Abundant thanks

In pondering how to put into words our appreciation of the Local's assistance on behalf of the Chestnut Hill Senior Center bazaar, I find I am speechless, a description not often attributed to this writer. From the very beginning of our desperate need to put our bazaar before the public, you have been the essence of support.

Due to our change of location to St. Martin's Church, we very much feared that words of the change might not get around. After weeks and months of preparation by our members, all efforts could be scuttled for want of a large audience, i.e., consumers. You ran our classified ad and also printed a highlighted notice at the bottom of the classified page, for which we are grateful. Jimmy Pack and Sonia Leounes came to our center and took a picture of one dozen of our craft ladies holding up the 30' banner and gave us great publicity and further advertised notice of our new location. Of equal importance was the kind gesture when you took a picture of some of us in front of the quilt to be raffled, then displayed in Kilian's window. To cap the climax, you placed us on the most prominent part of your first page. How could we wish for more?

A generous donor had underwritten a 30' x 2' banner to display across Germantown Avenue advertising our new location. Affecting this turned out to be more formidable than any of us imagined. To summarize: we were told that there were three places that would accommodate a banner: Bethlehem Pike, controlled by Chestnut Hill Academy; Germantown Avenue in front of the hospital, controlled by Chestnut Hill Hospital; and Germantown Avenue at Kilian's store, managed by the Chestnut Hill Development Group. We assumed the latter to be for "public use" for want of a better term. Upon inquiry, we learned that the public one had already been reserved for a year, extremely frustrating. You can believe we have already put in for the spot for Oct. 29, 2005.

To the merchants and restaurateurs who contributed to our overwhelming success by their uncommon sense of neighborliness, we say thank you. Numbering 40, you are just too numerous to mention. Our proceeds went way over the top this year, thanks to your generosity. Your help benefits the entire community, as well as each person, because the "community" is "us."

From all of us who deem the success of the Chestnut Hill Senior Center a top priority, a virtual warm hug and a hearty Thank You.

Sandy Drinker
The Chestnut Hill Senior Center Board

Residents opposed

All of the residents of Bells Mill Road oppose the city's plan to "improve" our road, as do the commercial and educational institutions in the vicinity ("East Bell's Mill Project Marches On," Local, 12/2). So ask yourself this question: If we are all opposed to it, why is the city so adamant about moving forward with it? There's another agenda that is NOT in the people's best interest.

Bob Vogel
Chestnut Hill

Touching article

I was delighted to read Len Lear's very touching and inspirational article about local music teacher/international musical artist and cancer survivor Cynthia Fleming.

My three children were among Ms. Fleming's very first students when she opened her studio during the fall of 1993, and I have long been most grateful for the many positive and lasting contributions she and her music have made to our family.

Although when I first met Cynthia she had no definite plans as to how long she might offer music instruction, over the past 11 years all such questions have faded as I have watched her studio steadily grow both in size and reputation to become the excellent service she has single-handedly made it today.

Thank you, Mr. Lear, for finally sharing with other Philadelphia families one of Chestnut Hill's best kept "secrets" -- and thank you, Ms. Fleming, for your wonderful example of perseverance, selfless commitment to your students, and continual effort to make this world a more beautiful place. Your life has truly been an inspiration to the hundreds of Chestnut Hill families who have enjoyed the privilege of knowing you -- keep up the great work!

Robert C. Scheller
Chestnut Hill

Shovel, please

I read in the 11/25 issue of the Local that you covered the "Convocation" meeting of the Big 3, the CHBA, CHCA and CHHS, with appearance of the Avenue being one of the main items on the agenda. It is with great hope that the group collectively will send a request out to all the shops of Chestnut Hill to shovel their entire pavement area immediately after a snowstorm or as soon thereafter as possible. The south side seems to be the most troublesome side because it doesn't get as much sun as its neighbors across the street. The remaining unshoveled snow obviously makes for difficult walking, and when that snow does melt into a cleared path and later becomes ice, the still-standing crowd has a problem.

Or is it the intent of CHCA to put the responsibility of sidewalk snow removal in the hands of BID?

Suzanne Dure
Chestnut Hill

Compassionate trapping

It is highly unusual for a true self-proclaimed animal lover to fall from a compassionate nature to one marked by intolerance, insensitivity and inhumanity ("Mouse tales turn Mt. Airy lover of animals vicious," Local, 12-2)

Turning to all-out war against the furry intruders when there's a reasonable and desirable approach is ill advised and cruel. Sadly, common practice will reconcile people to any atrocity.

Rodents can't thrive without the cooperation of people. "If you don't feed them, you won't breed them," according to one pest control agency. When the human inhabitants were evacuated from the island of St. Kilda off Scotland's west coast in 1930, the entire mouse population died out.

The most important weapon of all is educating the public to the importance of sanitation in eliminating or controlling visiting rodents. Only in Denmark and a few other countries have the problems of ignorance and apathy been completely overcome, according to author Robert Hendrickson.

Common rodenticides kill by hemorrhage, paralysis, convulsion, asphyxia or respiratory failure, all agonizing fates. Cruel back break and glue traps are also used. One must also consider the possible consequences of using poisons where pets, wildlife and children are concerned. Remember what happened when rodent poison was left at Rittenhouse Square -- the squirrel population all but disappeared.

If one must do something, I'd suggest an effective and humane trap, the Safeguard #53070WT02b Humane Rodent Trap available at 800-434-4555. Source of information -- Leo Grillo, founder of D.E.L.T.A. Rescue.

Someone once said, "War is cruelty and you cannot refine it." There's no excuse for animal abuse.
I wish for Mr. McIlhenny a return to compassion for all creatures among us. Strangely enough, world literature celebrates the mouse more than it castigates him.

Bridget Irons
Chestnut Hill