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A gray day for the Irish

By Joel Bewley, Inquirer Staff Writer

The luck of the Irish overcame the damp of the day for Philadelphia's 236th annual St. Patrick's Day parade. More than 150 groups marched through wet downtown streets, celebrating Irish music, dance and culture. The parade began at Washington Avenue and Broad Street, made its way up and around City Hall, and ended at 22d Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Here is a look at the parade through the eyes those who attended. Irish eyes don't just smile.
The parade once again served as a family reunion for the family of Brian McGuire, 40, who has been coming since he was a toddler. By noon, there were 20 members of the clan, and it was expected to grow.

"Every year we gather at Broad and Chestnut," said McGuire, from the city's Somerton section. They eagerly waited for McGuire's daughter, Kerri, 12, to perform with the Coyle School of Irish Dance. She has excelled in the group, to the delight of her father. "I'll tell you, when I see her coming up that street, it brings tears to my eyes," McGuire said.

A new tradition. Little Steven Bechtel was silent as he watched veterans of the Battle of the Bulge ride by on 16th Street. With a pocketful of candy he'd caught and a strand of shiny green beads, the 3-year-old from Merchantville waived an Irish flag from side to side.

2005 Merchantville School Report Card

Merchantville Elementary School lies at the physical and emotional heart of this small town. It benefits from unusually high levels of community involvement. Parents and community members, teachers and staff all take an active role in how the school is run and work hard to maintain and improve the quality of education offered here. They all deserve credit for the excellent scores our children receive in the statewide testing program.

This year, 355 children attend classes. The average class size for regular education is nineteen, and our special education classes have lower student-teacher ratios as well. Children range from Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade, and they walk to school with their siblings andneighbors. This age variation is beneficial in many ways. For example, our popular safety patrol benefits both the older and younger students. Older children practice responsibility and leadership skills; younger children benefit from an added sense of security and pride in having their "very own safety" look after them.

There is a strong emphasis on community responsibility and caring in the school, much like there is in Merchantville itself. Children of every grade level participate in community service projects. They receive special training in how to settle disagreements and often run fund-raisers, tutor younger students, and assist the PTA and School Board in various projects.

Enjoy your dinner with a side of history

By BILL REINHARDT, Courier-Post Staff Diners get a little something extra with their meals at the Collins House in Merchantville. Call it a side order of history. Not to worry. It doesn't cost extra and won't boggle the mind, as it did to most of us in high school. In fact, it enhances the ambience and helps satisfy those with an appetite for things from the past.
Read more...

Borough Snow Removal Ordinance

BOROUGH ORDINANCE 73-8
Responsibility of owner or occupant:
The owner or owners, occupant or occupants of premises abutting or bordering upon any of the streets, avenues or highways in the Borough of Merchantville shall remove or cause to be removed all ice or snow from the sidewalks of any such streets, avenues or highways within 10 hours of daylight after the same shall have formed or ceased to fall thereon. The meaning of this ordinance is for all property owners, or occupants to clear the public sidewalks that abut your property within 10 hours of the storm ceasing or 10 hours after daylight, which ever is first. The first violation of this ordinance will cause a written warning to be issued. For any subsequent violations a summons to appear in municipal court will be issued.

Chance to help and explore

By MICHAEL NEUMERSKI, For The Inquirer

A two-year commitment to International Volunteering offers a couple both.

Sally and Michael Neumerski, of Merchantville, hike
the Inca Trail in the Peruvian Andes.

How could my wife, Sally, and I combine our lifelong desire to travel with a growing sense of responsibility to try to help the world's disadvantaged? This question led us to a two-year commitment to International Volunteering, and the notion that we could combine volunteer work in different countries with the study of cultures and the exploration of distant places.

County Flu Shot Program extended

The free flu shots will be given from 9 a.m. to noon and 4 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays at the Bellmawr Regional Health Center, 21 E. Browning Road.

Flu shots also will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon Fridays at the East Camden Regional Health Center, 2631 Federal St.

Appointments are necessary. To make an appointment, call the Bellmawr Regional Health Center at (856) 931-2700 or the East Camden Regional Health Center at (856) 756-2264.

Two Merchantville teachers adapt to changing times

FRANK HALPERIN, Courier-Post

In Bob Dylan's reflective ode "My Back Pages," there is the well-known, ironic refrain, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.'

This quirky, yet pointed observation can be readily applied to schoolteachers.

Their constant interaction with students keeps them feeling young, and they can't sit back and rely on the teaching methods that worked in their classrooms years ago.

Jean Cogan and Annette Swanson, two teachers at Merchantville School, know all about that.

Between them, they have almost 65 years of service here, and they have had to adapt to the many changes in their profession -- particularly computer technology.

In fact, they continue to be inspired as they learn new ways to learn.

Merchantville Woman's Club News

The Merchantville Junior Woman's Club meets on the first Thursday of every month at the Merchantville Community Center on Prospect Street in Merchantville. The Merchantville Juniors are a group of diverse woman from Merchantville, Pennsauken and surrounding areas who have combined our forces to help make the world a better place. Our fund raising and community outreach programs target needs in the local and global community. We contribute to charities such as Pennsauken and Merchantville libraries, the Lions Club, CARE, Sacred Heart of Camden, and Cherished Creations, which offers support and respite to families with gravely ill children. Our

The Profit of Love

LAURENCE KESTERSON, Inquirer Staff

"People are a little cautious about going out on a limb
on Valentine's Day. ...Most people go straight back to
the rose." -- Karl Wirth of Wirth Florist, Merchantville.

By Henry J. Holcomb, Inquirer Staff Writer

Leonard Wexler is already having a happy Valentine's. He just sold a $21,000 William Harper necklace, his most expensive sweetheart gift ever.

"Valentine's Day is an excuse for buying a significant piece people wouldn't normally rationalize buying," said Wexler, whose gallery at 201 N. Third St. sells hand-made furniture, studio glass, ceramics, jewelry, and decorative art.

Sweet Success Candy consumption climbing higher

By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC, Gannett News

The sweet smell of success wafted through the Atlantic City Convention Center yesterday.

Despite a national push for a healthier diet, candy manufacturers and retailers attending the 13th Philadelphia National Candy, Gift and Gourmet Show say that sweet teeth flourish.

Business continues to grow steadily, said Jack Whitcraft, owner of Candy Buffet in Haddonfield and a sales representative for Royal Enterprises, the Mount Laurel candy distributor that supplies South Jersey institutions such as Aunt Charlotte's and Bayard's.

"People treat themselves, and one of the ways is with candy," Whitcraft said.

Per-capita consumption of candy has been on the rise since 2000, hitting 24.7 pounds in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Teacher's Class is Physically Fun

By SARAH GREENBLATT, Courier-Post Staff

Anthony Brancato approaches the weighty subject of physics with a feather-light touch.
In a classroom bedecked with altered movie posters and birthday cards addressed to Sir Isaac Newton, Brancato greets arriving 11th-graders at Brimm Medical Arts High School with instructions for the day's lab activity: calculating the effort required to perform physical work.

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