Town&Gown DECEMBER 2011
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HAMBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Jeffrey Tate, conductor Guy Braunstein, violinist Braunstein, who trained with Pinchas Zuckerman, is a virtuoso soloist and concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. Ralph Vaughan Williams • Overture from The Wasps Johannes Brahms • Violin Concerto in D Major Antonín Dvořák • Symphony No. 7 in D minor
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Special Report What Will History Show? Joe Paterno’s legacy was once etched in stone. Now, only time will tell what the ultimate verdict will be on his Penn State tenure • by Frank Bodani
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Moving Forward Many wonder how Penn State and the State College community can heal and be a Happy Valley again • by Matthew Burglund
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A Time for Community Region can find healthy ways to express feelings, emotions • by Cindy MacNab and Janet McCracken
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Happy Valley Heroes Town&Gown’s annual salute to some of the people who make this region so special. This year’s trio represents just a small segment of all those doing good work in their communities every day • by Jenna Spinelle
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The 20 Most Memorable Moments in Penn State Sports History Town&Gown concludes its countdown of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history with the top-5 moments • by David Pencek
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Train Treasures For many, model-train collecting is a yearround hobby. This time of year, however, just makes it that much more special • by Carolyne Meehan
Special Advertising Section
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Holiday Gift Guide The clock is winding down for holiday shopping! The “Holiday Gift Guide” helps you find those unique last-minute presents.
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Letter From The Publisher Letter From The Editor On Center: Mike Daisey About Town: Of trees and
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menorahs
32 First Person: Special sounds of the season can take us back to warm memories of Christmases past 83 This Month on WPSU 84 Penn State Diary: Television pioneer Marlowe Froke 86 Events: The AIDS Project holds its annual Taste of the Town fundraiser 89 What’s Happening 94 Guide to Advertisers 96 From the Vine: Plenty of present possibilities for the wine lover in your life 99 Taste of the Month/Dining Out: Faccia Luna 110 Lunch with Mimi: Dana Hardy 114 State College Photo Club’s Photos of the Month 116 Snapshot: Vern Squier Cover Photo Illustration: John Hovenstine
Town&Gown is published monthly by Barash Publications, 403 South Allen Street, State College, PA 16801. Advertising is subject to approval of the publisher. COPYRIGHT 2011 by Barash Publications. All rights reserved. Send address changes to Town&Gown, Box 77, State College, PA 16804. No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any process except with written authorization from Town&Gown or its publisher. Phone: 800-326-9584, 814-238-5051. FAX: 814-238-3415. Printed by Gazette Printers, Indiana, PA. 20,000 copies published this month, available FREE in retail stores, restaurants, hotels and motels & travel depots. SUBSCRIPTIONS and SINGLE COPIES: $45/1yr; current issue by 1st-class mail, $10; back copy, $15 mailed, $12 picked up at the T&G office. www.townandgown.com
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Town&Gown December 11
A State College & Penn State tradition since 1966.
Publisher Rob Schmidt Founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith Editorial Director David Pencek Creative Director/Photographer John Hovenstine Advertising Coordinator/Assistant Editor Vilma Shu Danz Graphic Designer/Photographer Darren Weimert Graphic Designer Amy Schmalz Account Executives Kathy George, Debbie Markel Business Manager Aimee Aiello Administrative/Editorial Assistant Bikem Oskin Distribution Handy Delivery, Ginny Gilbert, Tom Neff Senior Editorial Consultant Witt Yeagley Interns Jeanne Drouilhet, Allison LaTorre (Editorial) Steph Kaschauer (Graphic Design)
To contact us: Mail: 403 S. Allen St., State College, PA 16801 Phone: (814) 238-5051, (800) 326-9584 Fax: (814) 238-3415 dpenc@barashmedia.com (Editorial) rschmidt@barashmedia.com (Advertising) We welcome letters to the editor that include a phone number for verification. Back issues of Town&Gown are available on microfilm at Penn State’s Pattee Library.
www.townandgown.com 6 - Town&Gown December 2011
letter from the publisher
Bleeding Blue and White Love of Penn State takes on new meaning One of my most indelible childhood memories was when my father took me to see my first Penn State football game. I was 8 years old. We sat in section WD, row 24. A 39-year-old man in Coke-bottle glasses paced the sidelines across the way. My first game was Joe Paterno’s first game as head coach, and Penn State beat Maryland that day, 15-7. It did not take long for me to become a huge fan. I was the 12-year-old racing on the field after a victory, the student singing the alternate version of the Alma Mater, the sportswriter trying not to cheer in the press box, and I was the father taking my own son to his first game. From Chestnut Hill to Pasadena, from Ann Arbor to Miami, I followed my team — I bled blue and white. So, here I stood, 46 years and 409 wins later, numb from the events of a horrible week, staring at the statue of the man who had become an icon. A Nebraska fan turned to me, shaking his head. “I can’t believe they fired Joe Paterno,” he said. “He is Penn State!” No coach in the history of collegiate sports had become more synonymous with his school. His popularity transcended the wins on the field. The Grand Experiment, Success with Honor — Penn State did it the right way. Joe Paterno had donated more the $4 million to the university and built a library. Penn State had become one of America’s most popular
universities, due in no small measure to its football coach. And it took only a few days for this Camelot to come crashing down. How could our entire institution, our entire community, be brought down by the alleged horrific acts of JoePa’s once beloved former assistant? Our reputation tarnished, we must rebuild, as a university and as a community. Penn State football alone should not define us. We are so much more. We Are … the biggest alumni association in the world by far. We Are … the largest student-run philanthropy in the world by far. We Are … among the leading research institutions in the nation. We Are … a proud and great university. I often get settled in my seat just in time for kickoff. But for the last home game this season it was imperative that I arrive early. I came to honor our seniors. I came to pray for the alleged victims. I came to sing the Alma Mater. The emotion of the week had overtaken me. I began to tremble. With each word I struggled more with the next. By the time we came to the final verse I could not finish. “May no act of ours bring shame, to one’s heart that loves thy name; may our lives but swell thy fame, Dear Old State, Dear Old State.” Bleeding blue and white has taken on a whole new meaning.
Rob Schmidt Publisher
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Continuing the Tradition…
Then…
Now… After 51 years of serving State College, Owen Herniman, of Owen’s Barber Shop, has retired. Continuing the tradition of professional, men’s haircuts at a reasonable price, is new owner, Becky Trate, along with fellow barber, Bernard Torsell.
$10 Men’s Haircuts • No Appointments • Walk-Ins Welcome • Free Parking Open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Noon to 6:00, Saturday 9:00 to Noon
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letter from the editor
Hope for a Better Tomorrow Our Penn State family will never be the same, but it can come back For the past month or two, Ryan, my 2-year-old son, has developed a new favorite thing. He goes into our basement and points to the stereo. I push the play button for the CD and the music that’s heard is the music the Penn State Blue Band performs when it enters Beaver Stadium before a football game. Ryan starts jumping and dancing and yelling, “Penn State!” He’ll also say “Nittany Lion” and even roar like a lion. When he first began doing this, which was soon after he attended the Eastern Michigan game in September, you couldn’t help but laugh out loud as you watched him stomping around and waving his arms. Now, while I still laugh when Ryan puts on his performance, I also feel a pain in my chest. What I see in front of me strikes to the core of everything that has been reported here for the past month — an innocent child, and an enthusiastic love toward Penn State. While there are so many questions that still need to be answered, and for people to have their days in court, what’s not in dispute right now is that we — the Penn State community as a whole and the State College community — are hurting and confused. For all the families who have been directly affected by the grand jury’s findings when it comes to Jerry Sandusky, there is just sadness. Since the attorney general released the grand jury report, many have written about their thoughts and feelings, and some have even pronounced judgment. From my standpoint, I obviously would rather be writing about Christmas and the holidays in this space instead of the issues that my families — my immediate family and my State College and Penn State families — are dealing with today. Penn State is family to thousands of people, including myself. It’s where you meet friends who become more like brothers and sisters, and it’s a place you consider home no matter where you live. I, like just about everyone else, have gone through the emotions. Anger to sadness to … what? How about resolve? — a determination that Penn State and State College will be better because of this. The fact that Penn Staters, both current students and alumni, are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that help child-abuse victims is a sign of that. Because of the number of its alumni and those who hold prominent positions in various fields across the country, Penn State can be a leader when it comes to helping to stop child abuse. While I do pray and hope the Penn State and State
Two-year-old Ryan Pencek looks down on the field at Beaver Stadium before a game in September.
College communities become stronger than they were before, and while in the back of my mind I do believe that, it is very difficult to see the future right now. What will Penn State be like when my son is old enough to start having memories that will last the rest of his life? I hope and pray it will be like it was for me and thousands of others before this past November. It was a place that had some faults but, by and large, was a great institution that did amazing things — raising millions of dollars for kids with cancer, breakthrough research in various fields, student-athletes who were student-athletes, and an educational experience unmatched. The difference, however, will be that from top to bottom Penn State will epitomize those ideals, and that all its sayings — Success with Honor and “May no act of ours bring shame” — are found to be true to the core. Each time I hug my son now, I hug him for maybe a few seconds more than I did before November. I desperately wish I could see Penn State through his eyes instead of seeing a cloud over it. One day, I pray, we’ll both see what’s behind those clouds and the sun will shine again here.
David Pencek Editorial Director dpenc@barashmedia.com
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PennStateAthleticCommunications(4)
What
Will
History Show?
Joe Paterno’s legacy was once etched in stone. Now, only time will tell what the ultimate verdict will be on his Penn State tenure By Frank Bodani
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We know of the good Joe Paterno has done for Penn State and college football. That is what still makes sense right now. The tough part is what we don’t know. What did Paterno hear and what did he really say about it and why did he make the decisions he made, if any, concerning Jerry Sandusky and the alleged sex-abuse scandal that has crashed over Penn State? And so now the nation, including the tens of thousands of Penn State fans and alumni, are trying to figure out how badly Paterno’s reputation and image will be forever changed, tarnished. It’s an answer that may not seem much clearer for many months and even years. It has been stunning at times with the speed at which the world has not only passed judgment but also has fueled the powers in the university and government to act. Crimes as heinous as sexual abuse of children enrages as almost nothing else, and so people want someone to pay, and they do not want to wait. And so within 10 days Paterno went from a legendary coach with the most victories in the history of Division I football to a fired coach — all of it producing feelings of embarrassment, anger, disappointment, and, certainly, too, love and loyalty among a section of his followers. The residual damage for one of the biggest icons in all of sports has been swift and severe. After losing his job, his name was removed from the Big Ten Championship trophy. There were rumors that his statue outside of Beaver Stadium could be removed. Would he even be allowed in Beaver Stadium again? Even one of his former stars, running back Franco Harris, lost his job as a spokesman for a casino after he spoke out in his coach’s defense. Certainly, it appears as if his entire staff, including his son, Jay, could lose their jobs at season’s end.
Soon enough, outcries came for Penn State to cancel the rest of its games and forgo a bowl trip as a sign that the abuse victims are more important than football. And the flow of damning information from sex-abuse victims and a possible university cover-up is expected to continue in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the primary characters in the case such as former president Graham Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley, former vice president of finance Gary Schultz, assistant coach Mike McQueary — and Paterno — have not had the opportunity yet to explain their sides of the story. The public knows only the details found in the released grand-jury testimony and one short television interview of Sandusky. So the world is truly left wondering exactly what to make of Paterno, who will turn 85 by the end of the month. The only sanctuary for many followers are the things they do know. Like how he led Penn State for 46 seasons and won more games (409) than anyone else in Division I history — marks that never figure to be broken. Or how he coached five undefeated and untied teams and earned five coach-of-the-year awards. He developed 33 first-round NFL draft choices. He is the only coach to win each of what were once the four major bowl games — the Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange, as well as being 6-0 in the other big one, the Fiesta. He created his “Grand Experiment,” a line of thinking and acting in which he proved how great athletes also could become great students.
Paterno as an assistant coach in 1960.
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December 21, 1926 Joseph Vincent Paterno is born to Angelo and Florence Paterno. 1944-45 Serves the final year of World War II in the US Army. Afterward, he accepts an athletic scholarship to Brown University. 1949 Along with his brother, George, leads Brown to an 8-1 season his senior year. 1950 Following his graduation from Brown, he follows coach Rip Engle to Penn State as an assistant coach. 1962 Marries Suzanne Pohland of Latrobe. February 19, 1966 One day after Rip Engle announces his retirement, Paterno is named Penn State’s 14th head coach. September 17, 1966 In his first game as head coach, Paterno leads Penn State to a 15-7 win over Maryland. The Nittany Lions finish the year at 5-5. December 30, 1967 Following an 8-2 regular season, Paterno coaches in his first bowl game — the Gator Bowl against Florida State. The game ends in a 17-17 tie. January 1, 1969 Penn State caps a perfect 11-0 season with a 15-14 win over Kansas in the Orange Bowl. The Lions finish No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. January 1, 1970 The Lions finish a second consecutive 11-0 season with a 10-3 win over Missouri in the Orange Bowl. They again finish No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. 1973 The Lions go 12-0, including a 16-9 win over LSU in the Orange Bowl. Running back John Cappelletti becomes Penn State’s first, and still only, Heisman Trophy winner. 1978 Penn State is ranked No. 1 for the first time in its history, but its national championship dreams end with a 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. 1982 The Lions go 11-1 and win their first national title with a 27-23 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. 1984 Joe and Sue Paterno establish the Paterno Libraries Endowment with gifts totaling $120,000. The endowment’s value is now more than $4 million.
Paterno coaches during the 1968 season.
He was Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 1986, and two decades later was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame — and continued to coach through it all. His two national titles came back in the 1980s, but his undefeated 1994 team owned perhaps the greatest offense in college football history; his 2005 team came within a lastsecond play of another undefeated season and finished No. 3 in the polls; his 2008 team came within a last-second kick of a possible national title game appearance. He missed only three games in 62 years on the staff. But the part that Penn State fans often like to talk about even more is what he did off the field. Like how he and wife, Sue, donated more than $4 million over the years to the university, endowing faculty positions and helping build a library and a spiritual center. They also gave $1 million to construct a wing of the
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Mount Nittany Medical Center. Paterno has supported Special Olympics. He’s gotten to know United States presidents. He passed up NFL head-coaching opportunities to stay at Penn State. We’ve heard so many times over the years how he meant more to his players than most anyone else in their lives. Go back to the early days with John Skorupan, an All-America linebacker in 1972. He chose Penn State over Ohio State because of Paterno. “One of the biggest influences in my life,” Skorupan said this past summer. “When I got out of playing professional football and moved back to Pittsburgh, everything he said was true. I’ve been in sales the last 30 years and a day doesn’t go by that someone doesn’t recall that I’m a Penn Stater and played football, and it’s helped me tremendously in my career. I’m just glad I took his advice 40 years ago.” Or look at that special 2005 team, the re-
1986 Paterno is named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated. The Lions go undefeated and win a second national title with a 14-10 win over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. 1987 Paterno records his 200th win with a 45-19 victory over Bowling Green. September 4, 1993 In Penn State’s first game as a member of the Big Ten, the Lions defeat Minnesota at Beaver Stadium, 38-20. 1994 The Lions go undefeated and win the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl. They still finish second in the polls to Nebraska. April 25, 1997 Groundbreaking for the $34.4 million Paterno Library addition to Pattee Library takes place. 1998 Joe and Sue Paterno give Penn State a $3.5 million gift to endow faculty positions and scholarships and to support two building projects. September 12, 1998 Paterno wins his 300th game with a 48-3 victory over Bowling Green. October 27, 2001 With the Lions’ 29-27 come-from-behind win over Ohio State, Paterno wins his 324th game, breaking Paul “Bear” Bryant’s record for victories. 2005 Penn State goes 11-1 and wins a share of the Big Ten championship. The Lions then defeat Florida State and head coach Bobby Bowden, 26-23, in three overtimes in the Orange Bowl. 2007 Paterno is inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame. 2008 Penn State goes 11-2 and wins a share of the Big Ten championship. November 6, 2010 With Penn State’s 35-21 win over Northwestern, Paterno becomes the first major college football coach with 400 career victories. October 29, 2011 Paterno wins his 409th game, passing Eddie Robinson to become the all-time wins leader in Division I football. November 9, 2011 Paterno is fired by Penn State’s board of trustees following the child sex-abuse allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
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Paterno and Penn State celebrate their first national title after winning the 1983 Sugar Bowl.
birth that brought Paterno back for one more run. Cornerback Alan Zemaitis will always remember Paterno’s effect on it all. “He said, ‘Some of the guys in here will be your best friends for the rest of your life, you’ll be able to depend on them for life,’ ” he said this past summer. “That’s one thing he said from his heart and it came true.” Paterno has won too many awards and salutations and honorary degrees to mention, though one in particular strikes a chord now: The Joe Paterno Child Development Center in Beaverton, Oregon, was dedicated in 1992. It is a strange twist, how Paterno seemed most driven and most satisfied by teaching young people on the football field first but, more importantly, about life. Now, it’s been his alleged negligence in protecting those even younger and more innocent that has ended things so dramatically. Then consider this: When he came under the hottest pressure and then was fired, it was students young enough to be his grandchildren who rallied for days outside his home, showing their support. Paterno, looking every bit of his years, walked slowly onto his front lawn to greet the crowd, saying that he loved them. Then he told them to pray for the alleged victims.
The following day he admitted that he wished he would have done more to help them, that this will be one of the great sorrows of his life. We know all of that, which leads some now to believe that the man who preached education and high morals and “success with honor” was maybe talking out of both sides of his mouth for decades. Did Penn State take him down or did he actually help bring down the university he gave his life to? That cuts to the heart of the dilemma that has seared so many souls across the state, confused so many. If anything, Paterno and his family can now make the effort to lead the fight against child abuse; the university could do its own part — drive to become a leading advocate. But that is still in the distance. For now, those closest to the program struggle to make sense of it all and wonder exactly how to feel about their legend. The worst part is that they must keep waiting to really know, if they ever truly will. T&G Frank Bodani is a sportswriter for the York Daily Record/Sunday News and has covered Penn State football since 1994
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Many wonder how Penn State and the State College community can heal and be a Happy Valley again By Matthew Burglund
Thousands attened the candlelight vigil held outside Old Main on November 11.
I
t’s sometimes said that a crisis is an opportunity in disguise. Penn State lost more than a revered football coach, a longtime president, and a successful athletic director in the wake of the criminal charges against Jerry Sandusky, one of former head coach Joe Paterno’s former assistant coaches. The school and the community also lost its squeaky clean reputation as Happy Valley, the place where sadness isn’t on the menu. The challenge ahead for the Penn State community is to find an opportunity in all the current negativity and to make something good out of it, much like the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Picking up the pieces and moving on will be difficult and it won’t happen quickly. But it is possible. So what happens now? How does the healing begin? “They have to stress what their core values are as far as what the university has built its reputation on,” says Jay Basten, a lecturer at the University of Michigan’s sport-management department. “They need to remind the general public of what it’s all about.” That might be easier said than done. Football has quite a grip on Happy Valley, where Beaver Stadium on game days becomes the site of the biggest social event in the state, with more than
100,000 people breathing as one as the Nittany Lions play their games. But there’s more to it than that. There are the millions of Penn State fans across the globe whose Saturday afternoons in the fall are planned around watching their team on the television. “Football is social glue for students and alumni — a shared experience on a big campus,” says Dick Jones, principal of Dick Jones Communications, a media-relations firm, based in State College, that works with colleges around the country. The strength of that glue is being tested. Since the scandal started with charges against Sandusky for the alleged sexual abuse of a number of children, Penn State’s image has suffered major damage to its reputation, and Paterno has lost his job. Everything that seemed to be known about Penn State’s wholesome culture suddenly came into question. The proud Penn State community was sent reeling by the devastating series of events. The pain, it seemed, worsened every day as the story grew bigger and bigger.
Time for change
Things obviously won’t ever be like they used to be, especially after the dismissal of Paterno and resignations of university president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley. But change might not be so bad in this case,
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Anne Marie Mountz
Moving Forward
Jones says. This could be an opportunity for Penn State and the State College community to refocus its attention on other aspects of the university, ones that show that Penn State is more than just a football school. “Football has become too much the public face of Penn State,” Jones says. “Penn State is one of the nation’s flagship public universities with world-class academic programs. But for many, perhaps most, it is known for football and a famous coach.” Maybe this is the chance for Penn State and the State College community to show other aspects they can be proud of, to show that a sports program doesn’t have to be the king. “Has this emphasis [on football] created a self-selection among students who choose to attend?” Jones asks. “Does the university attract young people who want the big-game, bigweekend experience? I think so. Those of us who live here know the downside of that. Conversely, does the university lose students it should otherwise attract because it is seen as less academically serious than it really is? “The advertisements for Penn State that air on television are really well done. But always we see some reference to football, Beaver Stadium, or the Nittany Lion. I’d like to see a change in that. It is time to tell other stories — other truths. One thing that I hope comes from this is a lesser role for football in the marketing of the university. Football will be fine. That 100,000seat stadium isn’t going anywhere. And alumni know how to find it. I just would like to see Penn State back off the football accelerator a bit and emphasize other things.”
Sense of loss
In the days after Paterno was fired, the mood on campus grew quiet and sullen, like a response to a death in the family. Fans of all ages made pilgrimages to Paterno’s house, leaving flowers and well-wishes at the front door. Some others quietly posed for photos with the statue of Paterno outside of Beaver Stadium and spoke of the loss they felt. For a community like Penn State, where Paterno and his team were always held in such high regard, those seemed like natural reactions. But truthfully, the mourning was for more than just a legendary coach with a record 409 wins who did even more for the university and community than he did on the football field.
To provide perspective, calls and e-mails to more than a dozen university and community officials seeking comment for this story were not returned. Their silence spoke volumes. “The grip that Penn State football has on the community is only as tight as we allow it to be,” says the Rev. Alison Bowlan of Grace Lutheran Church in State College. “In a lot of ways this incident is like a death. We are going to go through the stages of grieving. We are going to struggle, but we will recover. “It’s important to remember that this still is an excellent university and athletic department, perhaps one of the best in the nation. We have to remember that the actions of a few don’t define the accomplishments of the whole.” Basten, who saw firsthand the effects of a crisis on a major university when the “Fab Five” scandal hit Michigan in the 1990s, says the most important thing Penn State must do is commit to being transparent in its operations between athletics and administration. “They have to recognize that there have been some internal shortcomings,” he says. “Institutions typically clean house when they get into these situations. They hire new people who embrace their mantra. I’m guessing after this, Penn State will be one of the cleanest institutions in America.” He adds that Penn State also must show that the athletic department is not a separate arm of the university, but rather an extension that relies on the school just as much as the school relies on it. But before any of that happens, many questions have to be answered. Basten says the “Fab Five” scandal, in which several Michigan men’s basketball players admitted to taking benefits from boosters, forced the university to wake up and take stock of what was really important. “A lot of people looked inward and asked, ‘What do we stand for?’ ” he says. “Procedurally, there were a lot of checks and balances put into place. The athletic department was not as insulated as it used to be. There was a certain level of trust, obviously. But after that time, bridges were built between the athletic department and the campus and the community, and I think that is what Penn State must do.”
From the ashes
Another thing Penn State must do is to remember the alleged victims who police say were hurt. Katherine Hull, the spokesperson for Washington, DC-based RAINN (Rape, Abuse and
18 - Town&Gown December 2011
Patrick Mansell
Penn State and Nebraska players kneel in prayer prior to their game on November 12.
Incest National Network), the nation’s largest antisexual-violence organization, says the children and families that police report have been affected by this case must not be left in the past. The focus, she says, should not be on the football program’s downfall, but rather on preventing such abuses from ever happening again — anywhere. “One of the most positive outcomes that has come out of this tragedy is a nationwide outpouring of support for victims of this abuse,” she says. “We want to rally together and show the world that Penn State will stand up for survivors of sexual violence.” One bright spot that has already come out of this, she says, is an increased awareness of the epidemic of sexual abuse. She says RAINN has seen an increase in not only calls for help from victims but also in monetary donations toward the organization’s mission to educate the public, treat victims, and prosecute offenders. Less than two weeks after the scandal became public, RAINN had already raised nearly a half-million dollars from Penn State alumni, fans, and students for its programs through a project called “#ProudPSUforRAINN.” “We are hearing from victims nationwide,” Hull says. “From children affected to adult survivors who have been triggered by this news and who were encouraged to come forward to get help. We’ve been very encouraged. It’s been very heartwarming to see the national outpouring of help. We’re working to put perpetrators behind bars where they belong. We know from data available that perpetrators usually have multiple victims. The sooner we can get sexual abusers behind bars, the better.”
But Penn State and the State College community have a responsibility in this, Bowlan says. They must step up and show that no victim has been forgotten. “The community of Penn State and the surrounding areas is faced with a daunting task, to reclaim their stellar identity,” she says. “What we need now is the board of trustees and the university officials to name what has happened, to say they were wrong.” And that’s a task that must be taken seriously. “We need them to not make rash decisions,” she adds. “We need them to focus on the victims. We need to see that they are doing everything possible to never allow this kind of situation to happen again.” It’s only after fixing the problems of the past that Penn State can start building toward its future. “We cannot change the alleged actions,” Hull says. “But we can do something to make a positive impact going forward.” And that means taking the greatness of the past and using it to launch a hurting community into better days ahead. It’s an opportunity borne out of crisis, but one that community members in and around Penn State have to take on with their hearts and their minds. “I think it’s all about getting back to what they’re all about,” Basten says. “It’s all about trying to get back to the status quo. If they achieve that in a relatively short time, things will be great again.” T&G Matthew Burglund is assistant sports editor of the Indiana Gazette.
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opinion
A Time for Community Region can find healthy ways to express feelings, emotions By Cindy MacNab and Janet McCracken John Hovenstine
As the events of the past few weeks have unfolded, with tragic charges, images, rumors, confusion, and sometimes terrible clarity swirling around us, we who live in this community — those who are Penn State affiliated and those who are not — have been thrust into a state of collective soul-searching and grief. Cherished memories have been tarnished, ideals questioned, and icons shattered. We all suffer collateral damage in what has taken place. We find ourselves needing to go from shock at what seems incomprehensible to trying to make sense of our own and others’ responses to it. This can be very difficult when emotions are intense, painful, and even contradictory. How can we feel anger and compassion, betrayal and sadness, disillusionment, shame, and even pride — all with the same heart? Yet this is the paradox of being human. As the poet David Whyte wrote, “I need to love and hate at the same time, to laugh and cry with the same eyes.” Because we are human, our feelings can be complicated, inconsistent, irrational, and conflicting. And this is normal. If we can allow ourselves to acknowledge all that we feel, accept it as normal, and find healthy ways to express these feelings, they will, in time, become less painful. In this process it seems important to turn to each other for support and with compassion. Although each person’s responses are unique, we are all in this together. Especially at this time, we need to be a community, in the best sense of the word. In the midst of our grief, we need to remember our compassion. We must not forget that it is individuals who must be held accountable, and that these individuals, though employed by or affiliated with Penn State or The Second Mile are not the university or The Second Mile as a whole. Both of these institutions are far bigger than the individuals involved. The actions of a few, however powerful, do not define these institutions, whose history includes many chap-
Janet McCracken and Cindy MacNab
ters reflecting the good they have done. But most of all, our compassion as individuals and as a community must center on the alleged victims and their families. The issue of child abuse is one we would rather look away from because its images are so horrific. It can feel easier to focus on rage and blame than to look at what this rage is about. Yet, in part, it is this reluctance to fully acknowledge the prevalence of child abuse that allows it to continue — its victims silenced and invisible. We have been painfully reminded this week that child abuse exists in clean and quiet little towns. In a sense we are Every Town. We must not look away. And we must never forget what we have seen. T&G Cindy MacNab and Janet McCracken are independent psychologists at The Highlands Association.
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A Way to Help Purchase an 11x14 print of the art used for the December Town&Gown cover. The cost is $19.95 with all proceeds going to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. For more information on how to purchase a print, call Town&Gown at (814) 238-5051.
Chamber Membership Benefits Your Business and Your Community CBICC’s Chamber “U” Program Offers Educational Opportunities for Members Ask a businessperson why he or she joined the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County, and the most likely response will be “because of the networking events.” It’s true — the CBICC offers a variety of excellent networking opportunities that allow businesspeople the opportunity to make the personal contacts and develop the relationships that are so important in today’s world. But there’s another program offered by the CBICC that is growing in popularity and importance among its members — Chamber “U”niversity, or ChamberU as it is better known. ChamberU is CBICC’s educational programming that provides members with valuable tools and information that they can take back to their businesses and utilize in their work environments. The programs are offered monthly and are presented by chamber members with expertise in their field. Past ChamberU programs have covered such topics as developing and growing your sales staff, how businesses can save money by implementing “green” solutions, human-resource issues, effective organizational communication, and utilizing social networking in your business. In addition, a special program was developed to provide members with the opportunity to develop their supervisory skills. The CBICC has established a standard of excellence for this program that ensures that attendees will walk away with tools and knowledge they can apply immediately to their work situations. Information about upcoming ChamberU programs can be found at www.cbicc.org.
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This Month On townandgown.com • In 5 Questions, David Wasson, chairman of the State College Elks Christmas Charity program, talks about how the program helps nearly 300 families each year. • Area residents prepare to mark 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. • A recipe for Faccia Luna’s Mussels. • More What’s Happening listings, and sign up for Town&Gown’s monthly e-newsletter.
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The 30th annual Bellefonte Victorian Christmas weekend will be held on December 9-11. The event kicks off with A Gaslight Gala with Charles Dickens, a posh-themed evening of exquisite comestibles, elegant service, and top-notch entertainment. The gala is 7 p.m. December 9 at the American Philatelic Society. The evening actually starts at 6:15 p.m. with the opening ceremony at the Centre County Courthouse. The ceremony starts with a prelude of Christmas music by the Bellefonte Community Band. The weekend will continue with A Dickens Holiday Show tto be held in the Bellefonte Elementary School Auditorium five times during the weekend, and a family dinner theater featuring The 12 Days of Christmas at the Match Factory. Civil War re-enactment groups in period dress will be on-site in front of the courthouse and strolling the venues. The weekend includes museum concerts and displays, children’s teas,
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breakfast and visits with Santa, children’s activities, strolling musicians, carolers, and actors on the street, and an array of local talent giving concerts at Trinity United Methodist Church. The Bellefonte Community Band’s annual Christmas concert is 7:30 p.m. December 10 at the Presbyterian Church, and Bellefonte Victorian Christmas Community Choir’s concert is 7 p.m. December 11 in the Bellefonte High School Theatre. The Victorian High Tea takes place 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Cool Beans Coffee & Tea. The Arts and Crafts Show, which includes youth and teen artists this year, will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. December 9 and 1 to 4 p.m. December 10 at the YMCA, the Bellefonte Elementary, and at the Bellefonte Middle School gymnasium. Carriage Rides will be available Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. For a full schedule of events and updates, visit www.bellefontevictorianchristmas.com.
The 30th Annual Bellefonte Victorian Christmas will be held on, Friday evening, December 9th, you are invited to gather at the Bellefonte Elementary School to be greeted on the front steps by Mr. Dickens and the Bellefonte Community Band Friday, December 9th at 6:30 PM. for Opening Ceremony in the Bellefonte Elementary School Auditorium. Saturday, December 10th, and Sunday, December 11th. enjoy a weekend of High Tea & Brunches with Dickens for adults, youth, and children , Fashion Shows, Dinner Theater with Mr. Dickens, Homes Tours, Arts & Crafts Shows, Concerts, Museum Exhibits, Carriage Rides, Breakfast and Visit with Santa, Children’s games and activities, and much more!!!!
For More Information visit www.visitbellefonte.com or www.bellefontevictorianchristmas.com
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on center
Telling Tales Storyteller Mike Daisey performs show inspired by unusual journey to remote island By John Mark Rafacz
Mike Daisey is no shy flower. The salty-tongued monologist, described as “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times, blends autobiography, gonzo journalism, and keen insights to tell extemporaneous stories that make provocative statements and unexpected connections. “Mr. Daisey is an awesomely gifted stage performer,” writes a Wall Street Journal critic. A Seattle Times writer calls the monologist “an intellectual omnivore with the theatrical au- Mike Daisey brings his show The Island at the Birth of the World to Eisenhower Auditorium thority and flair of a Gen-X Orson Welles.” Daisey performs at Penn State for the first January 24. time in The Island at the Birth of the World Janu- ary 26. The controversial show inspired by the ary 24 at Schwab Auditorium. Directed by late technology genius is scheduled to end its Daisey’s frequent collaborator and wife, Jean- critically acclaimed New York City run at the Michele Gregory, The Island at the Birth of the Public Theater this month. World finds the storyteller recounting his jour“The way Mr. Daisey makes his arguments, ney to a South Pacific island where the people more than the arguments themselves, is what worship America at the base of an active vol- makes him one of the elite performers in the cano. American theater,” writes a New York Times reThe United States established military viewer. “Sometimes he lays them out straightbases on the island of Tanna during World forwardly, but more often he expresses ideas War II. When the soldiers headed home, a indirectly through story and, increasingly, religious movement — commonly known as a through a self-conscious use of language.” cargo cult — arose around the practice of venDaisey has performed on five continents erating the military visitors. Each year the is- and appeared on The Late Show with David land residents perform a song-and-dance show Letterman. His monologues include The Last about American history, and Daisey was there Cargo Cult, How Theater Failed America, Great to experience one. Men of Genius, All Stories are Fiction, 21 Dog Daisey’s monologue, delivered from behind Years, and If You See Something Say Something. a desk adorned with only a few notes and a Layover, his first film, was screened at last year’s glass of water, wrestles with questions of what Cannes Film Festival. Rough Magic, an antholthe islanders’ religion tells us about our deep- ogy of his monologues, is scheduled for publiest values. Part travel adventure story and part cation in May 2012. T&G memoir, The Island at the Birth of the World explores their culture and ours to unearth a huThe performance includes mature language. man truth between the seemingly primitive Artistic Viewpoints will not be offered before the and supposedly modern. show. Daisey will, however, have a discussion The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn with audience members after the performance. For State presents Daisey in partnership with Ju- tickets or information, visit www.cpa.psu.edu or niata College’s Halbritter Center for the Per- phone (814) 863-0255. forming Arts, where the monologist performs John Mark Rafacz is the editorial manager of the The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs Janu- Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State. 28 - Town&Gown December 2011
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Of Trees and Menorahs Holiday seasons conjure up many memories By Nadine Kofman
This time of the year always reminds me that, in younger days, I was in charge of decorating and dispatching the Welch family Christmas tree. In a way, this resembled my two seasons as the Centre Daily Times’ reporter covering, at the time, the mailbox visits of the Jolly Old Elf, and to my seven-year stint as the newspaper’s church editor. All were peculiar assignments for the only Jewish reporter on the staff. I remember the first expedition for a real tree for our living room. Although it was a clear night, it should have been stormy. My car didn’t know what was to come. We bought a six-foot-tall, tied-up tree and wrestled it into place as a roof ornament. Then the real drama began. While the engine had worked nicely to make the buying trip, it wouldn’t start for the return home. Its load was, in a sense, too heavy. To my mind, more than 5,000 years of tradition had come down on that car — killing, if you will, the messenger. As it turned out, the car’s battery was dead. Contests are nothing new during this holiday season: Ho, Ho, Ho versus “Away in a Manger;” Christmas and Chanukah. When I was a kid, I thought that the latter was spelled, “Hanukkah.” It turns out it’s a matter of choice. There is always a problem in Anglicizing the spelling of a word from a dissimilar tongue. “H” doesn’t have the guttural sound found in Hebrew. “Ch” doesn’t either but it’s closer (not to be confused, of course, with the “Ch” in Christmas). While both holidays come in the same month, they aren’t in the same category. Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights,” celebrates religious freedom and a miracle seen by conquering troops: the little bit of oil they put in the liberated Temple’s holy lamp kept on burning for eight days. Eight days of lit candles in today’s menorahs (which will be showcased at the Hadassah Food Fair to be held at the Congregation Brit Shalom
on Thursday, December 8) are pretty to see, but they are for a festival. The two High Holy Days of Judaism come, not in December, but in September usually (the phases of the moon, not the date, dictate when). The first of those, Rosh Hashanah, is a New Year’s eve and two-day service of prayer. It is very unlike the gayety of December 31. One of the funniest things I ever saw was a bit about Rosh Hashanah on a classic Saturday Night Live television show. With microphone in hand, “TV reporter” Lorraine Newman waited in Times Square with a celebratory crowd for the ball to drop. The last time it “dropped” — the evening of September 28, 2011 — heralded the new year of 5772. Although my Orthodox Jewish home never had a so-called “Hanukkah bush,” I became
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drawn to clever, often fibrous tree ornaments, as well as to other dazzling Christmas accouterments, including heartwarming films shown on TV. Popular old holiday films are easier to find than two I always look for. Unpopular, it seems, is the 1957 Desk Set with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, a Broadway play-inspired movie about the trepidation that an efficiency expert causes a research department over installation of his Electronic Brain, familiarly referred to as “Miss Em.” It all happens around Christmastime. Somewhat scarce is the 1947 black-and-white version of Miracle on 34th Street starring Maureen O’Hara and John Payne, with Oscar recipient Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle and a young Natalie Wood as the nonbelieving child who has a change of heart. The update may be good; I haven’t seen it. Away from the television, I began going to the annual Festival of Trees early on, first in the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State, and now continued in the Snider Agricultural Arena. It’s wonderful to see how the community groups dress their trees. This year’s festival is December 8-11. Even without a tree in my house, the num-
ber of ornaments has kept growing. New and less new ones have come from holiday bazaars large and small; there also are reminders of bygone State College area businesses: Penn Traffic, Narber Brothers Agway, The End Result, Sunshine Imports, The Artisan Connection, and the garden department at O.W. Houts. The Nittany Quill and The Tinderbox (now Gift Adventures) are two downtown State College purveyors that have stuck around. As I said, trees are gone but art lives on. Several years ago, just days before Christmas, I saw a framed 32-inch by 26-inch lighted poster in the window of Uncle Eli’s, and bought it. I thought “Christmas Morning” would please both me and the philatelist, who would become State College’s mayor, in the house. The image, which is a very large postage stamp, is a decorated tree with family members beside it. When plugged in, lights twinkle on and off at random, as do some strings of lights wrapped around real trees. In later years, that veritable festival of lights became our house’s Christmas tree. T&G Nadine Kofman is a native Centre Countian and historian.
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first person
The Miracles of Music Sounds of the season can take us back to warm memories of Chrismases past By Amy King
The following are some of my favorite Christmas songs and the memories I have when I hear them.
Since a young age, music has played a large role in my life. My mother introduced me to the piano at the age of five, and I tickled the ivories until my teenage years. I took up the trumpet at age nine and continued playing throughout college. I had many opportunities because of my musicality, including tours of both Hawaii and Alaska by the time I was 20 years old. Wonderful experiences, to be sure. When it comes to music, it never ceases to amaze me how you can instantly be transported to another time. Catching the chorus, or merely a short strain, of a particular song will have you reminiscing about where you were, whom you were with, and what you were doing at an earlier point in your life. These memories may be happy or sad, pleasant or painful. Undeniably, this recollection of life’s events can happen at any time, but perhaps it is never more evident than during the holiday season. One of the truly special things about this time of year — whether you’re bustling about shopping, or driving to grandma’s house or a Christmas party, or simply sitting in your warm home with the tree lights on and drinking a hot chocolate — is the music. Even some radio stations decide that for the weeks leading up to Christmas they will play nothing but Christmas tunes. They know the special feelings and memories people have when they hear those classic carols.
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” We had some wonderful neighbors when I was a kid. They were the nurturing, grandparental type — the kind we went to visit when we wanted a cookie after our mom had already said No. We knew we could count on Mrs. Martin to have some delectable goodies ready for our visits. My favorites were her homemade sugar cookies — perfectly done every time. There are many things that I remember about the Martins’ home. I can hear the screen door squeaking open, then banging shut behind as we waited on the inside landing. I can feel the heavy ceramic mugs that held the milk my younger sister and I drank with our cookies. They had pictures of various animals on them, and we used to imitate the animals up and down the small living room walkway. Mrs. Martin would chortle her throaty laugh while watching General Hospital or Jeopardy! on her little TV. The room was full of collectibles and books and magazines of all sorts. Every year on Christmas Eve, my family would tromp across the street in the cold and snow to sing to Mr. and Mrs. Martin. We would cram into the entryway and ring the doorbell, then belt out our rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as they opened the door. I remember how warmth emitted from within, and how they would inevitably invite us to stay, even if they had guests. We would have to decline, because, per usual, we were running late for the Christmas Eve children’s service. We would give our regards and be on our way. Even if they had something else going on, the Martins always took the time to listen, so when I hear “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” I will forever think of them and the magnificent neighbors they were to my family.
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“O Come, All Ye Faithful” My parents have a tiny radio in their kitchen that has been in use for as long as I can remember. Modern technologies (nary a CD player, iPod, or even a simple under-the-counter space saver) have not swayed them. The radio that needs to be tuned by turning a dial (if you’re lucky, you can find the exact frequency with minimal static) is still in existence and used on a daily basis, I believe. On Christmas Day, this radio was played nonstop. My dad, with his tie off, collar loosened, and slippers warming his toes, washed the dishes and listened to Christmas carols broadcast from the local KROS. The kitchen emanated heat from the cooking of Christmas dinner coupled with the bodies of my family sprawled around the upper level of our home. Some of us were playing, some were napping — and Dad was doing dishes. One of the anthems that captures this moment best is “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” My father’s beautiful, baritone voice could be heard as he sang his way through the verses and the joyous ensemble joining in on the chorus — “O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!” And it makes me smile, thinking particularly of my dad and, quite simply, the wonderful man he is.
“The Christmas Song” Although this song has been recorded countless times by a myriad of musicians, “The Christmas Song” evokes a gentle tenderness, no matter who is providing the lyrics. The crooners who instantly conjure positive images in my mind are Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and Bing Crosby. For me, “The Christmas Song” means a drink on Christmas Eve while lounging around the tree late at night. After my brother, sisters, and I had been put to bed, my parents, I now know, used to enjoy a cocktail while sitting by the glow of the decorated tree. This is something that my husband, Adam, and I now enjoy doing, as well. Craziness fills all of our lives every day in the month of December. On Christmas Eve, taking a few moments to relax while looking forward to the day ahead is a welcome respite from the chaos that has previously consumed our month. I enjoy sharing that time with Adam as the palpable excitement of the holiday is upon us, and I look forward to including our children in those late nights as they continue to grow. Even without a fireplace, one can dream about chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
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“Away in a Manger” “Away in a Manger” is a requisite Christmas carol for young children. It is sung time and time again in various children’s services the world over. I know that I sang it multiple times during my growing up years. One year ago at Christmastime, my oldest, Lucas, was eight. He participates in church, although in a begrudging “they’re making me do it and I’m not always happy about it” way. On the other hand, my middle child, Taryn (an enthusiastic kindergartener last year at the holidays) loves when she recognizes an aspect of the service so that she, too, can partake. And my youngest, Lance (just 3 years old in December 2010) is generally oblivious to his church surroundings. Last year, as we attended the early Christmas Eve service, which is specifically catered to young children, one of the hymns that we sang was, indeed, “Away in a Manger.” And at some point during the few verses, all three of my children made their voices heard — Lucas in his more hesitant way, Taryn in her jubilatory approach, and Lance in his brash, 3-year-old manner. Talk about a proud moment! Something so simplistic such as singing the
chorus of a well-known hymn as a family made that church service even more meaningful. “Silent Night” It was the first December after I had graduated college. My boyfriend (now husband) invited me to spend Christmas Eve with his family, and I remember how eager I was at this prospect. Besides being introduced to new traditions (this side of the family always ate white fish, boiled potatoes, and warm, white bread laden with butter for their Christmas Eve dinner, and distributed Christmas cards by placing them on the tree), one of the experiences I had that holiday was attending a traditional midnight mass. Many aspects of the service were similar to what I was accustomed to from my home Lutheran church — one of those being the hymns. I don’t remember the exact carols we sang on the eve of that Christmas except for the closing one — “Silent Night.” I’ve grown up with this song, and I’ve had the words memorized for years. I quietly sang verse one as I looked around the dimly lit church. The achingly beautiful words about mother and child got to me. Suddenly my eyes welled up and tears overflowed. I missed my mom.
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Adam reached over and took my hand as tears silently fell on my face. He understood. I couldn’t sing one more word. With a bittersweet pang in my chest I sat and listened to the other parishioners gently singing. I was caught between two worlds — I was a grownup forming my own ideas of how a holiday was to be spent, yet I was still a child in want of my mother. And that’s not a bad thing at all. We exited the church to walk the few blocks home, and it was snowing. It was a perfectly still, cold, and beautiful night — one that I’ll always remember. Partly because of whom I was spending it with and partly because of whom I wanted to be spending it with. Some of the greatest loves of my life. “Jingle Bells” Although the classic version of “Jingle Bells” is undoubtedly what first pops into the minds of many when they hear the title of the song, it is not the version of “Jingle Bells” that I hold dear. The one I can’t hear enough of come December is performed by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Its version exudes fun and definitely gets one mov-
ing. BSO did a cover of “Jingle Bells” on Sounds of the Season — the NBC Holiday Collection, released in 2003. My oldest son was 20 months old in December 2003. We played this BSO tune time and time again, mainly so we could watch Lucas dance. A toddler’s dancing (and subsequent tumbling) can bring immediate laughter. Our young family bonded over that song, and it hasn’t stopped. Our family has since grown, and every year as the Christmas CDs are playing in the background, we stop what we’re doing when we hear that lively beat. And we sing, dance, and laugh together — repeatedly. That’s what music can do. It can vividly bring back past moments and create new ones, especially during these special times of the year. Hopefully the music of this season will have you recalling good times with the special people in your life. Merry Christmas! T&G Amy King is a contributor to Town&Gown, and teaches preschool at Grace Lutheran Preschool & Kindergarten. She lives in State College with her husband and three children.
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Boalsburg’s Hometown Christmas
Boalsburg’s Hometown Christmas kicks of on Friday, December 2, at 6 p.m. with a gathering at the Community Tree on the Diamond in Boalsburg. There will be holiday musical entertainment/caroling, the tree lighting, and the arrival of Santa Claus to help with the festivities. On Saturday, December 3, families can have Breakfast with Santa from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Boalsburg Fire Station. The local Girl Scout Troop will have craft tables set up in the opposite fire hall room for children to create holiday crafts with the assistance of “Santa’s Elves.” And this year’s event includes the return of the parade! It will begin at noon and follow a route down Main Street and then back up
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Nature’s Hue is a unique, eclectic gift shop located in the historic town of Boalsburg. Gift shop items include antiques, vintage artwork, Fair Trade items and much, much more! 122 East Main Street, Boalsburg, PA 16827 (814) 466-7181
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Pine Street and return to the firehouse. There will be firetrucks and various community groups involved — and, of course, Santa! This year an added feature is that there will be a farmers’ market set up in a firehouse space from noon to 4 p.m. StoryTime for children of all ages will be from 2 to 4 p.m. in the firehouse. Hot chocolate will be served. Boalsburg shops will all be open on Saturday and there will be horse-drawn wagon rides for fun excursions up and down Main Street. The Boalsburg Heritage Museum at the end of East Main Street will be open for tours, and also will be selling the Christmas cookies from a cookie contest. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. To close out the evening on Saturday, there is a Holiday Hop for all ages at the firehall from 6 to 9 p.m.
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33 37 - Town&Gown December 2010 2011
38 - Town&Gown December 2011
Happy
Valley Heroes
Town&Gown’s annual salute to some of the people who make this region so special. This year’s trio represents just a small segment of all those doing good work in their communities every day
By Jenna Spinelle
39 - Town&Gown December 2011
“Music touches a part of the soul that nothing else reaches. I’ve had patients who were nonverbal for a long time start to sing with me … it makes for a very strong connection.” —— Jeanne Byron, who is known as the “singing hospice nurse”
In a year when service organizations saw state-funding cuts and dwindling grant support, individual volunteers soldiered on to continue the work they believe in for the benefit of the community. Whether it was part-time volunteer work or full-time callings, these three individuals worked tirelessly in 2011 to better the lives of their fellow county residents. They encourage others to do the same, no matter how small the commitment.
The singing nurse
After raising three children, riding a horse from Florida to Pennsylvania, and surviving breast cancer, Jeanne Byron still felt there was something missing in her life. She had long been drawn to hospice care but was afraid to leave a steady job at the VA Outpatient Clinic. Her children, Meredith, Margaret, and Veronica, were grown, and she knew that a steady pension and benefits would be waiting for her in retirement. A 2007 breast-cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment changed that. “I had breast reconstruction surgery and home-health nurses came to see me while I was recovering,” she says. “I had always felt a pull toward hospice, but never had guts to apply.”
The nurses who visited Byron postsurgerically told her about an opening at Home Nursing Agency and, after weighing her options, she decided to apply. She was hesitant to leave a steady government-funded job but felt that working in home-based care was a calling from a higher power. She interviewed for and received a position as a hospice RN case manager. Though she took salary and pension cuts to fill the position, she says she’s never felt happier or more fulfilled at work. “I come home exhausted every day, but I wake up renewed every morning to do it again,” she says. “I enjoy days off, but when that time is done I’m ready to go back and check on my patients and see how they’re doing.” On a typical day, Byron, 55, will make in-home visits to check in with patients and their families and assess the levels of care they’re receiving from the agency. She’ll determine whether the frequency visits by home-health aides needs be increased or decreased, or whether new medications might need to be prescribed by a patient’s doctor. She’s also become known as the “singing hospice nurse,” using her vocal abilities to soothe and comfort patients. Byron grew up in a musical family but never performed until she was talking with a family about what she could do to comfort
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a patient and they asked if she knew any hymns. It just so happened she did. Now, she’ll offer to sing religious or secular songs to each of her patients. “Music touches a part of the soul that nothing else reaches,” she says. “I’ve had patients who were nonverbal for a long time start to sing with me … it makes for a very strong connection.” Larry Jump was one of the people touched by Byron’s care. He sought hospice care for his wife, Nancy, during the last few weeks of her battle with cancer earlier this year. Though Byron was with the family for only about two weeks in early April, she made a strong and lasting impact that Jump says he’ll never forget. “Two weeks before my wife died, there was no indication that she was going to pass so quickly,” he says. “Her doctor recommended hospice care and I’m very glad we made that choice. Jeanne’s advice was always spot on.” One of Nancy’s dying wishes was to see their daughter, Kaile, graduate from high school. Byron knew she wouldn’t live long enough to see the ceremony in June, so she worked with Larry to organize a commencement ceremony at their Port Matilda home that included members of the State College Area school board. Byron also came to the Jumps’ home the night Nancy passed away, even though she was not on duty. Though she typically sees people at the end of their lives, Byron takes comfort in knowing that she can help make the last few days or weeks as peaceful as possible for her patients, something she says was lost as hospital and nursing-home care rose in the US. “Families used to live together and care for each other, and death was as much part of life as birth, now that care is done in hospitals and nursing homes,” she says. “I tell people that I compare myself to a labor and delivery nurse on the other end of life.”
Making it happen in Mountain Top
Cathy Dittman grew up in State College and spent much of her adult life in North Carolina, but found herself called to Centre County’s northern region. Since 2007, she has worked to bring services to the
Mountain Top area, which includes the borough of Snow Shoe and surrounding townships. Dittman, 54, is a leader of the group forming the Mountain Top Activity Center (MTAC), which will add a fitness facility, library, and computer lab to the region — all things it currently lacks. She sees the center serving everyone from children to senior citizens. She also is pastor of four churches in the Mountain Top region; the MTAC idea started at informal gatherings after a women’s Biblestudy group she led. The group realized the need for a place where the community could gather, especially during the winter. “The Mountain Top region is geographically segregated from the rest of Centre County, especially in winter,” she says. “We want to see options other than riding four wheelers on the road in Snow Shoe, and other means of getting in trouble for our young people — we want to provide educational and fitness opportunities.” The center will be located in a building formerly owned by the Bald Eagle Area School District. MTAC volunteers began work in 2008 and have completed repairs to remove asbestos, upgrade
“...we will never give up, even if it takes us years, we are dedicated to doing something for our community.” —— Cathy Dittman 41 - Town&Gown December 2011
the electrical system, and install water and sewer lines. It holds workdays during the fall, spring, and summer to do smaller repairs that help costs. The group also holds fundraisers each month and is currently seeking money to complete heating and air-conditioning work in the building so interior work can continue this winter. Dittman says finding consistent funding sources has been the biggest challenge thus far. “We began to write grants and look for funding in 2008, and we found some but then our economy started to go downhill and we had more and more challenges,” she says. “But, we will never give up, even if it takes us years, we are dedicated to doing something for our community.” Though a definite opening date for the activity center has not yet been set, Dittman says it will be dedicated to US veterans when it opens. Her son, Jarod, was killed while serving on border patrol in 2008 along the US/Mexican border. His memory is a large factor in Dittman’s drive to see the project through, no matter how long it takes. MTAC secretary Stephanie Cramer says Dittman has helped keep the group motivated through the frustrating moments when funding falls through or the group faces other setbacks.
“Cathy always sees the silver lining of every cloud,” she says. “She keeps us grounded and focused, doesn’t let us get too discouraged. She’ll go out of her way to make sure that everyone has their needs.” When Dittman is not at her full-time job at Penn State, running her churches, or working on MTAC duties, she enjoys spending time with her children, Alexis and Adam. She’s able to do it all, plus an hour-and-45-minute round-trip commute each day, with the support of the MTAC board. “Somehow it all seems to balance out,” she says. “I have a boss at Penn State who is very flexible and has been very supportive of me, and — I cannot stress this enough — it is the board members who run MTAC. Without them, I couldn’t do anything.”
Staying active in retirement
Each year, Centre County’s senior citizens log more than 60,000 volunteer hours through the county’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). Ben Malone is one of those volunteers. On any given day, you might find him writing to third and fourth graders in the Bald Eagle Area School District, delivering Meals on Wheels, or helping the Bellefonte Borough collect tax revenue.
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“Get out and enjoy life, and support your local community while you do it.” —— Ben Malone Malone, 73, grew up in Coburn and, after graduating from Penn State, took a job at the former HRB Singer company, now known as Raytheon. He spent 35 years there before retiring in 1998. Now, he logs 20 to 25 hours per month volunteering through RSVP at Centre County PAWS, Habitat for Humanity, American Philatelic Society, and many more. Of all the activities he does with the volunteer group, he enjoys the pen-pal program most. Each volunteer is assigned a pen pal at the beginning of the school year and corresponds with him or her via e-mail seven times during the year, ending with an opportunity for an in-person meeting near the end of the school year. “I feel a need of filling a void in the student, and they are able share things with me that they may not have a parent to share with,” he says. “It’s very satisfying to know that you’re helping to shape the life of a young person.” Malone and his wife, Sylvia, were always active
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at Grace Lutheran Church, but did not have time for any other volunteer work before they retired because of his work schedule and raising their three daughters, Susan, Sharon, and Sandra. In addition to his work with students through the pen-pal program, Malone enjoys helping his fellow senior citizens. He delivers Meals on Wheels every Monday and recently made his first trip to the Altoona Veterans Affairs Hospital as the driver of a newly purchased van for the Disabled American Veterans Transportation Program, a partnership between the county’s veterans-affairs office, RSVP, and Community Help Centre. The trips to Altoona often involve downtime for Malone while the veterans receive treatment. Rather than sitting in the cafeteria or reading the newspaper during that time, he went into the hospital and offered his volunteer services there. He says it was the least he could do and it helped make for a more productive trip. As chair of the RSVP advisory council, Malone also leads monthly meetings and puts in many additional hours recruiting new volunteers and helping the program’s small administrative staff. “He’s always ready to do special projects and help do things here at the office that we don’t have the
staffing resources to do ourselves,” says Brenda Reeve, an administrative assistant at RSVP. “He’s definitely a take-charge person, but with a friendly attitude.” RSVP director Brian Querry says Malone is always willing to pitch in when needed and approaches everything with a positive attitude. He estimates Malone logs an additional three to four hours per week just on his duties as council chair. “He definitely goes above and beyond just leading meetings and rubber stamping decisions,” Querry says. “He’s always going out and talking to people and recruiting people for the program.” To that end, Malone encourages other senior citizens to get involved in the community, even if it’s just for an hour or two per month. “I would say do not become a couch potato,” he says with a laugh. “There are so many opportunities available within the county. Get out and enjoy life, and support your local community while you do it.” T&G Jenna Spinelle is a freelance writer in State College. She works in Penn State’s Undergraduate Admissions Office and is an adjunct lecturer in the College of Communications. 1375 Martin Street State College, PA 16803
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The 20 Most Memorable Moments in Penn State Sports History By David Pencek Town&Gown concludes its countdown of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history with the top-five moments. The published list so far has been:
20. 2008-09 men’s basketball team wins NIT championship. 19. 2009 women’s volleyball team completes perfect season with national title.
18. 1957 baseball teams advances to College World Series.
17. 1993 men’s basketball team loses to
top-ranked Indiana thanks to controversial call.
16. 1953 wrestling team wins national title. 15. 1999-2000 women’s basketball team reaches Final Four.
14. 2000-01 men’s basketball team advances to Sweet 16.
13. 1981 football team crushes No. 1 Pitt. 12. 1978 football team loses Sugar Bowl to Alabama.
11. 1953-54 men’s basketball team makes Cinderella run to Final Four.
10. 2011 wrestling team wins national title. 9. 1976 men’s gymnastics team wins national
championship in head coach Gene Wettstone’s last season.
8. 1982 football team pulls out thrilling win over Nebraska.
7. 1994 football team goes undefeated and wins Big Ten title and Rose Bowl.
6. John Cappelletti wins the 1973 Heisman Trophy.
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5
National Champs! Penn State Athletic Communications (2)
Penn State’s defense held Heisman Trophy winner Walker to 103 yards rushing on 28 carries.
Joe Paterno was back in the Superdome in New Orleans on January 1, 1983. Four years to the day, Penn State’s head football coach had suffered his most agonizing defeat — his No. 1 ranked Nittany Lions lost, 14-7, to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, ending their dreams of his and the program’s first national title. But here he was, now in his 17th season, with another chance for a national championship. This time, the Lions entered the Sugar Bowl with a 10-1 record and ranked No. 2. Their opponent, undefeated Georgia, was ranked No. 1. Where three undefeated teams and two others that had been ranked No. 1 during the regular seasons couldn’t produce a national title, whether because of polls or on-the-field losses, the 1982 Nittany Lions finished the deal and captured the title. They went to New Orleans and beat the Bulldogs and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, 27-23. They were finally voted No. 1, and the game was voted No. 5 in Town&Gown’s list of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history.
“It feels pretty good,” Paterno was quoted as saying in the Daily Collegian after Penn State had officially become national champions. “It’s like all those things — it doesn’t set in until you’ve had a chance to think about it. I have a great squad and a great group of young people; they just seem to have that little chemistry. I think this is the best football team I’ve ever had.” It was a team that had the likes of quarterback Todd Blackledge, who threw for 2,218 yards and 22 touchdowns that season, running back Curt Warner capped his great career rushing for 1,041 yards, and receiver Kenny Jackson caught seven touchdowns. On defense, the Lions had AllAmericans in end Walker Lee Ashley and safety Mark Robinson. After suffering a midseason loss to Alabama, the Lions ran off six consecutive wins by a combined score of 201-48 to end the season. They had climbed back to the No. 2 spot in the polls to set up the national title game against Georgia. “We had a team that had a pretty good level of confidence,” former tight end Mike McCloskey says. “Our schedule helped that. We played a tough
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schedule — Nebraska, Alabama, Notre Dame, Pitt.” The team arrived in New Orleans the day after Christmas. McCloskey says Paterno was pretty calm during the week of practices leading up to the game. Paterno also had been calm before the team left State College. He told the media, “For me not to be looking forward to going down there, I’d have to be sick.” Penn State took its cue from its head coach and looked at ease when it scored a touchdown on its opening drive. Warner ran into the end zone from two yards out to give the Lions an early 7-0 lead. The Lions celebrate Garrity’s 53-yard touchdown A year earlier, Warner had outreception. performed then-Heisman winner Marcus Allen of USC in the Lions’ 26-10 win over the Trojans in the Fiesta Bowl. Now, he was going to do the same against Walker and the ball as far as I could.” Bulldogs. He rushed for a nine-yard touchdown in the Georgia came back to score a touchdown with second quarter as Penn State built a 20-3 lead. While 4:54 remaining in the game. The Bulldogs failed on Penn State’s defense would hold Walker to 103 yards their two-point attempt and trailed, 27-23. Instead rushing on 28 carries, Warner finished with 117 yards of having his team try an onside kick, Bulldog head on just 18 carries. coach Vince Dooley decided to kick deep and hope With just five seconds remaining until halftime, his defense could stop the Lions’ offense. Georgia quarterback John Lastinger floated a With two minutes remaining, the Lions faced a 10-yard pass into the end zone. The 6-foot-5 third-and-3. Forget playing it safe and running the Herman Archie caught the pass over the Lions’ ball, Paterno decided to have Blackledge throw 5-foot-9 Dan Biondi to give the Bulldogs their first for the first down. Again, it was Blackledge to touchdown — and, more importantly, a feeling Garrity, this time for six yards and a first down, and they were back in the game trailing 20-10 at Georgia’s offense never saw the ball again. halftime. “For the nine-thousandth time, I had felt we The Bulldogs continued their momentum to start already won three national championships [1968, the third quarter. Walker capped a 69-yard drive 1969, and 1973],” Paterno said after the Lions’ with a one-yard touchdown, and Penn State’s lead 27-23 win that gave them the national title. “In was now just 20-17. my mind, it’s the first national championship we’ve Early in the fourth quarter, the Lions struck what been recognized for. And the fans can finally go would be the decisive blow. From his own 47, around and say, ‘We’re No. 1.’ ” Blackledge faked a handoff to Warner and threw When the Lions arrived at the Harrisburg airport toward the end zone. Receiver Gregg Garrity made the next day, they were welcomed by thousands a diving catch in the end zone for the touchdown, of fans and Governor Dick Thornburg. During their and the Lions led, 27-17. bus ride from Harrisburg to State College, they “We thought most of the week we could get saw fans on the side of the road honking their something deep on them,” Blackledge, who threw horns and cheering for them. for 228 yards and was voted the game’s Most Paterno would write in his book, “I learned as Valuable Player, said in the Daily Collegian after never before how much this team and its success the game. “They were playing our receivers awfully are an expression of so many people. I never saw tight and Gregg just ran a great lane and stayed such love between people who didn’t know each wide on the sideline, and I pretty much threw the other.” T&G 49 - Town&Gown December 2011
Penn State Athletic Communications (2)
4
Imperfect But Still Champions
This one was different. It also may have been the most unexpected, making it the sweetest one. Penn State’s women’s volleyball team entered the 2010 season as winners of three consecutive national titles, including undefeated seasons in 2008 and 2009. The 2010 team, however, didn’t have Megan Hodge and Alisha Glass, who had graduated as two of the best players the program had produced, and it didn’t have Darcy Dorton, who was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2009 but tore an ACL prior to the 2010 season. While the Lions had seniors Blair Brown and Arielle Wilson, new players would have to step up if the team had any hopes of a four-peat. Whereas the 2007-09 national championship teams dominated in the regular season and then had at least one heart-stopping match in the postseason before winning their national titles, the 2010 Lions struggled in the regular season — losing five matches, the most since 2003 — but come the NCAA Tournament, they made it look easy, losing just one set on their way to a fourth consecutive national title. The Lions swept California in the title match in Kansas City to bring home another championship to Penn State. The season was voted No. 4 in Town&Gown’s list of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history. Despite not having Hodge and Glass anymore and having a team with nine freshmen, the Lions were ranked No. 1 to start the year. They won their first six matches to extend their winning streak, dating back to 2007, to 109 matches. The streak came to an end
Rose was the Big Ten Coach of the Year for a sixth consecutive season.
McClendon became the second freshman to be named MVP of the NCAA Tournament.
against Stanford, which had been the last team to beat the Lions. The Cardinal swept the Lions, 28-26, 25-12, 25-18. Head coach Russ Rose said about the streak in the Daily Collegian, “I didn’t talk about it the last two years. I don’t want to talk about it now that it’s done.” A few weeks later, the Lions lost their first Big Ten match, falling in five sets to Illinois. And following consecutive losses to Purdue and Indiana, Penn State was just 3-3 in the Big Ten. But led by Wilson and Brown and freshman Deja McClendon, the Lions began to form themselves into a championship-caliber team. They went on to win 13 consecutive matches before losing to Minnesota in the regular-season finale. And they claimed their eighth consecutive Big Ten title. Rose was named the conference’s Coach of the Year for a sixth consecutive year. Brown, who finished the season with 521 kills, won Player of the Year honors, and McClendon, who had 418 kills for the season, was named Freshman of the Year in both the Big Ten and in the nation. With Penn State already determined as a host site for one of the regionals of the NCAA Tournament, the Lions knew they wouldn’t have to hit the road again
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Penn State Athletic Communications (3)
The Lions celebrate a fourth consecutive national title.
— unless it was to the Final Four. They swept Niagara, Virginia Tech, and Oklahoma to reach the regional final against Duke. After winning the first two sets, the Lions lost, 23-25, in the third set. They rebounded to win the fourth set, 25-17, to advance to their fourth consecutive Final Four. “I don’t even know what to say,” said McClendon, who had a match-high 20 kills. “It’s a great feeling. Especially being at home and just winning the last game at home for the seniors — that’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt.” For Rose, he was two wins away from winning his fifth national title as head coach at Penn State. “It’s great to have four and even better to think you have a chance to compete for another one,” he said prior to the team’s leaving for Kansas City. “You should never take it for granted and you have to be appreciative of the opportunity that you have. “I don’t think we have the same expectations going in. I mean I don’t look at us as the favorite going into the championships this year. I look at us as a team that had a favorable bracket, there were upsets along the way, and we did what we were asked to do. We weren’t responsible for the seedings, we were responsible for playing the game the way we needed to play and we’re happy to still be standing.” In the semifinals, Penn State played Texas, which it had beaten in the memorable 2009 title match when the Lions came back after losing the first two sets
to win the championship. The rematch wasn’t nearly as dramatic. The Lions swept the Longhorns, 2513, 25-13, 25-22, to advance to the national title contest against California. Brown had 11 kills and McClendon had 11. Against the Golden Bears, who had national player of the year Carli Lloyd, the Lions won the first set, 2520. In the second set, California took a 24-23 lead. After a timeout, Brown and Wilson combined on a block that tied the score at 24. The Golden Bears took a 25-24 lead, and again, Penn State called timeout. The Lions scored a point on a block to tie the set, and Brown followed with consecutive kills to win it, 27-25. The Lions used a 4-0 run late in the third set to take a 23-16 lead. It eventually sealed the championship when freshman Katie Slay put down a kill for the 25-20 win. McClendon, who had 16 kills in the title match, became just the second freshman to win the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honor. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Brown, Wilson, and Kristin Carpenter. “We had some ups and downs throughout the year, so it was a big challenge for us,” Rose said in the Daily Collegian. “We never lost hope. We always felt that if we could get ourselves into certain matches that we could win those matches. “It’s great for the university and the Big Ten Conference, and we’re just thrilled as we can be at this point in time.” T&G
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3
All or None
Wally Triplett calls it “that team.” That team, or more appropriately teams — the 1946 and 1947 Penn State football teams — are considered by some to be the best the school has ever had. But their actions off the field make them even more special.
Penn State Athletic Communications (2)
The 1946 team cancelled its game at the University of Miami when Miami officials told Penn State that it shouldn’t bring its two black players — Triplett and Dennie Hoggard — to the game. A year later, the Nittany Lions went undefeated and played SMU in the first integrated Cotton Bowl. The stance those two teams took against racism was voted No. 3 in Town&Gown’s list of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history. “It took great courage in 1946 for the team to
vote against playing its last game of the season at Miami,” Penn State sports historian Lou Prato says. “The players didn’t realize at the time what their unanimous vote truly meant but it was well known at the time that other northern schools in the era did leave their black players at home to play games in the South.” Triplett, a running back and defensive back, was a sophomore in 1946 and, a year earlier, had become the first black to start for Penn State. That season, Hoggard, who had been a freshman with the team in 1942, returned to the school and team after serving in World War II. He was a backup end. When the season began and the team saw the schedule with Miami the final game on November 30, the players knew a decision would have to be made. They met in Old Main and unanimously voted that either they all go to Miami or none of them would. And it also was decided that there would be no more meetings on the issue — “We are Penn State,”
Triplett runs against SMU in the 1948 cotton Bowl.
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Higgins made it known that Penn State wouldn’t go to any bowl that Triplett and Haggard weren’t allowed to play.
captain Steve Suhey famously said. Still, school officials hadn’t had their say. And come early November, with the team at 3-1, there was no official word about the game. In the November 1, 1946, edition of the Daily Collegian, Richard Frontman, a student, wrote a letter to the paper that read, “We at Penn State realize that there is only one way to play football — the democratic way. Either all of our players should participate — or none. … Let’s insist Miami play our entire team — or cancel the game.” Less than a week later, the game was officially canceled. Miami then asked Syracuse to play on the now-open date. An editorial in the Syracuse Daily Orange read, “Unless Miami changes its athletic policy it would be better for all concerned if they were dropped from the realm of college athletics.” Miami ended up playing Detroit Mercy in that final game. Penn State finished its season 6-2 after a 14-7 loss to Pittsburgh. The next season would rank as one of the greatest in the football program’s history. The Lions went 9-0 in the regular season and outscored their
opponents by a combined score of 319-27. The defense had six shutouts. After a 29-0 win at Pittsburgh to end the regular season, Penn State head coach Bob Higgins said the team would listen to any bowl invitation but won’t go to any bowl if Triplett and Hoggard weren’t allowed to play. At that time, the Orange and Sugar Bowls didn’t accept teams with black players, and no team with black players had ever been to the Cotton Bowl. SMU, led by Doak Walker, had won the Southwest Conference to earn a trip to the Cotton Bowl. The team had been the first in the conference to play against a team with black players. Head coach Matty Bell endorsed playing Penn State and said, according to the Penn State Football Encyclopedia, “SMU has broken precedent before. … After all, we’re supposed to live in a democracy.” Because Dallas was still a segregated city, Penn State had to stay at the Dallas Naval Air Station, which was nearly 10 miles away from the city. That was just the start of the issues that surrounded the Lions’ trip. The lousy food and accommodations made some members of the team hop the fence to get better food and enjoy the city’s nightlife. Co-captain John Nolan told the Daily Collegian a few days after the game that “not a man on the team, if he had known what was going to happen on the Dallas trip, would have voted to accept the invitation.” The dissension prior to the game carried over to the game. In the first quarter, Walker threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Paul Page. The Mustangs took a 13-0 lead when Walker ran into the end zone from three yards out. He missed the extra point, but the Lions still looked like a badly beaten team. Penn State ended the half, however, with a 38yard touchdown pass from Elwood Petchel to Larry Cooney to make the score 13-7. Then, late in the third quarter, Petchel threw a six-yard scoring pass to Triplett to tie the game. The Lions, however, missed the extra point and the chance to take the lead. Penn State’s defense held SMU to 39 total yards in the second half. The game would end in a 13-13 tie. Even with the tie, that team, along with the 1946 one, is still remembered for taking a stand and doing what was right. “These were among Penn State’s best ever on the playing field,” Prato says, “but they are more celebrated and honored for what they did off the field to further civil rights in sports.” T&G
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Penn State Athletic Communications
2
A Walk for the Ages
Taliaferro walks onto the Beaver Stadium field on September 1, 2001.
Many thought he would never walk again — even his doctors. They didn’t really know what was inside Adam Taliaferro then. “The thought of not walking never went into my head,” says Taliaferro, the former Penn State defensive back who is now a lawyer in New Jersey. “My parents refused to believe I would never walk again. My parents instilled that in me.” On September 23, 2000, Taliaferro, a truefreshman defensive back on the Penn State football team, went in to tackle Ohio State tailback Jerry Westbrooks. Teammate Gino Capone also was there to make the stop. Taliaferro’s head hit Westbrooks’s knee and snapped backward. He fell to the ground and never got up. It was later diagnosed that he suffered a cervical spine fracture of the C-5 vertebra that could cause him to be paralyzed for the rest of his life. But less than a year later, on September 1, 2001, Taliaferro walked out onto the field at the newly expanded Beaver Stadium prior to Penn State’s 2001 season opener against Miami and demonstrated the heart he has and that miracles do happen. His recovery was voted No. 2 in Town&Gown’s list of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history. Taliaferro came to Penn State as an honorable
mention high school All-American according to USA Today. His coach at Eastern High in Voorhees, New Jersey, knew what kind of player and person Penn State was getting. “He’s a beautiful kid and even a better person,” Larry Ginsburg said in the 2000 edition of Town&Gown’s Penn State Football Annual. Heading into their game at Ohio State, the Lions had lost three of their first four games, including a 24-6 home loss to Toledo. The Buckeyes were well on their
Taliaferro with Paterno.
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Contributed photo
Taliaferro shown during his rehabilitation.
way to an easy 45-6 win over Penn State when, with less than two minutes remaining in the game, everyone’s focus turned to Taliaferro, who lay motionless on the Ohio Stadium grass after his attempt to tackle Westbrooks. “It’s a tackle I’ve made a hundred times before,” Taliaferro says today. “I went to take out his legs. I remember waking up on the ground and trying to get up and there was nothing there. There was no pain or anything. I was just numb from the neck down. I had no idea what was going on.” Penn State’s director of athletic medicine Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli told Taliaferro to just remain calm. Taliaferro’s teammates removed their helmets, linked arms, and knelt on their knees. Taliaferro was taken to Ohio State University Hospital, where he underwent cervical fusion surgery. During a press conference three days after the injury, Sebastianelli was asked what was the normal recovery for the type of injury Taliaferro had suffered. “Most of them do not recover very much,” he said. “The majority would not.” Eventually, Taliaferro was taken to Magee Rehabilitation in
Philadelphia. A few weeks after the surgery, he saw his first sign that he could indeed recover. “It was around midnight and I was in the room with one of the nurses,” he says. “I was laying there and saw that my toe was flickering. I was able to do it on command.” That little movement in his toe was the start. About a month later, he was able to stand on his own. A few months after that, he took his first step. “I was like a baby. I was learning things all over again,” he says. “Taking that first step, I felt like I had a second lease on life. I was on my way back.” Throughout Taliaferro’s recovery, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and other coaches and players of the team would spend time with him every week. “That was so much part of the recovery,” Taliaferro says, “to see them and show them I was moving.” He then had the opportunity to show millions — the more than 109,000 fans in attendance at Beaver Stadium and the national-television audience — that he not only could move but also was walking on his own. With a slight limp, which he still has, he walked and even ran a little out of the South end zone tunnel and onto the middle of the field. Penn State quarterback Zack Mills said in the Daily Collegian, “I can’t really describe it and put it into words. The steps and the process that he’s been through, all the hard work that he’s put in — just to see him walk out like that with a big smile on his face is just amazing.” The Lions lost the game to the eventual national champion Hurricanes, 33-7, but most fans still remember that night fondly for what they saw before the game. Today, besides being a lawyer, Taliaferro has his own foundation that helps athletes who suffer spinalcord injuries, and last month he scored a victory on the political field, winning a seat on the Gloucester County Board of Freeholders. He remains ever appreciative of the people who helped him through his rehabilitation and for the “second lease on life” he has received. “It changed me,” he says. “It taught me to appreciate life that much more. I appreciate getting out of bed in the morning. Walking around is a blessing. “There were so many people pulling for me and praying for me. My recovery, it wasn’t a one-person thing — it was a team effort.” T&G
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1
Duel in the Desert
(Editor’s note: This is an abridged and edited version of a story that ran in Town&Gown’s 2011 Penn State Football Annual about the 1986 Nittany Lions.) Joe Paterno had a plan. Well, he always has a plan — sometimes, it’s clear to everyone outside the program; sometimes, perhaps more often than not, it’s unclear what he’s trying to do. In the middle of the 1984 season — what would turn out to be, at that time, Penn State’s worst season since his first year as head coach — Paterno had full confidence that his plan, unbeknownst to many, was coming together. Following a 21-3 win over Syracuse on October 20 that put the Nittany Lions at 5-2, Paterno had a moment during his postgame press conference where he explained what many couldn’t see. “People get so critical …,” he said. “I’m not trying to win individual games with gimmicks. I’m trying to put together a squad that someday will be a national championship squad. We want to get good at the things we need to do to beat really good football teams. … It takes time. And while we’re
Don Graham (53) celebrates over a fallen Testaverde.
not great now, they’re going to be some day.” Paterno’s plan to build a championship squad came to fruition two years later. The 1986 Nittany Lions were the perfect team in every sense of the word. They were perfect on the field in that they went through the regular season without a blemish — 11-0. They then captured the national title with a 14-10 upset victory over the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes in the “Game of the Century” 1987 Fiesta Bowl. The game was voted No. 1 in Town&Gown’s list of the 20 most memorable moments in Penn State sports history. The title undoubtedly happened because the ’86 Lions were a team first and foremost. Sure they had star players who would continue their careers in the NFL. But for their collegiate careers, and specifically during that season 25 years ago, it was all about one thing — coming together to win a national championship, especially after losing the title the previous season to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. “You trust the guys you play with. You like the guys you play with. That had a lot to do with what we did on the field,” says former Lion Shane Conlan, who was an All-American linebacker in 1985 and 1986. “We were a close group. … Everything seemed to click. We’re all out there fighting for one cause.” Many saw the Fiesta Bowl as the epitome of good versus evil in the college football world. Where Penn State and its head coach, who had been named Sports Illustrated ’s Sportsman of the Year for 1986, represented what was right about the sport, Miami, led by head coach Jimmy Johnson, had players who enjoyed showboating and trash talking, and represented the negative aspects of where sports at all levels were heading. The Hurricanes hadn’t been tested much during the regular season, especially after their 28-16 win over No. 1 and defending champion Oklahoma on September 27. The victory made Miami the top-ranked team in the nation, where it stayed the rest of the year. Miami’s lineup was star-studded with the likes of quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde, fullback Alonzo Highsmith, wide receiver Michael Irvin, defensive tackle Jerome Brown, and safety Bennie Blades. “That was one of the best teams we ever played against,” Paterno says. “They were so cocky.” And they thought Penn State was like every team they had played against, in that the Lions could be easily intimated. When then-Penn State running back D.J. Dozier had seen that Miami Hurricane players had arrived in Arizona wearing battle fatigues, he wasn’t too pleased. “How dare you show up that way as an organization! That’s a reflection of what you think of us,” he says today, recalling what he thought in December 1986. “Penn State has a history of not being respected by some, but this was way above that. This was outlandish.” Conlan adds, “I thought it was funny — all the stuff
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Penn State Athletic Communications (2)
Giftopoulos’s interception sealed the win over Miami.
they were doing. People forget, we were in the national championship game the previous year. We went through the same thing two years in a row.” Steve Smith, a fullback on the team who continues to battle ALS, which he was diagnosed with in 2002, says through an e-mail interview, “They must not have known that we were Penn State and we did not get intimidated by anyone. They just pissed us off.” Things became especially testy during the infamous steak fry where Brown led a walkout of the Miami players after he asked if the Japanese had dinner with Pearl Harbor before bombing it. Penn State punter John Bruno, who died in 1992 from cancer, was quick to ask, “Didn’t the Japanese lose?” While that was one of Bruno’s most memorable off-the-field moments, his greatest moment on the field came in that Fiesta Bowl. With Penn State’s offense unable to do anything most of the night, Bruno’s 43.3-yard average on nine punts forced Miami to start many of its drives deep in its own territory. Most Nittany Lion fans who watched the game can remember the Fiesta Bowl play by play. They can remember the Penn State defense, time and time again, shutting down the Hurricane offense. “I remember [safety] Ray Isom hitting Michael Irvin early in the game while Irvin was running across the middle,” Conlan says. “[Irvin] didn’t come across after that. Ray would hit those dudes and be laughing. It was infectious. He was the tone setter.” Conlan’s second interception of the game, with about nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, set up the winning touchdown — a six-yard run by Dozier. “It was the only time we ran that play since I’d been there,” Dozier says. “It wasn’t a different type of play — it was a different formation that made it look different. The play came in and I started smiling because I knew we would score. … It was comical to see their linebackers’ reaction. They didn’t know
what to do. … I went in practically untouched.” On their final drive, the Hurricanes drove to the Penn State six. “I just thought that someway, somehow, somebody has to make a play and get it done,” says former Penn State cornerback Eddie Johnson, who had a game-high 13 tackles. “And it happened.” “It” being linebacker Pete Giftopoulos intercepting Testaverde’s fourth-down pass near the end zone that sealed the win and the national title for Penn State. The statistical numbers certainly weren’t pretty. Penn State had just eight first downs and 162 yards of offense to Miami’s 22 and 445, respectively. The Hurricanes had the ball for more than 34 minutes. Still, the only numbers that mattered looked beautiful to the Nittany Nation — Penn State 14, Miami 10. Dozier says, “The celebration in the locker room was just a culmination of one year of just total and complete commitment. You had guys crying and hugging. It’s hard to describe what happens when you set a plan for yourself and you go through the process of seeing that plan come to fruition — it’s an amazing thing. We did it. We did it together!” That night, that season, and that team continue to hold a special place in the hearts of the Nittany Nation — even 25 years later. “I don’t care if I’m in California or Florida, when people find out that I played football at Penn State during that era, they ask if I played in the Fiesta Bowl,” former Penn State linebacker Trey Bauer says. “They then tell me that they remember exactly where they were watching the game. There aren’t too many events that go on where you can remember exactly where you were — certainly not in college football. It was something to remember. “It was a special time and a special game for all of Penn State.” T&G
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John Hovenstine (6)
Connor Meehan enjoys watching a model train given to him by Bill Loop.
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train treasures
For many, model-train collecting is a year-round hobby. This time of year, however, just makes it that much more special
y
By Carolyne Meehan ears ago, the approach of the holiday season meant the appearance of elaborate train displays in shop windows. Bill Loop remembers this well from his childhood, growing up in McKeesport during the 1940s. As a kid he would head downtown and run from store to store to check out the newest model trains in the windows, take a ride on the streetcar, and watch the locomotive cross the main street. “It was a rich childhood,” he says. He will never forget Christmas 1948. His neighbor received a red and silver Santa Fe train set, the first diesel engine to be manufactured by Lionel Trains. Loop was “green with envy.” That feeling stuck with him, greatly influencing his relationship
with trains. He now has more than 100 engines in his collection, manufacturing dates ranging from 1930 to 2011. For each engine he has about six or seven cars. They neatly line the walls from floor to ceiling around the perimeter of his large basement room. There is something even more impressive about this room, however. And if Loop’s childhood neighbor were to step foot into Loop’s basement today, his jaw might drop at the site before him. In the center of the room is an 8-by-40foot train layout portraying typical 1940s
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Bill Loop (opposite page), who grew up in McKeesport, has created an 8-by-40-foot train layout in his basement. The layout portrays a 1940s mill scene along the Monongahela River.
mill scenes along the Monongahela River. A sternwheeler, built from scratch out of balsa wood by Loop, paddles down the river at the center of the display. Three tracks weave their way through mills and mountains. The details are so incredibly lifelike that if you were shrunk to a half-inch tall and placed on the far end of that table, you would believe you had traveled back in time to McKeesport. Loop is still searching for people and cars to complete his hometown scene — the layout continues to be a work in progress. There is something magical about trains — they have the power to mesmerize children and adults, inspire poetry, and spark nostalgia. Whether it’s the rumble of an Amtrak commuter or a glimpse of a freight train slowly proceeding across a mountainside, one can be reminded of Pennsylvania’s rich railroad heritage. Many recreate that inspiration in their homes with modeltrain sets that can range from simple ones that may go around a Christmas tree to very elaborate ones such as the one Loop displays in his home. With more than 100 operational freight and passenger railway companies cruising Pennsylvania’s tracks today, it’s no wonder that the state is the birthplace of the Train Collectors Association, which boasts to be one of the world’s largest and most prestigious collecting societies. Loop, who is an active member of TCA, picks up the controls of his set, and the table comes to life. The chugging sound of the steam locomotive begins to build as it works its way around the track, slowly gaining speed. It cruises by an old steel mill complete with miniature workers shoveling coal. A whistle blows as it passes through a tunnel. An-
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Forster Trains and Toys in Lemont attracts local collectors and those who want to help their children or grandchildren start their collections.
other train makes its way around a higher track, and a bell sounds. Soon the room is filled with the sounds of a train orchestra with all three tracks humming and clicking to crescendo. It’s difficult to hold a conversation above the music. An engine passes, leaving a trail of steam. “Smells like Christmas,” Loop says. The all-new BMW 5 Series Sedan bmwusa.com 1-800-334-4BMW
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Loop enlisted the expertise of a friend, John Falatovich, a graphic and fine artist from Boalsburg, to aid in the design and construction of the impressive display. “It was a labor of love,” says Falatovich, another self-declared train nut. The original goal was to get the trains up and running for Christmas 2009 after just several months of To better serve our growing clientele, Wise Crackers is moving this year to Celebration Hall for another great year of comedy entertainment and community fundraisers. Please consider Wise Crackers Comedy Club for your group or organization’s fundraiser. They are fun, easy and unique!
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work. They did manage to get the trains running, using makeshift supports of Styrofoam board to support the tracks in some places. This was an atypical process for constructing a layout, Falatovich explains, “It was like putting the cart before the horse.” But the trains were running just in time to have what has become an annual Christmas gathering in the Loops’ basement. “Every Christmas tree should have a Lionel train under it,” believes Jim Forster, owner of Forster Trains and Toys in Lemont. He has been in the toy-train business for 27 years, his current shop appropriately located in the old Lemont train station. His biggest selling train is the Lionel Pennsy Railroad starter set, running at about $140. Also popular are Lionel’s dated Christmas cars that can be added on to an existing engine each year. Forster says it’s not uncommon for a parent or grandparent to buy a train set for a newborn. Although the train, more than likely, will sit hidden away for several years, the idea of junior’s owning a train from the year he/she is born is a novel one. The train’s first run around its track will probably take place under a Christmas tree. And such is how a tradition begins. For Bob Foster, another local collector, trains
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have been part of his Christmas tradition since he received his first set in 1940. In 1967, he set up a train under a tree for his son, adding another car or two from year to year. When grandsons came along, you can only guess what they got for Christmas from Grandpa. Foster has fond memories of the young boys running the trains and putting on shows for the family in more recent years.
“Every Christmas tree should have a Lionel train under it.” — Jim Forster “I get my satisfaction out of bringing trains back to life,” he says. He also can be hired for train repair — treating old, well-run engines to some TLC and “unmucking” in his basement workshop. He helps Forster out from time to time, and Forster always gives him a shout when someone comes into the store selling old trains. Foster likes to piece sets together to give as gifts
and occasionally sell. An engineer at heart, Foster sketches up some notes about the collecting hobby. He breaks down train terminology, explaining scale and gauge. To get an idea about size, the train at Wegmans is a G gauge, a large model originally designed to run as garden trains. Collectors generally narrow in on a certain size train for their collections. The retired Penn State professor keeps his collection to a small bedroom in his home, shelves stocked with engines and passenger cars. Train tracks cover the floor, making maneuvering around the room a challenge — but Foster does it with ease. He reaches across the room to retrieve a train engine and show its heft — it weighs nearly 10 pounds! While many serious collectors look for steam locomotive engines, such as the heavy one Foster picked up, collectors of a younger generation who are part of the Penn State Model Railroad Club are all about the diesel engines and their high fuel efficiency. Greg Brulo, a senior studying mechanical engineering, was able to quote offhand that “a railroad can move one ton of freight 450 miles on one gallon of diesel.” Brulo collects diesel engines and also interns at CSX railroad — a
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Contributed photos (2)
A model-train layout from the Penn State Model Railroad Club. The club’s layout is in the basement of Pinchot Dorm in East Halls.
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The Model Railroad Club began in 1955 and will host an open house December 3 and 4.
company that markets its rails as the most fuelefficient way to move goods over land. When he was a kid, he would go down to the train tracks near Harrisburg just to listen to the sound of a 4,000-horsepower locomotive — he loved the way it made his heart pound. Rebecca Roth, who is the only female member of the club, says her passion for designing miniature scenes is what brought her to the club. She loves to work with her hands and create. A history major from Upper Dublin, she was aware that Lionel had produced a pink train set in 1957, but wasn’t surprised when she is told that it was a marketing failure. She is no train buff, and that doesn’t matter. Her involvement in the club demonstrates that a love for trains isn’t necessarily critical to participation in the hobby. Model railroading has many facets that can appeal to all sorts of people. There are those who are drawn to it for the electrical and mechanical pieces involved, others with an interest in carpentry and construction of the layouts, and those such as Roth who appreciate the hobby from the artistic and creative perspectives. “It’s amazing what you can do with a little piece of plastic when you know what you’re doing,” says Bob Madigan, a film student and club member from Dorrance. He is referring to the body of an Athearn train car he bought from ebay that he is working to repair. For him, working on trains is an escape. “It’s relaxing,” he says. His collection consists of a just a few locomotives and close to 40 train cars. For Madigan, it’s about making the trains and
the layout look as real as possible. He has an eye for the little details — an important quality to have in his hopeful career field of special effects. He uses weathering techniques to make his trains look older in order to fit a certain scene. Some serious collectors would argue that this devalues the trains, but for Madigan, it adds value to the realism of his train displays. On December 3 and 4, the Model Railroad Club will host an open house for community members. It’s a chance to come check out the trains and even run them through their giant layouts. For Brulo, this event is all about watching the joy in other people — the kids especially. He actually wants children’s hands on the controls. Greg Moore, an alumnus of the club, served as its president in 1972 and continues to support the club today, running trains from his own collection on the club’s giant layout located in the basement of Pinchot Dorm in East Halls. It’s the community behind the railroading and collecting that keeps him in the game. He lives in Boalsburg and has spent time in Loop’s basement. And Loop worked in Forster’s shop at one time. The collectors in this town all seem to be connected, in one way or another. And this Christmas, Loop and his buddies will once again gather in his basement to run his trains and enjoy some soft drinks. “What differentiates men from boys?” Loop jokingly asks. “The price of their toys.” T&G Carolyne Meehan is a writer and educator. She lives in State College with her husband and two young boys.
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Coaches vs. Cancer Saturday, February 11, 2012 Bryce Jordan Center Game Tipoff – 1:00PM $3.00 from every individual game ticket sold to the February 11th contest will be donated to Penn State Coaches vs. Cancer!
Vs. Band Together is back! Join your Penn State Nittany Lions, the Penn State Coaches vs. Cancer committee and your local American Cancer Society in support of cancer patients and survivors in our region by attending the PSU men’s basketball game against the Cornhuskers. Bring your headbands or purchase a headband for $2 at the door. The Band Together event will also feature a Silent Auction of sports and celebrity memorabilia on the BJC concourse. Auction begins when the doors open at 12:00pm. All proceeds from headband sales and the auction benefit CVC.
www.cvcpennstate.org
Check out Town&Gown’s Facebook page for more information on what’s happening in Happy Valley, and for chances to win free tickets to concerts and sporting events!
Town&Gown’s 2011
Holiday Gift Guide
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Google TV delivers a new experience by bringing the TV and internet together. Using your existing cable or satellite service and at no additional cost, Google TV gives you access to more entertainment options and simplifies the process of finding what you’re looking. Plus, you can enjoy both TV and web content at the same time, on the same screen. 40” Sony LED NSX40GT1 on sale now for $799. Mike’s Video, TV, & Appliance 1515 N Atherton St., State College, PA 814-237-1515 mikesvideo.com
Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art Holiday Art and Ornament Sale Join us on Saturday, December 3, for our annual fundraiser. Another great gift idea is a Friends’ membership, a wonderful way to give a fabulous year of art, exhibitions, and programs to someone special!
Palmer Museum of Art • Penn State University Park, PA 16802 (814) 865-7672 • www.palmermuseum.psu.edu
Gift Spotlight Seven Mountains Wine Cellars
Unique wine accessories, from carriers and monogrammed stoppers to handcrafted jewelry and ornaments, for the wine lover on your gift list! 28 different wines, including Vidal Blanc Ice Wine! Gift baskets, Penn State Tailgate Party Packs, and gift cards. Tasting and Winery tours available at Seven Mountain’s beautiful lodge. 107 Mountain Springs Lane (1 mile off 322 near Potter’s Mills/ Decker Valley Road) (814) 364-1000 www.sevenmountainswinecellars.com
For the Penn State fans in your life!
The Great Book of Penn State Sports Lists has nearly 100 chapters covering everything from the great Nittany Lion teams and players to Creamery ice cream flavors. Written by Town&Gown editor David Pencek and Matthew Pencek, the book also has contributions from Matt Millen, Jack Ham, Lydell Mitchell, Lou Holtz, Kelly Mazzante, and more! Available at local bookstores, online sites, and at the Centre County Historical Society’s annual Stocking Stuffer Antiques, Art & Fine Craft Sale December 2-3.
Penn State Town&Gown’s
2011-12 Winter Sports Annual
Can They Do It Patrick Chambers takes over the men’s basketball program $5.95
Again?
Maggie Lucas and the Lady Lions look to make a deeper run in the postseason
After their amazing run last season, the Nittany Lion wrestling team looks to capture a second consecutive national title
D-I hockey on the horizon
Town&Gown’s 2011-12 Penn State Winter Sports Annual
It’s going to be a hot winter sports season in Happy Valley! And Town&Gown’s 2011-12 Penn State Winter Sports Annual has all the information you need to take you through the seasons. This year’s edition includes interviews with Patrick Chambers, Cael Sanderson, and Coquese Washington, and features on Quentin Wright, Maggie Lucas, and Tim Frazier. And a look back on the wrestling team’s 2011 national championship run. www.townandgown.com
New! Winter 2011 Colors & Styles Shown: Little Mandy in Suzani, Floral Nightingale, Rhythm & Blues & Tea Garden
104 N. Allegheny St. Bellefonte, PA 16823 Mon - Fri 10:00 - 5:30 Thurs 10:00 - 7:00 • Sat 10:00 - 3:00 814-353-4258 • www.co2boutique.com
Thank you for all your local support
“Goot Essa” Simply, Good Food Amish-Made, All Natural Cheeses Apple Butter, Dipping Mustards, Fudge, Gift Baskets, Shipping Available
351 Wise Rd., Howard, PA 16841 (814) 349-4387
Please call (800) 490-4387 to request our free catalog!
CONKLIN’S CORNER ANTIQUE & GIFT BARN
20 Plus Dealer Antique Co-op New Antiques Daily • Coins & Currency U.S Military Museum
Open 7 days a week until 8 p.m. Black Friday thru December 23.
plus...Huge Country Gift Shop Christmas Room overflowing with unique gifts New Items Arriving Daily! 20 minutes from State College Rt. 350, 670 Tyrone Pike • Philipsburg, PA 16866 • 342-0650 • www.ConklinsCornerBarn.com
Gift Spotlight Everyone loves to Spa!!!
Give the gift of relaxation, good health and wellbeing this Holiday Season…with every gift card you purchase $100.00 or more during the month of December, $20.00 will be added to the value of the card. Spa Gifts, Spa Packages, Corporate Gift Program and Gift Cards are all available with free delivery. Pure Urban Spa…”where wellness is a way of life” 1760 South Atherton Street State College PA 16801 Ph: 888 787 3314 Email: concierge@pureurbanspa.com Website: www.pureurbanspa.com
Beer Belly’s Beverage
November and December have the most food and beer friendly holidays of any months in the year. The weather is perfect for rich and robust brews. Hearty ales, porters and stouts are all welcome warmers and fine complements to after dinner conversations. Traditional festive foods offer special opportunities to pair favorite beers and holiday favorites. With over 500 different cases, Beer Belly’s has the beer to fit. Can’t decide for that special someone? A Beer Belly’s Gift Card is the perfect choice.
Beer and the Holidays – Perfect Together! Hamilton Square Shopping Center 258 W. Hamilton Avenue, State College 814-237-BREW www.beerbellysbeverage.com
Where wellness is a way of life!
Facial • Massage • Manicure • Waxing • Tanning • Pedicure • Oxygen treatment MedSpa • Make Up • Spa Parties & Packages • Gift Cards • Spa Gifts & Retail
Give the Gift of Relaxation, Good Health and Wellbeing this Holiday Season!
Cre ekside Shopping Plaza 1760 South Atherton Stre et State College, PA 16801 PH: 888 787 3314 www.pureurbanspa.com
Celebrating 85 Years
Give a Gift This Season from Your Local Vineyard & Winery
114 W. College Avenue State College, PA 16801
814-238-4767
300 Houser Rd., Centre Hall 16828 ( 7 miles east of Penn State )
www.mtnittanywinery.com (814) 466-6373
www.jackharpers.com
We don’t follow trends...
we start them.
326 W. Beaver Avenue
State College, PA 16801
814-272-3047
www.myevolvestudio.com
We match their prices with better service! Pete Popovitch Mike’s Video, TV & Appliance would like to thank all of our customer’s for buying locally and allowing us to be in business for 27 years!
Offering scratch’n’dent products up to
70% off!
We take great pride in being able to give back to our community because of the support we received from our customers. We will continue to offer the lowest prices possible and the only local sales and service center. There is no job too big or too small for us to handle. Mike’s Video, TV, & Appliance 1515 N Atherton St, State College, Pa 814.237.1515
mikesvideo.com
State Amusement Billiards & Darts Central Pennsylvania’s Game Room Superstore!
WE’V MOV E ED!
Pleas e Bran visit our Showdr New oom! • Game Room Gifts the entire family will enjoy! • New, expanded selection of custom pool tables and cues, ping-pong, foosball, air hockey & poker tables, dartboards, lighting, and other game room accessories. If we don’t have it, we can get it! • 12 months “Same as Cash” available!
Expert Service Since 1962 The Ponderosa from Ollhausen
Holiday Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9-6:30 p.m., Sat. 10-6 p.m., Sun. 12-4 p.m. 1358 E. College Avenue, State College 814-234-0722
Colorful Gifts for all your stocking stuffer needs!
Adorable wallets and classic IDs ... all in our newest Winter 2011 colors. Featured: Turn Lock Wallet in Rhythm & Blues, Snappy Wallet in Suzani and Carry It All Wristlet in Plum Petals
A Basket Full Gift Shop & Gift Baskets 121 E. Main St. Boalsburg
466-7788 www.basket-full.com
Financial Wellness takes careful planning… We can help you get there! • Retirement Planning • Tax Planning • All Your Life Insurance Needs
Christopher D. Leitzell
Diversified Asset Planners
Donald E. Leitzell, CFP ®
1524 W. College Ave., State College • 814-234-2500 Securities offered through J.W. Cole Financial – Member FINRA/SIPC. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification AND in the U.S. Diversified Asset Planners and J.W. Cole Financial are independent firms. marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™
A Way to Help Purchase an 11x14 print of the art used for the December Town&Gown cover. The cost is $19.95 with all proceeds going to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. For more information on how to purchase a print, call Town&Gown at (814) 238-5051.
ThisMonth on
PENN STATE PUBLIC BROADCASTING
*For additional program information log on to wpsu.org
our gift in song
winterfest ’11 WINTERFEST CONCERT TO BENEFIT WPSU Saturday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. WPSU will premiere a new holiday music tradition at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on Saturday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m., with a lively celebration of holiday music featuring Essence of Joy and Essence 2. Under the direction of Dr. Anthony Leach, the choirs will perform, with orchestra, songs of African and African-American composers. Ticket holders are asked to be seated by 7:15 p.m.; as the concert will be broadcast live on WPSU-FM at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at wpsu.org/events/winterfest, or at the door. Adult tickets are $20; ages 18 and under, or students with Penn State ID, are $5 each. ACOUSTIC BREW CONCERT IN WPSU STUDIO: DARRELL SCOTT Wednesday, December 7, at 8 p.m. As part of the Acoustic Brew concert series, Darrell Scott will perform live in the WPSU-TV studio on Wednesday, December 7. It’s almost easier to name a
wpsu.org
musician in Nashville whom Scott hasn’t played with or written hit songs for! One of Music City’s elite as both a songwriter and session player, multi-instrumentalist Scott has played with folks such as Guy Clark and Tim O’Brien, scored awards like ASCAP Songwriter of the Year, and torn up stages around the world with his powerful voice and instrumental expertise. The concert will be broadcast on WPSU-TV at 8 p.m., and you can attend this concert in person; seating will be at 7:45 p.m. Studio seating is limited. Tickets for the live performance are available online at www.acousticbrew.org.
PERFORMANCE SPECIALS, HOLIDAY FAVORITES, & ENCORES
As part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival series, beloved tenor Andrea Bocelli’s free concert recorded this fall in Central Park will air on Friday, December 2, at 9 p.m. on WPSU-TV. Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park, with the New York Philharmonic and special guests, will rebroadcast on Sunday, December 4, at 7 p.m. On Monday, December 5, at 8 p.m., singing sensation Celtic Woman will entertain the entire family with the premiere of Celtic Woman: Believe. This new chapter of musical enchantment will be rebroadcast on Saturday, December 10, at 7 p.m. Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli & David Foster: My Christmas encores Bocelli and the “Hit Man” on stage together for a concert of holiday classics on Thursday, December 8, at 8 p.m. Special programs continue throughout the month as WPSU’s Winter Membership Campaign continues through December 11. Check local listings for additional specials and holiday programs.
DECEMBER
U.Ed. OUT 12-0363/12-PSPB-TV-0010
penn state diary
Television Pioneer Besides helping to preserve films, Marlowe Froke helped bring public broadcasting to university Penn State University Archives
By Lee Stout
too. Soon Froke joined the crowd, to universal glee, and he laughed the hardest as the verbal potshots headed his way. It was quintessential Marlowe, a man who could rarely tell a joke because he would be laughing too hard to get out the punch line, and a man who led the creation of public broadcasting at Penn State, and public-affairs cable television across Pennsylvania. Froke grew up on the Marlowe Froke (right) chats with C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb. prairies of South Dakota. As a child of the television era, I grew up with He started in broadcast journalism during an Howdy Doody, The Lone Ranger, The Twilight Army stint in Japan. He returned for college and Zone, and other classic shows of the 1950s and a job as a radio news director in South Dakota. 1960s. So, as an archivist, the idea that we also He then earned a master’s degree from Northshould preserve television programs did not seem western and was news director at WGN in Chiodd. After I joined what’s now the University cago. After teaching at the University of Illinois, Archives in 1974, I discovered we had only four he landed at Penn State in 1959. He stayed here video items. By the early 1980s, I realized they for the rest of his career. He died almost two were getting dangerously close to disintegration. years ago and was well remembered by his many colleagues. What to do? The invitation to come dub our tapes at the The archives had no equipment to play these tapes. But I thought WPSX-TV might. I called station was only my first experience with his Marlowe Froke and asked if they could make appreciation of the history and place of Penn modern copies for us. They could, and we sched- State in educational television, as it was initially uled a time to take them to the station in Wagner called. Next, he asked if I would be interested in Building. Dave McCarty was handling the con- transferring the several hundred films created by trol room where we could transfer the tapes to a the Instructional Film Research Project, headed newer format. The first one was the Penn State by psychologist C. Ray Carpenter, and the outModel UN sessions from about 1963. The host put of Penn State’s Motion Picture and Recordof this program was Froke, in a crewcut, reporting ing Studio, which had made instructional and with all the gravity Walter Cronkite would give public-service films beginning in the 1940s, from the station’s film library to the archives. I enthuto a General Assembly meeting in New York. The room quickly filled with station staff, who siastically agreed, but while it seemed obvious to loved seeing the boss in an on-camera role, and, me that we must save these films, I realized that of course, the haircut received a few comments I didn’t know what that entailed. I knew film84 - Town&Gown December 2011
and video-preservation problems were different than those of paper and photos, but I didn’t know much else. In 1990, I heard about a conference that would provide a real opportunity to learn the ropes, but it was in Ottawa, Ontario, and there was no funding to pay my expenses. Froke volunteered to help and I was off to a symposium titled, “Documents that move and speak: audiovisual archives in the new information age,” sponsored by the International Council of Archives and the National Archives of Canada. We heard speakers from all over the world, including archivists representing the international federations of television, film, and recorded-sound archives. I was dazzled as we considered computer indexing of film footage as done by the Imperial War Museum in London, methods for preserving electronic formats at the National Archives in both Ottawa and Washington, preserving the cultural dimension of filmed Maori ceremonies in New Zealand, recording a “portal to portal” day of broadcasting at the BBC, and a variety of other efforts going on around the world. The director of the Austrian State Television archives gave me a unique videocassette that showed their operations, in English, and I used it in my archives classes from then on. These and more stories fascinated Froke as I recounted all the information I had absorbed. After that, whether it was organizing the Fred Waring archives, developing an archival collection for WPSX-TV (since 2005, WPSU), or helping to preserve some of the archives of PENNARAMA, the cable joint venture that became PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, or assisting in the development of the manuscript collections of the National Cable Television Center and Museum (once at Penn State), I had the privilege of working regularly with Marlowe Froke. He was one of those true visionaries that Penn State has periodically been blessed with in so many fields. Educational television, public broadcasting, and distance education in all its forms here, benefited from his ideas and enthusiasm. It was my honor to share with him a passion for the archival preservation of all that. T&G Lee Stout is Librarian Emeritus, Special Collections for Penn State.
Get to know...
Miriam Powell: Pink Zone Power High school teacher Miriam Powell moved from Hershey to State College three years ago with her husband and son. Pregnant with their second son, she decided to concentrate on volunteering instead of seeking a teaching job. Her volunteer efforts led to her being hired this fall as the first executive director of Pennsylvania Pink Zone, the new nonprofit charged with coordinating the highly successful Lady Lions basketball events that raise money to fight breast cancer. Powell herself began playing basketball as a third-grader and later coached a high school girls team. Her personal life also connects to her new job in another way — her paternal grandmother and an aunt both survived breast cancer. “It’s difficult to find anybody who hasn’t had somebody close to them who has beat it, or fought it,” she says. Already, Powell has met many breast cancer survivors via Pink Zone. “It’s an emotional job,” she says. “I just feel honored that these amazing people want to share their stories.” Powell hopes to have 450 survivors attending the 2012 Pink Zone game on Feb. 26, plus 12,500 fans…with the ultimate goal of raising at least $250,000 to fight breast cancer. “We’ve set some very high expectations for Pink Zone this year.” The Penn State Bookstore thanks Miriam Powell and all those who carry out the university’s mission every day.
www.psu.bncollege.com 814-863-0205
85 - Town&Gown December 2011
events
A Tasteful Evening The AIDS Project holds its annual Taste of the Town fundraiser Contributed photo
By Jeanne Drouilhet
Since 1997, a gala event has been held in the beginning of December — the men in suits, the women in gowns, and the food from some of Centre County’s and State College’s favorite restaurants. Now in its 14th year, Taste of the Town has become the signature fundraising event of the Centre County AIDS Project. Since 1988, The AIDS Project has provided financial support to those affected by AIDS in both Centre and Clinton counties. Peggy Walk, a then-member of the board of directors for The AIDS Project, began Taste of the Town, which was centered around World AIDS Day and was promoted as a fundraiser to be attended by the clients of The AIDS Project, their families, and friends. Taste of the Town has since grown from an event that in the early years raised around $5,000 to a fundraiser that last year raised more than $36,000 to support the operations in Centre County and Clinton County. “It is helping with us to be able to provide testing and to provide prevention education and provide things to the community that we just can’t do otherwise,” The AIDS Project executive director Becky Schrope says about the event. According to Schrope, there are approximately 178 people with HIV/AIDS living in Centre County. Schrope has been involved with The AIDS Project since 1989 in one capacity or another. Prior to her involvement, she helped found the North Central District AIDS Coalition, which now funds The AIDS Project
in 12 counties including Centre and Clinton counties. At first, Schrope became involved with the cause at a social-health level — HIV/AIDS was a disease that was considered terminal and had such a stigma and fear attached to it. She says that while that stigma and fear remain, the disease is no longer considered terminal, but, rather, chronic since the advent of treatment medications. In Centre and Clinton counties, the average monthly cost for medications for The AIDS Project’s clients is $12,000, which is why, Schrope says, having state funding for prevention education is so incredibly important. “They’ve reduced the monies they give us for prevention, and we do prevention now for what they call targeted populations ... that is the only funding they give us,” she says. “One of the reasons we have Taste of the Town is because those funds help us provide prevention to the general public.” Taste of the Town has many different aspects during the evening — from food and beverage to live entertainment to auctions. This year’s theme for the December 4 event at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel is “Atlantis Rising,” an idea that came from a committee member’s 7-year-old daughter who suggested “Under the Sea.” Taking the idea from a promlike theme to something more grown-up, the theme took off. The funds raised at the event come generally from three segments: about $10,000 in corporate sponsorships, about $20,000 in ticket sales, and the rest in money raised from the auctioning of donated items in both a silent and a live auction. Some items that have been in the auction in the past have included a hotel stay in the Florida Keys, a week in a cottage at Cape Cod, and jewelry. This year will feature some items from designer Mondo of Project Runway, including a dress worn by Heidi Klum, and Laga Handbags, a line of hand-stitched handbags begun by a missionary couple in California to support
86 - Town&Gown December 2011
the victims of the tsunami that devastated the coasts along the Indian Ocean in December 2004. Many of the donated auction items help bring awareness to other causes in addition to helping The AIDS Project. Some of Centre County’s most popular food purveyors provide food and beverages for the event, including The Tavern, Spatz Cafe, Tait Farm Foots, Benjamin’s Catering, and more. Every year surprise guest bartenders come and make specialty mixed drinks designed for the event’s theme. Taste of the Town is mostly a social event that serves as a wrap-up to World AIDS week. During the week, the staff and volunteers from The AIDS Project of Centre and Clinton counties go out into the community and heavily promote the cause and spread prevention education. While the cause brings people to Taste of the Town, it doesn’t become the central focus of the evening. Schrope says, “We try not to get into a lot of stuff that evening because it is a social event, but we still like to get the point across that it
is here — HIV/AIDS is here in Centre and Clinton counties.” The event is still very much for the clients as it was when it began. The AIDS Project tries to cover the cost of attending the event for its clients through the generosity of other ticket buyers, who have the option of sponsoring a seat, and through corporate sponsorships designating tables given to them for clients and The AIDS Project staff and volunteers. Schrope says, “I think what this event does, it not only supports the services in the community but it really shows to the clients and the consumers and their families that people are here to support them.” T&G Taste of the Town will be 6 p.m. December 4 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. For more information about Taste of the Town and The AIDS Project of Centre and Clinton counties, v i s i t w w w. t h e a i d s p r o j e c t . c o m o r c a l l (814) 234-7087 (Centre County office) or (570) 893-1740 (Clinton County office).
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Courier Service • Local Deliveries • Paratransit 87 - Town&Gown December 2011
COMING TO THE
Bryce Jordan Center
December 4 Nittany Lion Basketball vs. Mississippi 6 p.m. 6 Lady Lion Basketball vs. Virginia Tech 7 p.m. 7 Nittany Lion Basketball vs. Lafayette 7 p.m. 11 Lady Lion Basketball vs. Maryland Eastern Shore 2 p.m. 17 Penn State Commencement 9 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. 18 Lady Lion Basketball vs. Wagner 1 p.m. Nittany Lion Basketball vs. Mount St. Mary’s 4 p.m. 21 Nittany Lion Basketball vs. Cornell 7:30 p.m. 30 Lady Lion Basketball vs. Nebraska 7 p.m.
December 1
For more “What’s Happening,” check out townandgown.com.
2
The Vienna Choir Boys perform at Eisenhower Auditorium.
Deadline for submitting events for the February issue is December 30.
4
what’s happening
6
7
Penn State’s wrestling team hosts the Nittany Lion Open.
14
The State College Community Theatre's production of
8
The Festival of the Trees opens at the Snider Agricultural Arena. It runs through Dec. 11
15
9
25
27
10 Step back in time at Bellefonte Victorian Christmas, which runs Dec. 9-11.
16
17 Visit Schlow Centre Region Library and Ride the Polar Express, running Dec. 10-11 and 17-18.
Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical opens at State Theatre.
21
3
The annual Polar Bear Plunge takes place at Bald Eagle State Park.
22
28
Christmas
23
30
24
31
The Lady Lions open Big Ten play hosting Nebraska. Ring in the New Year at First Night State College.
Announcements of general interest to residents of the State College area may be mailed to Town&Gown, Box 77, State College, PA 16804-0077; faxed to (814) 238-3415; or e-mailed to dpenc@barashmedia.com. Photos are welcome. 89 - Town&Gown December 2011
Academics
Club Events
9 – PSU fall semester classes end. 12-16 – PSU final exams. 17 – PSU fall commencement. 23-30 – State College Area School District, Winter Holiday, no classes.
1 – Central PA Observers mtg., South Hills School of Business and Technology, S.C., 7 p.m., 237-9865. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 - S.C. Downtown Rotary mtg., Damon’s Grill & Sports Bar, S.C., noon, http://centrecounty.org/rotary/club/. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 - S.C Singles Club, Social Hour, P.J. Harrigans, Ramada Inn, S.C., 6 p.m., www.scsinglesclub.org. 7, 14 – Centre Squares Dance Club, Pleasant Gap Elementary School, 8 p.m., 238-8949. 7, 14, 21, 28 – S.C. Sunrise Rotary Club mtg., Hotel State College, S.C., 7:15 a.m., kfragola@psualum.com. 7, 15 – Outreach Toastmasters Club mtg., room 413 in the 329 Building in Penn State Innovation Park, S.C., noon, http://outreach.freetoasthost.us/. 13 – Women’s Mid Day Connection Luncheon, Elk’s Country Club, Boalsburg, 11:45 a.m., 355-7615. 13 – Centre Pieces Quilt Guild mtg., Mount Nittany Middle School Cafeteria, S.C., 7 p.m., 237-0167. 14 – Centre Pieces Quilt Guild mtg., Brookline Village, S.C., 12:30 p.m., 237-0167. 14 – State College Bird Club Mtg., Foxdale Village Meeting Room, S.C., 7 p.m., www.foxdalevillage.org. 14 - Women’s Welcome Club of S.C., Oakwood Presbyterian Church, S.C., 7 p.m., www.womenswelcomeclub.org. 15 - S.C. Lions Club Holiday Party., Damon’s Grill & Sports Bar, S.C., 6:15 p.m., www.statecollegelions.org. 16 - Central PA Country Dance Association dance, State College Friends School, 7:30 p.m., www.cpcda.org.
Children & Families 1, 3 – Children’s Theatre Event by the Penn State Thespians: Winnie the Pooh!, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 7 p.m. Thurs., 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. Sat., www.schlowlibrary.org. 4 – Holiday Wreaths and Book Raffle, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 2 p.m., www.schlowlibrary.org. 4, 11, 18 – Go Club, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 1:45 p.m., www.schlowlibrary.org. 5, 12, 15, 19, 22 – Music Together free trial class for children 0-5 and a parent, Oakwood Presbyterian Church, S.C., 9:30 a.m. Mon., 6:15 p.m. Thurs., 466-3414. 6, 10, 13, 16, 17, 20, 23 – Music Together free trial class for children 0-5 and a parent, Houserville United Methodist Church, S.C., 10:45 a.m. Tues. & Fri., 10:30 a.m. Sat., 466-3414. 8 – A Christmas Carol with Tony Lentz, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 7 p.m., www.schlowlibrary.org. 10, 11, 17, 18 – Ride the Polar Express!, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 10 & 17 – 11 a.m., 11 & 18 – 2 p.m., www.schlowlibrary.org. 12 – Drop In Knitting Group, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 6:30 p.m., www.schlowlibrary.org. 22-23, 27-30 – No School Day Activities, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., 11 a.m., www.schlowlibrary.org.
Classes & Lectures 6 – Lecture: The Central Pennsylvania Civil War Roundtable Presents Richard Hughes on “Bloody Knox – Draft Resistance and Bloodshed in Clearfield County,” Centre Furnace Mansion, S.C., 7 p.m., www.pamilmuseum.org. 6, 20 – “A Joint Venture,” a free class on hip and knee replacements, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 11 a.m. Dec. 6, 7 p.m. Dec. 20, 278-4810. 9 – Gallery Talk – Chris Staley, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 12:10 p.m., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu.
Community Associations & Development 7 – CBICC Member Information Session, CBICC, 200 Innovation Blvd., S.C., 8:15 a.m., 234-1829. 8 – CBICC Business After Hours hosted by HealthSouth Nittany Valley Rehabilitation Hospital, Pleasant Gap, 5:30 p.m., 234-1829. 13 – CBICC Membership Luncheon, The Penn State Conference Center Hotel, S.C., 11:45 a.m., 234-1829. 14 – CBICC ChamberU: Identifying and Solving Problems, CBICC, 200 Innovation Blvd., S.C., 8:15 a.m., 234-1829.
90 - Town&Gown December 2011
20 - Spring Creek Watershed Association mtg., Patton Township Mun. Bldg., 7:30 a.m., www.springcreekwatershed.org. 28 - Patton Township Business Association mtg., Patton Township Mun. Bldg., noon, www.ptba.org.
Exhibits Ongoing- 4 – Sharif Bey, HUB-Robeson Center, PSU, 865-0775. Ongoing-11 –Studio Practice: Recent Work by SoVA Faculty, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon4 p.m. Sun., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu. Ongoing-31 – Holiday Treats and Treasures, The Gallery Shop, Lemont, 10:30 a.m., www.gallery-shop.com or 867-0442. Ongoing-31 - Travels with a Lens, Nittany Bank, S.C., 10 a.m., baum634@hotmail.com. Ongoing-January 13 – New Works by Members of The Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society, BHCA Gallery at the Gamble Mill, Bellefonte, www.centralpapastel.org. Ongoing-January 15 – Seriality: Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu. Ongoing-January 22 – Recent Acquisitions, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 10 a.m4:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu. 1-30 – Abstract Textile Art by Sandi Garris, Schlow Centre Region Library, S.C., www.schlowlibrary.org. 2 – Selections from the American Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 10 a.m., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu.
Health Care
For schedule of blood drives visit www.cccredcross.org or www.givelife.org. 5 - Breast Cancer Support Group, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 4:30 p.m., 234-6175. 7 – Grief Support Group, Centre Crest, Bellefonte, 6 p.m., 548-1140 or amboal@co.centre .pa.us. 8 – The Diabetes Support Group, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 6 p.m., 231.7095. 12 – Look Good… Feel Better®, a free program for women in cancer treatment, Greenbriar Subdivision, S.C., 6:30 p.m., 888-227-5445. 13 - Alzheimer’s Support Group, The Inn at Brookline, S.C., 6:30 p.m., 234-3141.
13 – Brain Injury Support Group, HealthSouth Nittany Valley Rehab Hospital, Pleasant Gap, 7 p.m., 359-3421. 13 – The Parent Support of Children with Eating Disorders, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 7 p.m., 466-7921. 15 – Better Breathers Support Group, HealthSouth Nittany Valley Rehab Hospital, Pleasant Gap, 2 p.m., 359-3421. 15 – The free H.E.I.R. & Parents class and tour of the maternity unit for expectant parents and support people, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 6:30 & 7:45 p.m., 231-7061. 19 – Cancer Survivor Support Group, Centre County United Way, S.C., 11:30 a.m., www.cancersurvive.org. 20 – Multiple Sclerosis Support Group, HealthSouth Nittany Valley Rehab Hospital, Outpatient Entrance, Pleasant Gap, 6 p.m., 359-3421.
Music 1 - Vienna Choir Boys, Eisenhower Auditorium, PSU, 7:30 p.m., 863-0255. 3 – Autumn Blaze and Her Orchestra, Penns Valley High School Auditorium, Spring Mills, 8 p.m., 599-0155. 4 – Mosaic, Eisenhower Auditorium, PSU, 4 p.m., 863-0255. 7 – Acoustic Brew Concert Series: Darrell Scott, WPSU Studios, PSU, 7:45 p.m., www.acousticbrew.org. 14 – The Art of Music – Horns Aplenty: Music for Multiple Horns, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 12:10 p.m., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu. 18 – The Music Academy Sing Along, State College Area High School South Auditorium, 3 p.m., 238-3451
Special Events 1 – Stocking Stuffer Antiques, Art & Fine Craft Preview Party, Centre Furnace Mansion, S.C., 10 a.m., www.centrecountyhistory.com. 2-3 – 9th Annual Stocking Stuffer Antiques, Art & Fine Craft Sale, Centre Furnace Mansion, S.C., 10 a.m., www.centrecountyhistory.com. 2-3 – Art and Ornament Sale, Palmer Museum of Art, PSU, 7 p.m. (members-only preview) Fri., 10 a.m. (public sale) Sat., www.palmermuseum.psu.edu. 2-3 – Boalsburg’s Hometown Christmas, Boalsburg, 466-6565.
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Penn State Athletic Communications
2-3 – Christmas in Lemont – Third Annual Christmas Market in the Granary, Lemont, 4 p.m. Fri., 11 a.m. Sat., 235-1501. 2-4 – Holiday Wreath and Art Sale, Art Alliance of Central PA, Lemont, www.artalliance.pa.org. 3 – 9th Annual Polar Bear Plunge, Bald Eagle State Park, 10 a.m., www.ymcaofcentrecounty.org. 3-4 – 36th Annual Winter Craft Market, Mount Nittany Middle School, S.C., 10 a.m., www.wintercraftmarket.com. 3-4 – Central PA Guild of Craftsmen 36th Annual Winter Crafts Market, Mount Nittany Middle School, S.C., 10 a.m., 861-3958. 4 – 28th Annual Nittany Valley Half Marathon, Penn State Ag Arena, PSU, 10 a.m., www.nvrun.com. 4 – The Bellefonte Elks Lodge #1094 Annual Memorial Service, Bellefonte Elks Club, Bellefonte, 2 p.m., 355-2828. 4 – The AIDS Project’s Taste of the Town, Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, S.C., 6 p.m., www.theaidsproject.com. 5 – Holiday Party for the Mount Nittany Medical Center Breast Cancer Support Group, Mount Nittany Medical Center, S.C., 4:30 p.m., 231-7005.
6, 13, 20, 27 – Boalsburg Farmers’ Market, Boalsburg Fire Hall, 2 p.m., 466-2152. 7 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Tribute, PA Military Museum, Boalsburg, 12:45 p.m., www.pamilmuseum.org. 8 – Annual Holiday Showcase, Surface Artist Cooperative, S.C., 10 a.m., www.surfaceartistcoop.com. 8 – State College Chapter of Hadassah’s Annual Food Fair, Congregation Brit Shalom, S.C., 4:30 p.m., 238-7063. 8-11 - Festival of the Trees, Snider Ag Arena, PSU, 10 a.m., 238-8283. 9-11 - The 30th Annual Bellefonte Victorian Christmas, Bellefonte, www.visitbellefonte.com. 10 – Winterfest 2011, Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, S.C., 7:30 p.m., 863-9912. 11 – “Happy Holidays” Ice Show, Penn State Ice Rink, PSU, 3:30 p.m., www.pennstateicerink .psu.edu. 14 – The Elks Christmas Charity Program: Gift Wrapping, State College Elks Club, Boalsburg, 6 p.m., 466-7231. 16 – The Elks Christmas Charity Program: Food Basket Preparation, State College Elks Club, Boalsburg, 6 p.m., 466-7231. 16-19 – Santa Express Train Rides, Bellefonte Train Station, various times. 234-7087. 17 – The Elks Christmas Charity Program: Toy & Food Basket Distribution, State College Elks Club, Boalsburg, 7 a.m., 466-7231.
Sports
For tickets to Penn State sporting events, call 865-5555. For area high school sporting events, call your local high school.
Tim Frazier and Penn State’s men’s basketball team play four home games in December.
3 – PSU/NYU, Princeton, Harvard, UNC, Vassar, Sacred Heart, men & women’s fencing, White Building, PSU, 8 & 9 a.m. 4 – Nittany Lion Open, wrestling, Rec Hall, PSU, 8:30 a.m. 4 – PSU/Ole Miss, men’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 6 p.m. 6 – PSU/Virginia Tech, women’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 7 p.m. 7 – PSU/Lafayette, men’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 7 p.m. 11 – PSU/West Virginia, wrestling, Rec Hall, PSU, 2 p.m. 11 – PSU/Maryland Eastern Shore, women’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 2 p.m. 18 – PSU/Wagner, women’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 1 p.m. 18 – PSU/Mount St. Mary’s, men’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 4 p.m. 21 – PSU/Cornell, men’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 7:30 p.m.
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30 – PSU/Nebraska, women’s basketball, BJC, PSU, 7 p.m.
Theater 1-2 – Sister’s Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi’s Gold, State Theatre, S.C., 8 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 4 – The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD!: Handel’s Rodelinda, State Theatre, S.C., 12:30 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 4 – Lost in the World, The Journey of Bea, State Theatre, S.C., 7 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 6 – National Theatre Live 2011-12 from London: Collaborators, State Theatre, S.C., 7 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 9-10 – Centre Dance presents The Nutcracker, State Theatre, S.C., 7 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 10 – The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD!: Gounod’s Faust, State Theatre, S.C., 1 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 10-11 - The Nutcracker, Eisenhower Auditorium, PSU, 7:30 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., 234-4961. 14-18 – The State College Community Theatre presents Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical, State Theatre, S.C., 8 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org.
Renée Fleming Stars in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Handel’s Rodelinda, which will be shown at the State Theatre December 4. 18-19 – Singing Onstage presents Starting Here, Starting Now, State Theatre, S.C., 2 & 7 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. 31 – Under Milk Wood, a play for voices by Dylan Thomas, State Theatre, S.C., 2 p.m., 272-0606 or www.statetickets.org. T&G
Red Cross Honor Roll of Milestone Blood Donors 1 GALLON: Amanda Dickert, Wendy Dittman, Sarah Douglas, Brian Dreibelbis, David Dunn, Leslie Dutchcot, Jonas Esch, Garrett Evans, Katherine Faller, Allen Fisher, Jerry Flood, Brittany Foreman, Kimberly Fornicola, Benjamin Frank, Ronald Friedman, Elizabeth Gamble, Julia Gardner, Brian Gaudet, Lauren Gluckman, Matthew Golojuch, Yosifa Greenberg, Allison Haas, Sean Haggerty, Jamie Hahn, Michael Hall, Allison Hallman, Brandon Hallowell, Maryanne Hanelly, Margaret Hay, Allison Hayes, Shirley Hendrick, Jeremy Hesson, Jeremiah Hill, Mathew Hinojos, Christi Holzapfel, Crystal Hubler, Lance Hughes, Oranuj Janrathitikarn, Matthew Johnson, Molly Jozefick, Harry Kauffman, Margot Kaye, Tracy Kendall, Kristina Kesack, Lanetta Knowles, Chun Yi Lee, Steve Lehman, Sierra Leitch, Janet Lenze, Lisa Lesher, Janette Litrun, Kelly Lockhoff, Luke Lolla, Benjamin Lombard, Lisa Lutz, Sharon Matthews, Colleen McCracken, Anna McCracken, Ryan Meyers, Stephen Migliore
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ATTRACTIONS, EVENTS, ENTERTAINMENT Arboretum of Penn State, The ....43 Art Alliance of Central PA .............46 Bob Perk’s Fund .............................93 Center for the Performing Arts ................... Inside Front Cover Coaches Vs. Cancer ......................67 Palmer Museum of Art ...................88 Seven Mountains Wine Cellars ..97 State Theatre..................... 35, 68, 95 Toftrees Resort ................................34 AUTOMOTIVE Dix Honda .........................................45 Driscoll automotive ....... Back Cover Joel Confer BMW ............................62 BANKS, FINANCIAL SERVICES Diversified Asset Planners ...........82 Frost & Conn Insurance ................45 M&T Bank .......... Inside Back Cover Penn State Federal Credit Union ..............................................68 State College Federal Credit Union ..............................................42 UFINANCIAL .....................................31 Vantage Investment Advisors LLC ................................46 BELLEFONTE SECTION Bellefonte Victorian Christmas ...27 Black Walnut Body Works............26 Confer’s Jewelers ...........................27 Mid State Awning & Patio Company .......................................26 Penn State Federal Credit Union ..............................................26 Reynolds Mansion ..........................26
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BOALSBURG Boalsburg Apothecary ..................36 Duffy’s Tavern ..................................37 The Gift Shop at the Federal House .............................................37 Kelly’s Steak & Seafood ...............36 Natures Hue .....................................36 N’v........................................................36 Tait Farm Foods...............................36 BUSINESS, INDUSTRY Blair County Chamber Of Commerce ....................................64 CBICC .................................................22 CONSTRUCTION, DEVELOPMENT SERVICES Builders Association of Central PA .....................................63 DINING Autoport .......................................... 105 Cozy Thai Bistro ........................... 107 Damon’s grill ................................. 107 Dantes ............................................. 108 Faccia Luna ................................... 104 Gamble Mill Restaurant.............. 105 Herwig’s .......................................... 107 Hotel State College ..................... 102 India Pavilion ....................................46 Meyer Dairy Store & Ice Cream Parlor ........................................... 106 Otto’s Pub ...................................... 103 PSU Food Services (HUB Dining).............................. 106 Tavern Restaurant............................. 1 Wegmans........................................ 109 Westside Stadium ........................ 106 Whistle Stop Restaurant ............ 106 Zola New World Bistro................ 105
GIFT GUIDE A Basket Full ....................................81 Ace Hardware of State College .....72 Bare Foot ...........................................72 Beer Belly’s Beverage ...................70 Confer’s Jewelers ...........................77 Conklin’s Corner .............................77 Evolve Studios .................................79 Gardner’s Candies .........................72 Goot Essa..........................................77 Home Reflections............................77 Jack Harper’s ...................................79 Mike’s Video, TV & Appliances......80 Mount Nittany Vineyard & Winery ...........................................79 Nittany Mall .......................................71 Palmer Museum of Art ...................79 Pure Urban Spa ..............................79 State Amusement ...........................81 LODGING HFL Corporation (Country Inn & Suites) ...............65 Hospitality Asset Management Company .................................... 103 Penn State Hospitality ..................... 4 Philips Hotel................................... 107 MEDICAL Ginger Grieco, DDS .....................113 HealthSouth / Nittany Valley Rehab Hospital ............................44 Mount Nittany Medical Center ...... 3 PHOTOGRAPHY Vista Pro Studios ............................25 PRINTING, COPYING, MEDIA Penn State Public Broadcasting (WPSU)...........................................83
REAL ESTATE, HOUSING Cali, Tom – RE/MAX .......................11 Kissinger Bigatel & Brower ..........24 Lions Gate Apartments .................42 Rittenhouse, Lisa – RE/MAX ......44 RETIREMENT SERVICES Foxdale Village ................................25 Presbyterian Senior Living ............. 8 SERVICES Blair Plastic Surgery ......................24 Centre Elite Gymnastics, Inc ......... 4 Clean Sweep Professional Cleaning Services ......................45 Goodall & Yurchak........................113 Handy Delivery ................................87 Hoag’s Catering ..............................62 McQuaide Blasko ............................. 7 Owen’s Barbar Shop ....................... 9 P2P Computer Solutions ..............29 Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics .......................................115 Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape ................................21 Red Cross .........................................93 Tire Town ...........................................23 SHOPPING, RETAIL America’s Carpet Outlet ...............65 Aurum Jewelers & Goldsmiths ......34 Capperella Furniture ........................ 2 Collegiate Pride ...............................33 Degol Carpet ....................................23 Moyer Jewelers ...............................29 Penn State Bookstore ...................85 Squire Brown’s ................................33 Your Perfect Fit .................................. 6 VISITOR INFORMATION Central PA Convention & Visitors Bureau ............................................ 4
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94 - Town&Gown December 2011
from the vine
Grape Gift Ideas Plenty of present possibilities for the wine lover in your life By Lucy Rogers
Buying gifts for people in your life can sometimes be a little challenging. There are the people who have everything and need nothing, the people who won’t tell you what they really want, or even the people that you feel the need to buy gifts for but don’t know well enough to know what would be fitting gifts. And this can cause some agitation and/or anxiety at a time when we should really just be enjoying the ability and desire to give a gift at all. But let’s face it: it’s always really nice to score a home run when it comes to the holiday gift exchange. If you have a known wine lover on your gift list, a bottle of wine will surely be appreciated and enthusiastically received. But
you may want to try to delve a little bit into the recipient’s tastes and preferences. After all, buying a bottle of wine as a gift can be like buying a book or a piece of artwork as a gift — if you don’t really know what the person likes or appreciates, your good intentions may be squandered such as when you buy a mystery novel for a science fiction fan, or a contemporary reproduction for the impressionist lover. Either way, it never hurts to try to dig around for a little information, either by talking to the person you intend to buy for or by asking those who know the person well enough to make suggestions. But if all else fails, you could consider the following guidelines to help you navigate the wineas-gift process. A true wine enthusiast will be happy with almost any bottle you purchase, though I would recommend spending at least $10 for someone who drinks wine on a regular basis. These folks are out in the stores, tasting and broadening horizons, and are usually interested in trying something new. For these folks, I would recommend almost anything off the beaten path — maybe a less common varietal such as Bonarda, a red grape that is experiencing success in Argentina, or perhaps an uncommon blend from the upand-coming Spanish regions Montsant, Bierza, or Jumilla. If you really want to impress, search out some of the most famous names or regions that will register some serious appreciation when presented to the recipient. If you can afford to spend between $30 and $40, you could look into buying a well-reviewed Chateauneuf de Pape or Crozes-Hermitage from France, or perhaps a highly recognizable and reputable Cabernet from Napa Valley. The enthusiast will be happy to receive any such gift. For the person to whom you just want to give a good bottle of wine, the state stores (well, the premium state stores) actually abound with
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Make it a “Black Tie” affair. Introducing Black Tie, our sparkling, semi-dry champagne...sure to be the life of the party! Great for Breakfast Mimosas, too! Unique wine accessories, carriers, stoppers, jewelry and ornaments, for the wine lover on your gift list! Tasting and Winery Tours at Seven Mountain’s beautiful lodge. Shipping Available.
Winter Hours Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
107 Mountain Springs Lane • (814) 364-1000 • www.sevenmountainswinecellars.com 107 Mountain Springs Lane • (814) 364-1000 • www.sevenmountainswinecellars.com Only 20 minutes from State College, 1 mile off 322 near Potters Mills/Decker Valley Road Only 20 minutes from State College, 1 mile off 322 near Potters Mills/Decker Valley Road
plenty of good wines at all price levels. I think the trick is to either go with a producer who you know consistently makes a good product and is generally well received, or go completely into uncharted territory and pick something more obscure that is unrecognizable. That is to say, I don’t think there’s much fun in getting a bottle of Fetzer or a bottle of Woodbridge. Sure, I sound like a wine snob, but it’s more than just snobbery — and it isn’t about the money spent, either. It’s about the lack of imagination that such a wine brings to the table. Where’s the excitement? Who hasn’t had Fetzer or Woodbridge before? For the same price you could find an interesting wine from Argentina, Spain, or Australia that might actually open up a new horizon for the gift recipient. The mundane purchase of the ordinary implies not just a lack of creativity but also kind of implies a lack of effort — it’s a token gift; it is A Bottle of Wine as opposed to a bottle of Malbec or Torrontes or Riesling. So what do you do if you want to buy a bottle of wine for someone because you know they like wine but you don’t know much about what they like? Well, my first suggestion is to go to the bubbly. First of all, there is a wide range of options that can fit into anyone’s budget. From Italy’s prosecco to France’s true champagne, you can find what you need and can afford. Secondly, it’s always a fun and festive gift to receive as well as pure joy to share. Thirdly, even the committed “I only drink red wine” aficionado can appreciate a decent sparkling wine. Lastly, it is probably the perfect wine in that it can be consumed as an aperitif, but also pairs well with almost any meal. Right now the state store has two incredible deals: Zardetto Prosecco Private Cuvee at $7.99 (PLCB code 32247) and the Zefiro Prosecco NV at $9.99 (PLCB code 32295). Either of these dry sparkling wines will make the perfect wine to bring to a holiday party as an offering to the host to either open or save. If you believe that your intended recipient or host would be more appreciative of something sweeter, the Toad Hollow Vin Vivant Risque NV (PLCB code 32219, $8.99) would be perfect. At 6 percent alcohol, it is not a wine that is going to tip anyone over the edge. While only slightly drier than Sprite (which makes it remarkably
easy drinking) this wine would do well added to a holiday punch, and comes with a flip-top/ rubber stopper closure (similar to a Grolsch bottle) that could easily be used for storing olive oil once the wine is consumed. If you’re gift recipient has a more developed palate in terms of sparkling wine, you might consider spending a little more money and go for the Domaine Carneros, produced in California by the famous French Champagne house Taittinger (PLCB code 4578, $20.99) or go with that off-beat idea and pick up a bottle of Gruet Brut (PLCB code 29250, $15.99), which is produced in New Mexico. Talk about a conversation piece, the Gruet is a well-made sparkling wine that surprises and delights people at the same time. Another solid option is Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noir, a lovely blend of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. At $16.99, its pale pink/salmon color looks beautiful in the glass and brings a little delicate berry fruit to the palate that will most likely appeal to a broader audience. Now, if you really want to impress a sparkling-wine enthusiast and don’t mind spending the money, Moet Chandon Imperial is a beautifully balanced wine with nuanced stone-fruit flavors that is pure delight, or you could go for the number-one sparkling wine in the US, also produced by Moet Chandon, White Star. I would warn, however, that unless the person you are giving the sparkling wine to has really honed their appreciation of sparkling wine, it is usually not worth spending the really big bucks on something like Dom Perignon or Cristal. While these wines will be enjoyed by all who consume them, it’s not likely that most of the drinking public could truly appreciate the subtlety of what makes these wines special, so why lay out the cash? With so many great value-toprice ratio sparkling wines on the shelf, there really is no need to spend more than $50 for a gift that will be well received. So bring on the bubbly, I say. It does always seem to make everyone “happy.” Wishing you all the best this holiday season! T&G Lucy Rogers teaches wine classes and offers private wine tastings through Wines by the Class. She also is the event coordinator for Zola Catering (off-site and at the State College Elks Club).
98 - Town&Gown December 2011
John Hovenstine (4)
Taste the
of
Month
Faccia Luna’s Mussels Mariner
Served with homemade bread
99 - Town&Gown December 2011
Sea Bass
Served with ginger soy sauce and asparagus
Grilled Scallops
Includes your choice of pasta
100 - Town&Gown December 2011
Faccia Luna, located at 1229 South Atherton Street in State College, is known for two things — the area’s best New York-style wood-fired pizza, and fresh-seafood menu every weekend. Opened in April 1990, Faccia Luna has become the neighborhood pizzeria where locals come for great Italian food at reasonable prices in a casual and comfortable setting. “We have a lot of regulars who come here because they know that our ingredients are fresh and we make almost everything inhouse, from our fettuccini and linguini pastas to our soups and, of course, pizza,” says owner Bill McFadden. “We bring in fresh seafood from Washington, DC, every Thursday, so our salmon is harvested in Norway on Tuesday, arrives in Washington by plane on Wednesday, and we get it to State College on Thursday.” Depending on what is in season, the seafood menu may vary, but the most popular seafood items such as the crab cakes, salmon, and mussels are always on the menu. Chef Jason Dunlap adds, “It’s the freshest sea-
> Featured Selections < Hours of Operation Monday- Saturday: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday: Noon-10 p.m. Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Specials: Monday-Friday: Two slices of pizza and choice of salad or soup, $6.50 Monday-Friday: Featured soup of the day. Thursday: Fish special starts at 5 p.m. Friday: Panini sandwiches, $8.95 Friday-Sunday: Fresh seafood menu starts at 4:30 p.m. Happy Hour: Daily 5-7 p.m. Faccia Luna does not take reservations. Extra parking available after 5 p.m. at Nittany Office Equipment or on-street parking on Old Boalsburg Road and South Allen Street.
Taste of the Month
Chefs Jason Dunlap, Bob Roan, and Adam Sluzis
food in Central PA and we get a nice selection from sea bass, flounder, halibut, tuna, salmon, to scallops, crab cakes, and mussels.” What makes the pizza so good at Faccia Luna is the wood-fired oven. “There is no secret to what we do here,” explains McFadden. “You start with high-quality ingredients and you cook the pizza at 700 degrees. This quick heat cooks the pizza in about five minutes where a conventional gas oven might take 10 minutes.” There are more than a dozen taste-tested pizzas on the menu, from cheese Margherita to the Genovese with thinly sliced potatoes, pesto, tomatoes, and basil, or the restaurant’s bestseller, the Faccia Luna with sausage, fresh mushrooms, and roasted red peppers. General manager Mike Corbett adds, “On an average Friday, we can easily do 200 pizzas or more.” Open for lunch and dinner, Faccia Luna’s menu also includes salads, sandwiches, and pasta dishes from Chicken Marsala to Meatballs, all served with your choice of pasta from homemade egg fettuccine, garlic-basil linguine, spinach linguine, or penne. For more information about Faccia Luna, visit www.faccialuna.com. For a special recipe for Faccia Luna’s mussels, visit www.townandgown.com. T&G — Vilma Shu Danz
101 - Town&Gown December 2011
Dining Out Full Course Dining The 1921 Restaurant at The Philips Hotel, 200 E. Presqueiste Street, Philipsburg, 342-7445, www.ThePhilips1921.com. Exquisite fine dining in the historic Philips Hotel. Featuring choice steaks, fresh seafood, and a full bar. Private dining rooms are available. AE, D, DC, MAC, MC, V. Full bar. Allen Street Grill, corner of Allen Street and College Avenue, 231-GRILL. The food sizzles. The service sparkles. The prices are deliciously frugal. The menu is classic American grill mixed with popular influences from Mexico, Italy, and the Far East. AE, D, MC, V. Alto Italian Restaurant and Bar, 901 Pike St., Lemont; 238-5534. Featuring authentic, traditional Italian cuisine with seasonal menus, handmade pastas, fresh and local ingredients, and exceptional service. Extensive wine list, full bar, catering, private dining. Perfect for a casual or business lunch. Reservations suggested. All credit cards accepted. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tues.-Fri. Dinner 5:30-9/10 p.m. The Autoport, 1405 S. Atherton St., 237-7666, www.theautoport.com. The all new Autoport offers exceptional dining featuring local produce and an extensive wine list. Tapas menu and special events every week. Catering and private events available. Live music. AE, D, DC, MAC, MC, V. Full bar. Bar Bleu & Bar Q, 113 S. Garner St., 237-0374. Authentic Kansas City Barbeque featuring smoked ribs, pork, wings, plus down-home sides and appetizers. Roadhouse & Sports Lounge upstairs. Upscale martini bar downstairs featuring live music 7 nights a week. Open for dinner every night at 5 p.m. AE, D, DC, ID+, MC, V. Full bar.
Bill Pickle’s Tap Room,106 S. Allen St., 272-1172. Not for saints…not for sinners. AE, DIS, MAC, MC, V. Full bar. Carnegie House, corner of Cricklewood Dr. and Toftrees Ave., 234-2424. An exquisite boutique hotel offering fine dining in a relaxed yet gracious atmosphere. Serving lunch and dinner. Prix Fixe menu and à la carte menu selections now available. AAA Four Diamond Award recipient for lodging and fine dining. Reservations suggested. AE, MC, D, V. Full bar. Chili’s Grill & Bar, 137 S. Allen St. (downtown), 234-5922. Chili’s is like “no place else” — Southwestern menu features sizzling fajitas, “the Best Burgers,” baby-back ribs, steaks, and Margarita Madness. Major credit cards accepted. Full Bar. The Corner Room Restaurant, corner of Allen Street and College Avenue, 237-3051. Literally first in hospitality. Since 1855, The Corner Room has served generous breakfasts, lunches, and dinners to the community and its guests. AE, D, MC, V.
Key
AE ...........................................................American Express CB ..................................................................Carte Blanche D ................................................................ Discover/Novus DC........................................................................Diners Club ID+ ................................................ PSU ID+ card discounts LC ............................................................................ LionCash MAC .......................................................................debit card MC .......................................................................MasterCard V ......................................................................................... Visa .............................................. Handicapped-accessible
To advertise, call Town&Gown account executives Kathy George or Debbie Markel at (814) 238-5051.
102 - Town&Gown December 2011
Cozy Thai Bistro, 232 S. Allen St., 237-0139. A true authentic Thai restaurant offering casual and yet “cozy” family-friendly dining experience. Menu features wide selections of exotic Thai cuisine, both lunch and dinner (take-out available). BYO (wines & beer) is welcome after 5 p.m. AE, D, DC, MAC, MC, V.
We love People, Beer & Local Foods Bringing you craft beer and fresh food using local products in a family friendly, casual atmosphere.
Damon’s Grill & Sports Bar, 1031 E. College Ave., 237-6300, damons.com. Just seconds from Beaver Stadium, locally owned and operated, Damon’s is the premiere place to watch sports and enjoy our extensive menu. Ribs, wings, burgers, steaks, apps, salads, and so much more. AE, D, MAC, MC, V, Full bar. The Deli Restaurant, 113 Hiester St., 237-5710. The area’s largest menu! Soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, Mexican, Cajun. Dinners featuring steaks, chicken, seafood and pastas, heart-healthy menu, and award-winning desserts. AE, D, DC, LC, MC, V. Full bar. The Dining Room at the Nittany Lion Inn, 200 W. Park Ave., 865-8590. Fine continental cuisine in a relaxed, gracious atmosphere. Casual attire acceptable. Private dining rooms available. AE, D, DC, MAC, MC, V. Full bar.
Food & Beer TO GO! Bottles • Cases • Kegs • Growlers Visit our Gift Shop for your holiday shopping!
2235 North Atherton Street, State College
814.867.6886
www.ottospubandbrewery.com
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Duffy’s Boalsburg Tavern, On the Diamond, Boalsburg, 466-6241. The Boalsburg Tavern offers a fine, intimate setting reminiscent of Colonial times. Dining for all occasions with formal and casual menus, daily dinner features, specials, and plenty of free parking AE, MC, V. Full bar.
The Gardens Restaurant at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd., Innovation Park, 863-5090. Dining is a treat for breakfast, lunch and dinner in The Gardens Restaurant, where sumptuous buffets and à la carte dining are our specialties. AE, CB, D, DC, MC, V. Full bar, beer.
Faccia Luna Pizzeria, 1229 S. Atherton St., 234-9000, www.faccialuna.com. A true neighborhood hangout, famous for authentic New York-style wood-fired pizzas and fresh, homemade It.alian cuisine. Seafood specialties, sumptuous salads, divine desserts, great service, and full bar. Outside seating available. Sorry, reservations not accepted. Dine-in, Take-out. MC/V
Herwig’s Austrian Bistro, where bacon is an herb, 132 W. College Ave., herwigsaus trianbistro.com, 238-0200. Located next to the State Theatre. Austrian Home Cooking. Ranked #1 Ethnic Restaurant 5 years in a row. Eatin, Take-Out, Catering, Franchising. BYO after 5 p.m., D, MC, V.
Gamble Mill Restaurant & Microbrewery, 160 Dunlop St., Bellefonte; 355-7764. A true piece of Americana, dine and enjoy our in-house craft beers in a historic mill. Experience bold American flavors by exploring our casual pub menu or fine dining options. Six to seven beers of our craft beers on tap. Brewers Club, Growlers, outdoor seating, large private functions, catering. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Dinner 5-9/10 p.m. Mon.-Sat. “Chalk Board Sunday’s” 4-8 p.m. All credit cards accepted.
Hi-Way Pizza, 1688 N. Atherton St., 237-0375. Voted best pizza. Twenty-nine variations of pizza, entire dinner menu and sandwiches, strombolis, salads, spectacular desserts, and beer to go. AE, D, DC, LC, MC, V. Full bar. India Pavilion, 222 E. Calder Way, 237-3400. Large selection of vegetarian and nonvegetarian dishes from northern India. Lunch buffet offered daily. We offer catering for groups and private parties. AE, D, (call ahead.) MC, V.
We continue the Luna tradition by using only the freshest ingredients!
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www.luna-2.com 2609 E. College Ave. • State College, PA • 234-9009 104 - Town&Gown December 2011
Inferno Brick Oven & Bar, 340 E. College Ave., 237-5718, www.infernobrickovenbar.com. Casual but sophisticated atmosphere — a contemporary brick oven experience featuring a lunch and dinner menu of old- world favorites and modern-day revolutions. AE, D, MAC, MC, V. Full bar. Kelly’s Steak & Seafood, 316 Boal Ave., Boalsburg, 466-6251. Pacific Northwest inspired restaurant. Seasonal menu with rotating fresh sheet. Offering private dining for up to 50 people. Catering available. AE, MC, V, Full Bar. Legends Pub at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd., Innovation Park, 863-5080. Unwind with beverages and a casual lounge menu. AE, D, MC, V. Full bar. Luna 2 Woodgrill & Bar, 2609 E. College Ave., 234-9009, www.luna-2.com. Wood-fired pizza, fresh pasta, wood-grilled BBQ ribs, seafood, burgers, and don’t forget to try the homemade meatloaf! Sumptuous salads and desserts. Full bar service. Outside seating. Sorry, no reservations accepted. Dine-In, Take-out. MC/V
Now Booking Holiday Parties! This year, make your Holiday gathering memorable! Our staff will help you plan out the perfect event! Great food, great prices, and a perfect party atmosphere!
Call us today at 814-237-7666! NEW! Holiday Lunch Buffet Every Tuesday Through Friday December 13 – December 23
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DEA L BEST W N! O T IN
This Holiday Season Give the Gift of Good Taste! AUTOPORT Gift Cards
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Mario & Luigi’s Restaurant, 1272 N. Atherton St., 234-4273. The Italian tradition in State College. Homemade pasta, chicken, seafood specialties, veal, wood-fired pizza, calzones, rotisserie chicken, roasts, salads, and sandwiches, plus cappuccino and espresso! AE, D, DC, LC, MC, V. Full bar. The Mt. Nittany Inn, 559 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, Centre Hall, 364-9363, mtnittanyinn.com. Perched high above Happy Valley at 1,809 feet, the Mt. Nittany Inn offers homemade soups, steaks, seafood, and pasta. Bar and banquet areas available. AE, CB, D, MAC, MC, V. Full Bar. Otto’s Pub & Brewery, 2235 N. Atherton Street, 867-6886, www.ottospubandbrewery.com. Our new location provides plenty of parking, great ales and lagers, full service bar, signature dishes made with local products in a family-friendly, casual atmosphere. AE, D, DC, LC MC, V, Full bar. The Tavern Restaurant, 220 E. College Ave., 238-6116. A unique gallery-in-a-restaurant preserving PA’s and Penn State’s past. Dinner at The Tavern is a Penn State tradition. Major credit cards accepted. Full bar.
Whiskers at the Nittany Lion Inn, 200 W. Park Ave., 865-8580. Casual dining featuring soups, salads, sandwiches and University Creamery ice cream. Major credit cards accepted. Full bar. Whistle Stop Restaurant, Old Train Station Corner, Centre Hall on Rte. 144, 15 minutes east of State College. 364-2544. Traditional dining in an 1884 Victorian railroad station decorated with railroad memorabilia. Chef-created soups, desserts, and daily specials. Lunch and dinner served Wed.-Sun. D, MC, V. Zola New World Bistro, 324 W. College Ave., 237-8474. Zola combines comfortable, modern décor with exceptional service. Innovative, creative cuisine from seasonal menus served for lunch and dinner. Extensive award-winning wine list. Jazz and oysters in the bar on Fridays. Catering. AE, D, MC, V. Full bar.
Good Food Fast HUB Dining, HUB-Robeson Center, on campus, 865-7623. A Penn State tradition open to all! Eleven restaurants stocked with extraordinary variety: Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Higher Grounds, Joegies, Mixed Greens, Nathan’s, Panda Express, Piccalilli’s, Sbarro, Sushi by Panda, Wild Cactus, and more! V, MC, LC. Owner Matt Leitzell
• Take-out and bottle shop • Outdoor seating available
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106 - Town&Gown December 2011
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Meyer Dairy, 2390 S. Atherton St., 237-1849. Stop and get your favorite flavor at our ice cream parlor. We also sell a variety of delicious cakes, sandwiches, and baked goods. Taco Bell, 322 W. College Ave., 231-8226; Hills Plaza, 238-3335. For all the flavors you love, visit our two locations. Taco Bell, Think Outside the Bun!
Buy $100 in Gift Cards and get an additional $25 free – November 1 through January 2.
Westside Stadium Bar and Grill, 1301 W. College Ave., 308-8959, www.westsidestadium barandgrill.com. See what all the buzz is about at Westside Stadium. Opened in September 2010, State College’s newest hangout features mouthwatering onsite smoked pork and brisket sandwiches. Watch your favorite sports on 17 HDTVs. Happy Hour 5-7 p.m. Take-out and bottle shop. Outdoor seating available. D, V, MC. Full Bar. T&G
Call us for more details about our Holiday banquets and caterings. 1031 East College Ave. 814-237-6300 • damons.com
Taste of the Month Café 210 West’s Ultimate Angus Burger
Town&Gown’s monthly focus on food
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Philips Charms for pandora style bracelets now available online! • Professional & Residential Condominiums Available • Fine Dining and a full marble bar • Prime office space available • Private dining rooms available • The area’s only 7th Story Grand Ballroom • Newly renovated hotel rooms
200 East Presqueisle St. • Philipsburg, PA • 814-342-7445 • www.thephilips1921.com 107 - Town&Gown December 2011
lunch with mimi
Eternal Optimist As she waits for a new heart, Dana Hardy continues to live life to the fullest
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John Hovenstine
A Penn State grad with a degree in nursing, a wife, and mother of two children, Dana Hardy, 37, is on the waiting list for a heart transplant. She was diagnosed with a dilated cardio-m y o p a t hy a n d a resulting ventricular arrhythmia when she was 15, and, although doctors are not certain of what caused this condition, it is most likely the result of a virus attacking her heart muscles, leaving it scarred and enlarged. Due to her heart’s irregular shape and size, it is unable to contract Dana Hardy (right) talks with Town&Gown founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith at The Tavern in State College. and expand properly, putting Hardy at risk for sudden cardiac death Penn State. Mimi: Your parents worked at Penn State? caused by ventricular arrhythmia/fibrillation, which Dana: My father did and still works there. occurs when a heart beats too fast to pump any He works in the copy center at the Engineering blood to any part of a body. Despite all the medications and the surgeries to Building. Mimi: And you were cruising around as a implant a pacemaker, her heart is failing. Under the care of the University of Pennsylvania’s heart- healthy kid until what age? Dana: About 15. transplant team in Philadelphia, she is waiting, Mimi: What happened? hoping, and praying that she gets that lifesaving Dana: I passed out at track practice and they call. The estimated cost for the first year of her thought it was a virus. Mimi: Were you actually running? transplant is $787,700, and she is hoping to raise Dana: I was. I was running around the track $20,000 per year. Residing in State College, she lives each day to the fullest, making sure she doesn’t and passed out and my coach said, “You really need to follow this through and figure out what’s miss a moment with her family. Town&Gown founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith going on.” They gave me a Holter monitor, sat down with Hardy at The Tavern to discuss her which is a 24-hour monitor that continuously heart condition, her unexpected stroke at age 31, records the heart’s rhythms. They called my and her mission to raise enough money to cover the parents and I remember them saying something’s wrong. costs of her transplant. Mimi: The doctor at Penns Valley said there Mimi: Well, Dana, you were born and raised in Centre County. Tell us how you started your is something wrong? Dana: Yes. He said, “We already scheduled life. Dana: I grew up in Centre Hall and I went you to go to Hershey to have a couple of tests to Penns Valley High School. Then, I went to done.”
Mimi: How did you feel at age 15? Dana: Angry. Mimi: How did you handle your anger? Dana: It was so overwhelming. I remember going to basketball camp and then I couldn’t go. I couldn’t do anything. They cut all activities. Mimi: Were your friends helpful to you? Dana: Oh, absolutely. Everybody was. Mimi: Did that help you temper your anger? You saw how good people rise to the occasion when the sky falls? Dana: Absolutely, and especially as a child. Everybody was wonderful in the community. Mimi: When did you find out what was really wrong? Dana: They did a heart catheter and they thought that it was a virus. Basically it was a very dangerous heart rhythm. If I didn’t have medicine to calm it down I could die. Mimi: Were you fully aware of the danger you were in or did they keep it from you? Dana: They told me. I felt great, so it was hard to understand that you’re sick inside. Mimi: It’s hard to understand that you’re sick today. You look like the picture of health. I detect a little difficulty in your speech from your stroke. When did that enter the picture? Dana: My stroke doesn’t have anything to do with my heart. We moved to Virginia with my husband’s job and I went to have a tooth pulled and the dentist ripped my carotid artery. Mimi: And it caused the stroke? Dana: Yes. Mimi: That’s bad luck. Dana: Yeah, but at the same time good luck because they told me most people die from this. I’m still alive. Mimi: How old were you then? Dana: 31. Mimi: Now between 15 and 31 were there many incidents in that period? Dana: I was in and out of the hospital because some of the medicines didn’t control the rhythm. I was very lucky to have both of my kids. Mimi: And they’re both healthy? Dana: Absolutely. The heart was able to withstand the pregnancies, which was wonderful. Mimi: What was your health like before, during, and after? Dana: I was diagnosed when I was 15 and I had a couple mishaps when I was in college, changing medicines. I would get into ventricular
tachycardia, or V-tach, which is a dangerous rhythm. Mimi: Did you miss a lot of college? Dana: No, it was usually a week. They would get me a new medicine and I would live my life, go back to school, and not even think about it. Besides Hershey, I also went to Johns Hopkins to see if there were any better medicines. Then I got my nursing degree from Penn State. Mimi: Were you a good student? Dana: Yes, I got a 3.47. Mimi: Good for you! Dana: Then, I had my first child, a boy who is now 14. My pregnancies were both wonderful. I had my daughter, who is now 11. When my daughter was 2 and my son was 5, we were at a family reunion in Delaware, and we were sleeping, and in the middle of the night my heart started to race. I was going into V-tach. The medicine was obviously not working anymore. Mimi: What did you do? Dana: We went to the hospital. My husband took me, and my kids stayed at our relative’s house. They were trying to give me medicines to stop it, but it wouldn’t, so they had to shock me. And I had been shocked before. Mimi: How many times? Dana: Many times. They would induce rhythms when I was asleep and they would shock me to make sure that the medicines were working. As long as they put me asleep it was okay. They did that and basically said I had a choice to have a defibrillator and a pacemaker put in here at the Delaware hospital or I would fly to Geisinger. So, my insurance called and they life-flighted me from Delaware to Geisinger in Danville, and I got my first defibrillator. Mimi: You are amazing because you can talk about this with real clarity and belief in yourself. To what extent has your remarkable belief in yourself helped you through this? Dana: I have such a strong support system that I know that no matter what, somebody would help me or my family. I knew that no matter what, I was going to go back to life, and it’s the same thing with this heart transplant. I’m going to go to the hospital. I’m going to kiss my family and I’m going to say, “I’ll see you in five hours.” Then I want them to go home to resume their normal life and I will be back in a couple of weeks. I am going to rehab and I’m going to overcome it. I really believe that a
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positive attitude makes everything better. Mimi: You obviously have a terrific support system. Your parents, your husband’s parents, how does everybody help you be this strong person that you are with so many things to think about? Dana: I really believe that they don’t take things for granted. I don’t ask for a lot. I don’t ask for my parents to pick up my kids from activities because I want to do it because life is short. I want to be part of every little step of it. Mimi: I’m more than double your age and you’re making me feel like the luckiest person in State College right now! Dana: Well, part of life is luck. Mimi: And some of it you make your own luck, and I think you learned how to do that. Dana: Right, and honestly people tell me that you have the worst luck because you’ve had a stroke and a heart problem since I was 15, and I really believe that I am the luckiest one because a lot of people want to win the lottery, but life is my lottery and I’m lucky. I need to embrace it. I want to see my kids graduate from high school and college. I want to see my grandchildren. I’m not going to let that ever stop me. Mimi: This stroke, when did it occur? Dana: In 2005. I was actually picking my kids up and it was June 20. I remember the day very well. My son was in tennis camp. Mimi: You were in Virginia, right? Dana: I was. We just moved and I had a tooth pulled a week before and I was having problems with it. I picked up my son at tennis camp and I was coming home and we were having lunch. I was talking to my sister and all of a sudden I could not talk. Everything was garbled. Mimi: How about the rest of your body? Dana: I didn’t have any problem with that, but I knew that something was wrong. My 8-year-old called 911 and then called my husband. They transported me to the hospital and they couldn’t figure out what was going on, and then all of a sudden my right side was numb and I couldn’t move. And because I had a defibrillator they couldn’t do an MRI. The CAT scan didn’t say I was having a stroke. So, they didn’t treat me until the next day when I couldn’t even talk or walk. Mimi: Were you paralyzed on more than one side? Dana: The right side, the whole right side.
I still have problems with it. I’m very numb on this side. Mimi: Is there anything you can do for that? Dana: No, I just live with it. Mimi: You obviously have gone through therapy. Dana: I have. After this whole ordeal your insurance only covers some of it. They have a cap. We’ve run out of savings, so you had a whole year of that, then they kind of kick you out of therapy if you can’t pay. When we were faced with other situations with my heart transplant and we were talking with the financial coordinator at UPenn and they said that you really have to get ready for this because it’s expensive. And you’re going to have these medicines that are going to cost $2,000 a month. And you’re going to need therapy for the rest of your life. Mimi: So, now you’re on a mission. Dana: We are, and I’m a very private person, so it was very hard for me to go out there and ask. Mimi: Well, you don’t have to ask me! I’m going to start what I hope will be a campaign and hope that others will do similarly. I’m going to send you a check for a $1,000 as a Christmas present. Dana: Well, thank you! I have a transplant fund and that’s tax deductible, and the other one is a private bank. So, you have two different ways. Mimi: Tell us the two different ways that you have. Dana: Well, I have the transplant bond, and that’s a 501c3. Mimi: And how does someone write a check out for that? Dana: I have a Web site call Dana’s Hope, www.danashope.com. Mimi: And where are you in your fundraising? Dana: I’m not sure. I think we’re around $18,000 right now, which is just a humbling experience. Mimi: Well, people care — you know that. Dana: I would like to transition Dana’s Hope to a 501c3 for people who are having transplants. Mimi: I want to go back to this stroke experience. Both of your children saw it? Dana: Yep. I am very open and I want them to understand. Last time I was in the hospital in August, my husband and my daughter were
112 - Town&Gown December 2011
there the whole week. They found out that I had autoimmune hepatitis. It was from a medication that they gave me in March. They are treating me right now with a lot of prednisone. At the same time, when they did my biopsy, they found that 75 percent of my liver is destroyed because of the pressure on my heart has been so great that it has been wreaking havoc on my liver. Mimi: Liver fixes itself though, it gets better. Dana: And they’re hoping that. I was with the liver board at the University of Penn and they are presenting my case because they are thinking that if anything happens I would have to get a double, the heart and the liver. Mimi: You have a unique situation, but there are people out there ready to figure it out. Dana: Right, and the doctors have been wonderful. Mimi: You are truly an inspiration. I wish you the best. One of my favorite women of history is Golda Meir. She was a housewife who went to Israel to straighten things out and she became prime minister. No one believed it would happen. And one of my favorite quotes from her book, My Life, is “It isn’t enough to believe in something, you have to be willing to struggle
and work hard to overcome obstacles.” You are a person who I think has been doing this since you were 15 years old, and I want to see you when you’re prime minister of Centre County! Dana: Well, thank you. I want to thank everybody who has already donated. The last person I have to thank is the person who is going to donate their organ — their life — to me. Mimi: And you know there is someone out there now. Dana: Absolutely. Someone is alive right now and I am going to take this person’s organ. That’s the hardest transition to think about. What a gracious gift he or she is going to give to me. Mimi: May God continue to bless you with your amazing spirit and attitude. Attitude has got to be a big part of what has made you who you are. Good luck, and have a beautiful holiday. Dana: Thank you. T&G For more information or to donate to Dana’s Hope visit www.danashope.com. Checks can be sent to HelpHOPE Live, 150 N. Radnor Chester Rd., Suite F-120, Radnor, PA 19087. Indicate “In Honor of Dana Hardy” on the memo line.
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3943 South Atherton Street State College, PA 16801 113 - Town&Gown December 2011
State College Photo Club’s Photos of the Month Since 1947, the State College Photo Club has provided local photo enthusiasts with the opportunity to share their passion for photography with others and to provide an environment for learning and developing new skills. The club welcomes and encourages individuals from amateurs to professionals. One of the club’s activities is to hold a monthly competition. Town&Gown is pleased to present the winning images from the club’s competition. Here are the winning photos from the October competition.
Special Category (Humor)
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“New York City Dog-Walker” by Bonnie Ashcroft
“In May of this year, while walking on a side street in New York, I photographed ‘New York City Dog-Walker.’ I thought the size contrast of the two dogs was amusing, as well as how the smaller dog positioned himself. The impression I had of the ‘Dog-Walker’ was that she was oblivious to her surroundings. Therefore, using Photoshop Elements 9, I transformed the city street background to black and white.”
Open Category
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“Alpha” by James Valent
“A shot of my family car on a crisp November morning in front of Park Forest Elementary a few years back ... just a few leaves on a dry, fall day can do this.”
A copy of either of these photos may be obtained with a $75 contribution for each photo to the Salvation Army of Centre County. Contact Captain Charles Niedermeyer at 861-1785 and let him know you would like this image. You can select any size up to 14 inches wide. The State College Photo Club meets on the third Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Foxdale Village Auditorium. Learning sessions on topics of interest are often scheduled at 7 p.m. before the meeting. New members are always welcome! If you are interested in joining the State College Photo Club, visit www.statecollegephotoclub.org for more information. 114 - Town&Gown December 2011
snapshot Chuck Fong/Studio 2 Photography
Down to Business CBICC’s new leader brings plenty of experience By Allison LaTorre
Kansas native Vern Squier has stepped out of his comfort zone to take on a new job in the mountains and valleys of Centre County. On September 12, he became the new president and CEO of Chamber of Business and Industry in Centre County (CBICC). He takes over for David Wise, who had filled the role of CEO since June 2010 and continues to be the CBICC’s chief financial officer. Wise became CEO after previous president and CEO John Coleman left to serve as a commissioner with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Born and raised in Hays, Kansas, Squier is bringing his 30 years of chamber and economicdevelopment experience to the county. His journey to success began with attending Fort Hays State University, where he studied agricultural business. At the time, he was most interested in insurance and banking, and that’s where he started after graduating from college. While working for a bank in Kansas, he took his first steps in economic development when the economy in that area hit a rough stretch. He went right into action to help improve the economic condition of his community and repair the damage of lost businesses. “I looked for ways to try to replace those [businesses],” he says. “I got some volunteers and led some efforts, got a minimum-security correction facility to the community and that brought a lot of state jobs and some stability to our economy.” Afterward, he was asked to help other communities with economic development and chamber work. He believed he was the man for the job. “Somebody needed to do something, so I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” he says. From that point his career took off. Communities improved economically thanks to some of his work and he gained more experience. Now Centre County hopes to benefit from his expertise. He says he wants to bring a sense of innovation to the CBICC. He believes the organization needs to be a huge supporter of education for all ages, and he wants to improve infrastructure and transportation as well as create and develop jobs. Economics can be improved by what Squier calls
Vern Squier Pets: Bailey, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador. Kansas memories: Tornadoes, growing up on a farm, cutting wheat, and traveling to compete in sporting events. What he’s looking forward to most about Pennsylvania: Hiking and outdoor activities, skiing, and taking advantage of the community and what it has to offer. “The Three-Legged Stool.” It consists of recruiting companies, retaining and expanding existing businesses, and entrepreneurship. “We’re the pivotal body or pivotal group when it comes to economic development, representing businesses and their needs and interests and finding solutions to improve our community,” he says. This is the first time that Squier is living somewhere besides Kansas, and although to many that may seem like a difficult move, he is excited about living in this region especially because of the community members. “The people have been very welcoming, very warming, and very adapting of us,” he says. His two children are out of college and still living in Kansas. He and his wife and dog are enjoying Centre County’s beauty and all the opportunities available in State College. He says with a laugh, “It’s going to be very unique for us to have a ski slope nearby that I can see from my window, almost.” T&G
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