming and coming,” Peterson said. For Phase II, which opened in 2015, the community got the picture, donating $8.2 million to a $7 million capital campaign. Pediatrics got its own space, and administration and social services moved in from separate buildings.

“Once people walked in and saw what we had accomplished and that the need still existed, they stepped up,” said Peterson. “This community is a very giving community.”

Hamilton is a “medical mall,” helping patients overcome barriers of language and transportation through bilingual staff and such onsite services as imaging through UPMC Pinnacle and lab work through Quest Diagnostics. Hours range from early morning to evening, plus two Saturdays a month.

“We don’t get it right all the time,” said Peterson. “But we try to think about the needs of the patients who historically have been left out of the mainstream.”

The opioid crisis has sparked the latest round of partnerships and new services.

Peterson launched her career in the substance abuse field in the 1970s, and her 22 years with the state included service as the Department of Health’s deputy secretary for drugs and alcohol. For 17 years, in fact, Hamilton has offered services for pregnant, addicted women.

But the nature of drugs today is “so much more potent, and they’re so much more prevalent in the broader community,” Peterson said. Hamilton is one of the state’s 45 “Centers of Excellence” for treating addiction. Its expanded case management model now covers men, women and families. Medication-assisted therapy is offered inhouse.

“We try to work with members of the community to provide that holistic approach to care,” Peterson said.

Giving Back

Peterson grew up in Pittsburgh, where her father founded a TV repair shop—one of the oldest African-American businesses there, still run by her brother and his son. She is active in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which performs community services and grants scholarships, and recently was named the chair of the board of directors for the Capital Region Economic Development Corp. (CREDC) for 2019.

She loves to travel, taking road trips with her daughter—a medical informatics professional—and vacations to sunny spots.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life,” Peterson said. “Everybody doesn’t have two-parent homes and have the ability to go away to college. I say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ God could have had a different path for me. It’s about giving back and always helping people who may not have had those opportunities I did.”

More construction is in Peterson’s future, as Hamilton Health purchased an adjoining lot from the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority. Exact uses remain to be decided. Training rooms might be built for Hamilton’s many medical students and interns who get their first taste of urban and health-center care there.

Today’s sprawling health systems are invaluable partners to Hamilton, but community-based health care will never go out of style, Peterson said.

“That touch, the feel, the being in the community and understanding the diversity of populations is critical for us being able to improve health outcomes,” she said. “It’s not a cookie-cutter approach.”

Dental Director Dr. Martin Francis left private practice in Atlanta to follow his wife, obstetrician Dr. Potacia Francis, to Hamilton.

“I enjoy the way I can give back to the community, being able to help them doing the quality dentistry I did in private practice, being able to see the smiles on the faces,” he said as he stood amid the bright bays of the dental department.

Hamilton’s excellence comes from recruiting the right providers, “and leadership having discussions about care,” Francis said.

“He wants to expand dentistry,” Peterson interjected.

“We have doctors who are committed to giving the best care in the community,” Francis added, “and Hamilton encourages that.”

Hamilton Health Center is located at 110 S. 17th St., Harrisburg. To mark its 50th anniversary, it will hold a weeklong Hamilton CommYOUnity Festival, Aug. 5-10; golf tournament, Sept. 9 at West Shore Country Club; gala, Oct. 24 at Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. For information about the center and services, visit www.Hamiltonhealthcenter.com.

Good Point: To reach sustained recovery, Harrisburg may need some outside help.

January 31, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Illustration by Rich Hauck.

Recently, I ran into an architect friend during my weekly shopping excursion to the Broad Street Market.

Naturally, we got into a conversation about Harrisburg and began to talk about the progress the city has made over the past 10 years—this and that building redeveloped; this and that business opened.

I made the point that, despite this improvement, Harrisburg, in my opinion, hadn’t yet reached a “tipping point.”

“What would constitute a tipping point?” he asked.

A good question for sure, and I later emailed him my response.

A tipping point, I wrote, will be when the city begins to attract outside investment—when responsible, quality developers, investors and business people size up Harrisburg and decide it’s a good place to put their money, a place where they can get a decent return on their investments. Assessing the situation, I didn’t think that had happened here yet.

Coincidentally, a few days later, I learned about a new book by urban planner Alain Bertaud entitled “Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities.” In it, Bertaud argues that bottom-up market forces should drive how cities develop more than top-down, central-planning efforts.

Of course, I immediately thought of Harrisburg.

During the Industrial Revolution, Harrisburg grew quickly because it was a center of population, and companies needed to put their operations where the labor and infrastructure were. The city then fell apart with the collapse or relocation of the very industries that caused the boom—steel, railroads and other manufacturers.

Since the 1960s, the city government has tried numerous initiatives to revive Harrisburg. Former Mayor Steve Reed was the ultimate pump-primer, attempting to revitalize the city through public monies, massive amounts of debt and no end of creative accounting.

Bertaud would take issue with Reed’s heavy-handed approach. He believes that it’s best for a city government to set the stage to attract private investment by competently performing core services—trash pickup, road maintenance, etc.—not serving as the principal economic or planning force itself.

“I’m not going to make many friends for saying this, but a mayor is essentially a glorified janitor,” he told the Atlantic’s CityLab website. “His or her first job is to maintain the quality of infrastructure and services as the city organically changes. This focus on ‘a vision’ emphasizes top-down control, when the job of a mayor should really revolve around indicators that emerge from the bottom up.”

In this, I mostly agree. A hundred small businesses mean a hundred small experiments in what people value, what they will buy, what services they’ll consume. The end result should offer a strong indication of what will work and what won’t, what’s sustainable and what isn’t, in a city.

In my view, a municipal government has an important role to play in setting broad parameters to ensure public safety, maintain infrastructure and encourage responsible development, but not to the point of micromanaging the local economy or serving as a prime economic force.

Let’s return to Harrisburg.

About a decade ago, the city government, in financial free fall, was removed as a key economic player. Nonetheless, Harrisburg has enjoyed a steady, substantial revival. What happened?

I believe that several factors have contributed. First, people, in general, have returned to cities for restaurants and nightlife, if not to live. Secondly, the city, under the current administration, has focused, appropriately, on the basic blocking and tackling of municipal governance (though I’m pretty certain Mayor Papenfuse would object to being called a “glorified janitor”).

Even Reed deserves some credit, though I offer it grudgingly. He helped plant seeds for redevelopment, at least downtown, even if his top-down, ends-justify-the-means approach led to vast overspending, mountains of debt and a profound, historic financial crisis.

Most important in this city’s redevelopment, though, is this—the local, private sector stepped up.

Locally based developers, businesspeople, restaurateurs and shopkeepers saw opportunity when outside interests did not. The list is so long that I hesitate to single out any particular project for fear of leaving out others. But the nearly desolate city I encountered 10 years ago has abundant life again, due almost entirely to Harrisburg-area people caring for this city, risking what they had and taking a big chance on it.

Having said that—local people and local capital can’t do it all. A larger, citywide redevelopment is simply too massive of a project. Since the 1950s, Harrisburg has lost nearly half its population, and, while I don’t expect the city to push 100,000 residents again anytime soon, it easily can accommodate another 10,000 or 20,000, given its large swaths of empty land. Doing that, however, will almost certainly require outsiders to come in, kick the tires, and decide that, yes, they can get a decent return by investing in Harrisburg.

More people then would bring in more business, more jobs, more activity and more tax dollars for better services. A more vibrant local economy would offer even greater opportunities for local people to open businesses, find employment and even do their own development projects. This virtuous, self-reinforcing cycle would indicate that Harrisburg, after 60 years of contraction and stagnation, finally has reached a tipping point.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Safe Travels: For African Americans, the “Green Book” was an essential guide to Harrisburg, nationwide.

January 31, 2019 | by Maddie Conley

In November, a movie called “Green Book” hit theaters, telling the story of a black musician and a white driver traveling through the Deep South in the 1960s.

While the movie is based on a true story of one man’s travels, the real Green Book provided help to thousands.

From 1936-66, Victor Hugo Green published what was officially called, “The Negro Motorist Green Book” for many cities, including for northern cities such as Harrisburg. It served as a guide for traveling African Americans who needed a place to eat, sleep or refuel.

These were hotels, tourist homes, service stations and barbershops that all had one thing in common—they would serve African Americans. Many of these businesses, in fact, were black-owned.

The Harrisburg entry listed about 16 locations over various editions.

“In the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and before, a black person could enter a white space and a couple things could happen,” said Arion Dominique, a student involved in Messiah College’s Digital Harrisburg project, which explores the history and culture of the Harrisburg area. “Their wellbeing could be in danger, they may not be offered any service, or they may just feel extremely uncomfortable.”

Although the Pennsylvania Equal Rights law was passed in 1935, discrimination was still omnipresent in Harrisburg. On one occasion, a group of six black schoolteachers attending a meeting at the Penn Harris Hotel across from the state Capitol building were refused service, according to a 1937 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Growing up in his father’s barbershop and hotel—two Green Book stops—Calobe Jackson of Harrisburg remembers the help that this guide provided for those visiting the city.

“You definitely felt safer if you were in a place that was listed in the Green Book,” he said. “You didn’t have to worry about total discrimination.”

Jack’s Hotel and the barbershop provided places for African Americans to stay the night or get a fresh cut. Jackson even remembers famous performers coming into town and making a stop at the barbershop. Many lodged at the nearby Jackson Hotel, including singer Nat King Cole, pianist Sugar Chile Robinson and boxer Joe Louis. Some of these celebrities are now featured on a mural that adorns the building’s exterior wall on the 1000-block of N. 6th Street.

Jackson remembers the comfort that the Green Book offered, giving black travelers safe and welcoming places to go. But he also saw it as an aid for African Americans who may not have been protestors, who simply needed to live their lives on a daily basis.

“The Green Book was a tool that was used by the silent generation to venture out of their homes—but avoid confrontation,” he said.

The buildings that once housed Jack’s Barbershop and the neighboring Jackson Hotel are the only survivors of Harrisburg’s 16 Green Book locations. All others have been torn down.

Like those buildings, the Green Book is long gone. After the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, the “Green Book” finished up its last few editions, migrating from gas station racks to boxes in basements.

But is the Green Book just a historical relic now?

Author and publisher Jan Miles doesn’t think so. In a twist on the original Green Book, she wrote “The Post-Racial Negro Green Book,” published in 2017, cataloguing places in each state where racist events occurred.

“What hasn’t changed is the sentiment from the segregation era to now,” she said. “The sense that this is a post-racial society is laughable to me. That’s why I put it in the title. It’s very tongue-in-cheek.”

Locally, Miles’s book cites an incident from Central Dauphin High School in 2016, where a student posted an image with a racist slur on Instagram.

Rondel Holder, director of marketing at Essence magazine, has also published a fresh take on the Green Book concept. He’s the man behind SoulSociety101, a blog for young, black professionals that suggests hotels, restaurants and travel destinations.

“I was traveling and looking up restaurants, bars and sites, and I just wasn’t getting that perspective of a young black professional or the view of what our experience is,” he said.

He created a blog and podcast so that black travelers, especially millennials, would feel more confident and comfortable while traveling, again, similar to the Green Book.

“The Green Book made it a realistic idea that you can travel,” he said. “Soul Society and the ‘Green Book’ both are guides that helped people navigate and eliminate fear to a certain extent.”

Or, as Green himself said in 1947, “Carry the Green Book with you…you may need it.”

To learn more about Digital Harrisburg, visit www.digitalharrisburg.com.

Complexity of a Culture: On U.S. tour, a contemporary Israeli art exhibit makes a stop in Harrisburg.

January 31, 2019 | by Barbara Trainin Blank

For many, Israel is all about politics and conflict.

An exhibition coming this month to the Susquehanna Art Museum indicates how incomplete that picture is.

“Visions of Place: Complex Geographies in Contemporary Israeli Art” features 49 works by 34 artists, reflecting the diversity of the country’s population and the richness of its cultural life, according to co-curators Martin Rosenberg and J. Susan Isaacs.

“Israel is a modern nation—built on the foundation of the millennia of history—a focal point for three major religions, and a complex mosaic of people,” Isaacs said.

One artist in the exhibit, photographer Natan Dvir, realized he knew little about Arab society in Israel, though Arab citizens make up 24 percent of the population.

“Most people in Israel ignore the minority, or emphasize problems and stereotypes,” Dvir said. “I decided to create a photographic series of profiles of individuals [who are] 18 years old. That’s the age of adulthood, when young people can legally vote and when Israeli Jews enter the military. Most Arab Israelis do not.”

Though he met with some initial suspicion, Dvir was able to photograph and profile 24 women and 40 men from different social and religious backgrounds, exploring their lives, families and plans and hopes for the future.

Isaacs and Rosenberg consulted experts on Israeli art in Israel and visited leading galleries and major museums in search of artists.

“We realized that, outside of a few internationally known Israeli artists who had gallery representation in the United States—primarily in New York—and a series of once-a-decade exhibitions at the Jewish Museum in New York, none of which have traveled, very little contemporary Israeli art comes to the United States,” Rosenberg said. “We planned a national traveling exhibition from the outset.”

The works are truly contemporary, with most from the last decade. All the artists are Israeli citizens, but not all are Jewish. They include Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Druze, and half of are women.

The exhibit theme is geography, but this term is used in a broader sense—in its physical, personal, religious, intellectual, political, existential, historical and economic manifestations, Isaacs said.

“Geography, conceived in this broad sense, is an inescapable part of Israeli life, psyche and art,” she said.

Although the exhibit focuses on Israel, the co-curators assert that it raises questions with wider applicability—such as competing views of history and conflicts over space and identity, among others.

Naomi Safran-Hon is another artist in the exhibit, represented by a painting made of acrylic, cement and lace on canvas and entitled “What is Left Behind; What is Left to Take: When There is Nowhere to Return—When We Become Ghosts.”

“This piece was inspired by a photograph of a destroyed home in a Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank after the Israeli military operation ‘Defensive Shield’ in 2002,” she said. “In the piece, the traces of domestic space are enhanced by the use of lace and its decorative pattern. Shadows of figures are present in the lower part of the painting, alluding to life that has been shattered.”

In her paintings, Safran-Hon combines cement, fabric, acrylic and photographs.

“As nontraditional painting materials, cement and fabric incorporate multiple layers of meanings, symbolically as well as concretely,” she said. “On the surface, cement alludes to construction but, transformed in my studio, it reflects the ways in which my life has been shaped by political reality.”

Cement, she said, is associated with strength and power. Lace, on the other hand, is delicate and correlates more with domestic space, she said.

Safran-Hon added that the historical narrative—as well as the current political state of affairs in her homeland—is linked to the way cities and landscapes are constructed.

“In a world engulfed in wars and refugees fleeing their homes, my work reflects on the continuation of historical events on our current environment and the search to find our home and place in the world,” she said.

“Visions of Place: Complex Geographies in Contemporary Israeli Art” runs Feb. 10 to May 19 at the Susquehanna Art Museum, 1401 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, call 717-233-8668 or visit www.susquehannaartmuseum.org.

The museum will host two artist receptions during the exhibition. Natan Dvir will give an artist talk and gallery tour on Saturday, March 9, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Naomi Safran-Hon will give an artist talk and gallery tour on Saturday, April 13, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Contact [email protected] for ticket information.

Other special events include a Members’ Preview Opening on Feb. 9, 5 to 7 p.m., and free admission on 3rd in the Burg nights: Feb. 15, March 15, April 19 and May 17, 5 to 8 p.m.

The Time Is Now: One word for better health–exercise.

January 31, 2019 | by Andrew Zang

If you have heard it once, you have heard it a million times—exercise is good for you.

Exercise is good for your heart, lungs, muscles, brain and much more. So why then do people not take action? Why do we have so many cases of preventable chronic health conditions in this country?

Unfortunately, we (generally speaking) are great at coming up with reasons or excuses not to do something—even if it is for our own benefit. Let’s start counting the excuses: time, work, family, fatigue, an ache, pain or injury. Shall I go on? Which one of these do you use?

Many view exercise as too time consuming or too hard. People are not willing to work through that initial muscle soreness phase when starting a new program. And we do not put in enough time to actually make it a healthy habit (that takes about six weeks to happen, by the way).

But shouldn’t our health be the most important thing? Without good health, what good can we be to others who depend upon us?

The right answer obviously is that nothing is more important than our health. Without it, we would be unable to take care of our kids, our elderly parents or significant others. We would become less effective at completing simple daily tasks and work. What would happen if you could no longer fulfill all your roles and someone had to take care of you?

This is scary to think about, but it often gets people to take the necessary steps to become healthier. They finally decide to address those nagging aches or pains, to start taking a Pilates or yoga class, to work with a personal trainer for guidance and support, or to treat themselves to a massage.

For chronic health conditions, we know, without a doubt, that exercise can help reduce the likelihood of getting and reduce the impact of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and even dementia. Who wouldn’t want to prevent things like these or even lessen the burdens and complications that often come with them?

If you are ready for a change, then let’s get to it. Plan for success, enlist a friend to provide the necessary accountability, seek the help you need to achieve your goals. Do not let another year pass saying, “I will get in better shape and do something good for my health.” The time is now.

Dr. Andrew Zang is board certified in orthopedics and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Physical Therapists. For more information, call 717-440-6197 or visit www.zangpt.com.

You Dig? Mineral enthusiasts find nuggets of knowledge, rock-solid support.

January 31, 2019 | by Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

We’ve heard the saying, “All that glitters is not gold.”

Well, if it’s not gold, what else might it be?

“It could be pyrite, or what they call ‘fool’s gold,’” said Terry Wolfe, discussing some of the more common specimens unearthed by the Central Pennsylvania Rock and Mineral Club. The nonprofit group, which was created in 1958, is on a mission to educate the public on the appreciation of rocks, minerals, gems and fossils.

Wolfe joined five years ago and now serves as secretary. He described the organization as friendly and welcoming, which is one of the reasons he continues to renew his membership each year.

“During my first dig, two younger members went out of their way to show me what to find,” said the East Hanover resident.

Betsy Oberheim lit up when Wolfe recounted the story.

“They are an item now,” she said of the young couple.

Oberheim is a self-professed “obsessed” enthusiast who has been with the group since the 1990s, serving as president and vice president. The Piketown resident became involved after returning from a trip out West.

“I found some really neat rocks out there and wanted them identified,” she said.

The retired schoolteacher, who transforms some of her finds into jewelry, took a shine to the group and stayed on to serve in various capacities.

The club meets the third Thursday of every month at the St. Thomas United Church of Christ in Linglestown to swap information on finds, watch documentaries and listen to experts describe life in the field.

“One of our recent speakers was a diamond miner from Africa, and another mined opal in Australia,” said Oberheim.

Once a year, the group gets together to display what they’ve found and maybe engage in a few trades.

“We have a rock swap, and you pay $5 for a table to show off your stuff,” said Wolfe.

Out in the Field

Little nuggets of knowledge are often gleaned on field trips, or what the group calls “digs.”

“There are two field trip coordinators—one for fossils and one for specimens—and they show you what to look for,” Wolfe said.

The coordinators also assume the responsibility for getting the group into areas that aren’t generally open to the public, such as quarries.

“We all sign a waiver and are required to bring along our safety gear,” Wolfe said. “Many of the quarries are between 150- to 180-feet deep.”

Once there, they’ve found things like calcite, fluorite, crystals and pyrite, he said.

“Members have been known to fill up 5-gallon buckets,” he said.

Other notable finds include amethyst (found in an Amish farmer’s field), an untold number of fossils, a type of quartz called chalcedony (in Boiling Springs) and wavellite, which is only found in two places in the world.

“It looks like an umbrella opened up,” Wolfe said. “They dug it out of a quarry and threw it in a pile on the side of the road, and we spotted it. We all gathered around to look at it.”

Sometimes, “finds” don’t reveal themselves until after a dig.

“We hunted for shark teeth at Brownie’s Beach on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and I was disappointed that I didn’t find anything,” Wolfe said. “When I came home and dumped sand out of my shoes, there it was—a fossilized shark tooth.”

Each year, the group hosts a Rocks4Kids Jr. Education Day. The educational event provides information on such topics as fossils, earth movement, volcanos, crystals, mini mines, petrification and more.

Last year, 200 children attended. Each was given a passport, which was stamped at the learning stations. This year, the event will follow a similar format. Students will not only be given free grab bags, but will have the opportunity to spin a wheel to win a fossil. Refreshments will be provided.

Participation is limited to a first-come, first-served basis. So, Oberheim suggests signing up early.

As a former teacher, Oberheim especially enjoys the opportunity to interact with children, some of whom are being home-schooled and others who attend cyber-schools.

“We help fulfill the science requirement,” she said.

To learn more about the Central Pennsylvania Rock and Mineral Club, including upcoming events, digs, dues and information on joining, visit www.rockandmineral.org.

The annual Rocks4Kids Jr. Education Day will take place on March 9, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Linglestown Life United Methodist Church, 1430 N. Mountain Rd., Linglestown.

Small Grapes, Big Wines: Don’t let the “petit” name throw you.

January 31, 2019 | by Steve Juliana

In the world of wine, seven “noble” grapes top all others for quality and desirability.

However, the list of “secondary” grapes seems to grow all the time as more local fruit is used to produce wonderful quaffs that are gaining the attention of oenophiles. There are grapes that historically have been given the name “petit” because of the physical size of the fruit on the vine. Modern winemaking has changed many opinions about the use of such small berries, emphasizing the fact that we live in a golden age of wine.

Petit verdot is one of the blending grapes allowed in the Bordeaux region where cabernet sauvignon and merlot are the reigning “noble grapes.” Petit verdot means “the little green one” in France, where it did not always ripen fully and, in some vintages, does not develop its dark purple color. It often would be added by Bordeaux wine makers to increase tannin, body and spice to a vintage lacking in character, keeping the personality of the chateau consistent.

But verdot has found a home in hotter climates around the world, as well, where the fruit develops jammy, spicy flavors and a long finish. If you think such an obscure grape can become a sensation, carmenere has become the darling of Chile and malbec is an international star in Argentina—both are Bordeaux blending fruit.

Petit manseng is a white grape found in southwestern France and is a well-kept secret that needs to be shared more widely. A remarkable fruit that can be fermented for a dry quaff or a dessert wine, it has wonderful personality in each version. The berries are so small in the bunches that late harvesting of shrunken grapes, with rich sweetness, is possible. The best wines are from the Jurançon region of France, where it is often blended with sauvignon blanc or its big brother, gros manseng. The big surprise is that this Gallic grape has taken the vineyards of Virginia by storm. The wine starts with the fruit and racy acidity of chenin blanc and finishes with the palette-scrubbing ability of sauvignon blanc. Well worth the trip.

Petite sirah was discovered in France by Francois Durif in 1880, when pollen from a syrah vine fertilized the flower of a peloursin noir plant. The cross was soon found to have a high resistance to downy mildew. Today, 90 percent of all petite sirah is grown in California, where it is blended with successfully with zinfandel, as well as bottled individually. Some blends are of the “kitchen sink” variety, mixing together five or more grapes, and are best avoided. Petite sirah, however, is a popular and widely grown varietal, yielding a wide range of taste profiles based on vineyard, age and blend.

Keep sipping,
Steve

Made with Love: How about pot roast for late winter?

January 31, 2019 | by Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

I know it’s not glamorous. Pot roast for dinner in the Baer house usually elicits cries of “mystery meat” and, “You’re not making it in the crockpot, are you?”

Well, I love my pot roast and have been making it for more than 40 years. February is the perfect time for warm comforting foods: soups and stews bubbling on the stove, hearty casseroles and lasagna, and yes, pot roast.

My long-time recipe adapts easily to variations, and I have tried them all. You can braise the beef in red wine, dark beer, beef broth or tomato juice. Beer and wine are my favorites! I always add potatoes, carrots and, often, turnips, but butternut squash cubes work well and, if you love green pepper, throw in some large cubes or strips for a slightly different pot roast flavor.

But it is the slow browning of sliced onions that gives this roast such a rich flavor and dark color. The end result is a warming, one-dish meal that makes you forget the cold and snow outside. And it promises great sandwiches with lettuce and mayonnaise the next day.

Rosemary’s Pot Roast

Ingredients:

4-5 pounds beef rump roast (cut from the sirloin end of the round, but you can also use a nice chuck roast)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large sweet onion, sliced (I like Vidalia or Kandy onions.)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon each dried thyme and marjoram
1 bay leaf, crumbled
8 whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt (decrease if you are using broth)
12 ounces beef broth (try to find unsalted), dark beer or red wine
12 small red or yellow gold potatoes
8 carrots, peeled and cut in half
Several parsley sprigs
3 tablespoons flour, cornstarch or arrowroot for thickening the gravy
Additional vegetables if you prefer: cubed turnips or butternut squash

Directions

Wipe roast dry with paper towels
In hot oil and butter, brown the roast along with the sliced onions in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pan. (A Le Creuset pot works very well.)
Brown the onions and roast, slowly and gently! Slow browning (about 25 minutes) is essential.
When the roast and onions are brown, add the garlic, thyme, marjoram, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt (if using) to the drippings in the pan. Stir for a ½ minute with a wooden spoon to release the aroma of the herbs.
Add whatever liquid you are using and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to a slow simmer, cover the pot, and cook gently for about 2½ hours. Turn the meat occasionally.
Add the vegetables and cook for about 30 minutes with the pan covered until they are tender.
When all are cooked, remove the toast and vegetables to a warm oven and cover the platter loosely with foil.
Add the flour (or other thickening agent) to about ¼ cup water in a measuring cup and add to the drippings in the Dutch oven, whisking until smooth. (I don’t strain the gravy because I like the little bits of onion and even the peppercorns in it.)
When ready to serve, slice the roast into thin slices and arrange the vegetables nicely around it. Drizzle the gravy over and garnish with additional sprigs of fresh parsley.

This is comfort food at its best. Now, maybe you are planning some lovely steak, veal or crab cakes for Valentine’s Day. That’s OK. But try my pot roast on a cold, blustery Sunday accompanied by some applesauce and crisp cold beer. I think you will like it.

My husband thought it important to add one final thought: This dish is fine as long as you don’t forget the horseradish!

Always Giving Back: Kristal Turner-Childs–a force in the community.

January 31, 2019 | by Phyllis Zimmerman

Burg in Focus: Trooper Kristal Turner-Childs from GK Visual on Vimeo.

Kristal Turner-Childs’ dedication to serving others was sparked by an incident that happened when she was just 10 years old.

It happened the day a young man in her Allison Hill neighborhood fell and struck his head on asphalt during a street fight. As the victim’s blood streamed across the pavement, it was young Kristal who broke through a circle of dazed bystanders and dashed inside. Instinctively, she grabbed a phone and dialed 911 for help.

Her actions were said to have saved the man’s life.

That day, Turner-Childs felt “10 feet tall,” she recently recalled. She felt powerful knowing that it was her own quick actions that prevented the incident from ending in tragedy. She later heard that the injured young man made a full recovery.

With that, Turner-Childs decided to become a police officer, a goal she later was to achieve with great passion and much success. In fact, last October, she became just the second African American woman in the history of the Pennsylvania State Police to achieve the rank of major.

Before that, she was the commanding officer of Troop L in Reading, making her the first African American women in state police history to serve as a troop commander.

Then there’s the row of gleaming awards that line her office bookshelf at the state police headquarters in Susquehanna Township. Her most recent honor was the Catalyst Award from the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC, which she received at a ceremony at Whitaker Center in December.

That award honors “those making a difference in our communities, creating more opportunities for businesses, and building a brighter future for our region,” according to the chamber. Turner-Childs said she was “shocked” when told she’d won it.

“I was like, ‘What?’” she recalled with a laugh. “I was speechless. What a great honor!”

Other notable recognitions include the Citizen of the Year Award and the Women of Influence Award.

Turner-Childs also is founder and CEO of Eyes Wide Open, LLC, Harrisburg, where she serves as a fitness guru and motivational speaker for women. The venue’s website lists its mission as “attempting to empower women to take charge of not only their physical health, but their mental and spiritual health.”

Eyes Wide Open achieves this goal by offering workshops on self-esteem, goal-setting, healthy relationships, professional networking and more.

“I try to get to the heart of people in a way that speaks to them,” she explained. “What people need is someone who’s there for them. I don’t want you just to tell me you that you’re fine and to keep going. I want to know your soul. I want to know people from the inside out.”

Friends don’t appear surprised by her far-reaching success. In fact, they probably would have been surprised if it didn’t happen.

“Major Turner-Childs is truly an amazingly empathic, selfless woman,” said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Kelly E. Lentz, who works across the hall from her. “Whether she is on duty in uniform or off duty within the community where she lives, she is always there to lend a hand and put others’ needs before her own.”

Carmen Henry-Harris has known Turner-Childs for 22 years.

They met as members of the Harrisburg Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, one of the largest African American sororities in the United States. The sorority is involved with other nonprofit groups and focuses on professional development, mentoring and helping local students by providing scholarships.

Turner-Childs, she said, is very involved with the community and, especially, with young people.

“She’s always available to speak to young people, people in need, or anyone, really,” Henry-Harris said. “Kristal always gives back.”

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