July 26, 2007 Issue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Local NewsTom Walsh, Chestnut Hill’s ‘Mayor’, turns 45
If you have ever stopped to talk to Tom Walsh on the Avenue, you have probably walked away feeling good. The 44-year-old Chestnut Hill native, a fixture as familiar a sight on the Avenue as the Belgian blocks, has spent his life sharing his infectious smile with everyone he meets. Next week, the unofficial “Mayor of Chestnut Hill” will turn 45. Walsh grew up on East Meade Street the youngest of five children. Much of his childhood was spent attending the basketball, football and baseball games of his older siblings. He would dutifully take position on the sideline to root for his brother, three sisters and their teammates. Walsh began his mascot career early, getting his first taste of cheering when he was four years old. He served as the mascot of the Our Mother of Consolation school football team where his older brother Jack played.
Skate park gets rolling with local effort
LOVE Park was a cultural icon. It was a focal meeting place for a specific group of people. It was a rallying point for a growing, multi-billion dollar phenomenon. And it was a complete accident. That “phenomenon” was street-skateboarding, a style of skateboarding based on the use of street objects like rails and benches over visible vert-ramps and half pipes. And then in the wake of a $44 million dollar surge accredited to Philadelphia’s hosting of the X-games, a ban on skateboarding in LOVE Park was finally enforced to the fullest extent, and skateboarding in the park was prohibited. The ban officially removed LOVE Park, and Philadelphia, from this growing spotlight.
Church shelves shelter plans Christ Ascension Church decided Monday not to go forward with proposed plans for a cooperative family house, which would have sheltered two to three homeless families in its parsonage on W. Southampton Avenue.
Affleck named Friends of Wissahickon president
After about 25 years as a fulltime volunteer, focusing on gardens and park life in a city that has the largest urban park in the country, Cindy Affleck knows a thing or two about how to utilize urban open space. Which is why after four years on the board of the Friends of the Wissahickon, she was chosen to serve as the board’s president in May. “Affleck comes with a knowledge of the role public parks play in building civil life,” said Maura McCarthy, FOW’s executive director. “She has a really great vision for what we can accomplish in the community.” Affleck has been part of the Garden Club of America, serving as a flower arrangement judge and national judging chairman from 2004-2006 as well as a number of leadership positions. For the Philadelphia Flower Show, she was the chairman of judges and awards in the 1980s and early ’90s, and she’s been an exhibitor in the show since 1982.
Rejuvenation takes on new meaning at old church
On July 29, Pastor Andrena Ingram will be officially installed at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Mt. Airy, making her the first new pastor the 276-year-old congregation has had in 20 years. Ingram’s ascent as head of the church marks a permanent shift in the direction of the congregation and its role in Northwest Philadelphia. For most of the last two decades, Pastors Janet Peterman and Violet Little led the church. After both women left in September 2006, the church was without a pastor for a year. A recent graduate of the Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia, Ingram was appointed for a two-year term by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.
|
