A Minute of Appreciation Overseers in June recorded a “Minute of Appreciation” for Allan B. Brown who, at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, completed his Among the many hats 50th year of he wears at PC, Allan dedicated Brown has served as Commencement service to Marshall. William Penn Charter School. Brown, currently director of both financial aid and the school archives (see story page 6), has served Penn Charter as history teacher, director of Upper School, varsity baseball coach, scorekeeper for varsity basketball and basketball coach. As director of special projects, he chaired three fullscale evaluations for Penn Charter that led to the school’s successful reaccreditation in 1983, 1993 and 2003. Brown even did a stint as chair of the music department. “Overseers are thankful to Allan B. Brown for his valuable contributions to the Penn Charter community, for the many positive ways he has influenced his students, faculty and administrative colleagues, and for his half century of service to this old school.” PC
Score!
The Philadelphia chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame inducted Rick Mellor last spring at its annual banquet. Mellor OPC ’69 was recognized for his athletic career at Penn Charter and the University of Pennsylvania, more than 30 years of coaching varsity baseball, and his many years of community service as a founding director of the Richie Ashburn Foundation. PC
It Takes a Team
Lower School teachers Lisa Katharina Messer and Natasha Pronga before last summer’s triathalon. Their work to fight cancer continues: In October, Messer spoke to Pronga’s team about the importance of their contributions. The field hockey team raised money for each goal scored in October — breast cancer awareness month — and donated the funds to a breast cancer organization.
Determined, inspired and buoyed by supporters in the Penn Charter community, Lower School teachers Lisa Katharina Messer and Natasha Pronga not only competed in an Olympic-style distance triathlon last summer, with the help of a PC student, they were the top fund-raisers in the event. Between the two, they raised just over $14,500 in the Team in Training Triathlon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The story of that competition involves a network of Penn Charter friends and connections — and traces back to Messer’s 2007 breast cancer diagnosis. “Cancer forces you to do whatever is necessary, to stay focused on the prize of getting stronger and better,” Messer said. One positive outcome of almost three years of treatment and surgery, she said, “was learning that if I could survive cancer, I could survive anything.” An athlete, she entered her first multisport event, a sprint triathlon, in 2008 and has continued to battle cancer one competition at a time since then. She competed in that event again later in the summer, just days after a photo shoot for the Under Armour Power in Pink breast cancer awareness program; she was selected as one of three spokeswomen for that national campaign. Fall 2010 The Magazine of William Penn Charter School
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Messer and Pronga co-taught kindergarten last year and became fast friends. Pronga is also an athlete and had always wanted to compete in a triathlon. She found she was motivated by her new colleague and friend, and she was inspired by Dani Bembry, one of the students Pronga coaches on the Penn Charter varsity field hockey team. Bembry was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in November 2009 and spent many difficult months last year receiving chemotherapy treatment. “I am challenged to motivate young women to become better field hockey players,” Pronga wrote on the Team in Training website. “More importantly, my job is to help prepare them for the challenges they will face in life: how to endure through difficult times, how to support each other as a group of young women, and how to respond when life knocks them down. I could never have known that we would learn one our biggest lessons about strength from one of our very own [field hockey team] members, Dani Bembry.” For her part, Bembry described Pronga as an ongoing source of strength and encouragement. “The ultimate expression of support came when she told me she was going to participate in Team in Training. As I thought about what this all meant, I realized that up until now I had always been playing for her, and now she was playing for me and others who are fighting this battle.” When Pronga competed in the triathlon, she did so in honor of Dani Bembry. Messer said she competed because, “it felt imperative to me, as a survivor, to do something to help others battling this disease.” The outpouring of emotion and effort even touched one of their students. Charlie Weiss, now a first grader, was inspired to compete in a children’s version of the triathlon. Naveena Bembry, Dani’s mother and a third grade teacher in Lower School, found Charlie’s participation heartwarming. “This whole endeavor is rooted in special relationships between colleagues, teachers and students, coach and players, as well as so many families,” she said. “We are so grateful to this community and want everyone to know how special it is!” PC