Elizabethtown /townlively
JANUARY 27, 2021
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LXII • NO 1
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS IN THIS ISSUE!
Offering Hope Through Health BY CATHY MOLITORIS
When Anne Marie McAlester became executive director of Hope Within Ministries in October 2019, she started thinking about changing the sign outside the Elizabethtown organization. “I felt it didn’t communicate everything we are about,” she said. So last fall, she applied for a community
John Enterline (left) and David Abel, shown inside a replica of a Woolworth store, are busy preparing the National Christmas Center for its new home in Elizabethtown.
Bringing Out The Joy Of Christmas BY CATHY MOLITORIS
avid Abel describes himself as a visionary. Thanks to his vision, the National Christmas Center will have a new home in Elizabethtown. For almost 20 years, the National Christmas Center operated in Paradise, until owner Jim Morrison closed the business in early 2018. Abel purchased the site’s contents in late 2018, with the plan of opening a new center at Stone Gables Estate in Elizabethtown. The center is scheduled to open in the Barns of Belmont, 1 Hollinger Lane, in a few years. In the meantime, the public will have a chance to see the work-inprogress in its temporary location in Middletown during the Christmas season later this year.
“We want to highlight the awe and wonder of Christmas and its traditions,” Abel noted.
See Hope Within pg 8
Hope Within Ministries staff members (from left) Jo Davidson, Anne Marie McAlester and Beth Moad show off the new sign that reflects all of the organization’s offerings.
of Stone Gables Estate. Our mission is to tell the true meaning of Christmas, so this fits perfectly with that.” In an office building off of Route 230 in Middletown, Abel is busy working with a team of contractors, along with co-curators John Enterline and Morrison, to not only set up the items originally housed in the Christmas Center, but also expand its offerings. “The original National Christmas Center was 20,000 square feet,” Abel noted. “The new one will be 40,000 square feet.” Along with items and displays found in the original center, including a life-size reproduction of a Woolworth store, a vast collection of Santas and scenes depicting the birth of Christ, the new center will feature a boys’ toy store full of models, trains,
Joe Bellino is living proof that anyone can change for the better. Bellino is the CEO of From the King Ministries, a program that provides food to food banks and other organizations throughout Pennsylvania as well as in neighboring states. His organization also provides food for distribution at Elizabethtown First Church of God, 144 S. Market St., on Sundays. Although Bellino started his ministry seven years ago, he wasn’t always of that mindset.
See Christmas Center pg 8
See From The King pg 3
Using Food To Bless Others
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Field Schedule Meeting Planned . . . . . . . .4
BY CATHY MOLITORIS
VFW Posts Youth Singing Contest . . . . . . . .5 Business Directory . . . . . .5 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 House Of Worship . . . . . . .9 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . .9
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“I had visited the National Christmas Center years ago with my children, and I was really sad when I heard it was closing,” Abel stated. “Then I met Jim Morrison, and that got the ball rolling. I believe God ordained that meeting and guided me to make the Christmas Center part
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“We will be having private viewings by ticket that are open to the public starting at Christmastime,” Abel noted. He anticipates it will take two years to build the center’s new home in Elizabethtown and two years to set up the contents.
awareness grant through Hershey Medical Center and received funding for a new sign. The sign, at 4748 East Harrisburg Pike, now reads “Hope Within Community Health, Counseling & Dental Center.” “We are a free primary medical care clinic, and we’ve been offering that since 2006,” McAlester noted. “In 2014, we added counseling, and we hoped to add dental in (early 2020), but COVID pushed that back until we finally opened our dental clinic in July 2020.” McAlester said the nonprofit provides primary care for uninsured, low-income people in Lancaster, Lebanon and Dauphin counties. “These are people who work part-time hours without benefits or people who have lost their jobs or are unemployed,” she explained.
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