Landenberg Life
Trout Fishing in Landenberg
–Page 42 Complimentary Copy Inside:
•Local police officer mentors students
•New Garden Township Park expands
•In the spotlight: CompAnimals
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Landenberg Life Summer 2020
Letter from the Editor:
Our writers and photographers were ready to put the finishing touches on the Spring issue of Landenberg Life when the coronavirus outbreak very suddenly changed our plans—and your plans, too. Needless to say, we’re delighted to be able to present you with what is now the summer issue of Landenberg Life, and we hope that you enjoy the stories—most of which were completed before the coronavirus outbreak.
We always enjoy shining a spotlight on some of the things that make Landenberg such a special place to live and work. In this issue, we feature the work of CompAnimals, which has been providing love and help to pets for 20 years. We look at how this nonprofit, volunteer pet rescue has provided an invaluable service.
We profile artist Midge Diener, who enjoys capturing the color and beauty of her Landenberg surroundings.
We also look at the work of police officer Mario Raimato, who helps students in local schools deal with issues like cyberbullying through his role as a school resource officer for half of the Kennett Consolidated School District’s schools.
We take a look at how the New Garden Township Park continues its expansion.
We also take a look at the legacy that longtime Landenberg resident Dr. William J. Stegeman left during his lifetime.
We’re glad to share this issue of Landenberg Life with you, and we wish you all good health and good cheer until we deliver the next issue of the magazine in the fall of 2020.
Sincerely,
Randy Lieberman, Publisher randyl@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553
Steve Hoffman, Editor
Cover photo: Jim Coarse
Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley
Bancroft Elementary: A place
By Chris Barber Contributing Writer
Bancroft Elementary, the newest of Kennett Consolidated School District’s six schools, opened in 2011 alongside the road from which it received its name.
The building was constructed to accommodate a growing student population and the desire on the part of the Kennett School Board to reconfigure all the kindergarten students together into what was formerly Mary D. Lang Elementary School in the middle of Kennett Square Borough.
Bancroft operates parallel to Greenwood Elementary in Kennett Township and New Garden Elementary in New Garden Township. It rests on a 30-acre tract of land formerly owned by Chester County historian Mary Sproat.
The timing of the opening of this new school was fortuitous for Oxford’s Jordan Bank Elementary School assistant
principal Leah McComsey, as it came at about the same time she had the urge to move her career forward and become a principal. Soon, she applied for the position at Bancroft and was selected for the job. She has worked there happily ever since.
With McComsey’s leap into the realm of school leadership, she took on a host of responsibilities that went far beyond instilling young children with doses of knowledge to pass tests and get good grades. In addition to academic achievement, she had to address safety, the well-being of students, building issues, unexpected situations and public relations.
McComsey’s first challenge early on was influencing the future layout of the school. At the time she took the reins, the building was in its bare bones, rising from that rural acreage on Bancroft Road. She studied the blueprints, designs and protocols, using her background and knowledge of school operations. She saw to it the structure of the
All photos by Chris Barber
A group of students work together to solve a puzzle on the carpeted floor of their classroom.
place for learning, joy and caring
building meshed nicely with its educational functions.
She said she is particularly pleased with the decisions she made on the expansive playground in the rear of the building.
It is inviting, safe, colorful and attractive. The climbing structures and swings are in many cases adaptable for children with a wide range of physical abilities, including those students who use wheelchairs. On the pavement are painted areas for special activities like four-square. At the side there is a “buddy bench” for kids who might have tired of climbing or might prefer sitting and talking to running around during recess. And at one corner, school nurse Maureen Orlando volunteers to go out and teach students who are interested about the challenging skill of Italian jump rope.
McComsey said the design was not a given. She met with
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Principal
Leah McComsey visits the playground during first grade recess time.
Bancroft Elementary
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designers of playgrounds, discussed her needs, and made decisions based on what appeared to her to be the safest and most creative design.
Like most principals nationwide, McComsey next had to make sure her 450 students got educated and up-to-speed with state standards. Faced with annual testing and meeting required levels, she said she did not want to be beholden to the state PSSA tests, but at the same time desired her staff to be aware that certain areas of knowledge would be tested.
“We don’t teach for the test,” she said.
She and her faculty worked together for hours to understand the educational goals and understand their choices of curricula to reach them.
McComsey also keeps in mind that her students are individuals – not learning machines – each with different lives and needs outside the school’s subject classes.
She often refers to the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, a psychological theory that visually depicts upward a hierarchy of human needs in the form of a pyramid. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging,
A group of students practices music on stringed instruments.
esteem, and self-actualization.
“The kids can’t learn if they are upset, tired or hungry,” she said.
To that end, within those walls the students are offered individual help, breakfast and a host of aesthetic, creative and extracurricular activities.
One especially popular addition to the activity list is the Chess Club. In its second year at Bancroft, it is led by Greenwood teacher Jon Kilpatrick. He volunteers his time at the elementary schools to teach and lead three-week activity sessions on the learning and playing of chess from first through fifth grades. He said he was thrilled at
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Members of the Chess Club arrive early to learn and play the game.
The playground provides plenty of room for many activities.
Bancroft Elementary
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the turnout – 78 students, each of whom arrived at school an hour early two days a week. He saw enthusiasm and cooperation on the part of the students, and there were never any discipline problems or disruptions.
Kilpatrick said even the first graders caught on and he routinely teaches the game by acquainting the children to the pieces by explaining their relationship to the sociology of medieval life.
There are many other activities to choose from at Bancroft as well, some in the form of after-school clubs and others as part of the music and art programs. The school offers a chorus and a band and an orchestra, enhancing the arts education for youngsters. In a tour around the school, one can see students learning to play instruments, pursuing fitness games in the gym and playing gleefully on the playground equipment during recess.
The attractive appearance of the school from the outside and the upbeat mood of the teachers and students inside, however, belie the intense training, preparation and operations that go into safety for the occupants.
McComsey said she works often and with great intensity with Southern Chester County Regional Police Chief Gerald Simpson, who has given her the tools to deal with not only the possibility of criminal threats, but also the environmental threats like fire or dangerous weather.
The school holds monthly fire drills, which both teachers and students have learned to carry out in an orderly manner. There is also communication with county safety officials, even when the drills do not reflect actual danger.
McComsey said there is in place a secure entrance front hall and locks which guide visitors entering the school
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School nurse Maureen Orlando teaches some students jump rope during recess.
Bancroft Elementary
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vestibule through a screening in the office before they have access to the interior of the school and its students. Additionally, the school has an on-site police safety officer, Mario Raimato, who is loved by the students. McComsey said that in addition to enabling the students to feel safe, Raimato encourages healthy and respectful communication between kids and police rather than fear or antagonism.
Finally, in what is probably one of McComsey’s most vital roles, is her responsibility to deal with and solve unexpected events.
That can be anything from getting the school evacuated when a bad snowstorm comes at noon, a structural failure in the building or some unsettling local or national news. She said just recently, when news of the death of basketball star Kobe Bryant spread, many of her students were very upset and had to be helped.
Through it all, McComsey said she is happy to deal with the routine as well as the unexpected aspects of her job.
“I love to solve problems,” she said.
Spirits are high among the cafeteria staff that serves the student body daily.
Students enjoy the friendship and fun with each other at lunch.
The work of police officer Mario Raimato makes a difference in the lives of many local students
By Monica Fragale Contributing Writer
“I was being bullied, and it stopped. It’s a big relief coming to school today.”
That was the message a student tearfully gave Mario Raimato, who had recently talked to her class about cyberbullying. In his role as school resource officer for half of the Kennett Consolidated School District’s schools, Raimato, 54, is someone the students trust, someone whose advice
All photos courtesy
Officer Raimato at a community event in 2017.
and actions linger with the students he is tasked to protect and nurture.
During that particular class talk, Raimato had explained to the students that cyberbullying is harassment by communication, and cautioned them not to text or put anything online that they wouldn’t say face-to-face. His words resonated with those who were cyberbullying the girl, and the harassment stopped.
“It takes the right person, with the right heart … to do this at the level he does for these young people,” said Southern Chester County Regional Police Chief Gerald Simpson.
New Garden Elementary Principal Elizabeth Weaver agrees.
“I see him as a positive role model, somebody (the kids) have thought of as just another person in our New Garden
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Mario Raimato frequently reads to students and children in the community.
Michelle Raimato, Meg McCown from Kennett Area Community Service, and Mario Raimato at the annual holiday basket event
Mario Raimato
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family,” she said. “They view him as a safe person.”
Bancroft Elementary Principal Leah McComsey describes Raimato as a connector, someone who brings “lots of positive energy and enthusiasm” wherever he goes and someone who genuinely cares about the people he interacts with.
“He definitely has embraced being a member of the school community,” she said.
And it’s not just at the schools where Raimato’s influence is felt. As the community services officer for the Southern Chester County Regional Police Department (SCCRPD), Raimato is often the face of the department -- leading tours of the station, attending Eagle Scout ceremonies, reading to children at the library, participating in Kennett Middle School’s After The Bell program, and more.
Recently he gave a Challenge Coin from the police department to a sixth grader who broke his leg playing ice hockey.
“Lucas broke his leg … and had to stay back, while his twin brother Aiden and his father went to a tournament in Canada,” according to the SCCRPD website. “Mario presented Lucas with an
SCCRPD Challenge Coin to recognize the sacrifice he had to make because of his injury and to ‘challenge him’ to push through this difficult time.”
Raimato, a father of three and grandfather of one who started his police career in his hometown of Kennett Square, recently participated in a community fundraiser at Anchor Life + Fitness that benefitted the son of a Bancroft Elementary teacher who is fighting a
Kelly and Dan Pin with Mario Raimato at the fundraiser at Anchor Life + Fitness earlier this year.
form of leukemia. Other activities he is a part of include New Garden Community Day, Trunk or Treat at Unionville Presbyterian Church, the Kennett Area Community Service Christmas collection, and more.
“We’re blessed to have him in that position,” Simpson said. “Everyone knows Mario, for the right reasons, and that is priceless.”
Raimato, who lives in Kennett Square with his wife Michelle, grew up wanting to be a police officer. He cherished the times that Kennett Square police officers Richard Posey and William Davis would stop by and throw a football around with the neighborhood children.
“I wanted to be that cop,” he said. “If I could affect somebody’s life the way they affected my life, then I did my job.”
He also vividly remembers when Posey and Davis were murdered in 1972, and watching the helicopters and the state police cars that responded.
“When I found out they were killed … the good guy’s not supposed to lose,” he said. “It could happen anywhere.”
So as a police officer, Raimato focuses on training to stop it from happening, to police officers, to the students, to anyone in the community.
“That’s my job – to stop anything bad from happening at any of our schools,” he said. “I take that seriously.”
For instance, during the different lunch periods at the middle school, Raimato often protects the students from the inside but also keeps an eye on the outside.
“I do check the perimeter around the school, especially during lunch,” Raimato said. “At lunchtime we have 300 or more children. The one principal is like, ‘Why are you always looking outside?’ To make sure there’s nobody outside who shouldn’t be looking in.”
Raimato’s presence helps students and parents see the police in a more positive light – and also gets them used to seeing police around the schools.
“He bridges that gap between the police and our lives,” said Bancroft’s McComsey. “He’s done a lot with breaking down the tension with students who come to school with a negative perception of police … It works for the parents, too. They also get to know him personally, and they’re starting to build that relationship with the police department.”
Raimato is in the three Kennett schools that are located in New Garden Township, thanks to a two-year grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Simpson Continued on Page 22
A card presented to Raimato from the seventh graders at Kennett Middle School.
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said the police department is in “early stage negotiation” with the school district to see about funding the School Resource Officer position in 2021 and beyond.
“Hopefully that happens because we think the program has a tremendous amount of success, and we think that the schools are much safer with
Enjoying lunch with some of the children at school is a way that Raimato can make the students feel comfortable and safe.
Mario being that in-person presence,” Simpson said. “We have one of the best guys on the face of the earth in this program, which we know would ensure its success.”
Eighth-grader David Guinup said Raimato “makes everyone feel safer.”
McComsey said Raimato helps her as a building leader by providing “another set of eyes … to make sure things are as safe as they can be. He looks at my practices through a different lens. It’s just made it such a stronger communication system.”
Kennett Middle School Principal Lorenzo DeAngelis described Raimato as a community builder and a source of
“real-time communication.”
“We have a constant connection to public safety, an additional resource in the building to help our students succeed, a deeper sense of security in the building,” he said.
During a tornado warning during the 2019-2020 school year, the Kennett schools held a severe weather drill. Raimato was at the middle school, but quickly called New Garden Elementary to let them know another officer would be heading there. Weaver cites that phone call from Raimato as an example of how he is invested in and a part of the community at large.
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Raimato is pictured reading to Mrs. Simasek’s class at Bancroft Elementary.
Mario Raimato
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McComsey said Raimato actively participates in all the emergency drills, “so the students are used to seeing police in the building during those activities.”
Much like he is as a community services officer for the Southern Chester County Regional Police Department, Raimato comes across as friendly, down-to-earth, and someone who puts you at ease. He is a man known for giving high-fives to students, asking students and staff about their days, and taking an occasional pie in the face as part of a fundraiser.
Guinup recalled how Raimato always talks to him at lunch.
“He is really nice and interacts with everyone,” Guinup, an eighth-grader, said. “He makes everyone laugh.”
DeAngelis said Raimato always tells new jokes to the students during lunch.
“He is a mentor – a kind, caring, trusting adult,” DeAngelis said.
McComsey has seen that numerous times with Raimato, including when he brought in “a huge amount of supplies” that Bancroft could give to its students, and when Raimato and the Southern Chester County Regional Police “adopted” one of Bancroft’s students and bought a bike and
helmet, that was given anonymously, to the parents.
“He came in and saw our giving tree, and he just went and took an ornament right off the tree,” McComsey said. “It’s Mario being Mario.”
Sixth-grader Molly Malone said Raimato loves to sing.
“He’ll come up to our table and sing at lunch,” Malone said. “He’s very funny and really, really nice.”
“He’s approachable,” Simpson said, joking that “it helps that he’s the same height as most of the kids.
“Certainly he’s a very mature police officer, but he has that youthful persona.”
The legacy that long-time Landenberg resident Dr. William J. Stegeman left extended from the company he founded to the music school he loved
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
In 2001, Landenberg resident Dr. William J. Stegeman walked into The Music School of Delaware in Wilmington for the first time, accompanying his granddaughter to violin lessons.
A year later, Stegeman arrived at the school for another violin lesson – his own – and in doing so, began what became an indelible and irreplaceable imprint on the school, and on the musical lives of thousands of children.
While the story of Stegeman and the Music School of Delaware is one of lasting impact, it began rather humbly, when the relocation to Michigan of a key violin teacher at the school required the registrar to scramble in order to find a replacement for the several budding violinists with their respective teachers. Eventually, each student was paired with a teacher, except for one – a 63-year-old man named Bill Stegeman from nearby Chester County.
When word of the older student got to Music School President and Chief Executive Officer Kate Ransom -who was also a violinist with the Serafin String Quartet – she told the registrar, I’ll take him.
It began an endearing friendship that lasted until the end of Stegeman’s life.
“Honestly, the violin is the hardest of all instruments to learn, but I was intrigued by Bill’s capacity to learn, and his willingness to begin at the beginning,” Ransom said.
“We started with A Tune a Day, the same book that I used when I learned the instrument at the age of 7. Slowly though, Bill began to learn his way around the instrument, and I could tell the violin was really something he embraced with passion.”
The violin student
All photos courtesy of The Music School of Delaware Believing that music lessons have a profound and positive effect on children, Stegeman’s contributions to the school have supported its many educational outreach programs.
Dr. William Stegeman
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For Dr. William Stegeman, passion was a transferable gift he gave not only to himself, but to others. Born in 1942 and raised in Rochester, N.Y., he was a popular student and an avid swimmer, and also enjoyed boating, camping, youth groups, and singing in his church choir. After his high school graduation in 1960, Stegeman earned a bachelor’s degree in botany from the University of Maine. It was there that he met his wife, Elizabeth Ann Thomas – Bette -- whom he married in 1962.
After earning a master’s degree in botany from the University of Massachusetts, a Ph.D. in microbiology from Rutgers University, and completing his post-doctoral work in immunology at Temple University, Stegeman began work at Cappell Laboratories in Cochranville. It was there that he discovered how to manufacture a product that inspired him to form his own company in 1982 -- Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, Inc. Now in its fourth decade, the company has earned a worldwide reputation for secondary antibody production, which includes blocking agents, life serums, control proteins and other technologies that advance biological techniques and procedures. company were on the cutting edge of research that was
CECIL COLLEGE
helping to save lives. When he was at The Music School of Delaware, however, Stegeman became more than just another student with a violin, but a man of wisdom and an agent of change. During his long association with The Music School of Delaware, Stegeman gave more than $2 million to the school, becoming the single largest individual
Dr. William J. Stegeman, a long-time Landenberg resident and the founder of Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, Inc., with his friend Kate Ransom, the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Music School of Delaware.
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Dr. William Stegeman
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donor in the school’s near-century-old history.
In addition, he served on the school’s Board of Directors.
He paid off the mortgage on the school’s J.S. Bach Music Wing, which he named in honor of his favorite composer.
He pledged to match annual gifts of $5,000 or more to the school’s campaign, which raised more than $40,000 for the Anthony G. Simmons Scholarship endowment fund, which provides financial aid to students at the school.
He attended concerts by the Serafin String Quartet (now called the Serafin Ensemble), accompanying them to London and to Carnegie Hall in New York City.
He invited Serafin members to the Jackson campus to perform lunch time concerts as a gift to the company’s employees.
“We would play for about 30 minutes, and then go join the staff for lunch, and through them, we got a window into how Bill treated his employees like they were his own family,” Ransom said. “He cared about making a difference in the world, and he did that with his company, with his community, and he was a change agent with his generosity but also with his leadership.”
Over several decades, Stegeman also supported many other organizations and institutions including the University
of Delaware, The Arts at Trinity, the Jennersville YMCA, the Southern Chester County Youth Shooting League, St. Jude’s Children Hospital, the Lighthouse Youth Center in Oxford, the Hockessin United Methodist Church, and the Brandywine Valley SPCA.
Over the course of nearly two decades, Dr. Stegeman made contributions of more than $2 million to the Music School of Delaware. Here, he meets with David McBride, former Chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees, and alum Conor McAvinue.
In addition to supporting the school’s efforts, Stegeman took violin lessons for several years under the tutelage of Kate Ransom, the school’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
“Bill wanted to support entities and organizations who he felt were pursuing their mission with rigor, seriousness and commitment to excellence, in ways that reflected how he pursued the development of his own company,” Ransom said.
In 2015, soon after Stegeman made a sizable gift to the music school, he said, “My gift is important because, for me, the school is all about the kids. Music education has such a profound influence on young people’s brains and their education in general.”
He dedicated the gift to his friend Kate Ransom.
“I did this to perpetuate access to the music school’s excellence,” he said. “My donation is in honor of Kate Ransom – the school’s CEO for the past 16 years – and her devotion to the pursuit of excellence; advancement of the school and its mission; and commitment to high-quality music education for all.”
The violin lessons that Stegeman took with Ransom lasted until the physical and cognitive challenges he was facing prevented him from doing so, but still, their friendship endured. When Ransom visited Stegeman at the Jenners Pond retirement facility or the Friends Home in Kennett Square, she often brought along her violin. Usually, she played selections of Bach, but one of the last times she was in his company, she chose another selection – “Ashokan Farewell,” a piece made famous by its appearance in the Ken Burns documentary “The Civil War.”
“He wasn’t able to communicate back with me, but he could definitely smile,” Ransom said. “It was a wonderful late-life gift that I could bring him when there was nothing else I could bring him.”
Surrounded by his family, Stegeman passed away peacefully on Oct. 13, 2019 at the Friends Home in Kennett Square, at the age of 77. Preceded by his wife Bette, who passed in 2007, he is survived by daughter Amy Louise Stegeman; son James Raymond Stegeman; two grandsons; two granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.
Dr. William Stegeman
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On the evening of Jan. 15, 2020, The Music School of Delaware celebrated Stegeman’s life and his contributions to the school. The concert – “Serafin Ensemble & Friends: Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary - Honoring the Memory of Bill Stegeman” – included performances by several noted faculty and guest artists, and was highlighted by a tribute selection performed by current and former Serafin members.
“Bill’s simple belief was that every child should have access to an excellent music experience, and he trusted our ability to deliver that. Now that he’s gone, we carry the torch forward in his memory, to see that his legacy lives on.”
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
About The Music School of Delaware
Located just 25 minutes from Landenberg, The Music School of Delaware was founded in 1924 to provide excellence in music education, training and experiences for people of all ages and abilities.
Today, the school is a nationally-accredited, statewide, nonprofit organization that reaches thousands of residents from Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania -- including Chester County.
The school offers instructional programs and over 120 public performances each year, and is the only nationally accredited program of its kind in Delaware, and the only statewide accredited community music school in the nation. The school’s standard-setting instructional programs are delivered by a faculty of almost 90 expert artists and educators.
Classes include private lessons in all orchestral and band instruments as well as piano, organ, harpsichord, guitar, harp and voice; early childhood classes; Suzuki Academy; orchestral, choral and chamber music ensembles; music history and theory classes; music therapy; and special classes for adults. The school has recently added distance learning and virtual events to its offerings.
Locations include branches in Wilmington and Milford and almost 20 satellite and outreach sites throughout the region. The school administers a financial assistance program for those demonstrating financial need, and merit scholarships for the most highly-motivated students.
To learn more about lessons, events and outreach programs in Chester County, visit www.musicschoolofdelaware.org.
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A lifetime of art and family ties
Midge Diener enjoys capturing the color and beauty of her surroundings
By John Chambless Contributing Writer
Alifelong love of art has sustained Midge Diener, and now, as a great-grandmother, she is busier than ever, turning the things she loves into delicate watercolor paintings.
Sitting in the cozy living room of her home near the sprawling White Clay Creek State Park, Diener was surrounded by her own art, as well as well-chosen art that reflects her deep faith.
A “doodler and crafter in every area imaginable” since she was a child, Diener had an aunt who painted watercolors, but she credits her parents with supporting her own artistic experimentation. “I did a lot of tole painting and decorative art early on, but I didn’t want to be branded as looking like somebody else’s style,” she said. “Oil painting was too slow, and I am too busy to wait. But I always liked watercolor.”
The speed of watercolor painting inspired her, so she pursued her interest with a series of art classes offered locally. She has, otherwise, learned by doing.
Rooted in her faith, Diener owned the Lighthouse Christian bookstore in Delaware for 13 years before eventually selling it. She is a longtime member of the Calvary Assembly of God, where she has been enlisted to paint an elaborate mural in the children’s room of the church. That has kept her away from her regular schedule of painting for the past few months.
While she was sharpening her painting skills, raising a young family and running the bookstore, Diener’s life was torn apart when she was 44. Her husband, Carl, had been diagnosed with cancer, and she devoted herself to caring for him until his death in 1991.
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All photos by John Chambless The pond on Diener’s property was the subject of one of her paintings.
and strong
Midge Diener
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“I just stopped painting,” she explained. “It was out of the question. I was barely existing, especially that first year. I had to keep the bookstore running, and take care of a 6-year-old who was at home.”
After some prodding from her former mother-in-law, she said, laughing, she eventually agreed to start dating again. “I met Gregg Diener, and we married three years later,” she said. “I’ve been blessed to have two wonderful marriages. When I remarried, I felt alive again. Gregg encouraged me to start painting again. I had missed it. I picked it back up around 1997. I have to be doing something with my hands – designing something, doing something.”
With no formal art training, Diener has nevertheless had
decades of experience, and she has shared her knowledge and enthusiasm with adult art students at the Oxford Arts Alliance and at the Jenner’s Pond retirement community, offering classes for several years. “I still do workshops at Jenner’s Pond, usually about four times a year,” she said. “I do simple stuff, so that someone who has never painted before can finish something and think, ‘You know what? Maybe I can do this.’ I’m an encourager. I love teaching people, pointing out the good things that they’re doing, and I love teaching art.”
There are themes to Diener’s work, but she easily switches from florals to birds to landscapes to animal portraits whenever she is led. “My subject matter was florals
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‘Waiting For a Breeze’ The historic ‘Ticking Tomb’ was the subject of this painting.
Midge Diener
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at the beginning,” she said, “but I found that my landscapes were selling very quickly.”
She has a wide selection of giclee prints that make her works affordable for everyone. And many of her works are also available as greeting cards.
Living in the midst of some spectacular scenery, Diener never lacks for inspiration. A print of her painting of the Ticking Tomb, which is about a mile down the road from her home, led to a story. “The first show I had it in, I had the original and I had a giclee,” she said. “A lady saw the giclee and said, ‘Oh, I met my husband there.’ And she planted the garden in front. So she had to buy it. And she bought the original.”
Her husband, Gregg, is a constant support for her, Diener said. He doesn’t share her artistic flair – he is a former paramedic who is now the director of the paramedic training program at Jefferson Hospital – but he is part of a big, richly intertwined family that celebrates Diener’s artistic pursuits.
The dining room at their home is big enough for everyother-week family Sunday dinners for their adult children Matthew, Lynn, Lori and Nicole, as well as many of their 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Diener also meets her children at Daddy’s Restaurant on Route 896 every
Thursday morning. Diener’s originals and giclee prints are on permanent display in the restaurant.
Diener paints outdoors and also works from photographs that she keeps on file. “I did a plein air workshop and saw a building right across from the Ticking Tomb at White Clay Creek State Park,” she said. “I loved how the sun was hitting it. I immediately knew what I was going to paint. And if you go up Glen Road near here, there are sheep out there
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‘Reflections II’
Midge Diener
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now. I’ve been taking pictures of them. I will, one of these days, do a painting of them.”
While Diener has painted images of historic homes that catch her eye, she admitted, “It’s hard to position yourself in the right place to paint a house. You have to get all the angles right. I could paint flowers all day long, though.”
Diener has been a mainstay of local fairs and art shows for decades. Her
work is always part of Country Christmas in Oxford, she has had shows at Jenner’s Pond, and her work is featured at The Perfect Cup in Hockessin, Drip Café, and elsewhere.
For Diener – who admits her house is overflowing with her art – the joy in her creativity reflects the joy in her life. “I got to a point where I was doing so much art, I either had to stop or sell it, because my house was so full,” she said, laughing. “But I just love to paint.”
For more information, visit www.midgeart.com.
To contact John Chambless, email johnchambless@yahoo. com.
Artist Midge Diener, with some of her prints and paintings, at her home near White Clay Creek State Park.
‘Jaded,’ one of the florals Diener enjoys painting.
|Landenberg Life Photo Essay|
Text by Richard L. Gaw
Broadcaster and newsman Tom Brokaw has called himself a student of fly fishing for more than 30 years, and has fished all over the world beside the likes of outdoor industry billionaire businessman Yvon Chouinard, author Tom McGuane, talk show host David Letterman and Lefty Kreh, considered by many to be the father of modern fly fishing.
“If fishing is religion, fly fishing is high church,” Brokaw is quoted as saying. In an interview he gave to Men’s Journal in 2018, he said, “… You don’t have to talk to anybody. It’s just you and nature and the water and trying to outfox the fish—which is not easy to do. And then when you catch one and release it, it’s a beautiful act.”
To the men and women who cast their line throughout the White Clay Creek Watershed we can only imagine that their experiences are similar to Brokaw’s. They’re not alone; over the next few pages, Landenberg Life shares the feelings of other prominent anglers toward the magical unknown of what lies beneath the water.
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The ‘High Church’
Photos by Jim Coarse
Church’ of Landenberg
Photo Essay
Continued from Page 42
“Fishing provides time to think, and reason not to. If you have the virtue of patience, an hour or two of casting alone is plenty of time to review all you’ve learned about the grand themes of life. It’s time enough to realize that every generalization stands opposed by a mosaic of exceptions, and that the biggest truths are few indeed.”
Carl Safina, ecologist
“Somebody behind you, while you are fishing, is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.”
Ernest Hemingway, author
“All Americans believe that they are born fishermen. For a man to admit a distaste for fishing would be like denouncing a mother’s love or hating moonlight.”
John Steinbeck, author
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Photo Essay
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“I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end. Your imagination is under there.”
Robert Altman, filmmaker
“Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
Henry David Thoreau, author and conservationist
For additional information about fly fishing in Landenberg, visit www.whiteclayflyfishers.org.
Special needs, unwanted pets find new life at CompAnimals
Nonprofit volunteer pet rescue has been helping for 20 years
By Natalie Smith Staff Writer
There is a place at the corner of Route 896 and Flint Hill Road in Landenberg whose inhabitants are cherished. Neither age, nor infirmity, nor tragic history are barriers for acceptance. Treated with kindness and compassion, the hope is to ultimately find these residents “a forever home.”
For more than 20 years, Leslie Hunt, founder and director of CompAnimals Pet Rescue, and her cadre of like-minded volunteers have been caring for the dogs, cats and other pets that need help and families of their own. Operating out of a converted garage and the homes of foster volunteers, the rescue can count more than 2,000 successful adoptions, a result that often starts with a heartbreaking beginning.
“We’ll take in the pets that are hard to place,” Hunt said. Special needs might be a pit bull with ovarian cancer, a cat needing extreme dental work or a cocker spaniel from a puppy mill whose experience left it painfully shy.
Landenberg facility will often take an animal that the larger shelters know will receive more individualized attention. And puppy mills – essentially birthing factories where the dogs are kept in cages and receive no socialization, little vet care or exercise – will often surrender their rejects to rescues. Dealing with the effects of a life spent in a cage takes its toll on the dogs, whether they are puppies or 6-year-old, past-their-prime breeders.
Sometimes CompAnimals finds itself with pets after a family misfortune such as death, illness or job loss. A recent example was the death of an elderly man, which resulted in his three cats being given to the rescue, said Lynn Monahan, president of the rescue’s board of directors and a longtime volunteer. “Gracie, True and Oliver are fabulous cats,” she said of newly obtained feline trio.
CompAnimals also works with other shelters in the general area, including the Brandywine Valley SPCA locations and the Baltimore Animal and Rescue Care Shelter. The
“Some of the puppy mill dogs are afraid of grass,” Hunt said. “Just take them to the park and they freeze. You think they’d want to be out of the cage, but that’s all they’ve known and it’s their safe spot.” Those dogs are often afraid of many things, including people. Hunt said it can take a while for them to get accustomed to the outside and lose their shyness. “Some of them are always shy,” she said. Growing up in the Prices Corner section of Delaware, Hunt’s expertise is rooted in her lifelong love of animals. “My brother just found a letter I wrote to [then-U.S. Sen.] Joe Biden when I was in fourth grade, asking him to save the woodpeckers and the Key deer [a type of white-tailed deer found only in the Florida Keys),” she recalled with a laugh. “And while in college, I knew I wanted to start a pet sanctuary.” She took care of the cat of someone who’d passed away. “I knew it was my passion back then.
“When my kids were young, we started a human daycare ... we took in some animals and it started there.”
The hard work of the many volunteers over the years has kept the rescue going. Hunt said there are about 40 volunteers this year, with a core group of 25 and the rest helping
All photos by Natalie Smith Diamondsicle, whose name sounds like a frozen treat made of a precious stone, was initially a hospice case at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter. The senior pit bull had successful cancer surgery. CompAnimals founder and director Leslie Hunt said the pooch loves a soft bed, being hand-fed and is “a princess. She would be great for a little girl who likes to dress her up.”
CompAnimals
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out when they can. There is a form on the group’s website on which people can commit to varying levels. One choice is called Pen Pal, in which the volunteer develops a relationship with an individual dog
Hunt, as with many others affiliated with the rescue, considers herself a “foster failure,” the tongue-in-cheek label given to someone who ends up adopting animals they foster. Her current three dogs are all pit bulls. She said, “I just love the bully breeds,” a category that includes the large, muscular dogs with “bull” in their name but also extends to such breeds as boxer and Boston terrier.
When adopting out certain types of dogs, such as pit bulls, the shelter usually requires that the adopter have experience with that breed. “We won’t adopt pit bulls out to someone who rents or someone under 25 … we want you to be a little more established and know where your life’s going.”
CompAnimals is committed to making sure a pet’s adoption is a good fit for the animal and potential adopter. The required form asks such items as: “Describe the general activity and noise level of the household,” “Describe frequency of visitors to home and their ages” and “Where will the pet be kept if no one’s home?”
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Lynn Monahan, president of the CompAnimals Pet Rescue Board of Directors and a longtime volunteer, gives a squeeze to Gracie. The kitty and her companion cats, True and Oliver, were brought to the rescue after their elderly owner died.
CompAnimals
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In addition to requiring references, the application compels the potential adopter to consider the breadth of bringing a new living being into their family.
“People have good hearts, but it’s not always the best match,” Hunt said.
If the adopter is bringing home a dog, CompAnimals advises them to adhere to a “Two Week Shutdown,” behaviors that help the dog adjust and become comfortable in its new environment. Details are available on the group’s website.
Holly Tyson, CompAnimals treasurer, described the experience after she and her husband started looking for another dog following the death of their previous one.
“We are both such dog lovers that it didn’t take us long to get on Petfinder [a free national computer database of adoptable animals from shelters and rescues] and find a dog in the area that we wanted to bring into our family. We had it on our minds that we wanted a dog with special needs.
“We found a blind beagle named Stevie Wonder who was in the care of CompAnimals. My husband and I kind of fell in love with him reading the description online. So we reached out to them.
“Stevie Wonder was in a foster home. But Leslie, the director of CompAnimals said you know, your home situation is not a great match for Stevie. He would really benefit from having another dog in the household and a fence to keep him from wandering into that pond on your property. But we have lots of other dogs in our care that might be a good match for you.
“My husband and I visited the facility in Landenberg and we went on, I would call it ‘speed dating’ with dogs. But it was the hardest speed dating experience I’ve ever had.
“We walked three dogs in succession and it was kind of like ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears.’ The first dog was pulling and just very powerful with lots and lots of energy. The next dog was pretty small and kind of shy and timid. And then Trixie came out and she was just right. She had lots of energy but you could tell we were connecting with her so we fell in love right away. And she’s been in our family for five years.”
Tyson was so impressed by her experience adopting the boxer mix that she started volunteering at the rescue. “Because I have a background in nonprofit community organizing, I figured I could use some of my talents to further CompAnimals.”
As a nonprofit, there is an enormous cost for caring for the animals. There is a constant wrestling with expenses, as the basics of rent, utility bills and food, are added onto its staggering veterinarian bills.
“Last year our vet bills were more than our rent,” Hunt said. It could be the dog needing a $5,000 orthopedic repair, the cancer surgery for the sweet, senior pit bull or “Oliver, one of the cats we got from the older man who passed away, needs about $600 worth of dental [work],” said Lynn Monahan.
And then there is the CompAnimals facility. The group’s landlord intends to sell the property and the buildings on it, so CompAnimals is actively looking for a new home. The group is interested in purchasing a property, perhaps with an established kennel and some land around it for the dogs to be exercised. But real estate in the area is expensive. However, CompAnimals hasn’t been around for two decades without the tremendous support of its neighbors.
“It’s a challenge to stay operational month to month,” said
CompAnimals Pet Rescue founder and director Leslie Hunt gets a kiss from Lila, an Akita.
Leslie Hunt holds Chihuahua Tia, who was found wandering outside near the shelter. The feisty Tia, whom they estimate to be about a year-old, has had a number of potential adopters applying for her.
Longtime CompAnimals Pet Rescue volunteer Leanne Phillips holds Sparky, a year-old bichon frise. Sparky is from a puppy mill, where he was deemed too shy to be sold as a pet and surrendered to a rescue. A number of dogs that end up at CompAnimals have similar backgrounds, and often have health and behavioral issues.
Tyson, the treasurer, “with our vet expenses far outweighing our ability to furnish a capital campaign with seed money to really show a bank or a lender that we have any kind of reserves to work with, so we put out a call
Hippo the bunny is one of the “critters” that CompAnimals has taken in. The 6-month-old was attacked by another rabbit in his previous home. “Bunnies are very territorial,” said Leslie Hunt, the rescue’s founder and director. Their temperaments even out if they are neutered, but the procedure can be costly. “We only adopt them out as an only bunny.”
to the community.” A GoFundMe campaign and other fundraisers have so far generated about $13,000 in donations for CompAnimals’ facility fund.
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CompAnimals
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But to keep the bills in check and have money for the new location, benefit events continue. CompAnimals is seeking people to join its team in the Fusion for a Cause 5K on Nov. 15, sponsored by the Delaware Center of Horticulture. The rescue is looking to repeat last year’s first-place win and receive a donation of $1,000. Other benefits are coming up during the year, from bake sales to flea markets and restaurant events. Information is on the rescue’s Facebook page, along with plenty of photos and the latest CompAnimals news.
“Being here, I’m so impressed by the generosity of people,” said Lynn Monahan. “And by the stories, because with every animal there’s a story and behind that animal there’s a people story.”
CompAnimals Pet Rescue is at 1497 Flint Hill Road, Landenberg. More information about rescue is available on its Facebook page and at companimals.org. Forms, advice and photos of available animals are also on the website.
Natalie Smith may be contacted at DoubleSMedia@rocketmail.com.
another confident
When placing a
potential
Elvis is a Pomsky, a Pomeranian/husky cross. Used in a breeding operation, the 3-yearold is shy, and would do best in a home with
dog and no small children.
dog like Elvis in a home, founder and director Leslie Hunt said they may prefer
adopters who have experience working with shy pets.
New Garden Township Park
By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer
Rave reviews are coming in for the second phase of the expansion of New Garden Township Park – and it’s not yet even at its prettiest perfection.
“Being a new resident of the township, and a dog walker, I am thrilled to have these wonderful trails literally in my backyard!” Laurie A. Curl wrote on the township’s Facebook page last December. “Really enjoy the scenery of rolling hills, mushroom farms and the lovely township building!”
“This is awesome,” said township resident Tamara Burns, interviewed while enjoying the park on a pleasant February morning with her dogs Lucy and Sadie. “They love it,” she said of the dogs, adding that the longer, interconnected trail system allows for longer, energetic walks, rather than the old days, when the dogs would recognize her car at the end of short laps and ask to end their jaunts.
New Garden Township Park, with entrances on Starr Road and Gap Newport Pike, was established in 1997 on the old Wollaston farm in Landenberg and has been “steadily growing in size and activity ever since,” according to the township website. This second phase essentially fills the 62-acre site with all the major facilities it can handle, according to Kati Parlier, assistant to township manager.
“People now have the ability to play most sports here,” she said. The second phase features more parking, which will help with every event at the park or its buildings, which includes the municipal building and two historic structures. Expansion also allows for Community Day activities to spread out.
The White Clay Soccer Club, which has used the park for five years, is handling maintenance and scheduling of the fields, a trend among area soccer clubs that gives them first dibs on the space and the ability to mold such fields for the more intensive use of a lot of kids running around in cleats.
Park continues to expand
Club president Mark Edelson said representatives worked with township officials on sizing and grading of the fields, and they’re committed to “seeding, cutting and keeping the fields healthy for athletics.” That’s a more detailed regimen than a government would follow, and they’re also anticipating that they won’t start using the club for their players – 225 in travel, 100 in rec – until spring of 2021, when the grass is well-established. “We’re looking for the long term.”
The first phase of the park included two small soccer fields, a large playground, fitness stations, baseball and softball fields, restrooms, two covered picnic pavilions, a mile of gravel multi-use trails and a parking lot.
The second phase involves a field that can accommodate 11-on-11 soccer games and football matches, another parking lot, a mile of paved trails and paving of the gravel trails. The trails now total three miles curving around hills, sports fields and buildings. A small playground and a concession/restroom building are planned, joining similar facilities on the other side of Lamborn Run in the first phase.
The 38-acre second phase also has environmental amenities. One section along Starr Road remains a dedicated wetland. Two buffers of shrubs and trees line the downhill side of the new parking lot and the border with Landenberg Hunt, the subdivision on the park’s western side.
Three rain gardens should be completed this year. Rain gardens “are saucer-shaped depressions that are planted with moistureloving native plants,” a sign near the township building explains. “This provides flood control, groundwater recharge and water-cooling benefits while the plants, soil and associated microorganisms remove many types of pollutants – such as pesticides, fertilizer and motor oil – from stormwater runoff.”
All the plantings are native species, and their addition should encourage wildlife in the park, already home to deer, foxes, groundhogs,
New Garden Park
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squirrels, eagles and other birds,
The $855,000 second phase was covered with township funds and two 2018 grants: a $225,000 Chester County Municipal Park and Trail grant, approved by the Chester County Commissioners, and a $200,000 grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The township has applied for a PECO Green Region Open Space grant to cover the cost of more trees, Parlier said.
In 2019, the township also completed restoration and renovation of Lyceum Hall, a mixed-used building that dates to 1853 and was relocated to land covered in the park’s first phase. The work allows its main floor to host meetings and other functions. Some parts of the structural and cosmetic work were mundane: repairing holes in the floor. Some parts were intriguing: exposing 19th century graffiti.
Park plans for an amphitheater for community concerts and theatrical events have
been dropped, with its leftover hill popular for sledding and exercising, she said.
That change came about when the township purchased St. Anthony in the Hills, a 137-acre site on Limestone Road with amphitheaters, pavilions, stables, barns, a castle and an aviary.
The township in February hired YSM Landscape Architects of York to develop a master plan for St Anthony in the Hills. Officials also plan to appoint 13
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Lucy (left) and Sadie are fans of the longer trails in the second phase of New Garden Township Park, township resident Tamara Burns says.
New
Garden Park
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people, representing divergent elements of the community, to consider its future. The group should meet a half-dozen times over the next year or so and also seek comments via mailed and online surveys. “People are fascinated with the property,” Parlier said. “It has endless potential.”
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A sign explains the rationale behind the park’s new rain gardens and how homeowners can plan and plant their own.
A wetland is being kept along Starr Road.
This temporary water feature will be amended when rain gardens are installed.
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