Artist visits Norwood Margaret Smigiel, Flourtown resident and author of The Princess Albums, “recently honore Kindergarten to 3rd grade Norwood-Fontbonne Academy students with a reading of her book,  “The Princess Doctor.” This is a story of a princess who wishes to dedicate herself to helping others and through this adventure, discovers a different “happily ever after.”  Smigiel describes herself as a wife, mother, national champion cyclist and accidental author.   She was inspired to write her stories of service, charity, and dedication because of her children’s love of reading.  When asked why she used a princess as her heroine, she said that her two daughters always like to dress up as princesses, and she also wanted them to realize they could achieve much in life “instead of just waiting for their prince.  She shared her motto with the students, “dream big with a kind heart.”

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD Alexandra Gilliam of Wyncote as the Tin Man (actually Lady), Sharell Bryant of Southwest Philadelphia as Dorothy, and Chris Golson of Blue Bell as the Scarecrow starred in Germantown Friends School’s production of “The Wizard of Oz” which ran as the school’s spring musical last weekend.
GFS’s “Oz” was performed with a twist.  The production was loaded with social and political allegory – all found in L. Frank Baum’s novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” originally published in 1900 during the height of the populist movement.  The scarecrow represented the Kansas farmer, the Tin Man symbolized the factory worker, and Dorothy wore silver slippers echoing the movement that saw silver as “the people’s money” as opposed to gold currency.
But the GFS production also succeeded as a children’s story and true adventure of the imagination.  “Something that is unique to the American personality is the idea that we have everything within us to solve our problems and accomplish our dreams,” said Lisa Burns of Chestnut Hill, head of the drama department and the play’s director.

Depaul USA granted $10,000 from Green Tree Community Health Foundation