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To Know Stan Deen Was to Be Inspired by Him BY JEFF FALK
Y
ou know you’ve led a great life when the y name a foundation after you. But this story is as much about the people he influenced as it is about the Stan Deen Foundation or the man himself. “We just carry on his work,” said Nate Deen, the founder and executive director of the Stan Deen Foundation. “That’s the greatest way we can honor him. Stan was more than a teacher. He did so many productions, but I think his greatest production was the people. His legacy will live on every time a young person does something positive. “When I first met Stan, I was living in my car while still going to school, and I hadn’t eaten in three days,” continued Nate. “He offered me something to eat, and it changed my life. He literally became my father figure. In 2018, my wife and I changed our names
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Nate Deen (left) and Stan Deen
to Deen. He was the last Deen in In the world of local nonprofits, his lineage. I was the son he never the Stan Deen Foundation is a had, and he was the father I always relatively recent initiative, yet one needed.” that is picking up steam. Using
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Jimmy Witwer Has a Job to Do
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Jimmy Witwer is a functioning member of our community. He has a job he gets paid for, and he contributes to the local economy. But that is just a part of Jimmy’s story. “It’s going good,” said Jimmy. “I’ve been here six years so far. It’s a lot of working, but I’m used to it. It’s not easy. Yeah, I think I’m good at it.” Jimmy works at Signature
Custom Cabinetry in Ephrata. He landed his job through the working relationship between the company and Lighthouse Vocational Services, which is located at 144 Orlan Road, New Holland. Lighthouse Vocational Services provides employment opportunities for local individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and Jimmy is one of two individuals Lighthouse has placed at Signature. For Jimmy, his Signature Custom Cabinetry employee Jimmy Witwer (left) and Lighthouse Vocational
See Jimmy Witwer pg 6 Services job coach Andon Rangelov
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VOL LXII • NO 38
25 Years of Remembrance BY LOGAN MOYER
Lancaster County’s annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13, at Penn Medicine Park, 650 N. Prince St., Lancaster. Registration will begin at 8 a.m., followed by the stair climb at 9 a.m. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the fall of the World Trade Center towers. Once the memorial service begins, participants will begin a procession up the steps of the ballpark. They will circle it five times, making the distance of the climb equivalent to the 110 stories of the World Trade Center. “We’re just trying to carry on the motto that people developed back then to never forget,” said Scott Yuill, a member of the East Petersburg Fire Company. “The way we can keep the memories there is to have this once a year.” Participants will be required to pay a set cost to sign up. Online registration has closed, but participants can register on the morning of the event. Every year, many first responders travel to the ballpark to participate in the event, which had 335 climbers last year. Many firefighters elect to wear their full set of equipment for the climb to emulate the way their 343 fallen brothers did to rescue those trapped in the twin towers. “A lot of them do,” Yuill said. “Some of them don’t, but we also have EMS personnel and police that will climb, and we also have members of the public that will participate.” In the past, the event has drawn first responders from all over the county, as well as states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland. Similar memorial events are See 25 Years pg 3
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