Conestoga Valley townlively.com
AUGUST 3, 2022
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LVIII • NO 32
Flag Football Fun League Offers Activity For Adults With Disabilities
andy Samuels first heard of flag football for adults with disabilities during halftime of the professional football season championship. Later on, he heard from a parent of an adult with special needs who wanted to start a local league. He and Bev Magee, one of the founders of Aaron’s Acres, began looking into the possibility. The league was ready to kick off when COVID-19 restrictions hit, delaying the start of play. Now, the program, which is named the Chuckie Magee Flag Football and Cheerleading League after Bev’s son, has partnered with Aaron’s Acres, and play is due to start on Saturday, Aug. 20. Games and cheerleading will be held on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon at Manheim Brethren in Christ Church, 54 N. Penryn Road, Manheim. The league is open to participants ages 21 to 40 with varying abilities and disabilities. “We will make sure that everyone gets to kick
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off and score a touchdown,” said Samuels, co-founder and coach for the league. “We will have buddies for those who can’t catch. (Buddies) can catch (the ball) for (players) and send them to the endzone.” Risa Paskoff, executive director of Aaron’s Acres, concurred. “Everybody plays no matter what, and everybody can cheerlead,” she said. Chuckie was a camper with Aaron’s Acres when the program was established in 1998. He was known for his happy face and warm embrace throughout the time he camped with Aaron’s Acres. “If you knew Chuckie, you loved him,” said Paskoff. “He was always smiling and always saying hi to everyone.” Chuckie passed away in 2015 at the age of 23. While the league was being organized, Samuels told his wife he wanted to name the program after Chuckie, but he did not tell Bev right away. He said that before connecting with Aaron’s Acres, he and Bev began visiting nonprofits looking for a partner for the league. See Flag Football pg 6
Theater Experience BY ANN MEAD ASH
BY ANN MEAD ASH
When three musical brothers are assigned a summer project, it is only natural that they would decide to hold a concert. In the case of Noah, Lucas, and Marcus Unruh, who live in the Conestoga Valley School District, that concert will benefit SWAN (Scaling Walls A Note at a Time), which offers free music lessons to School District of Lancaster (SDoL) students affected by parental incarceration. See SWAN pg 6
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
EHS Has A New Director
Brothers To Raise Funds For SWAN
Reji Woods is the new director of Ephrata High School theater.
As the new theater director for Ephrata High School (EHS), Reji Woods has a goal to give students a better theater experience than he had growing up in Gainesville, Fla. “I want to make sure students aren’t lacking in things (they could be introduced to),” said Woods, who took over the position in June. Woods hopes to expand how the program is offered. “Instead of just shows in the fall and spring, there will be a drama club and I will be the adviser,” noted Woods, who wants
to register the group in national acting societies. “So there’s (theater) community year round,” he explained. One way he hopes to expand the theater program is to bring in other theater professionals, including writers, to provide a week of summer workshops. “It would culminate in a showcase at the end of the camp,” said Woods. First introduced to EHS theater by former director Irving Gonzales, Woods came on board when he was asked to be a guest artist as the voice of the plant in a production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” See EHS pg 3
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Randy Samuels (left) and Risa Paskoff are looking forward to the start of the Chuckie Magee Flag Football and Cheerleading League.
GOTR Plans New Season . . . . . . . . . . .2 Alternative Gift Fair Announced . . . . . . . . . . . .4 House Of Worship . . . . . . .7 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . .10
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