Landenberg Life Fall/Winter 2018

Fall/Winter 2018

Landenberg Life

Magazine M agazine

Paradocx Vineyard: Harvest in Landenberg Page 58

Inside: • The flight of the homing pigeon • Q & A with Sean Burns • New food truck is On the Roll Complimentary Copy

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

Oral Surgery Associates of Chester County Specializing in dental implants and wisdom teeth removal James F. Gustainis, DMD Cynthia Trentacosti, DDS, MS

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94th Annual

Unionville Community Fair & Farm Show Embracing All of Southern Chester County

October 5–7, 2018

Farms, Families, Fairs & Fun Hosted by Landhope Farms at Unionville

Fall/Winter 2018

Landenberg Life Table of Contents

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10

Rolling up a big success

18

Q & A with Principal Sean Burns

22

Profile of artist Lisa Bartolozzi

34

Community and yoga: Perfect together

52

The flight of the pigeon, in the care of a Swan

70

Chef Mark Spena takes over the historic Landenberg Store

76

The String Theory Band

Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

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34

70

The rich, fine tastes of Autumn in Landenberg

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76

Letter from the Editor: In this issue, we explored many different facets of life in Landenberg, beginning with an annual Autumn rite of passage for local wine lovers.

For the past several years, the Paradocx Vineyard has become known for the continually growing menu of its varietals, from its Auxerrois to its Viognier, and in the many tastes in between. In photographer Jim Coarse’s stunning essay, Landenberg Life celebrates the vistas of what has become a local landmark and a place to relax, uncork and unwind.

We profile Landenberg resident Tom Swan, who grew up being fascinated with pigeons. It’s a love that never left him, although his birds often do, soaring great heights and distances, then finding their way home.

This issue also introduces readers to chef Mark Spena. When Spena took over the historic Landenberg Store in July, it not only resuscitated the beating heart of a small town, it also began a new chapter in a culinary life that has been spent in kitchens.

We talk to yoga instructor Hilary Fox about the benefits of her classes. Fox, who also has her own studio in Avondale called The Growing Room, has been teaching classes since February in the Lyceum Hall in New Garden Park. The group meets on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m., and the classes are for all experience levels.

We also talk to acclaimed artist Lisa Bartolozzi about how her work is taking a new direction. Bartolozzi moves from epic depictions of the human figure to landscapes steeped in mystery.

In this issue, we also feature a story about the String Theory Band, which is comprised of eight very accomplished men and women who share their love of music—with each other and with audiences throughout the area.

Food trucks are very popular right now, and we talked to a local couple, Elaine and Eric Kelleher, about their food truck business, On the Roll.

Sean Burns became the new principal of the Penn London Elementary School in June. For the Q & A in this issue, Landenberg Life caught up with him to talk about his early impressions of the Avon Grove School District, the challenges of being a principal, and who influenced his decision to become an educator in the first place.

We hope you enjoy the stories in this issue of Landenberg Life as much as we enjoying working on them. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for future stories.

We are already looking forward to bringing you the next issue of Landenberg Life in the spring of 2019.

Sincerely, Randy Lieberman, Publisher randyl@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553 Steve Hoffman, Editor editor@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553, ext. 13 Cover design by: Tricia Hoadley Cover photo: Jim Coarse www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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|Landenberg Business|

Rolling up a big success

On the Roll puts great food on the road Elaine and Eric Kelleher have owned and operated the On the Roll food truck since June.

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Barbeque Chicken Nachos

Porktine

The Kennett Mushroom Melt

The Porky Pig

By John Chambless Staff Writer

H

ow successful is the food truck business being run

by Elaine and Eric Kelleher of Avondale? They’re so busy preparing food or serving it at area events that they could barely pause to answer questions.

That’s a very good sign for their business, On the Roll.

Eric was born and raised in Kennett Square, and Elaine has lived in the Kennett area since the couple married.

“Elaine and I actually met at the Kendal at Longwood retirement community in Kennett Square,” Eric said. “We worked as wait staff while in high school. She went to Unionville, I went to Kennett. It was there that our interest in cooking and the food service industry began.

“When we were first married, we started our own, small catering business,” he continued. “We were busy for a while, but then our children came along and we decided to put the catering business on hold. I’ve kept my hand in the food service industry for the last 30-plus years as a volunteer manager/cook for a local Boy Scout Troop’s spaghetti dinners and Father & Son weekends, as a head chef

The truck, which is being used pretty much every weekend, is nicknamed Bunny.

Continued on page 12 www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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On the Roll Continued from Page 11

for the Board Room and sponsors at the NASCAR races at Dover Downs, and as a bartender at private parties at the Brandywine River Museum.”

Elaine said, “I haven’t worked in the food industry since my high school days at Kendal, but I have baked frequently for family and friends over the years and have always dreamed of opening a bakery. We have been fine-tuning our main entrees on the food truck, but plan to offer gourmet desserts, along with gourmet coffee, prepared by our son, Ryan, in the very near future.”

While running On the Roll takes a sizable amount of their spare time, when they’re not cooking or driving, Eric works as a foreman at a construction company, and Elaine works at the University of Delaware in the Provost’s office.

The couple’s flair for food largely rests with Eric, according to Elaine. “Eric is the chef in the family. He has always loved to cook,” she said. “He is a talented, self-taught chef. I also like to cook, but my true love is baking and making desserts. With our combined interests, we cook well together, and have always enjoyed hosting dinners and parties for our families and friends.”

The idea to start a business was always there for the couple, but

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Family members are called upon to help out when the truck rolls to local events.

raising a family kept the plan on the back burner until recently.

“We looked into different venues of food service and found that owning a food truck was the best fit for us,” Elaine said.

She and her husband enjoy being able to change the menu to cater to various clients, the flexibility of deciding how often to work, the mobility of rolling up wherever they are wanted, and the lower cost of running a truck instead of a brick-and-mortar location. And they are catching the crest of a wave of popularity for food trucks in general.

“We’ve seen the food truck trend grow right before our eyes – and have experienced it first hand with a very swift take-off of our own business,” Eric said. “We do have other friends in the business who have been very helpful with advice and sharing ideas. There have been occasions when we’ve assisted each other at an event or filled in for each other.”

Operating On the Roll is just as much work as running a restaurant, Elaine said. “The amount of effort it takes to run a food truck -- including buying and preparing the food, maintaining the required safety standards, and running it administratively as any other type of business -- I feel the only difference between the food truck and a ‘real’ restaurant is that we lack tables and chairs. Although we do have an awning, tent and high tops for customers to use.”

Continued on page 14

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On the Roll Continued from Page 13

While the mobility is nice, there’s nothing easy about getting a food truck operation up and running, Eric said. “We bought the truck and then designed it for our needs, while being careful to abide by the rules and regulations set by the county. We outfitted the truck with all National Sanitation Foundation-certified Fried Corn Balls With Warm Syrup and Bacon equipment, we had a large fire extinguisher system installed, I obtained my food manager’s license, we had the truck inspected by the Chester County Health Department, and we follow stringent rules while operating the truck. We also hired a lawyer to incorporate the business, and an accountant to handle the tax aspects. We also had to purchase liability insurance and truck insurance. Depending on the location of an event, sometimes a permit for that day is required as well.”

On the Roll is an ideal name for a mobile restaurant, something Eric is proud of. “The name of the truck just came to me after going through many other names,” he said. “After coming up with the name, we, as well as our lawyer, determined that the name was not taken by any other local businesses. The truck’s nickname is Bunny, by the way.

“Once the name was determined, Elaine came up with the logo, while our daughter Hannah, who is a professional artist, drew the template for the graphic designer we hired to fabricate into signs for the truck.”

Of course, the most important aspect is the menu.

“We don’t have a signature dish, but our Kennett Mushroom Melt and our quesadillas are always big hits,” Elaine said. “We also have the Poppy’s Sloppy, which is a barbecued pulled chicken sandwich created by our son, Ryan.”

The business has taken off very quickly, surprising both Elaine and Eric. “We are much busier than we Continued on page 16

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On the Roll Continued from Page 14

ever anticipated and are thrilled because of it,” Elaine said. “Since we started in June of this year, we have been booked every single weekend, sometimes doing two or three jobs in a week. We have done mostly local public and private events, but have also done several events in Newark, Del., and Poppy’s Sloppy Rising Sun, Md. “Our shopping is usually done two days before the event, cooking is done the day before the event, and a thorough cleaning is done the day after the event,” she added.

There are challenges, Eric said. “The most difficult part of running a food truck is the short amount of time to get everything ready. Fortunately, we have really honed our system and run like a well-oiled machine now.”

And while food trucks are busy during the warmer months, “because we are regularly invited to serve at venues that are open year-round, such as breweries and wineries, we don’t feel our schedule will change much, despite the cooler weather,” Eric said.

With all of the success that’s come to On the Roll, Eric and Elaine are busy but happy.

“There are so many good things about doing this,” Eric said. “The cooking, being creative, being your own boss, meeting nice people. But the best thing of all is working with family and friends. Our son Ryan, daughter Hannah and friend/chef Mitch work with us regularly, and our other son Alex, daughter-in-law Jenn, and even our granddaughter Olivia help out occasionally. So it is truly a family business where we all get along, take care of business and have fun.”

For more information, visit www.ontherollinc.com, call 610-806-0590, or email ontherollinc@gmail.com.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email jchambless@chestercounty.com.

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www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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|Landenberg Life|

Q&A

with

Sean Bu

Sean Burns became the new principal of the Penn London Elementary School in June. Landenberg Life caught up with Mr. Burns to talk about his early impressions of the Avon Grove School District, the challenges of being a principal, and who influenced his decision to become an educator in the first place.

Q: The new school year is underway.

What have been some of your early impressions of the Avon Grove School District?

A: I can tell you, the reputation precedes itself. Avon Grove is an amazing school district. We have amazing families and such a supportive community. The commitment they have to not only the school, but also the community at large – it’s phenomenal. It’s awesome to be a part of it and I’m excited.

I’m excited for what the year is going to be, and most important, the opportunity to get to know all the families that I get to work with every day.

You have more than 20 years of experience in public and private education. Can you talk about the professional experiences you had before coming to Avon Grove?

I started as an elementary teacher and I loved what I did. I worked with kids from K-8 at a private school, St. Andrew’s in Drexel Hill. That’s where I developed that passion for working with students on all different levels. Next, I was fortunate enough to be hired at Garnet Valley as a teacher. I became assistant principal there two years later and stayed there for five more years. I then spent

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

two years as principal at Upper Darby and returned to Garnet Valley when there was an opening at an elementary school. In 2013, I migrated to Owen J. Roberts High School.

When the Avon Grove position opened, I was eager to return to my roots in elementary school. I love being in the elementary setting, so this was just the perfect opportunity.

Burns

Being a principal of a school comes with a lot of challenges, but the job probably has more than its share of rewarding moments, too. What is the best part of your job?

It’s the opportunities to be around the students: Helping out in the lunch room, having them smile

and say hello, greeting them as they get off the bus and seeing them hold each other’s hands as they walk in the building. It’s those times when you’re like, “Wow, this is awesome.”

Continued on page 20

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Sean Burns Continued from Page 19

Education seems to be changing rapidly. What are you most excited about when it comes to how students are educated?

To me, it’s the accessibility they have to technology and how it can enhance the learning – not replace it, but to enhance the learning. To afford them opportunities where they’re able to use technology and not only do research but also to be able to produce, and most importantly to be able to “own it” in a sense. To see kindergarten, first and second grade students do it, it’s phenomenal. And it’s amazing to see how much they know already!

We usually ask our Q & A subjects what three guests they would invite to a dinner party, but in your case, Mr. Burns, we’re going to change it up a bit: What people are most responsible for your decision to become an educator?

My parents. Not only were they great role models for me, but to see them sacrifice their time to coach. They coached for years. The interesting part about it, my dad coached football, baseball, and track. But my mom also coached track, so they actually coached together, which was cool to see. You don’t see that too often. I had them as track coaches from fourth through eighth grade. I was around them a lot. They were involved, and they loved being around kids, and just being a part of what we did. They would definitely be the greatest influence on me.

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Artist Lisa Bartolozzi moves from epic depictions of the human figure to landscapes steeped in mystery Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

Photo by John Chambless

Lisa Bartolozzi in her Newark studio.

By John Chambless Staff Writer omewhere between her epic paintings exploring human nature and her small, dreamlike landscapes, Lisa Bartolozzi is finding a new direction.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Wilmington, Del., since the age of 15, Bartolozzi knew at an early age that art was her calling. “My mother had a love of her European heritage,” Bartolozzi said during an interview in the soaring, sunny studio attached to her home in Newark. “Her father came from Malta and was an interior designer. She purchased a line of Time-Life art books back in the ‘70s, and they were a delight to me and my siblings.”

She and her three siblings “tried to draw from Matisse, Rubens and Rembrandt,” she recalled. After the family moved to Delaware, Bartolozzi attended Mount Pleasant High School, where art teachers clearly saw her brilliance and fostered her burgeoning skills. She went to the University of Delaware while living at home, delving deeply into all the art courses available without much of a thought about a future career.

“I’m not very practical,” she said, smiling. “I didn’t worry about getting work or a job. I took some illustration classes in college, because if you could draw, you were encouraged to illustrate. But I was on a path of painting and I was fueled by all the artists of the past, and I figured I’d keep going and something would work out.”

about art and how to relate it to anyone from pre-K children to adult groups. It was very helpful for learning how to speak about art, and how art hits other people. I think it helped with my later teaching.”

After getting an MFA at Washington University in St. Louis, Bartolozzi has continued to build a body of work that is hugely ambitious and dazzlingly well painted. Her figures – life size or larger – are painted with a luminous precision that makes them look like they could breathe at any moment. And, true to her convictions, they are nude.

“All of my work, up to this point, has been a metaphysical journey,” she said. “It comes out of the background of the culture and theology – all the things that were in nudes from the beginning. I decided to use nudes when I went to graduate school. I liked the human body, and I felt it was a vessel that I could put any idea into – beauty, strength, endurance, but also judgment and prejudice. All the things that go into the stories, the allegories, that the human body’s been used for throughout time. These are stories that depict our human nature – both our physical nature and our spiritual nature.”

On a parallel path to her art, Bartolozzi and her husband, Chris Cochran, have built several properties in Newark that they rent out to students, and they have learned their way around renovation projects. They are using those skills to Continued on page 24 ‘Caught’

Throughout her schooling, “I wasn’t distracted by college life. I’m a pretty serious, focused person,” she said. “It was a matter of all-out effort and sheer persistence.”

During college, Bartolozzi worked at the Delaware Art Museum’s children’s gallery, and continued after graduation, doing everything from serving as the receptionist to coordinating tours of the museum’s collections. “I was intimidated to do any kind of public speaking,” she said. “My hat’s off to the docents, who worked very hard. But I did do a few tours. Mostly it was learning www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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A New Direction Continued from Page 23

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

renovate a house and barn near Landenberg, on an eight-acre property straddling the Maryland state line.

‘Fist Series: Large Man.’

‘Fist Series: Old Woman.’

‘Fist Series: Young Girl.’

“We had a lot of fun looking at that property, which is around Fair Hill,” Bartolozzi said. “We didn’t think we’d get it, but then it became available. The barn was falling in. That’s been 10 years ago. The first thing we wanted to do was save the barn. We don’t know anything about horses or farming or anything.

I’m from suburbia and Chris is from Wilmington.

We hired Amish workers and they came and put everything together. They thought some timbers were Continued on page 26

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In her studio is “She Will Not Rest,� in which an elderly woman strides confidently through a stream under a storm-whipped sky.

A New Direction Continued from Page 25

sent to the area, maybe by floating them down a river.

We’re really interested in any history we can find. “The family who owned the property is still around,� she added. “They came to visit the house. Their grandfather built it, I think. In the 1920s, they added a kitchen and bathroom. This year, we completed the basement, which had been a mud floor. Now Chris is ready to go back and get working. We saved the pine floors and some of the woodwork. We’ve stayed there a few times.

In the winter, we love the view. “We’re piecemealing the renovations. We have lovely plans for the property, among them doing figure modeling sessions in the barn.�

For Bartolozzi, the nude figure gets to the essence of “questions about why we’re here, why we behave in certain ways, why we treat each other certain ways, why we see beauty and why we see pain.� The works draw on religion, mythology, ancient stories and archetypes, but Bartolozzi doesn’t want to explain them too much.

“I use titles as guides for the imagery, that I hope is memorable, and will encourage contemplation upon meditation of the artwork,� she said. “That would be truest sense of fulfillment for me as an artist.�

The figures in these monumental works are arrestingly real. “Each person is so unique,� Bartolozzi said. “We forget that our fingerprints are unique to us, and that creates a universal concept. It’s so amazing. The people I get to model, I can paint them so intently. The scale is to put you in their skin, to create a sense of empathy.�

Other works focus on a small part of a person, such as hands. Bartolozzi did a series of small paintings of fists – ranging from her feisty grandmother to a newborn to a young teenage girl. “They’re like portraits,� she said. “They show a gesture of strength and aggression, so it’s a visual of the duality of internal strength and outward power, and how you see that.�

The model for several of her major works is William “Dusty� Rhodes, a World War II veteran who lived

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

‘Fool’

in Avondale. Rhodes, who passed away in 2015, had an energy and willingness to pose nude that beguiled Bartolozzi and forged a friendship. “Dusty had never modeled, and at his time of life, to be painted nude – he was quite a character,” she said. “I think it sort of transformed his life. Art opened a new world to him.”

Some of her other models have also been elderly, and Bartolozzi turns the wrinkles and scars on their bodies into symbols of lives fully lived. These are not pin-up perfection, but real, living people who endure despite the toll of the years.

‘Model’

“I work with the models by taking many, many pictures in theatrical lighting. I try to create the light that I want to have on their bodies, and also what reflective colors I want around their bodies so it goes into their skin tone,” she explained. “Then I can put them in situations that are usually outdoors or abstract color fields.”

Bartolozzi was formerly represented by The Forum Continued on page 30 www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Jenny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry: enny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry is a multispecialty dental practice with a highly visible location at Old Baltimore Pike and Guernsey Road in West Grove.

The practice offers pediatric, family, and cosmetic dentistry, and has specialists in orthodontics and implant dentistry.

“From the moment our patients Àrst arrive here, our goal is to provide them with a comfortable, relaxing experience,” said Dr. Jenny Chen, who provides top-quality care along with her husband, Dr. Michael Lemper, and their team at the West Grove ofÀce and their ofÀce in Willow Street. For a decade, they have built a thriving practice that has seen long-term loyalty from parents, children and grandchildren.

Dr. Jenny, as she prefers to be called, was a dentist in Beijing, China, before coming to America 20 years ago to pursue a Ph.D. in experimental pathology at the University of Texas.

After earning her degree and preparing to be a scientist, she decided that she wanted to pursue her Àrst love, dentistry. She then obtained her DMD from the University of Pennsylvania school of Dental Medicine, where she met her husband, Dr. Mike.

After several years of honing her skills as an associate in busy Philadelphia practices, Dr. Jenny came to Chester County to open her own practice. Dr. Jenny is skilled at all aspects of general dentistry, including cosmetic dentistry, root canals, crowns, bridges, and restoring implants. The aspect of Dr. Jenny most loved by her patients, however,

L to R: Tracy Nino and Dr. Jenny Chen

is her friendly, humorous, easygoing manner, which often calms the fears of the most severe dental-phobic patient.

Many patients who have avoided seeing the dentist for years out of fear have come to Dr. Jenny and now will receive dental care from no one else. She truly treats her patients as part of the family.

A unique feature of Dr. Jenny’s practice is that it provides comprehensive dentistry for all ages, and to this end has both a board-certiÀed pediatric dentist and board-certiÀed orthodontist on staff. It is unusual for a dental practice to provide this kind of specialized care for everybody in the family. Dr. Ahmad F. Charkas is the orthodontist, and he provide comprehensive orthodontic care for children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Charkas is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics and is Invisalign certiÀed. Dr. Jenny’s husband, Dr. Mike, is the pediatric dentist, and is trained and experienced in providing dental services for all children, including those with severe dental disease, anxiety, behavioral issues, and special health care needs. Dr. Mike is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry.

Almost the entire staff speaks Spanish, Dr. Jenny said.

“People appreciate that you try to communicate in their language,” she said. “We have brochures and information in Spanish to explain everything about a procedure.” About half of the service’s clients are Spanish-speaking, she said. A very warm and welcoming environment exists among staff and patients. “The staff treats each other as family, and we treat our patients as family,” says Dr. Jenny.

Many people avoid the dentist due to barriers involving

Back Row, L to R: Dulce Villagomez, Dr. Jenny Chen Front Row, L to R: Diana Fraticelli, Tracy Nino

Expert Dental Care for the Entire Family insurance and economics. At Jenny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry, they try to make dental care available to as many people as possible. “We take a wide range of insurance and coverage through almost every network.” Among the many insurances accepted are the full range of PA Medical Assistance and CHIP programs for children. “We want to help the children who need us most”, Dr. Mike says, “and we want to erase the typical barriers to care that many children face. All children have the right to see the dentist and have happy and healthy teeth”.

In addition to accepting a wide range of insurances Dr. Jenny is willing to work with you to implement the best treatment plan for your budget. “Some dentists examine a patient and give them a very expensive treatment plan, which is either all or nothing, and no other options. This naturally scares the patient and prevents them from undergoing much-needed dental

L to R: Dulce Villagomez, Mati Ortiz, Dr. Ahmad Charkas

care. We work with a patient within their budget or insurance limitations and prioritize. You can get a few teeth Àxed this year, and a few next year” Dr. Jenny says.

Another aspect of the practice that Dr. Jenny is proud of is her willingness to squeeze in emergencies. A wide range of emergency dental services are offered, and often people can be seen on the same day as they call. Tooth pain can be very serious, and we want to help as much as we can. To this end, the practice offers convenient hours including evenings and Saturdays.

The practice stays up-to-the-minute with technology as well, Dr. Jenny said, including the i-CAT, a three-dimensional dental imaging tool that allows the doctors to examine teeth and surrounding structures with amazing accuracy. Because the i-CAT allows the staff to view a patient’s oral structures from different angles on a monitor, the doctors can create more comprehensive treatment plans. This is extremely useful for implant placement, and the practice has an implant specialist for complex cases, including multiple implants for denture stabilization. “This advanced x-ray system allows us to take 3-D photos, whereas previously we were only able to diagnose from 2-D images,” Dr. Jenny said. “With this technology, we have a better understanding of the patient’s anatomy and dental problems, and can more accurately recommend procedures.

Very few general dentists have this technology. Everything’s very advanced in our ofÀce. We’re constantly looking for new technologies.”

Jenny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry is open Monday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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Serving the Community www.SmilesinPA.com Jenny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry West Grove, PA • 610-869-0991 207 N. Guernsey Road For our friends in Lancaster County:

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A New Direction Continued from Page 27

Gallery in New York City, and she worked on and off at the New York Academy as an adjunct faculty member from 1999 until recently. Her paintings have been placed in museums and private collections, and her career was solidifying well until illness sidetracked her about two years ago.

“There’s a gap in my work,” she said. “I have an ongoing health condition that has kept me from my work for periods of time, but now I’ve moved into these smaller landscapes, plus a few figurative works that I still want to do. For now, the landscapes are kind of refreshing. It’s finding something beautiful in the everyday.”

The landscapes made their public debut in a recent group exhibit at the Delaware Art Museum.

They suggest vistas of night-shrouded landscapes, with tangled telephone poles and mysterious buildings that barely emerge from the darkness.

Painted as if the viewer is in motion, the works are

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

‘Totem: Moving in Dark Light.’

peepholes into a mysterious reality.

They came about “because I got an iPhone,” Bartolozzi said.

“Just taking pictures into the black sky at night when ‘Train Shadow: Moving in Dark Light.’

I’m coming home on the train from New York, and then laying in bed and playing with the options of exposure and brightness and cropping. I spent hours when I should have been sleeping,” she said, laughing. “I loved the revelations that would happen from coming out of the darkness of this black screen. It was so beautiful that it just soothed me.”

Left unstated, but still clear, is that the new paintings came out of the darkness, just as Bartolozzi has emerged from her dark time of illness.

‘Energy Totem: Moving in Dark Light.’

She’s learning how to put together just enough detail in the scenes to intrigue the viewer, without giving too

much away. “Something in them is in focus, and other things aren’t,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like a Continued on page 32

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photograph. I want to interpret the imagery and put it together in more of an abstract way.

“The elements are absorbing – trees against a night cloud from a car window going at 40 miles an hour, versus 20 miles an hour, and what happens when the moon’s out. How do the telephone lines blur?

There’s enough elements there to rearrange and create these mystical … bypasses. I don’t know what to call them.”

Bartolozzi is now working on small landscapes from a stationary viewpoint that have the barest sliver of blue sky beyond the foreground gloom.

They are no more than eight or nine inches wide, but contain whole worlds of detail.

While she still has some ideas for figurative works she wants to complete, the new work is drawing her in a new, revelatory direction.

“I just want to create a consistent body of work and prove to myself that I have the dedication and

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A solo exhibition by Bartolozzi at the Delaware Art Museum in 1997.

confidence to invest in my visions,” she said, “and really lose myself. And I can’t wait.”

For more information, visit www.lisabartolozzi.com.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email jchambless@ chestercounty.com.

|Landenberg Life|

Community and yoga: Perfect together Local teacher leads yoga classes for New Garden Township 34

Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

Warrior II -- The goal of this yoga stabilizing pose is to increase strength and concentration.

By Natalie Smith Staff writer

Y

oga’s popularity for exercise and relaxation has been burgeoning nationwide over the past few decades. Yet despite the coast-to-coast enthusiasm for the Eastern discipline, which includes certain body poses, meditation and breathing techniques, it still might be intimidating for some who want to try positions like “downward dog.”

But instructor Hilary Fox welcomes everyone to her yoga classes.

“Yoga classes are about community,” she said, “a coming together to share.”

Continued on page 36

Hilary Fox is teaching a weekly community yoga class in Lyceum Hall in New Garden Park. www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Yoga Continued from Page 35

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Fox, who also has her own studio in Avondale called The Growing Room, has been teaching classes since February in the Lyceum Hall in New Garden Park. The group meets on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m., and she stressed it was for all experience levels.

The classes came about serendipitously. Fox approached New Garden officials about offering some yoga instruction during a township recreational event, and was in turn told that to promote community, they had wanted to have a yoga instructor based at the historic building. The teacher would be paid by the fees for attending the class.

The offer came at a time when Fox’s family obligations were making it difficult to continue with a previous teaching job.

“It’s like the universe just said: It’s OK. Try something new,” she said.

Holding the classes in Lyceum Hall is “perfect,” Fox said, although excessive summer heat had a few classes meeting in the air-conditioned township building. Fox said students for these classes provide her with a special motivation.

“The one thing that inspires me about these community classes ... I used to teach at the Y, where [students] are members, which is great. And it’s great teaching at a formal yoga studio. But there are many people who would never join the Y or might never think about stepping into a yoga studio. A community class like this is pretty low-key and very, very accessible.

“You’re practicing pretty much with your neighbors. The people come in and they all kind of know each other, or they know someone who knows you, or they know the house where you live.”

Fox said often the first words out of students’ mouths are: “But I’m not flexible.” Her response? “We all have to start somewhere. And flexibility is not just in the body, it’s so much about the mind. Most often, it’s about your breath and how you breathe. If you feel that you get stuck in your body somewhere, pull away, come to the breath and where your mind’s going.”

She spoke about modern living and how mindfulness – conscious awareness and acceptance -- helps followers deal with the stresses life can bring.

“That’s what yoga’s all about. It’s bringing all these aspects together,” she said. “Because in this time, this era, we’re so caught up with our minds being busy, our bodies are moving, we’re in a car moving. Somebody’s pushing us or moving us. We get anxious. We suffer from stress, oftentimes addictions, and there’s a lot of fear in the world, fear and anxiety. So much of that can be relieved by a mindful practice.”

Fox explained the immediate effects of yoga for practitioners.

“If you’re on the mat and you’re doing some funky pose, you’re not worried about the dishes. You’re not Continued on page 38

Tree Pose -- As with many balancing poses in yoga, the Tree Pose is designed to help concentration and focus. www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Yoga Continued from Page 37

worried about paying that bill or that the car needs to be fixed. You’re here and present in the moment. You feel what’s going on in your body. Your mind and breath are going together. And we’re just looking to clean out all that stuff that bogs us down.”

Yoga as a form of exercise can be just the right thing for someone who’s unused to movement, Fox said.

“Almost always it’s because they’re inspired by a friend or family member who did it, who talks about it. Or a doctor has said to them -- that comes up a lot -- ‘You should do yoga.’

“Because if you’re not used to going to the gym or a walk in the park ... if you tend to lean toward a more sedentary type of life, yoga can be a very good introduction if you approach it mindfully, and in the right environment, with the right type of yoga, with the right teacher.”

Fox’s own introduction to yoga came by way of her younger sister, who practiced yoga in high school. But since it was her sister’s “thing,” Fox stayed away from it. Years later, after taking and loving a Pilates class at the Kennett Area YMCA, the class instructor encouraged Fox to stay for the following class, which was yoga. (Yoga and the well-known exercise system are often taught in conjunction with one another, addressing the needs of both the mind and body.)

Continued on page 40

Dancer’s Pose Variation -- An adaptation of a more advanced pose that requires a combination of balancing and a backbend.

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Yoga Continued from Page 38

So one day, Fox stayed for the class.

“Like all beginners, I was like, ‘What are we doing?’

Because I could take a cue from a Pilates class, but in yoga she was using different terminology, different language,” Fox said. “I’m with other people and I feel really awkward. But that night, I slept like a baby. And I remember thinking, ‘I’m doing that again.’”

Her interest expanded. She eventually took teachertraining classes, with the goal of learning more about yoga. “It pretty much teaches you how to live your life, and that really fascinated me,” she said. “The first class I had to teach was in yoga teacher-training. You’re going to be teaching the whole class, but it was also open to the community.

“It’s a group of six or eight. They are there to learn and give you feedback. We learned to receive suggestions on what we could do to take it to another level. They [the other students] also tell you the things you did really well.”

An unexpected student-teaching assignment had no

40

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issues. “Toward the end of your teacher training, you had to get 10 hours of community service. I taught at a karate studio I used to go to and I thought, ‘I could do this.’”

Fox laughed at the doubts she had about herself.

“Sometimes you’re your own worst enemy. You set yourself up for failure,” she said. “You might tear yourself apart for something silly that others don’t even notice.

We hold ourselves to really high standards. It’s easy to trip and fall.”

Fox also noted with laughter that the process of preparing to teach was somewhat hard on her two sons, Alexander and Nicholas Versagli, now both students at Penn State. “When I was in teacher training, I used to have to pay them to get my practice in. I offered them $10 an hour [to instruct them in yoga]. They used to last about a half-hour and then they were done with it.”

Although Fox said her dharma – life’s purpose – is guiding others on their life’s path, her “real job” is working as a spawn maker for Phillips Mushroom Farms, Continued on page 48

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Yoga Continued from Page 40

developing seeds for their mushrooms.

“I’m a mycologist [an expert in fungi] by training,” she said, explaining a family move to the U.K. from Philadelphia when she was 13 eventually led to her attending college in England and Scotland, where she earned a degree in agricultural botany and her Ph.D. in fungal genetics from the University of Nottingham.

“I actually first fell in love with molds and fungi,” she said. “I always thought they were really cool and I actually had a professor who super-inspired me. Then I fell in love with mushrooms.”

It was the coincidence of the Southern Chester County industry that eventually led her back to the U.S. in 1991.

“I very clearly remember thinking, ‘How do you get a job working with molds?’ And then it seemed to me: Mushrooms. There’s an industry there. And of course, it turns out the mushroom capital of the world is in Kennett Square.”

Her day job also was an inspiration for the other side of her life. “That’s kind of where the theme of The Growing

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

Child’s Pose -- A resting pose often used between more difficult positions

Room came from,” she said, noting the name of her studio, where she offers personal training and Pilates as well as yoga.

Fox said while yoga is an effective exercise, it should be remembered there is more involved.

“The yoga practice encompasses so much. It’s not only Continued on page 50

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Yoga Continued from Page 48

making your body do funny twists and bends and contortions,” she said. “It’s so much about the breathing, what we eat, what we don’t eat, abusing our bodies with alcohol, drugs or smoking.

“We pretty much dissected it down to where we had some really cool poses. We somehow left out the meditation. Perhaps it’s our disconnect to spirituality. It’s very challenging to talk about, but I don’t shy away from it.”

Ultimately, Fox said, everybody’s practice is very personal.

“Everyone who walks in that door and lays their mat out, they all have a reason for being here. You get to know your clients. You get to know when they walk in with a smile or are avoiding eyes or are not talking. They all come here for a reason. Recognizing what’s knocked you out of balance, what’s made you out of whack. That’s what yoga’s there to tell you. How you can help yourself.”

More information about Yoga in the Park is available at www.thegrowing-room.com and www.newgarden.org.

Natalie Smith may be contacted at Natalie@DoubleSMedia.com.

Prayer Mudra -- A hand position used for opening and closing a teaching session.

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The flight of the pigeon, in the care of a Swan When he was a young boy, Landenberg resident Tom Swan began a fascination with pigeons. It’s a love that’s never left him, although his birds often do, soaring great heights and distances, then finding their way home.

Photos by Richard L. Gaw

Tom Swan of Landenberg has been caring for and Landenberg racing homing for2018 60 years.

52 Life |pigeons Fall/Winter | www.chestercounty.com

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer By his estimate, Tom Swan of Landenberg currently owns between 140 and 150 flying computers – geniuses with the power of flight – who continue to defy common stereotype with breathtaking feats of extraordinary intelligence.

There is no marker at the entrance to Swan’s home on Appleton Road that announces that he is a caretaker of racing pigeons, a passion he has cultivated since he was a child growing up on the farm his father Richard once owned next door. Indeed, the only evidence of his near life-long hobby is one that is mostly heard, in the occasional frantic flaps and pleasant cooing of his pigeons, that live in three coops beside his home.

In most American cities, pigeons are defined by residents to be “rats with wings,” a flying and polluting nuisance that owns a troublesome and never-ending presence that’s become as familiar in city life as traffic and crowds. In truth, however what these city dwellers don’t know about these birds could fill books: pigeons have the mental capacity to remember images and retain information for several years; that they can disseminate between different stimuli; that they can be taught – and have the ability to use – complex actions and response sequences; and, most of all, that they are gifted with a sensory power so advanced that they can find their way home from hundreds of miles away.

Swan is quick to point out an antique he owns – a homing pigeon messenger kit used by the American armed forces in World War II that enabled officers to transport messages tied to the legs of pigeons that contained crucial information.

“A lot of universities have done studies in order to determine theories of intelligence in pigeons, but I don’t think they’ve reached a 100-percent conclusion,” Swan said. “They have found that pigeons have something that is located in their eyes that is sensitive to the gravitational pull of the Earth. When they are released for flight, they usually circle for a few minutes in order to get their bearings, and in those moments, they develop a sense of which direction they need to go in order to get home.”

There is usually a moment in a life, or a connected series of them, that helps to form what eventually becomes an interest, and if it is attended to for a long time, it slips into a deeper place where happiness meets curiosity.

For Swan, his 60-year love affair with caring for racing

pigeons began in 1958 when he was 8 years old, when he and his brother Ken would catch and release random pigeons that would fly into their father’s barn.

At first Swan, with the help of his father, converted a chicken house into a pigeon coop where he could care for his birds. Soon, he and his father joined the Newark Homing Club, where Swan is currently the President. His father maintained an interest until Swan was old enough to drive and transport the birds for training on his own.

Sixty years later, Swan and the many generations of pigeons he has cared for and trained, have never stopped.

It’s a life’s fascination, Swan believes, that begins with the endurance of the bird itself.

“Up to 300 miles, the birds fly straight through,” he said. “If it’s not excessively hot, they may fly for 600 straight miles. Sometimes the birds will come home with a little mud on their feet, so I know that they stopped somewhere to get water, but mostly, they’ll fly until the last bit of sunlight, then spend the night on top of a building or a church, and then return home the next day.”

Pigeon racing, described as a “sport with a single starting gate and a thousand finish lines,” is a competitive activity that measures the flying time of a bird over a specified distance that is compared to other pigeons in a race. On a calm day and with the aid of a tail wind, pigeons can fly at speeds averaging 45 miles per hour, and as fast as 75 miles per hour.

Although its history can be traced to 220 A.D., modern pigeon racing originated in Belgium in the mid 1800s, and was introduced in the U.S. in the 1870s, where it reached its height of popularity in the 20th Century, particularly in the New York City area, where races were regularly held in Hoboken, New Jersey and Coney Island.

The sport is still popular today; according to the American Racing Pigeon Union, there are 15,000 registered lofts in the U.S., and hundreds of pigeon racing clubs.

The pigeon has also figured prominently throughout history. News of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo first reached the world financial markets via homing pigeon, and Paul Reuter, founder of Reuter’s News Service, first established his business by using homing pigeons to deliver financial news.

Before Swan enters a competition, he chooses which birds he would like to enter into the race. From his home, they are transported to the Newark Homing Pigeon Club, Continued on page 54 www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

53

Swan Homing Pigeons

Depending on weather and wind conditions, a homing pigeon can fly at speeds up to 75 miles per hour, and travel non-stop for hundreds of miles.

Continued from Page 53

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and then transported to the race, known as the “liberation point.”

In order to compete in a race, a pigeon must be equipped with a permanent, unique numbered ring or band that is placed on its leg at about seven days old. An electronic clocking system uses the birds’ identification to record their arrival time by use of a tiny chip which can be read when the bird arrives home.

Race distances vary greatly, but Swan said that typically, the races held in the fall are for that year’s newborn pigeons range from 100 miles to 350 miles. All-age birds race in the spring, at distances between 100 miles and 600 miles.

Over the years, he has entered dozens of competitions, and in some, he’s done very well. In 1998, he won the Northeast Union Race, which began at Somerset, Pa. “It was the largest race in terms of participation in U.S. history,” said Swan, who was a financial consultant

for DuPont for 24 years, until he retired 20 years ago.

“There were 715 participants from Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, who entered 9,119 birds into the competition. We knew the weather conditions and wind would be favorable to racers in this area, but it was two weeks before we found out the overall results of the race.”

Swan later turned down an offer of $2,000 for the winning bird from a fancier in Taiwan.

When Swan goes on vacation with his wife, his two sons and daughter and their families, he’ll rely on a local pigeon flier to tend to his birds, but for the most part, owning, caring for and racing pigeons is a solitary pursuit, he said. There is no timeline length for how long he intends to keep going, but so far, neither of his children seem interested in someday taking over their father’s passion.

“Typically, if there is no one who has an interest, the Continued on page 56

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Swan Homing Pigeons Continued from Page 55

Some of the many pigeons that call the Swan residence in Landenberg, “Home.�

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club where a member belongs to will usually organize and auction of the birds to other fliers, and the proceeds go back to the family,” Swan said.

For now, however, the passion shows no sign of stopping. On a recent morning, Jim Kirwin, a fellow pigeon flier in nearby Kemblesville brought 54 of his birds to Swan’s house at 7:30. Minutes after, Swan drove the birds – as well as 58 of his own – to a spot 30 miles away, in order to help the pigeons condition for an upcoming competition.

Ninety minutes later, as he was pulling into his driveway, Swan looked up from his vehicle. There they were, the little computers in the sky above him, circling and coming home.

To learn more about Tom Swan’s racing pigeons, visit www.tomswanloft.com, write swantk@aol.com, or call 484-883-8196.

Identification bands are placed on each pigeon when they are seven days old.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com.

Continued on page 57

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The rich taste of Landenberg Jim Coarse’s photo essay on the Paradocx Vineyard in Landenberg is a reaffirmation of what visitors have known – that this special place not only cultivates great wine, but opens its doors to those who wish to spend time among friends Continued on page 59

www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Text by Richard L. Gaw Photos by Jim Coarse There is a small voice often heard inside the mind of the visitor who enters the driveway that leads to the Paradocx Vineyard tasting room in Landenberg.

It acknowledges the welcoming red barn, and the row-by-row thatch of grape vines in the near distance, and the acres of vineyards that lay deep and plush in the fields beyond. Then it whispers, This is beautiful and peaceful, and I love coming here.

Tucked within the emerging wine country of southern Chester County, Paradocx Vineyard has for more than a decade defied the now-provenwrong belief that grapes cannot be grown in this region, and a look at the Vineyard’s ever-growing list of varietals proves it. From 30 acres under vine and grapes from selected custom growers, 14 different wines now on the shelf – sweet, red, Continued from Page 60 rose and white – are grown, cultivated, bottled and enjoyed.

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“This is a gathering place for friends.�

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As the photographs from Jim Coarse on these pages will show, being able to taste great, locally grown and produced wine is only half of the experience of the Paradocx Vineyard. Its tasting room facility is a welcoming and friendly hot spot of activity, ranging from soft, summer evenings spent listening to local musicians, Happy Hours and festivals.

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It’s all part of what the Hoffman and Harris families had in mind when they conceived what their vineyard would eventually become, for those who whisper words of recognition when they visit the Paradocx Vineyard: This is a gathering place for friends.

Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

uncork, relax, unwind

Continued on page 63

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O T E D I U AG S L O O H C S A E AR DELAWARE PRIVATE SCHOOLS Archmere Academy 3600 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, 798-6632, archmereacademy.com Caravel Academy 2801 Del Laws Road, Bear, 834-8938, caravel.org Hockessin Montessori 1000 Old Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, 302-234-1240, thehms.org Independence School 1300 Paper Mill Rd., Newark, 302-239-0332, theindependenceschool.org Layton Preparatory School 6201 Kennett Pike, Centreville, 655-3280, laytonprep.org The New School 812 Elkton Road, Newark, 456-9838, thenewschool.com Red Lion Christian Academy 1390 Red Lion Road, Bear, 834-2526, redlionca.org Salesianum School 1801 N. Broom St., Wilmington, 654-2495, salesianum.org

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Sanford School 6900 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, 239-5263, sanfordschool.org St. Andrew’s School 350 Noxontown Road, Middletown, 378-9511, standrews-de.org The Pilot School 208 Woodlawn Rd., Wilmington, 478-1740 www.pilotschool.org The Tatnall School 1501 Barley Mill Road, Wilmington, 998-2292, tatnall.org Tower Hill School 2813 W. 17th St., Wilmington, 575-0550, towerhill.org Ursuline Academy 1106 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, 658-7158, ursuline.org Wilmington Christian School 825 Loveville Road, Hockessin, 239-2121, wilmingtonchristian.org Wilmington Friends School 101 School Road, Wilmington, 576-2900, wilmingtonfriends.org

DIOCESE OF WILMINGTON Padua Academy 905 N. Broom St., Wilmington, 421-3739, paduaacademy.org St. Elizabeth High School 1500 Cedar St., Wilmington, 656-3369, sehs.org St. Mark’s High School 2501 Pike Creek Road, Wilmington, 738-3300, stmarkshs.net

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Cecil College 1 Seahawk Dr., North East, MD 410-287-1000.

Delaware College of Art and Design 600 N. Market St., Wilmington, 622-8000, dcad.edu Delaware State University 3931 Kirkwood Hwy., Wilmington, 254-5340, desu.edu Delaware Technical Community College 400 Stanton-Christiana Road, Newark, 454-3900; 333 Shipley St., Wilmington, 571-5300, dtcc.edu Goldey-Beacom College 4701 Limestone Road, Wilmington, 998-8814, gbc.edu Springfield College 1007 Orange St., Wilmington, 658-5720, springfieldcollege.edu University of Delaware Main Campus in Newark; Wilmington Campus, 831-2792, udel.edu Widener University School of Law 4601 Concord Pike, Wilmington, 477-2100, law.widener.edu Wilmington University 320 Dupont Hwy., New Castle, 356-4636; 31 Reads Way, New Castle, 655-5400; 651 N. Broad St., Middletown, 877-967-5464;

PENNSYLVANIA HIGH SCHOOLS Avon Grove School District 375 South Jennersville Road West Grove, PA 19390 610-869-2441 Avon Grove High Schoo (610-869-2446) 257 East State Road, West Grove, PA 19390 Fred S. Engle Middle School (610-869-3022) 107 Schoolhouse Road, West Grove, PA 19390

Avon Grove Intermediate School (610-869-2010) 395 South Jennersville Road, West Grove, PA 19390 Penn London Elementary School (610-869-9803) 383 South Jennersville Road, West Grove, PA 19390 Kennett Consolidated School District 300 East South Street Kennett Square, PA 19348 610-444-6600 Kennett High School (610-444-6620) 100 East South Street, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Kennett Middle School (610-268-5800) 195 Sunny Dell Road, Landenberg, PA 19350 Bancroft Elementary School (610-925-5711) 181 Bancroft Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Greenwood Elementary School (610-388-5990) 420 Greenwood Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center (610-444-6260) 409 Center Street, Kennett Square, PA 19348 New Garden Elementary School (610-268-6900) 265 New Garden Road, Toughkenamon, PA 19374 Oxford Area School District 125 Bell Tower Lane Oxford, PA 19363 610-932-6600 Oxford Area High School (610-932-6640) 705 Waterway Road, Oxford, PA 19363 Continued on page 66

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Education Guide Continued from Page 65

Penn’s Grove Middle School (610-932-6615) 301 South Fifth Street, Oxford, PA 19363 Hopewell Elementary School (484-365-6151) 602 Garfield Street, Oxford, PA 19363 Elk Ridge School (610-932-6670) 200 Wickersham Road, Oxford, PA 19363 Jordan Bank School (610-932-6625) 536 Hodgson Street, Oxford, PA 19363 Nottingham School (610-932-6632) 736 Garfield Street, Oxford, PA 19363 Unionville-Chadds Ford School District 740 Unionville Road Kennett Square, PA 19348 610-347-0970 Unionville High School (610-347-1600) 750 Unionville Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Charles F. Patton Middle School (610-347-2000) 760 Unionville Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Chadds Ford Elementary School (610-388-1112) 3 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford, PA 19317 Hillendale Elementary School (610-388-1439) 1850 Hillendale Road, Chadds Ford, PA 19317 Pocopson Elementary School (610-793-9241) 1105 Pocopson Road, West Chester, PA 19382 Unionville Elementary School (610-347-1700) 1775 West Doe Run Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Chester County Intermediate Unit Educational Service Center 455 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 Telephone: (484) 237-5000 Chester County Technical College High School Brandywine Campus 484-593-5100 443 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 www.tchsbrandywine.org 66

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Chester County Technical College High School Pennock’s Bridge Campus 610-345-1800 280 Pennock’s Bridge Road, West Grove, PA 19390 www.tchspennocks.org Chester County Technical College High School Pickering Campus 610-933-8877 1580 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville, PA 19460-2371 www.tchspickering.org

NON-PUBLIC SCHOOLS Assumption B.V.M. School (610-869-9576) 290 State Road, West Grove, PA 19390 Bethany Christian School (610-998-0877) 1137 Shadyside Road, Oxford, PA 19363 CFS, The School at Church Farm (610-363-7500) 1001 East Lincoln Highway, Exton, PA 19341-2818 Episcopal Day School (610-644-6181) Church of the Good Samaritan 212 West Lancaster Avenue, Paoli, PA 19301 www.goodsamdayschool.org Kimberton Waldorf School (610-933-3635) 410 W. Seven Stars Rd., P. O. Box 350, Kimberton, PA 19442 Landenberg Christian Academy (610-255-5512) P.O. Box 397, Kemblesville, PA 19347 www.lca-pa.com London Grove Friends Kindergarten (610-268-8466) 500 West Street Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 Malvern Preparatory School (484-595-1131) 418 South Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Sacred Heart School (610-932-3633) 205 Church Road, Oxford, PA 19363 Upland Country Day School (610-444-3035) 420 West Street Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348

Villa Maria Academy Lower School (610-644-4864) 1140 King Road, Immaculata, PA 19345-0600 West Chester Christian School (610-692-3700) 1237 Paoli Pike, West Chester, PA 19380 West Chester Friends School (610-696-2962) 415 North High Street, West Chester, PA 19380 Westtown School (610-399-0123) 975 Westtown Road, West Chester, PA 19382 White Clay Learning Center (610-880-0114) 250 New Garden Road, Toughkenamon, PA 19374 whiteclaylearning.org Continued on page 68

Oxford Center for Dance 610-932-3267 • 2371 Baltimore Pike, Oxford, PA 19363 www.oc4dance.com • oc4dance@zoominternet.net

Oxford Center for Dance has been educating students in the art of dance for 30 years.

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www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Education Guide Continued from Page 67

CHESTER COUNTY CHARTER SCHOOLS Avon Grove Charter School (Early Learning Center) (610-255-5325) 1769 New London Road, Landenberg, PA 19350 www.agcharter.org Avon Grove Charter School (West Grove Campus) (484-667-5000) 110 East State Road, West Grove, PA 19390 www.agcharter.org

AREA COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES Cheyney University of PA (610-399-2220) 1837 University Circle, P. O. Box 200, Cheyney, PA 19319-0200 Delaware County Community College (Marple Campus) (610-359-5000) 901 South Media Line Road, Media, PA 19063-1094 Delaware County Community College (Brandywine Campus) (610-723-1100) 455 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 Delaware County Community College (Brandywine Campus) (610-723-1100) 455 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 Delaware County Community College (Exton Campus) (610-450-6500) 912 Springdale Drive, Exton, PA 19341 Delaware County Community College (Pennock’s Bridge Campus) (610-869-5100) 280 Pennock’s Bridge Road, West Grove, PA 19390 Immaculata University (610-647-4400) 1145 King Road, Immaculata, PA 19345

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The Lincoln University (484-365-8000) 1570 Baltimore Pike, Lincoln University, PA 19352 Neumann University (610-459-0905) 1 Neumann Dr., Aston, Pa., www.neumann.edu Penn State Great Valley (610-648-3200) (School of Graduate Professional Studies) 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA 19355 Valley Forge Christian College (610-935-0450) 1401 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville, PA 19460 West Chester University of Pennsylvania (610-436-1000) University and High Streets, West Chester, PA 19383

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|Landenberg People| When Chef Mark Spena took over the historic Landenberg Store in July, it not only resuscitated the beating heart of a small town, it also began a new chapter in a culinary life that has been spent in kitchens, but began at family dinners in South Philadelphia

The Sunday dinners at 63rd and Grays A

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

T

o hear Mark Spena rattle off the surnames of those who sat around the tables of his childhood in South Philadelphia – and ultimately, to hear the first chapters of what became a life spent in the love and preparation of food -- is to be invited into a scene from a movie about a large and very extended Italian family, and kindly asked to pass the noodles.

Roll film.

We begin at the Spena home at 63rd and Grays Avenue

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in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is Sunday morning and the five Spena kids rustle around the home, preparing to attend mass at Our Lady of Loretto. They listen to homilies, sermons, take Holy Communion, and come back home to see their mother Rita in the kitchen, with a pot of her Sunday gravy on the stove and hand-rolled pasta on the counter, enough to fortify a small army for days.

It is a childhood crowded and blessed and flavored by faces, personalities and proximity. Family by family, they entered the Spena castle and took their place around the table. The Rienzis. The DelVecchios. The Manginos. The Alvinis. It has been a short walk; all of them, every cousin

rs Avenue All photos by Richard L. Gaw

Mark Spena brought 38 years of culinary experience to the recently re-opened Landenberg Store.

and niece and nephew gathered, lives within a four- or fiveblock walk from the Spena home.

With the words from Our Lady of Loretto still fresh in their minds, they ate with respect to the food and the people around them. The texture of the pasta. The sweet tanginess of the gravy. The consistency of the fresh bread from the local bakery down the street. The salad after the meal, always made with red wine vinegar and olive oil. It was their Eucharist, their banquet of life, their unbroken harmony.

“We were a typical Italian family, because everyone lived within walking distance of us,” Spena said from the

Landenberg Store, where he has been its proprietor since it reopened in late July after a three-year hiatus. “I had my grandfather, my aunts Louise and Adele and Nancy, and my Uncles Joe and Anthony. They had a zillion kids, so I had an amazing amount of cousins.

“Every time we got together, we always overdid it, and we always ate together as a family, whether it was a large Sunday dinner or whether it was just as an immediate family. I really miss those days, so much so that I took those feelings and emotions into my own marriage, so even now, we eat together as a family.”

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Sunday Dinners Continued from Page 71

In many ways, the new Landenberg Store is a dayto-day reflection of what Spena saw at his childhood dining room tables, both at 63rd and Grays and later, when the family moved to Delaware County when he was a teenager. Glance at the daily feast of meat and fish entrees behind the counter, rummage up and down the aisles for the pasta, and admire the chunks of cheeses from all nations chilling in the front of the store. In a few short months, the store has become a nightly stop-off point for residents who take home full entrees and sides like eggplant parmigiana, chicken cutlets, spicy carrots, beef hummus, chicken piccata, sushi grade tuna, Angus flank steak, Angus prime rib, roasted garlic basmati rice and baked salmon broccoli rabe.

“Being Italian, I always had an interest in food, but when I was younger, there was really no place to expand my palate,” Spena said. “To my mother, there was American food and Italian food, and little else really mattered.”

In order to quench a growing thirst to know more about food – and get to hang around young women – Spena and a buddy or his chose to enroll in a home economics class at Ridley High School. Both friends were hooked for life: Spena’s friend later attended the prestigious Johnson & Wales Cooking School, and Spena began what began a decades-long college of food, whose classrooms were located in sauna-hot kitchens at restaurants and hotels. While attending Delaware County Community College, he worked from Philly to DelCo, at rib joints and Italian restaurants and nearly every type of eatery in between – as a short-order cook, a corporate dining chef, a head chef, and operating a lunch truck outside the Temple Law School, preparing hundreds of dinners at banquets in what he calls “Guerrilla Cooking” – all the while learning every facet of the industry. Translated, it was the experiential equivalent of earning several degrees from a top cooking school.

At every stop, Spena collected a growing batch of complimentary letters he received for his work.

“As soon as a I learned what I needed to learn, I was moving on,” Spena said. “ I realized that if I wasn’t lucky enough to attend cooking school, I

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was determined to learn as much as I can from actually working in restaurants. I learned that when it came time to doing things right in the kitchen – ordering, preparing, plating – no one really cares if you have a degree from Johnson & Wales or the Culinary Institute of America.

“I had guys coming out of culinary school working for me, and I would tell them, ‘I don’t care about where you Continued on page 74

Spena and his wife Lesley, far right, with some of the staff at the store.

www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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Sunday Dinners Continued from Page 73

went to school. Now go prepare 15 pounds of shrimp.’

When I hire someone, I never ask what school they went to. I ask them, ‘Where did you work? What did you do there?’”

Most recently, Spena spent the last 13 years as the executive chef and director of host ministries at the Traber Center at Camp Sankanac in Spring City, Pa., a non-denominational Christian Camp and retreat facility.

In 2018, after several months of prodding by Landenberg Store owners Bill and Beth Skalish, Spena became the store’s new proprietor.

It has become the latest chapter in a life spent with food, and the chapter has started off well; many days, Spena will post a photograph of one of that day’s entrees he has prepared on the store’s social media page. By the time the store closes in the early evening, everything in that photograph will have ended up on a Landenberg dinner table.

“Bill and Beth were very generous for what they did for me,” he said. “When they offered me the opportunity to bring this store back, I told them that I had 38 years of

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experience and a passion for food. That’s a rare thing to find in a 58-year-old. Most of the chefs that age were burned out from the restaurant and food industry 25 years ago.”

Some of the complimentary letters Spena has received over the years are posted throughout the Landenberg Store’s kitchen and in the small office he works out of at the store. Occasionally, he reads them, if only for affirmation.

“If I had not received accolades for what I do during those 38 years, I may not have stayed in the industry for this long,” he said. “I have always believed that food should be taken very seriously, and I’m going to give people the very best I can. God created us to do our best, so wouldn’t it be a shame if I were not to give it my all?

“The good words of customers. The love of food. That’s what I live for.”

Roll film. Start the gravy.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com.

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|Landenberg Arts|

Making Beautiful Music The String Theory Band is comprised of eight musicians who love what they do — and do what they love

Courtesy photo

The String Theory Band shares its music with audiences throughout the area.

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By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

C

ollectively, the eight men and women who make beautiful music together in a local group called The String Theory Band have more than 375 years of experience as musicians.

At least that’s the estimate that Barbara Hoffman can come up with when she’s asked on the spot. Hoffman is one of three members of the group who live in Landenberg. The actual number of years that the String Theory Band members have been making music might be a little more or a little less than 375 years. The actual number isn’t important. What does matter is that these accomplished people are sharing their love of music with each other—and with audiences throughout the area.

The String Theory Band started to come together more than seven years ago when a few people with connections to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Delaware decided to get together to celebrate their love of music by playing for others. Most of the members were teaching music at that time, sharing their knowledge about something they love with others.

One thing to know about the String Theory Band is that there is no way to label this diverse group of people, or the music that they play. The members have diverse professional backgrounds—they are teachers and librarians and professional musicians. There are even three scientists in the group.

It was Ken Sharp, another member of the band who lives in Landenberg, who came up with the idea of naming the group of musicians the String Theory Band. It just made sense with three scientists—Sharp, Barbara Wood, and Don vonSchriltz—on board.

The music that they play when they get together is as varied and interesting as the individuals themselves, which is probably why the group has continued and evolved through the years, even though they all maintain busy schedules.

“Even early on, we were very diverse,” explained Sharp.

The group plays what can loosely be described as world music on a variety of folk instruments, which include the dulcimer, accordion, string bass, guitar, two violins, percussion, and horns, among others.

“I call us a classy band,” explained Hoffman. “We play a lot of classical music. We’re not going to be loud. We often play acoustically.”

Continued on page 78

All photos by Steven Hoffman unless otherwise noted

Ken Sharpe

Barbara Hoffman www.chestercounty.com | Fall/Winter 2018 | Landenberg Life

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String Theory Band Continued from Page 77

The String Theory Band plays local gigs at the Kennett Area Senior Center, the Cokesbury Village, Kendal at Longwood, the University of Delaware, the Wilmington Music School, the Hardcastle Art Gallery, the Southern Vermont Art Gallery, the DVFA Art Association, among other places.

Each show is unique, depending on what the band members want to showcase on a particular day. All the members are musicians’ musicians—they love to make music and have a wealth of knowledge and experience to help them in the endevour.

Continued on page 80

T L

Landenberg residents Ken Tonge, Ken Sharp, and Barbara Hoffman are in the String Theory Band.

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String Theory Band Continued from Page 78

“Most of our members,” explained Hoffman, “also play in another band.”

The most recent person to join the group is Ken Tonge, who is a vocalist.

He may have the most professional musical experience among the members of the group. He said that his first paying job as a musician was when he was in sixth grade.

Hearing this, Sharp quipped, “I was playing in the sixth grade, too, but nobody paid me. They might have paid me not to play.”

Tonge plays guitar, the saxophone, the clarinet, and the reeds, too. He taught instruments for about five years, and then went to work repairing instruments before transitioning into a career as an IT manager for a major bank. When he joined the band, he brought great versatility with him.

“I have a closet full of instruments,” Tonge said with a grin.

The addition of a new member always adds to the fun that this band has.

“Every time we add someone new, we add new music to our repertoire,” Hoffman explained, noting that the band members have knowledge about many different styles of music.

Sharp, for example, has taught world music, while vonSchriltz taught flute, recorder, and concertina. Rick Wellons is a violinist and teacher of strings. He has a classical background.

Continued on page 82

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String Theory Band Continued from Page 80

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Landenberg Life | Fall/Winter 2018 | www.chestercounty.com

Cindy Chadderdon has a blue grass background.

She is a violinist. Sid Datskow is the percussionist. Kathy Owen sits in with the band for specialized performances.

Put them all together in the same band and amazing creativity is generated.

“Our repertoire,” explained Hoffman, “is unique and varied, and includes Irish, Swahili, German, Klezmer, Spanish Swedish, Faroese, Russian, Cherokee, Jazz, and others. We practice every Monday evening in the theatre at Cokesbury Village. Individual band members bring music suggestions to work on. The band members then decide which pieces to add to our gig book.”

The new projects the band is currently working on include an original song by Hoffman and Sharp called “The Jig is Up” and two originals by Hoffman called “I Remember You” and “When the Music Comes Down.”

The words, melodies, and chords are by Hoffman.

Collectively, the band comes up with harmonies and arrangements. Tonge is currently working on the harmonies for “I Remember You,” a song that is intended to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research.

Hoffman noted that another major project that the band has undertaken, which is being researched by concertina player vonSchriltz, involves finding a state waltz for every state in the union.

“We haven’t a clue yet how we will use them,” Hoffman said, “but in the meantime we have discovered and played some really lovely waltzes.”

Continued on page 84

String Theory Band Continued from Page 82

The musicians have a lot of fun working with each other. Hoffman said that she’s been trying for years to get the band to include “Danny Boy” in the repertoire for St. Patrick’s Day. She didn’t have any luck convincing the other members until she included a piece of “Danny Boy” in “The Jig is Up,” which is about how the band members try to sneak in their favorite pieces disguised as an Irish jig.

They all have their favorite memories of performances. For Hoffman, one show at Cokesbury Village stands out because rains forced the show inside. This group doesn’t have any trouble adjusting on the fly, and they were just fine playing inside. As they performed, a rainbow appeared in the sky, perfectly aligned over the band.

“I figured God had a hand in that, saying bless this band,” Hoffman said with a chuckle.

Sharp’s favorite show was one about three years ago when the group performed and his mother was in attendance. The band is always able to plan the programs to

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suit the circumstances and different occasions.

Any fees that the band charges go into a band fund that is used to purchase sound equipment, band equipment, and pays for a sound person at events.

“We also donate our services for our favorite charity fund raisers and a yearly St. Patrick’s Day concert for the University of Delaware as our way of giving back,” Hoffman explained.

The band likes being together, and that’s especially true when they are on a stage entertaining people. It’s not always easy to get such a large, talented, eclectic group of people together. But whenever one member isn’t able to make it to a gig, there are other people who want to perform with these musicians.

“We have musical buddies who can fill in,” Sharp said.

The band will be performing at Kendal at Longwood at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27. The concert is open to the public.

To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@ chestercounty.com.

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