Tag Archives: Philadelphia

Teaching Empty Seats: As the Harrisburg School District nears the end of its five-year recovery plan, how well has it improved student attendance?

January 31, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Today’s American classrooms bear little resemblance to their counterparts of yore. Touch screen monitors have replaced blackboards, students exchange text messages in lieu of folded paper notes, and teachers tap-tap on tablets to distribute homework assignments and quizzes.

And yet, the most important issue in education today is pretty old fashioned: getting kids to show up.

In recent years, educational experts have identified chronic absenteeism—students missing 15 or more school days per year—as one of the single greatest impediments to a district’s academic success. A 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Education called chronic absenteeism “a hidden educational crisis” in America’s schools.

“Curbing absenteeism has to be a priority because it undermines all other good efforts in a school,” said Robert Balfanz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Education and a leading researcher on the harms of absenteeism. “Regular, consistent presence is a prerequisite for anything else to work.”

Balfanz, who leads the dropout prevention program, “Everyone Graduates,” has spent most of his career trying to answer one question: what keeps students from finishing high school? Time and again, he says, research has shown that a student’s attendance history is a better indicator than test scores at predicting his odds of graduating. A study Balfanz led in Philadelphia found that, if a student missed 20 days of school, his chance of graduating dropped as low as 10 percent. In Utah, researchers found that even a single year of chronic absenteeism between 8th and 12th grade could increase a student’s likelihood of dropping out seven-fold.

Like many urban school districts, Harrisburg schools have historically struggled with high rates of student absenteeism. The district recorded 45 percent of its 6,338 students as chronically absent in the 2013-14 school year, the last period for which data is publicly available. Nationally, the rate of chronically absent students that year was 14 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. *

Administrators in Harrisburg say that attendance-boosting initiatives strengthened under the district’s five-year recovery plan have stabilized school attendance rates. State data show that daily attendance averages in that time period are indeed consistent, but remain well below an acceptable level. Audrey Utley, the district’s chief recovery officer, said that the district won’t meet the attendance goals outlined in the recovery plan by the time it expires in June 2018.

Left unchecked, a high rate of chronic absence among students can impede any district’s academic performance. The good news is that a concerted effort to increase regular attendance can help a school raise test scores, graduation rates and student growth rates—even without changing any part of its curriculum. What can Harrisburg do to get there?

Devil’s in the Data

The idea that consistent attendance boosts student performance seems intuitive enough. According to Balfanz, however, the method that states have historically used to track attendance allows troubling rates of absenteeism—and the academic consequences they carry—to persist.

For every year since 2011, Harrisburg has logged an average daily attendance (ADA) rate between 88 and 90 percent. That metric represents how many students are present in school on an average day. Since ADA rates are aggregate figures, however, they don’t account for the fact that different students are absent on different days.

As a result, average daily attendance data can obfuscate a much higher incidence of chronically absent students, Balfanz said.

“Our tendency is to think that, if something is in the low 90s, we get an A,” Balfanz said. “But even at that ADA rate, you can still have a quarter or more of your kids chronically absent.”

Indeed, data from Harrisburg show that a middling ADA figure can mask a scourge of chronic absence. In 2013-14, the same year that 45 percent of Harrisburg students were chronically absent, the district reported an ADA of 88 percent, according to Pennsylvania Department of Education data. By comparison, the district’s ADA for the 2015-16 school year was 89 percent.

Balfanz said that any district with an ADA under 95 percent likely has a significant problem with chronic absenteeism. That means that, even if Harrisburg schools did meet the attendance benchmark set by the recovery plan in 2011—which was to bring the district-wide ADA to 92 percent by 2018—they would not eradicate chronic absenteeism.

Pennsylvania is one of the 44 states in the country that does not require schools to report chronic absenteeism data. Jaime Foster, chief curriculum officer for the city school district, could not disclose its current rate of chronic absenteeism, citing student confidentiality concerns. She did claim that the figure is lower than it’s ever been.

“When you’re not in school when you should be, every day is like a new day,” Foster said. “The district’s efforts to monitor and support students who are chronically absent have significantly increased over the past three years.”

Foster said that Harrisburg schools issue letters to families when a student has accrued too many consecutive or non-consecutive absences. Teachers can also meet with parents to discuss their child’s attendance record or arrange for a social worker to visit a student’s home, Foster said. Jody Barksdale, president of the Harrisburg Education Association, added that school guidance counselors help communicate the value of attendance to families. Foster said that schools also offer incentives for regular attendance, such as class pizza parties or public recognition assemblies.

“These policies have always been in place, but now we’re implementing them with greater fidelity,”
Foster said.

However, the lack of significant improvement in the district’s attendance rates over the past five years cast doubt on the current methods for tracking and curtailing absences. What’s more, the misplaced focus on daily attendance averages, as opposed to chronic absentee data, could allow many students not to meet critical attendance thresholds.

As research shows, students who don’t meet those thresholds have greatly diminished graduation odds.

What’s a District to Do?

Chronic absenteeism is endemic to many urban districts across the country, which means that schools have tested a broad range of initiatives to curb the problem. According to Balfanz, reducing absence requires a multi-tier approach: preventative measures and interventions, incentives and opportunities to build relationships within school settings.

In Philadelphia schools, administrators have found that a simple postcard can go a long way to decreasing student absences.

Philadelphia schools participated in a federal Department of Education study in the 2014-15 school year that sent families postcards telling them how often their children missed school. Students who received a postcard missed, on average, one fewer day of school than students in a control group. Reitano said the experiment generated 20,000 days of additional attendance in the district that year. Taking into account the cost of the mailings, each day of additional attendance cost the district just 6.96 cents.

One additional day of school may not seem like a lot, Reitano said, but it could make all the difference for a student teetering on the edge of chronic absence.

Mailings may be the most cost-effective method to produce modest attendance gains, but Reitano and other researchers know they won’t replace people-based initiatives. The consensus in the education community is that forging student relationships are the most effective way to encourage regular attendance. In Harrisburg, Foster agreed that teachers are “the number-one influence” in getting students to attend schools.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of the positive teacher and student relationship to improve the absenteeism rate,” Foster said. “It’s not climate, it’s not books. If you have a great teacher in front of you, you will want to come.”

In a district such as Harrisburg, however, the struggle to retain teachers throughout the school year can hamper a teacher-centered approach to curbing absenteeism. As of late November, 45 teachers had resigned from the district since the start of the academic year, according to the Harrisburg Education Association. What’s more, teachers in Harrisburg have their own checkered attendance record: 325 teachers (73 percent of the district faculty) were absent 10 or more school days in 2013-14, according to federal data.

The schools that see the most dramatic reductions in chronic absence are those where nonprofits and local agencies collaborate to provide integrated support to students. These programs often include individualized attention and mentorship for students.

In an attendance-boosting initiative in Pittsburgh, intern social workers were charged with tracking students with poor attendance records. The interns welcomed the students to school each morning, checked on them throughout the day and personally called the students’ homes when they were marked absent. Forty percent of the targeted at-risk students in that program showed an increase in their attendance. Through a similar program in Kent County, Mich., a coalition of nonprofits and state and county support caseworkers provide integrated support to at-risk students. In that county, the decision to post a DHS caseworker in select schools boosted attendance by a full week, according to the nonprofit AttendanceWorks.

In schools in Seattle and Philadelphia, young adult mentors provide in-class assistance, after school tutoring and cheery greetings to students as they arrive to school in the morning. Nonprofits like CityYear, Communities in Schools or Balfanz’s own Diplomas Now employ cadres of these young recruits to give students individual attention throughout the day—something teachers can’t always afford to do in large classes.

According to a report in the Seattle Times, two south Seattle middle schools that partnered with young adult mentors saw dramatic results in student test scores. In the three years after the schools began focusing on attendance, they reported a combined 79-percent drop in the number of students failing English and a 96-percent decrease in those failing math. The number of students with attendance problems fell by 15 percent.

“When it comes to absence, you have to change a behavior, and that’s very hard to do without a positive relationship with the student,” Balfanz said. “Very few of us change behaviors on our own.”

At the heart of a nationwide attendance epidemic lies a cruel irony: the very students who benefit the most from a stable school environment are those most likely to encounter barriers to entering it.

In an urban community like Harrisburg, those barriers align with all of the various deprivations of poverty—inadequate transportation and healthcare, as well as transient or tumultuous homes. Overcoming these obstacles can’t be the job of a school district alone. But as other, similarly struggling districts have shown, increasing student attendance and, by extension, graduation odds, may eliminate at least one significant hurdle on the path to leaving poverty.

*In a January 2018 interview, Audrey Utley, chief recovery officer for Harrisburg schools, defined chronic absence as students missing 10 or more days of school a year, not 15. Pennsylvania law offers yet another standard. According to a 2017 consolidated state plan published under the Every Student Succeeds Act, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent of the school year, or roughly 18 out of 180 school days. For the purposes of this story, chronic absenteeism was defined as 15 or more absences in a school year. This is the standard in a U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights report, in which Harrisburg reported 45 percent of its student body as chronically absent.

December News Digest

December 29, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Finalizes Budget

Harrisburg last month passed a 2018 budget did not raise city tax rates, but added a number of new salaried positions and approved millions of dollars in capital investments.

The final budget did not differ much from that proposed by Mayor Eric Papenfuse in late November, which leveraged higher revenue from a growing tax base to increase the city’s operating budget from $61 million last year to $65 million in 2018. The city will also spend $9.2 million from its cash reserves, which will cover a $2 million debt payment and $7.2 million in capital improvement projects.

Expenditures in 2018 will increase in two main categories: personnel and capital projects.

On the personnel front, the city budgeted for $32.5 million in salaries compared to $31 million in 2017. That figure, which excludes healthcare costs, will create seven new management positions and two new sanitation positions. The budget permits the Fire Bureau to make five hires and the Police Bureau to recruit 20 new officers.

The additional personnel funds will also increase salaries for two positions in the law bureau and award raises to sanitation workers represented by the AFSCME union.

The city defines a capital project as any expenditure exceeding $5,000. In 2018, proposed capital projects include $1 million on new radios and patrol cars for police, $700,000 for work on the 15th Street police substation and $80,000 for police body cameras. About $450,000 will go towards renovating city playgrounds, and projects to renovate Reservoir Park will receive almost $1 million thanks to a last minute cash transfer by Council.

Composting Plan to Proceed

Harrisburg intends to move ahead with plans to build a composting facility in Susquehanna Township, despite continued opposition from some township residents.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city will apply for a facility permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection this month. If DEP grants the permit, which Papenfuse believes it will, the city will begin to convert the site to a compost facility.

City officials have campaigned to build a composting facility at 1850 Stanley Rd. since summer 2017. After they were met with fierce opposition from some residents in Susquehanna Township, they agreed to delay the permit application until they had more public support. Over the following months they hosted informational sessions and visits to comparable sites to teach residents about composting.

Papenfuse made his final pitch at a township board of commissioners meeting last month, at which several township residents expressed opposition. Nonetheless, he said he believes the project has won enough support in the community to proceed.

“There’s a handful of people from the neighborhood who oppose it, but it’s not overwhelming,” he said.

Papenfuse told the crowd that composting leaves and lawn waste—which essentially involves letting the material decompose into the ground—does not carry any risks to humans, soil or water sources.

Some residents claimed that the facility would create odors or mar neighborhood views. Others worried about noise from the machinery and increased traffic from the Public Works Department trucks that transport the waste.

Papenfuse assured residents that the site would be unobtrusive when it opens. Public Works vehicles will use mostly Harrisburg roads to get to the site, and employees will operate the machinery on a limited, set schedule.

Allison Hill Substation

The Harrisburg Police Bureau is on track to open a police substation in Allison Hill in late summer 2018, but officials said last month that it would not be open around the clock.

During a hearing on the 2018 budget, Police Chief Tom Carter and Capt. Derric Moody told City Council that the substation will not operate 24/7 or have civilian staff when it opens in August.

Police may expand operations at the substation as they grow their ranks. The city hopes to hire 20 new officers and a community policing coordinator next year.

“Our goal is to have full service there, but, realistically speaking, we can’t currently achieve that with the manpower we have,” Moody said.

The plan is to use the substation as a staging area for specialized police units and an outpost for officers responding to calls in Allison Hill. The 1,600-square-foot building on S. 15th Street will include a space for police trainings and community meetings, as well as a squad room, break room, equipment room and locker room with showers.

It will also have an area for a receptionist, though there are currently no plans to hire one. Members of the public will be able to enter the substation for public meetings or interviews with police officers, but will not have access the same administrative services as the Public Safety headquarters downtown.

“We’re trying to provide a central location for officers,” Moody said.

Act 47 to Continue

Harrisburg is likely to spend another three years in the state’s Act 47 program for financially distressed municipalities, according to a state advisor who oversees the city’s finances.

Marita Kelly, Harrisburg’s Act 47 coordinator for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, last month praised the city’s “many achievements” since it entered Act 47 in 2011.

However, she believes that the city will not be able to afford to exit the program at the end of 2018, when it becomes eligible. While it would regain independent financial oversight, it would stand to lose some $13 million in revenue without the extra taxing authority allowed under the program.

Kelly added that Harrisburg has avoided some of the problems that plague other third-class cities across the state, such as difficulty financing legacy payments—healthcare and benefit payments for current and retired employees.

Bruce Weber, the city’s budget and finance director, reported that two of the city’s pension accounts are fully funded, but a third fund for police pensions is causing some concern.

“We only have one that’s slightly in distress,” Weber said. “We are contributing to it every year.”

Kelly will make a formal recommendation for Harrisburg’s Act 47 status in March. The only condition that would enable the city to exit the program would be a change to the third-class city code or a set of special taxing provisions for the city approved by the state legislature.

County Taxes Hold Steady

The Dauphin County commissioners last month passed a 2018 budget that keeps property taxes steady for a 13th consecutive year.

The three-person board passed a $241 million budget that contains no increase in the county portion of the property tax, which will remain unchanged at 6.876 mills.

The county does expect to spend more than it takes in for 2018, but plans to use as much as $12.5 million in reserve funds to make up the shortfall. The county stated that it still expects to have a reserve fund balance of about $25 million by the end of 2018.

Last year, Dauphin County also balanced its budget by dipping into its reserve fund. It estimated that it would spend $12.5 million in reserves, but will only spend about $5.2 million by year-end, according to current county estimates.

The county stated that it will add funds to the county coroner’s office in 2018 to deal with the rise in opioid-related deaths. Last year, there were 85 overdose deaths in the county, but the coroner expects more than 100 by Dec. 31.

Sewer Projects Begin

Capital Region Water began a new round of sewer replacement and improvements last moth, affecting several neighborhoods in Harrisburg.

Andrew Bliss, community outreach manager, said CRW is staggering the $700,000 project through the end of January. In all, CRW will repair more than 800 feet of aging and broken sewer mains and manholes at five locations.

The individual projects are:

– Mid-December to early January
S. 13^th Street, between Market Street and Howard Street
New manhole, 18 feet of new sewer pipe

– End of December to early January
Cameron and Market streets
Spray on concrete liner, 18-inch sewer pipe

– Early January to end of January
Magnolia Street between Cameron and 12^th streets
New manhole on Cameron Street, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Derry Street between 13^th and 14^th Streets
New manhole, 13 feet of pipe, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Fulton and Hamilton streets
New manhole connection

Potential impacts of the construction include street closures, parking restrictions, construction noise and temporary sewer service interruptions. When the pipe replacement is complete, the road will be temporarily patched until final street restoration is completed in the spring of 2018, Bliss said.

Customers with questions can contact Capital Region Water by phone at 888-510-0606 or by email at [email protected].

So Noted

Harrisburg School Board last month tabled a motion on whether to search for a new school district superintendent. The board is expected to revisit the issue again later this year, as Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney’s contract expires in June.

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology last month unveiled its new, expanded campus in central Philadelphia. HU is sharing the 38,000 square feet of space at 1500 Spring Garden St. with Hussian College.

Harrisburg Young Professionals last month selected Suzanne Patackis as president of the 2018 executive board, replacing outgoing President Joe Tertel. HYP also announced that Jeff Copus and Adeolu Bakare will serve as co-vice presidents, Brittany Brock as secretary and Jeremy Scheibelhut as treasurer.

UPMC Pinnacle last month named Dr. James Raczek as its new chief medical officer. In that role, Raczek leads quality and safety programs, medical education and medical staff relationships and contributes to strategic planning and implementation.

Changing Hands

Barkley Lane, 2502: US Bank National Assoc. to S. Vetock, $32,000

Barkley Lane, 2507: R.C. Medellin to R. Medellin, $48,000

Boas St., 406: A. Heisey to S. Higginbotham, $115,000

Briggs St., 270: M. Ennis to E. & A. Williams, $228,000

Brookwood St., 2435: R. House to I. & K. Mita, $56,000

Calder St., 262: J. Goldberg to R. Yaegle, $118,000

Calder St., 500: W. Tatar to S. Hoffman, $125,000

Conoy St., 115: A. & C. Stoudt to R. Rodino, $145,000

Conoy St., 121: A. Spisask to K. Russell, $92,500

Cumberland St., 214: D. & E. Zampogna to M. Santalucia, $141,000

Fulton St., 1709: J. Ganeva to C. Messner, $110,000

Green St., 1624: K. Lewis to P. & M. Rowan, $192,000

Green St., 1817: T. & L. Sopcak to B. Scelta, $129,000

Green St., 1826: D. & J. Kalbach to D. Ober, $165,000

Industrial Rd., 3300: Pennsylvania Terminals Corp. to 3300 Industrial Road Associates LP, $865,000

Market St., 1923: K. Griffith to D. Thomas, $70,000

Mercer St., 2430: PA Deals LLC to R. Buehner, $63,900

Mercer St., 2464: C. Hobbs to T. & J. Knaub, $60,000

North St., 232: E. Finkelstein to G. Kramer, $125,000

N. 2^nd St., 812: A. Meoli to Diocese of Harrisburg, $212,000

N. 2^nd St., 2234: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to C. Eisner, $43,200

N. 2^nd St., 2527: GRSW Stewart Real Estate Trust to K. & D. Maltzie, $174,000

N. 2^nd St., 3211: E. & J. Daschbach to K. McRae, $99,900

N. 3^rd St., 925: D. Bobinchek & 921 Home LLC to 921 Home LLC, $105,000

N. 3^rd St., 2340: T. Wadlinger to D. & S. Houck, $168,265

N. 5^th St., 2736: PA Deals LLC to MidAtlantic IR LLC & Jennifer Fernandes IRA, $63,000

N. 13^th St., 139: Falco Inc. to Round the Horn LLC, $45,000

N. 16^th St., 914: J. & H. Wilbur to JB2 Properties LLC, $59,900

N. 16^th St., 916: PA Deals LLC to Z. Kissinger, $69,900

N. 17^th St., 1122: MBHH RE LLC to S. Garcia, $31,000

Peffer St., 228: N. & L. Chohany to B. Matuszny, $173,000

Peffer St., 263: Members 1^st Federal Credit Union to E. Patry, $49,900

Penn St., 1715: S. Dunn to BencMarq Holdings LLC, $77,001

Pennwood Rd., 3160: J. & M. Bush to T. Wylie, $150,000

Rumson Dr., 2983: C. Shenk to J. Jones, $69,000

S. 14^th St., 314: J. Reichwein to E. & B. Katz, $62,000

S. 14^th St., 1415: D. Fahie to City of Harrisburg, $47,000

S. 14^th St., 1419: H. & C. Pollard to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 14^th St., 1439: R. & S. Dighe to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 16^th St., 435: M. Bui to L. DiGiacomo & M. Ganci, $48,000

S. 17^th St., 140: Allison Hill Partners LLC to Hamilton Health Center Inc., $250,000

S. River St., 304: D. Havior to D. Ogden & Pear Tree Revocable Trust, $40,000

State St., 1406: R. & A. Sharp to JRC Properties, $80,000

Susquehanna St., 1614: J. & S. DeMuro to S. Brandon & L. Fisher, $152,000

Susquehanna St., 1701: R. Ambrose to R. Covington & T. Pean, $137,000

Susquehanna St., 1711: Susquehanna Valley Properties to N. DeMuro, $113,000

Harrisburg property sales for November 2017, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate

Here Too: Yes, Harrisburg can have nice things.

November 30, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Illustration by Rich Hauck.

The whispers began well before the official opening last month.

Hmm . . . do you think Harrisburg will support this place? Can it survive here? Will it last longer than a month, a year?

It seemed too hip, too different—maybe even a little radical. Too—should I say it—nice? Sure, it might work in Philly or Pittsburgh or D.C., but certainly not here in dumpy old Harrisburg.

In this case, I’m talking about Provisions, the snug, urban-style grocery that opened its doors downtown in Strawberry Square. But it could equally apply to a bunch of other businesses that have started over the last decade.

A huge, independent bookstore on a forlorn block in Midtown? No way. A vast arts center in a dilapidated wreck of a building? Yeah, right. An upscale French bistro? Ha!

I refer to Midtown Scholar, H*MAC and Rubicon, respectively. But it could equally apply to so many other places that have opened in recent years: Little Amps (Harrisburg wants cheap coffee); the Millworks (too artsy, too pricey); Note Bistro (doomed location); Zeroday ($6 pints??); LUX, Union Lofts, Flats at Strawberry Square (too big-city, too expensive).

All have proven the haters and trolls wrong. They are still in business. Most are thriving.

The armchair critics also roared over the new Harrisburg Bike Share. But it had about 500 sign-ups in its first month in operation, according to sponsor Communities in Schools PA. The sturdy white bikes with the front baskets are now a common sight along the riverfront and City Island. Chalk up another success.

Therefore, I’m calling time on “old Harrisburg.” This is the Harrisburg with little more to offer its residents than cut-rate goods, unhealthy food and substandard housing. This is the Harrisburg owned by people who flee each night to the suburbs, snug in subdivisions where their blighted buildings and dangerous bars would never be tolerated. This is the Harrisburg with an inferiority complex, where anyone hoping for better is shouted down as an outsider or an idiot.

Of course, I realize that change, as is its nature, is distributed unevenly across the city, with some neighborhoods progressing and others not. But we need to realize—simply because it’s a fact—that Harrisburg’s economy has changed. Over the past decade, it’s deepened and diversified, and it should no longer surprise anyone that the city can support nicer and, yes, sometimes more expensive goods and services.

A couple of years ago, a friend told me that he was thinking about opening a business and asked me what I thought. My advice was this—go higher end. By higher end, I didn’t mean Gucci or Givenchy. I meant “mass market nice,” something a notch or two better than conventional wisdom in this town seemed to believe would work.

I reached this conclusion not based on my own personal likes or aspirations, but by looking around at what was already succeeding: Café Fresco, Stage on Herr, Suba, Cork & Fork, Federal Taphouse. “Something better” seemed to be where the market was moving in Harrisburg. I told him that that’s what we did with TheBurg—and it worked for us, too.

In contrast, you know what’s not working? People who treat the city like it’s still old, ramshackle Harrisburg, who seem stuck in the past. In the decade I’ve been here, countless convenience stores, cell phone resellers and used goods shops have opened and closed just along 3rd Street in Midtown. It simply doesn’t seem to be a successful business strategy any longer.

I also urged my friend to heed what I call the “three C’s” of success: capitalization, competence and commitment. As a small business owner and enthusiast, I’ve seen even good ideas flop due to owner malpractice. I told him that, if he chose to open a store, he had to ensure that he was well capitalized, deeply understood his product and business and was willing to work 12-hour days (he wasn’t and didn’t).

So, here’s to Provisions, Harrisburg’s newest small business. It’s a little funky, a little urban, a little fun. And it offers a completely different, superior food-shopping experience for anyone accustomed to the numbing, cold sterility of the suburban supermarket. May it have a long, long life!

Lawrance Binda is editor in chief of TheBurg.

Strength & Fragility: Novelist Zinzi Clemmons reads, signs at Midtown Scholar Bookstore.

August 11, 2017 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Author Zinzi Clemmons signed copies of her debut novel, “What We Lose,” after a reading at Midtown Scholar.

“I was called to the office at school on the day of the appointment,” read Zinzi Clemmons from her critically acclaimed novel “What We Lose.” “I was almost relieved to learn what it was even though it was the worst possible outcome, because it ended this period of not knowing.”

Clemmons took to Midtown Scholar’s stage on Wednesday night to read passages from her freshman novel, a coming-of-age story that depicts the life of Thandi as she struggles with race and identity, losing her mother to cancer, falling in love and eventually creating a family of her own.

The novel, which an audience member referred to as “beautifully all over the place,” is told through terse passages, photography, articles, passages from memoirs from Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, one-sentence pages, and even lyrics from the Notorious B.I.G.

“I think it’s wonderful that people have talked about the book in terms of form, in terms of questions about race and gender and all of these things,” Clemmons said. “I really was pleasantly surprised by that.”

“What We Lose” flips between fiction, nonfiction and memoir, with Thandi and Clemmons sharing links between their lives. Like Thandi, Clemmons’s mother is South African and her father is American, raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where the novel is based. Since an infant, Clemmons switched between her life in the states and her summers in South Africa.

“The best thing has been that people have connected to the book because of their own experience in some way,” she said. “That has been, more often than not, people who have lost parents, people who identify with some of the things I talk about in terms of identity, women and black women especially.”

Clemmons started writing the novel while she was home with her mother, who was suffering from cancer. She put her grad school education on pause and returned home to be with her in her final stages. As she watched her mother dissolve, she wrote down her experiences and practiced what she called “anticipatory grief,” writing as if her mother were already gone.

“Some of them were in the finished book pretty much unchanged,” Clemmons said. “I didn’t intend to publish them at the time—it was just a journal entry. But, some of those notes started to creep up in the manuscript, so I decided it was important to focus on them.”

Writing about the loss of Thandi’s mother was therapeutic for Clemmons, though she admitted that, if the novel were a complete memoir, she wasn’t sure she would be able to read it in front of an audience.

“Part of loss is acceptance,” she said. “You see what happens to people who can’t accept loss. Writing this, and writing from my mother point of view, helped me accept it.”

Another early portion of the novel focuses on crime and anti-blackness in South Africa. The novel dipped into creative non-fiction as Clemmons used found articles and photos from photojournalist Kevin Carter of a vulture stalking a visibly weak child and another of a person running toward a cloud of smoke.

“All of the ugliest parts: anti-blackness, the colorism, homophobia, gender bias, those things,” Clemmons said. “The first step is to acknowledge that they are there.”

She insisted that “What We Lose” be sold in South Africa.

“I wanted [my family] to read it and see it in the bookstore,” she said.

Clemmons also wanted South African citizens to see their neighborhood from the outside.

“Crime and anti-blackness in South Africa may not be something everyone wants to talk about, but it’s important,” she said.

Currently, Clemmons lives in L.A. with her husband. She teaches and is a contributing writer to Literary Hub, a website for contemporary literature. For her next novel, she plans to switch gears and return to nonfiction. In the meantime, she hopes her readers who also are struggling with grief will find acceptance through Thandi’s story.

“Externalizing as much as possible, especially for black women and other women who find themselves because of culture mainly, they have a duty to hold it all together and put on a strong face,” she said.

Clemmons recommended writing, talking to friends, and strongly encouraged therapy.

“The times that I really struggled were the times that I was just trying to be strong,” she said. “And that’s never the answer.”

To read more of Clemmons’s work, visit her website Zinziclemmons.com.

Author: Yaasmeen Piper

Garden of Earthy Delights: In June, Bartram’s Garden springs to life.

May 31, 2017 | by Carissa Bannister Kauwell

On a beautiful sunny day, I went searching for William Bartram.

Like most of my stories, this one began with a nugget of thought, and then research took over until I ended up at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. Being a nature photographer, I wanted to check out the home of a family full of nature-lovers and discovered this amazing, historic garden. Perhaps I would also pick up a tip or two in my futile quest for a green thumb.

William Bartram was born in 1739, and his family lived in Kingsessing, a part of Philadelphia. His father, John Bartram, was a well-renowned botanist. William was an explorer, writer, botanist, naturalist and artist. He wrote “Travels” in 1791 about his adventures through the American South, among the first modern-style writers to portray nature in depth.

My day trip started with an easy drive to Philadelphia with the garden just a short hop off the PA Turnpike. I arrived on a Sunday morning right after opening. Bartram’s Garden is a 45-acre National Historic Landmark, and, when I first stepped out of my car and looked across the property, I was excited to see the skyline of Center City in the distance across the water. This was my first time visiting Philly, so I was hungry to take in every new sight.

I went through the welcome center to purchase tickets for a tour, conversing with the young woman at the desk, asking some questions then looking around the grounds before my tour started.

The grounds are free to the public and open year-round except for city-observed holidays. Guided tours are offered April through December. Aside from strolling through the beautiful property and having a picnic, there are artists’ workshops, musical performances and other arts and culture programs throughout the year.

While wandering around, I came upon the Ann Bartram Carr Garden, which was named after the granddaughter of John Bartram. This is the main garden in front of the house and welcomes visitors to the rest of the property. Ann was the one who created the 19th century exhibition garden, the first public green space at Bartram’s Garden. She knew other gardens were becoming popular, so decided to make theirs unique. With exotics as her specialty, she grew her own hybrid camellias and dahlias. At its peak, the garden featured 10 greenhouses, more than 1,400 native plants and 1,000 exotics.

During my tour, I found out that Ann had quite a knack for botany and drawing. Her uncle, William, spent a lot of time teaching her the skills and passions that he had. Due to the times, Ann’s talents were not acknowledged like those of her uncle and grandfather. Despite that, she was one of the first women to run a gardening business, and what really impressed me was her passion for sharing her love of nature. Being a woman, I can appreciate the courage she had to be a pioneer.

Sadly, due to financial difficulties, the property was sold in 1850. Today, Bartram’s Garden is managed by the John Bartram Association, which was created by descendants of John Bartram in 1893, in cooperation with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation.

Bartram’s Garden is located alongside the Lower Schuylkill and provides free kayak and rowboat rides every Saturday (in season). Instead of driving, you can take a short cruise to and from Center City.

Michael J. Nevadomski, marketing coordinator for the John Bartram Association, strongly recommends a June visit.

“June’s big event is River Fest on June 3, which is one of our biggest community gatherings,” he said. “Free boating, (a lot of free food usually), a lot of family activities and a boat parade.”

Writer Erol Ozan once said, “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” I started that day thinking I would find out more about William Bartram, but my adventure gave me much more. I went searching for William, but my journey brought me to Ann.

Oh, about my hoped-for green thumb—I purchased a native plant at the Welcome Center that day and, by some miracle, it is thriving. I think Ann would be proud.

Bartram’s Garden is located at 5400 Lindbergh Blvd., Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.bartramsgarden.org or call 215-729-5281.

Author: Carissa Bannister Kauwell

Wonder Wall: Beautiful murals once lined the Mulberry Street Bridge. A group now is trying to put them back on view

June 30, 2016 | by Kari Larsen

For about a decade, two enormous murals adorned the Mulberry Street Bridge in Harrisburg.

You may remember them: 86 panels, 43 panels per mural, spanning 640 feet in total, showing colorful scenes of life in Harrisburg.

In April 2014, PennDOT removed the murals to rehabilitate the bridge, with no plans to reinstall them. So, for the past two years, they’ve been in storage in Harrisburg’s old central post office on Market Street, in space donated by Blue Bell-based Equilibrium Equities, which now owns the building.

But a volunteer group—the Mulberry Street Bridge Mural Preservation and Relocation Committee—has formed to free them from storage and put them back before the public.

“We’re five volunteers with a monumental task,” said member Tara Leo Auchey, who also runs the online publication today’s the day Harrisburg.

The committee has engaged Navarro & Wright Consulting Engineers and has a preliminary arrangement with the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg to display one of the murals, the one that faced north on the bridge, at the corner of Cameron and Market streets.

Despite the all-volunteer effort, the expense to relocate and mount the murals is monumental. Besides their size, the unique makeup of the murals makes their re-display a costly effort.

“They were created on ‘parachute fabric’—polytab mural fabric,” said Lauren Nye, the exhibitions manager at the Susquehanna Art Museum and a committee member. “And that fused to the surface of the bridge, so there was no peeling it off.”

When the committee talks about preserving and relocating these murals, Auchey said, they are not just 86 panels of art. They are enormous sheets of metal, each one 7-feet tall and 7-feet wide.

The north mural depicts a single scene across 43 panels, a history of Harrisburg from its early days through the City Beautiful movement of the early 1900s. The committee is dedicated not only to keeping all of the north mural’s panels together in sequence, but to keeping it at the intersection of downtown and Allison Hill, the two neighborhoods the Mulberry Street Bridge connects.

The south mural is a series of individual scenes across two and three panels each, featuring people affiliated with the arts group, Danzante, and from around Allison Hill.

“We were at the South Allison Hill Multicultural Festival,” said Nye, “So many people—at every event that we go to—walk by and say, ‘Oh my God, I remember these! Do they still exist?’ They’re like, ‘My cousin is on there!’ ‘My daughter is on there!’ ‘A portrait of my friend is on there!’”

These interactions illustrate the committee’s other important mission, besides raising money: outreach to the community.

“That’s the biggest thing we want people to know, that they are still safe and there is still a group of people who are invested in bringing them back to the public,” said Nye.

A Gift

These works of art need to be displayed again not just because they’re beautiful, but to demonstrate Harrisburg’s identity as a unified city and to contribute to its economic development as a source of tourism, say committee members.

“For the 10 years they were up on the Mulberry Street Bridge, there was no graffiti on them,” said Harrisburg artist Nancy Mendes, a committee member. “That shows that people loved and respected it. Why not give it back to them as a gift?”

During its campaign, the committee has formed relationships with people and companies that have helped with various aspects of the project. In addition, they say they have the support of the city, which has promised flood clearances to mount the murals on the Y’s property at Cameron and Market. However, when they applied for tourism funding, Dauphin County rejected their application. So, to raise money, the committee has begun throwing events.

“But it’s not $1,000” they need, said Auchey, referring to the average amount an event pulls in.

In fact, the installation for the north murals alone will require a budget of $250,000.

Auchey said the goal now is to have a small fundraiser every two to three months. Fortunately, both of the artists who worked on the murals are dedicated to preserving and restoring them.

Elody Gyekis, who painted the north murals, donated a piece of art to the committee’s last auction. The committee also wants to launch a Kickstarter campaign featuring photo prints by south mural artist Cesar Viveros of his work on the north Philadelphia mural “The Sacred Now,” which was painted for Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Philadelphia (the pope signed it).

Indeed, if the Mulberry Street Bridge murals are ever going to be a part of the community again, the effort is going to need to be bigger than just a five-person committee. When committee members attended the Multicultural Festival, Nye said, they saw a man walk by.

“He totally didn’t care about anything,” she said. “He’s walking down the street. He sees our picture and stops. He’s like, ‘Oh my God. I remember those murals! You guys have them?”

Nye told him that, yes, they did. He then pulled out his wallet.

“He said, ‘My wife gave me $2 today to spend however I want. I want you to have it. This is important.’”

To learn more about the effort to save and re-mount the murals, please visit the Facebook page: Mulberry Street Bridge Murals Preservation and Relocation.

A Brutal Past: In colonial Pennsylvania, fear turned to violence in the Susquehanna Valley.

June 30, 2016 | by Jason Wilson

Life on the Pennsylvania frontier could be remarkably brutal, and the period of 1754 to 1766 was arguably the fiercest of all.

The raids and battles of the French and Indian War gave rise to an uneasy peace, followed quickly by Pontiac’s Rebellion, another frontier clash between Native Americans and British soldiers, which lasted from 1763 to 1766.

Meanwhile, the Quaker-controlled Provincial Assembly refused to provide money for local militias to protect recently arrived Scots-Irish settlers, who had migrated into the Susquehanna Valley and points west. This tense atmosphere fueled anxiety, fear and suspicion among the settlers, who increasingly took matters into their own hands.

On Dec. 14, 1763, a group of about 50 armed settlers from Paxtang/Pextang, near present-day Harrisburg, attacked a group of peaceful Conestoga Indians at present-day Millersville in Lancaster County.

The so-called Paxton Boys killed six Indians on the notion that they were supporting Pontiac’s uprising and were plotting to massacre white settlers throughout the lower Susquehanna Valley. The surviving Indians sought refuge in a Lancaster workhouse, where, on Dec. 27, groups of armed men broke in and killed, in cold blood, the peaceful men, women and children who were housed there.

In early 1764, several hundred men from Paxtang, still angry about the inattention to Indian raids on the frontier, marched on Philadelphia, intent on killing any Indians and the white settlers who supported them. As Philadelphians learned of the oncoming mob, the city’s most prominent resident, Benjamin Franklin, was selected to speak to the group and attempt to quell the rabble before the situation escalated to a full-scale riot.

Franklin was able to convince the leaders of the Paxton Boys to seek a diplomatic solution. The men sought redress of their grievances through petitioning the Assembly, and they quietly returned home. Though many of their names were known at the time, no one was ever tried, convicted or sentenced for the murders of the Indians at Conestoga or in Lancaster.

As one of the saddest episodes in Pennsylvania colonial history, the massacre of the Conestoga Indians heralded the end of overall Quaker rule in Pennsylvania. William Penn’s almost 100 years of peace with the Indians was over, and, in the end, the strict pacifism of the Quaker minority was forced to yield to the hinterland settlers, who sought protection from the Indians, but also ultimately helped extend the rule of law throughout the commonwealth.

Jason Wilson is an historian with the Capitol Preservation Committee.

Student Scribes: How to Celebrate an Anniversary on Amtrak

March 31, 2016 | by Alison Smolinski

My husband and I are taking a five-year anniversary trip courtesy of my father-in-law’s Amtrak rewards. It’d be faster to fly from Harrisburg to Boston, even drive, but a free ride where passengers can sleep, read, eat, stretch is an easy choice.

Everyone is plugged in thanks to free WiFi. Heads are buried in phones, tablets and gaming gadgets. Tweens wearing Kentucky University tees text each other. They laugh in synchronicity. I wonder what’s so funny, but I probably wouldn’t understand their coded text-speak. I’m way too old. If you’re not attached into the dual, 120-volt plugs then you’re a snoring grandpa, Sudoku granny or a boring mommy enjoying the scenery while scribbling in a notebook.

I believe there are few better, more satisfying and relaxing places to write than on a train. Constant inspiration with movement is unbeatable. Flow—it’s impossible not to race along with the speeding locomotive, jotting down as much scribble as fast as possible for fear of losing even one thought to the tracks behind you.

The conductor routinely passes, inspecting tickets. He never makes eye contact or cracks a smile. Maybe his malformed right ear has made his life hard, and he’s detached because of it. Or maybe, like most people, it’s Friday and he’s ready for the weekend and has no desire to be on the job. He scans my e-ticket, places it above the seat, and sluggishly continues down the aisle.

The click and clack of the nine-car vessel against the tracks lulls some and invigorates others. My husband, Chris, is sleeping or pretending to. The window seat holds my attention. I can’t doze or drift, only briefly looking away from the changing scenery. Picking up speed as we leave the Paoli station, my eyes strain to focus. The horn blares, a warning call for anyone or anything in our path. Heading east, the sun breaks through the fog, revealing changing leaves hiding the subdivisions and used car lots. Maples, oaks, asters—I download an Audubon app to decode the varieties of trees and flowers I might see along the eight-hour trip. That makes me the biggest nerd on the 642.

Closer to Philly, graffiti holds my attention instead of trees. Random tags remind me of childhood. Trips on the Metro downtown with Grandaddy and Abuelita, to the Smithsonian. Eating in the members-only restaurant was muy especial. Abuelita always commented on the ugliness of the graffiti, but, to me, it was a voice to the voiceless. Art to be appreciated. Maybe not to the same extent as the fine works in the museum but art nonetheless. Philly graffiti is bright. There’s even a colorful tag of Amy Winehouse hanging with Stevie Wonder. I’d believe they’re friends. I can’t decipher most of the meanings because they look like my daughter’s crayon scribbles.

Massive freight trains pass, carrying materials that build or destroy our country. As we pull into Philly, the myriad of wires overhead seem within arm’s reach. How do all these wires stay above the lines? Maybe I should wake the electro-mechanical technician to my left. I won’t poke the bear. He deserves some extra shuteye, working 10-hour days and often mandatory overtime on top of that. This trip is supposed to be relaxing for both of us.

After a brief stop, we leave the 30th Street Station, heading to New York City. The ATF agent and his K-9 occasionally stop next to unsuspecting passengers, scaring the crap out of young and old alike. Chris is happy he opted not to bring anything. I told him that, with the added ISIS threat, there’d definitely be more security. Damn those militants, harshing everyone’s buzz.

West Philly looks like a war-torn, post-apocalyptic nightmare. It could be the backdrop for an episode of “The Wire,” reminiscent of South Baltimore in the early 1990s, just waking from a crack-fueled slumber. I see seemingly endless blocks of deteriorating row homes, empty lots filled with used tires, burned sofas and dogs roaming for scraps. This section of Philly could be Baltimore, the District, New York or Boston. Traveling at ground level offers close-up views of the real situation, which in this case is poverty.

The gentrified suburbs re-emerge but only for a few stops. A slick suit sits across the aisle with greasy, thinning hair, loafers without socks, and a deep tan. He’s conversing with his much younger associate about a 2 o’clock meeting in Midtown. I don’t care about quarterly earnings reports or break-even tables. Dear woman sitting behind me, please stop smacking your gum! It could only be worse if she were biting her fingernails, too. I wonder if maybe we should move to the quiet car.

Entering Jersey, my Irish family is in the front of my mind. “Hardscrabble” is the term of choice Nanny used to describe her Northern Irish immigrant parents and her 11 older brothers and sisters. The Connellys lived hand-to-mouth under the shadow of Campbell’s Soup and NJ Power & Light. Five of Trudy’s brothers and her father were county linemen. I see their silhouettes in the glare of the train window. Two died the cruelest deaths imaginable, including patriarch Pat, by high-voltage electrocution. What a way to meet St. Peter. Fifty dollars from Power & Light was all the family received in compensation, and, sadly, there was in-fighting over the small sum. Nanny speculated it’d be spent at O’Malley’s down the block by her “grieving brothers.” Their wives would be happy they’d be drinking someone else’s paycheck for a change. These were the days before mandatory life insurance for high-risk industries and advertisements for worker-injury attorneys vying to help you “get the compensation you deserve.” Newark, you pit of disparity—wasteland, dirty depressing midway point on a journey to somewhere else—somewhere better. Closed warehouses with broken windows and overgrown lots lost to time litter the landscape as the 642 gets closer to Penn Station.

Penn Station at last. A brief, 90-minute stop, then on to Beantown. We decide to leave the train for the layover. Air. Not fresh air, as we are in the guts of NYC, but it’s better than train air and the sun’s out. We book it to Lenny’s across from Madison Square Garden. Chris has never been there, and I want pastrami piled high with coleslaw and Thousand Island on fresh rye bread. And pickles, lots and lots of pickles. Count it as the first official pregnancy craving for baby Smolinski II. After shooing away the aggressive pigeons, we reluctantly head down the gigantic escalator where another four-hour train ride awaits. We’ve decided that, for this leg, however, we will ride in the quiet car.

A young Spanish couple and their toddler follow us to platform W10. We load in a somewhat orderly fashion. “Single file,” squawks the conductor. “86 to Bah Stun now boardin’.” A middle-aged woman snaps at the couple just as they place their stroller in the overhead bin. “This is the quiet car.” They don’t speak English, or not enough to make a confident reply. My heart sinks. Should I repeat the phrase in Spanish? Chris tells me to stay put and keep quiet. They leave the quiet car.

The horn blares and train 86 emerges slowly from the bowels of NYC. The clicking of cell phone cameras overtakes all other sounds as we catch a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building. We snap some because the light is great and it’s NYC. The high-rises fade, skyscrapers of industry capitalists are long gone as the scenery mutates, revealing uniform apartment buildings. Still stretching high, these neatly spaced modern tenements showcase a vast array of international flags, laundry and other paraphernalia lining the barred windows, microscopic patios and open-air hallways where children play. Raising my children on a farmette in Lancaster County, I just can’t imagine living in those conditions—especially with children.

The quiet car is aptly named. Most people read, snooze, watch and re-watch episodes of “Friends,” “Girls” and “Modern Family”—even tackle the occasional Sudoku. We stare out the window, moving farther away from our child, Lucy, by the second. Leaving a child for the first time for more than an overnight—what were we thinking? She’s not ready, we’re not ready. Nanny and Pappy aren’t Mama and Daddy. This damn quiet car is too quiet. I need some non-recirculated air. I need a refill, but if I go to the cafe car again, I’ll have to use that horrible blue chemical potty—no thanks.

We pass the beautiful seaside towns, and then Providence and Pawtucket are in the dust— we’re almost in Boston. I can’t wait for the street clatter and the posh hotel room of the Hilton Back Bay.

We leave the train, and we’re almost skipping as we reach the corner of Dalton Avenue, where the hotel’s 26 stories beckon two tired travelers. A smiling face greets us as we take our hotel room keys. “Swanky. Dad doesn’t disappoint,” Chris comments as we take the elevator to the 25^th floor. A charmed view of the city emerges as we gaze out the panoramic windows. Getting comfortable isn’t difficult. Taking off our train traveler clothes, we laugh, because life with a toddler limits our amount of alone time.

Just as we fall into bed (it is our anniversary getaway)—there’s a knock at the door. A man with a thick accent says “room service,” as I leap to put on the robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door and Chris hides underneath the covers. The clean-cut young man wheels in a cart with red wine, chocolates and fresh fruit. Turning a deep shade of red, the server doesn’t make eye contact or attempt to leave the cheese tray but books it for the door. As soon as the door shuts, we burst into laughter. I put the do not disturb sign on the door handle and draw the curtains over the panoramic windows. Chris remerges from underneath the sheets to say, “Happy Anniversary.”

Alison Smolinski is a graduate student in communications at Penn State Harrisburg.

On Becoming Whole: Movement, thought, wellness come together at Body IQ Life.

December 30, 2015 | by Susan Ryder

Intensity, drive and endurance. Faster, further and more.

That’s how exercise and weight loss have traditionally been approached.

But there’s another way, a way in which weight loss serves as the byproduct of exercise, not necessarily the motivation. In this way, mind and body care are addressed together, as one.

Body IQ Life, a Camp Hill-based Pilates and wellness studio, offers such a holistic approach to exercise.

“Movement is thought in motion,” said owner Janine Galati, a certified Romana’s Pilates teacher, exercise physiologist and licensed massage therapist.

Pilates is mindful. Mindfulness involves the awareness of how your body moves when exercising. For example, the typical curl involves little thought and is easily done with a quick flex of the bicep. But attempting to do a bicep curl while engaging the tricep involves a whole different process. One must concentrate, think about the motion.

“We teach people how to use their body,” said Galati. “We don’t teach how to tense muscle. We teach how to leverage the body.”

This takes proprioception, a sense of understanding of where one’s body is in space. Pilates focuses on corrective exercise, learning how to use the body well, preventing injury and staying healthy.

With Her Hands

An injury launched Galati into her present career.

She danced with the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet five days a week, six hours a day, until the age of 25. She left ballet to attend Temple University, where she studied exercise physiology, with the goal of becoming a surgeon. While there, she picked up sculling and injured her back. The injury left her numb to the foot in one leg, limping, and in severe pain.

Doctors advised her to have a lumbosacral laminectomy, but friends had other advice. They told her to seek out Romana Kryzanowska, a first-generation Pilates teacher who had studied directly with Pilates creator Joseph Pilates.

Galati healed her back working with Romana and subsequently developed an interest in the practice. She was enthralled with how Romana used her hands to determine the kind of treatment people needed. She realized that she wanted that type of close relationship with healing, a relationship the surgical profession would not allow.

“I work in a very old way,” she said. “My teacher taught me a tradition with her hands.”

Galati studied with Romana for five years then opened the first Philadelphia-based Pilates studio in the Rittenhouse Square area. At the time, aerobics was in, and Pilates was new.

“People were annoyed that I wanted to help them organize their bodies,” she said.

However, athletes, dancers and actors saw the benefits of Pilates and visited Galati’s Philadelphia studio. Martina Navratilova, Bruce Hurst and Toni Collette, among other notables, have studied with her, she said.

In 2008, Galati joined her soon-to-be husband and moved to Camp Hill. Her studio there resembles a physical therapy office, but is softer and more welcoming. Among the equipment are pieces designed by Joseph Pilates.

One piece, the Cadillac (yes, named for the car) is a padded table with stainless steel poles at each corner, a push bar and arm and leg springs. Gatali stretches new patients on this table where, along with a written evaluation, she determines their needs.

Beside the Cadillac sits the reformer (it sounds more menacing that it is), another pivotal Pilates machine. Its padded center glides, and students push with their feet against a stainless bar at the end or pull with arm straps. These machines use body weight and springs to lengthen and strengthen muscle.

Motions focus on precision and mechanics—quality verses quantity. This precision allows for economy of energy, working smarter not harder. Galati watches and manipulates patients as they use equipment to ensure that they engage the proper muscles.

Personal Attention

Along with physical flexibility and strength, Body IQ Life emphasizes self-care, taking care of the mind, body and spirit.

Galati said that this is necessary because “people’s brains and bodies are at two different speeds.” This self-care includes massage, aromatic herbal footbaths, restorative yoga and meditation, in addition to Pilates.

Students come to Galati for a variety of reasons. Most are women, Baby Boomers, folks who have had orthopedic problems, those investigating nonsurgical options, and those who need some type of correction such as help with poor posture or balance.

People who study with Galati receive individual attention and a personal plan. No two plans are alike because no two people are alike. Participants have different problems, needs and motivations, and their plans will reflect that.

She also teaches a class through the Camp Hill Recreation Department so that folks can participate and receive the benefits of her guidance in more cost effective way.

“I work the ladies hard, but I keep them safe [from injury],” said Galati.

She hopes that exercise will becomes a part of a person’s daily care. Not a chore or cultural expectation, but a genuine desire to be happier and healthier. She wants people to take the time to understand themselves and their bodies better.

“I want to create a collective conversation about health and wellness,” she said.

Body IQ Life is located at 2208 Market St., Camp Hill. For more information, visit www.bodyiqlife.com or call 717-412-4195.

Harrisburg as Capital: Backwater town becomes government center.

December 30, 2015 | by Jason Wilson

Judging by the solid, stone- and marble-structures of the Capitol complex, it might seem as if the state government has been in Harrisburg forever, since the very beginning of Pennsylvania. However, that’s not the case. Several cities preceded Harrisburg as the state capital.

From 1682 until 1799, Philadelphia served as the seat of government and, from its humble beginnings, rose to be the largest city in the colonies by the time of the American Revolution. By the end of the 18^th century, people were moving westward, across the Susquehanna, down the Shenandoah and Ohio River valleys. As a result, the General Assembly began, in 1789, to search for a more centrally located site for a new capital city.

In 1785, John Harris Jr. offered the commonwealth four acres of “publick ground,” free of charge, so long as his town (initially called Louisburg but quickly changed to Harrisburg) was selected as the capital city. Throughout the 1790s, the debate of when and where to move the capital raged, but it was fear prompted by several yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia that finally motivated the Assembly to move the seat of government to Lancaster in 1799. On December 3, 1799, state legislators met for the first time in the Lancaster County Courthouse.

The move, however, did not settle the issue. Lancaster, though a better choice than Philadelphia, did not satisfy many legislators, and the debate over moving the seat of government ensued nearly every time the Assembly met. Lancaster’s citizens attempted to offer free land, as John Harris had done, to keep the capital in their city, but this was never fully accomplished.

As a result, in 1809, a full-scale debate occurred, and every city and town that had ever entertained thoughts of becoming the capital city made a proposal, perhaps sensing that this was the last time a permanent change in the seat of government would occur.

In the end, Philadelphia, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Middletown, Northumberland, Bellefonte, Carlisle, Reading, Sunbury and Columbia were locations that were proposed and voted upon. On Feb. 21, 1810, Gov. Simon Snyder signed the act moving the seat of government, and, in October 1812, the General Assembly met in Harrisburg for the first time.

The Assembly soon purchased another 10 acres of ground north of Harris’ tract, from U.S. Sen. William Maclay. (The Harris tract is now Capitol Park, while Maclay’s tract, a low rising hill, is where the Capitol is located.) Commissioners were appointed to supervise the movement of books, desks and other items from Lancaster to the old Dauphin County Courthouse, which served as the temporary Capitol.

The Assembly contracted the services of master builder Stephen Hills for two state office buildings and a brick, federal-style Capitol between them, which was completed in 1822. That building burned to the ground in 1897, replaced, nine years later, by the current, magnificent Beaux Arts-style Capitol building, as Harrisburg completed its long transformation from muddy backwater to modern capital city.

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like