Solanco SERVING OUR COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
REACHING MORE THAN 11,250 HOMES
Teacher Becomes Prolific Author
CUT YOUR OWN FLOWER PATCH Now OPEN During Store Hours!
BY GEORGE DEIBEL
A
Our Home Grown
SWEET CORN is Here! o Call t ulk B r e Ord eezing! r F r fo
uthor Sheila Schmitt is truly an overnight sensation. The Conestoga resident has written four books in a nine-month span, the first of which was crafted while many people were sleeping. “Lucky Penny” was self-published through Amazon in October 2025. “I couldn’t sleep one night, and I knew I had the story in my head,” she said. “Something made me write it, and I wrote it on my phone in the middle of the night, and then I revised it. It took a little while to do revisions. Then I just sent it to (Amazon), and they had it published within two months. That one went really fast.” “Lucky Penny’s Saturday Surprise” was released in December 2025, followed by “Ornery Little Kitty Goes to the Barn” in January 2026 and “The Moo Crew” in July. All of the books are available on Amazon. The first three books were based on true stories, and the fourth work was fablebased. “The books are all about our animals, and the theme is ‘I love you a lot, and then See Author pg 6
Sheila Schmitt holds a copy of her most recent book. Photo by George Deibel
SOL
BY LOGAN MOYER
1955 Beaver Valley Pike, just N. of Quarryville
(717) 786-4713 Mon.-Fri. 8am-6pm, Sat. 8am-4pm
mecksproduce.com
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Lancaster Leaders Make Everyone Around Them Better BY JEFF FALK
A New Way to Keep Score It takes a village. Octorara Area Little League has its village. The league’s homebase, Lions Park in Christiana, needed a new scoreboard on the main field. The new scoreboard, donated by Houghton Enterprises, was recently installed by a group of nearly a dozen dads on a warm M o n d ay n i g h t a t t h e p a r k , 4 Sadsbury Ave., Christiana. The new scoreboard is nearly
VOL LXIII • NO 16
A group of dads spent hours installing the new scoreboard on a Monday
Not everybody is a leader. But almost all of us have some leadership skills. Leadership Lancaster’s role in the community is to uncover leadership abilities, foster them and help others to make the most of them. “A leader is someone who sees potential in either another person or they see potential in an idea,” said Sarah Kemble, program director for Leadership Lancaster. “They kind of bring everyone together to achieve goals. It’s never about themselves. They are people who put their egos aside.” A community nonprofit located at 115 E. King St., Lancaster, Leadership Lancaster accomplishes its mission through training, exchanges of ideas, connection and collaboration and four key programs - college core class, core class, executive class and encore class. That range of classes allows Leadership Lancaster to bring out the best in individuals, regardless of their experience or their standings in the community. “One of the things we ask our participants is ‘When did you first consider yourself a leader?’” said Kemble. “What it boils down to is that leadership is about caring about people you’re working with in the community, realizing your own unique set of skills and wanting to contribute to something bigger than yourself. At the end of the day, it’s about being your best self and achieving something great with people.
See Scoreboard pg 8 night. Photo by Logan Moyer.
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Open Mon.-Sat. 8-6, Closed Sun.
(Rts. 741 & 324S) 3 Miles S. of Lancaster
See Leadership pg 3
ul Beautif RS FLOWE S UB & SHR
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AUGUST 5, 2026
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