Spring/Summer 2018
Newark Life
Magazine
Katie Compton’s journey to the top of the cyclocross world - Page 8
Inside • The Puppet Guy • Profile of author John Micklos, Jr. • Four chords in the better place
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Spring/Summer 2018
Newark Life Table of Contents 8
Katie Compton’s journey to the top of the cyclocross world
20
Finding the right words
28
Profile of The Puppet Guy
48
Finding just the right piece of the past
58
Four chords in the better place
66
The value of learning
74
Photo essay
80
The Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company
48
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58
74 Cover design by Tricia Hoadley Cover photograph by Jie Deng
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Compton, Micklos, and The Puppet Guy Letter from the Editor: Newark residents are capable of accomplishing some truly amazing things. Consider what Katie Compton has achieved in the highly competitive world of cyclocross. She grew up in the city, learning how to ride on the bike trails in and around Newark. By the time Compton graduated from high school in 1997, she was already a member of the Junior National Team. During her professional career, competing against the most talented riders in cyclocross, she has now won 14 consecutive U.S. elite national championships, as well as 23 world cup wins, making her one of the most successful U.S. cyclocross athletes in history. In this issue of Newark Life, Compton is just one of the amazing people that we got to write about. Writer John Chambless profiles John Micklos, Jr., the author of more than 40 books for young readers. We talk to Micklos about how his imagination was sparked by reading books as a youngster. He now writes books to inspire the next generation of readers. Writer Richard Gaw met up with the Newark Ukesters, a group of ukelele enthusiasts who get together every month to share tips, practice songs, and enjoy the plucky sounds of the small musical instrument. We profile Lee Zimmerman, a Newark native who has toured all over the world performing his incredible rock and roll marionette show as The Puppet Guy. Zimmerman’s career so far has included performing at The Improv, doing a regular feature at Universal Studios in California for nine years, working on television shows like “The Drew Carey Show,” and entertaining numerous celebrities—from Hugh Hefner to Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the Sultan of Brunei to Guns ‘N’ Roses. We talk to Zimmerman, who has returned home to native Newark, about his future plans as well. We also meet with the staff from the University of Delaware about the extensive offerings in the university’s Professional and Continuing Studies program. There are classes and programs for children as young as 4, as well as for people in their 80s or older. We explore the fine art of browsing with Margaret Flanagan, who runs Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall. We also feature a story about the Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company, which has been introducing customers to varieties from around the world since it opened last September. We hope you enjoy reading about these remarkable Newark residents as much as we enjoyed writing about them. We’re already hard at work planning the next issue of Newark Life, which will arrive in the fall of 2018. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for future stories.
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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: Tom Compton www.newarklifemagazine.com | Spring/Summer 2018 | Newark Life
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|Newark Life Cover Story|
Katie Compton’s journey to the top of the cyclocross world
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Newark Life | Spring/Summer 2018 | www.newarklifemagazine.com
The Newark native has traveled the world as one of the most successful U.S. cyclocross athletes in history By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
W
hen Katie Compton returns to her hometown of Newark—which is about once a year these days—the fond memories of her cycling adventures in Delaware come flooding back. “I grew up in Newark,” she explained. “I went to Sanford School and went to college at the University of Delaware.” Compton, 39, is the most successful U.S. cyclocross athlete in the history of the sport, has 14 consecutive U.S. elite national championship wins, 23 world cup wins, and has been an elite competitor on the world stage on courses in Rome, Japan, and New Zealand. But she first learned to love the sport in her hometown. “It’s amazing how great the trails are around Newark,” Compton explained. “There are four parks within a 20- or 30-minute bike ride where you can have single-track rides. People don’t think of Delaware for mountain biking, but the trails around here are great.” Continued on Page 10
Photo courtesy Tom Compton
As an elite cyclocross competitor, Compton has traveled the world. She is pctured competing in the 2017 Pan Am event. www.newarklifemagazine.com | Spring/Summer 2018 | Newark Life
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Katie Compton Continued from Page 9
Compton and her husband, Mark Legg, call Colorado Springs, Colorado home, but she travels extensively to compete in the sport that she still loves as much as when she first started. She’ll usually compete up and down the Mid-Atlantic region from the end of September to December before heading to Europe for the season over there in January through March. Late March and April qualifies as the brief “off-season” before everything ramps up again in May. Compton has won over 100 International Cycling Union events during her career thanks to her strong work ethic and a diverse skill set that is uniquely suited for her chosen sport. She was a natural athlete growing up, just like her parents and brother. Her father, Tom, enjoys bike
racing. Her mother, Deborah, favored running marathons. Her brother, James, was very good at several different sports, especially hockey and wrestling. He even played lacrosse at the collegiate level. Compton herself tried a little bit of everything growing up—field hockey, lacrosse, basketball even figure-skating. But her life went on a new course when she got her first racing bike at the age of 10 or 11. “I played everything you could think of, but as soon as I got on a racing bike I just loved it. I loved that bike,” she said with a laugh. “My dad just kept raising the seat on it as I grew. I rode that bike a lot.” She rode on local trails and at a velodrome. At the age of about 16, she got a mountain bike and started riding
Photo courtesy Tom Compton
Katie Compton during the runup of the 2017 PanAm event. 10
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with a few groups of local riders. She really enjoyed the camaraderie and the competition of riding with a large group of other cycling enthusiasts in the area, many of whom were affiliated with Newark’s Wooden Wheels store, which sponsored teams. “As a 16-year-old girl, it’s hard to go out mountain biking on your own,� she explained. “I was lucky to have a good group of friends who rode, and I could go out with them.� She always enjoyed the solitude and peacefulness that she could find along the twisting trails and rolling hills of one of the parks in Newark or the surrounding areas. “I really like the freedom,� she said. “I like the alonetime, the time to spend two or three hours in the country just riding. You can cover a lot of ground. It’s an adventure.� Continued on Page 12
Photo courtesy Tom Compton
Compton competing earlier this year.
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Katie Compton Continued from Page 11
By the time Compton graduated from Sanford School in 1997, she was already a member of the Junior National Team. For four years between the ages of 15 and 18, she would travel to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to train extensively. She kept up a very busy pace, but she was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing. “I look back at it now, and I was very serious when I was young,” she said. “My parents really supported me. But they never pushed me.” When it was time to go to college, Compton considered several different options, but ultimately decided that the University of Delaware was the place for her. She graduated with a degree in exercise science, which also helped
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“People don’t think of Delaware for mountain biking, but the trails around here are great.” ~ Katie Compton her with her training as she dedicated herself to the full-time pursuit of a cyclocross career and the rigors that come with it. Cyclocross racing courses include pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills, and obstacles. Whenever a rider encounters an obstacle, he or she must dismount, navigate the obstacle, and remount. Cyclocross bikes are similar to road racing bikes in that they are lightweight and have narrow tires and drop handlebars. Compton rides a Trek Boone bike that she helped to develop specifically for her. “I really enjoy riding it,” Compton explained. “I’ve always enjoyed their bikes. Every bike of theirs has always been fun.” Continued on Page 14
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Katie Compton Continued from Page 15
place once. Compton’s success has come against elitelevel competition. One example is Marianne Vos, a Dutch cyclocross, road bicycle, and mountain bike champion who took home the Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London games. Vos is widely considered the finest cyclist of her generation. Bike racing is the national pastime in places like Belgium, so the level of competition is fierce. “Europeans ride their bikes everywhere,” Compton explained. “In the U.S., it’s a lot cheaper to drive than it is in many places in Europe. So in European countries, they grow up with bike riding. They will ride their bikes everywhere.” Compton has suffered through some minor injuries—a Continued on Page 18 Photo by Steven Hoffman
Katie Compton, a native of Newark, is the most successful U.S. cyclocross athlete in the history of the sport, compiling 14 consecutive U.S. elite national championship wins and 23 world cup wins.
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Continued on Page 16
Katie Compton Continued from Page 16
sprained knee and a separated shoulder among them, but overall she has enjoyed good health throughout her career. She dealt with a lingering issue from 1997 to 2015—her body doesn’t ingest folic acid, so she is susceptible to suffering from a severe burning sensation in her muscles. This could impact her during training and during competitions. She made numerous changes in her diet through the years in an effort to resolve the issue, but nothing made a real difference long-term until a new genetic test helped uncover the underlying issue in 2015. Now that she knows the underlying cause of the issues, she is better able to manage it. She eats Gluten-free foods that are nutritious. In addition to a proper diet, she attempts to have a diversified exercise regimen that includes everything from stair sprints to yoga. “You have to make sure that you keep it fun,” she said. “There will be bad days. You have to be kind to yourself. This sport can be difficult.”
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She emphasized that an elite athlete must always allow the body to rest, so that’s a critical component of her overall health, too. At the age of 39, Katie has reached a point in her career when she often finds herself competing against the top cyclocross riders in the world, many of whom might just be reaching their peak. “Female bike racers peak when they are from about 28 to 35—generally, that’s when women are at their strongest. I felt strongest between 30 and 35,” she explained. Even so, she is as enthusiastic as ever about the sport that she loves. Her accomplishments in the cyclocross world have allowed her to travel extensively. Japan is a favorite spot, as is Italy. “The traveling has been pretty amazing,” she explained. “I really enjoy the travel and the opportunity to meet the people that I’ve met. I wouldn’t change that for anything.” To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@ chestercounty.com.
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|Newark Arts|
Photo by John Chambless
Author John Micklos, Jr., with just a few of the books he has written for young readers.
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Finding the right words John Micklos, Jr., fuels the spark that makes children love reading By John Chambless Staff Writer
T
he spark of inspiration that leads to a well-told tale has been a constant in the life of John Micklos, Jr. Today, as the author of more than 40 books for young readers, he can trace his whole career back to his childhood, when his parents took the time to read to him every day. “My mom wrote a textbook, a history of Delaware, that was used in third or fourth grade in Delaware classrooms throughout much of the 1950s,” Micklos said during an interview at his Newark home. “My dad was an engineer, so he did a lot of technical reading and writing. I read everything I could get my hands on. I was a Civil War buff when I was a kid, and we lived in Pottstown, Pa. I remember going into the library, and I had read all of the children’s books about the Civil War, so I got this big adult book and took it to the circulation desk. The librarian said, ‘You can’t read that.’ So I went and got my mom, and she said, ‘Oh, yes he can.’” Micklos, of course, proved that librarian wrong. He credits his parents and all of his teachers with fostering his interest in reading, discovering and writing. His first literary effort was “Tubby the Pig on the Moon,” he recalled, laughing. That 20-page manuscript, written when he was about 8 years old, has been lost. But thanks to Ohio University, where he majored in journalism, and to professors Daniel Keyes (author of Flowers for Algernon) and Walter Tevis (author of The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth), Micklos had plenty of inspiration. In the creative writing class taught by Keyes, “I got a C-plus, which was the lowest grade I got in all four years of college,” Micklos said. “He was fairly pointed in his criticism of some of my work, which was really good for me, because I had thought I was a really good writer.” While raising a family in Newark in the 1990s, Micklos worked with the International Literacy Association, a Newark-based non-profit organization for reading educators around the world. He was a staff writer and editor for the group, and made connections with many teachers. At one convention, he heard Judith Viorst, the author of the classic children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. “She held hundreds of teachers in rapt attention,” Micklos said. “Everything she said about writing, and working with children, fascinated me. That’s when I decided I was going to focus on writing for children.” Continued on Page 22
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John Micklos Continued from Page 21
His first published book was a biography, Leonard Nimoy: A Star’s Trek, in 1988. Then a decade passed while his children were young. All the while, he and his wife kept up the tradition of reading aloud and sharing the magic of words. “It’s really important for dads to be involved in the reading, and they’re not always as involved as moms,” Micklos said. “So I wanted to do a book of poems about dads and kids. From that came Daddy Poems. I contributed some of them, and others were collected from other poets.” His editor then wanted a follow-up. The series eventually grew to include every member of the family – Mommy Poems (2001), Grandparent Poems (2004), and No Boys Allowed: Poems about Brothers and Sisters (2006). In his online blog, Micklos wrote, “When I left the International Literacy Association in 2011 to pursue life as an author, I set a goal of publishing 50 books before I retired. At the time, I had 15 books to my credit, and 50 seemed a long way off. I often wondered if I was being
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unrealistic. Entering 2018, I have 44 books either in print or in process, and it seems likely that I may reach 50 books well before I turn 65. I guess I’ll need to set some new goals!” Throughout his career, Micklos has published several books each year. “Once you get your foot in the door, it’s way easier to sell your second book than it is to sell your first,” he said. “And it’s way easier to sell your tenth.” At this point, he submits ideas to his publisher and his editors also suggest topics to him. Many of his books are published for the education market, so they aren’t found on store shelves, but that doesn’t mean they are ignored. They find placement in classrooms and school libraries and get heavy use, focusing on topics that fit curriculums from elementary school through high school. “I suppose 40 or 50 years ago, non-fiction was fairly dry presentations of facts and figures,” Micklos said. “But it’s really evolved since then. Non-fiction is really an artform. One of the hardest aspects of doing books Continued on Page 24
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John Micklos Continued from Page 22
for third and fourth grades is that I do research and then absorb and condense the material in a way that’s understandable for kids. Some topics can be fairly challenging. But I’m always looking for cool quotes, fun facts and neat anecdotes. I’m telling a story about something. I’m not just presenting the facts and figures. People think it’s easy to write for kids. They say, ‘It’s only 1,000 words. How hard can it be?’” he said, smiling. “But it has to be the right 1,000 words.” He has written short biographies of Alexander Graham Bell, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley and Jennifer Hudson, along with contributing to books that are just fun – 125 True Stories of Amazing Pets, and 125 Cute Animals. There’s a series on the Revolutionary War, as well as books about the 1918 flu pandemic, the Pony Express, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, among other topics. Micklos also self-published two books, The Sound in the Basement (about a boy’s exploration of “a chill-you-to-the-boney sound” coming from his cellar; and Beach Fun: Poems of Surf and Sand, that is a mainstay at shore gift shops. His latest book is targeted at the youngest children. One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count With Me! was published in 2017 by the Nancy Paulsen imprint of Penguin Publishing. The charming book was inspired by two leaves that were hanging on to a tree outside a writers workshop that Micklos was attending. The text counts the leaves falling off the tree, then budding and growing again, tracing the cycle of the seasons. “It was written in a day or so,” he said of the simple text, which had several revisions. The manuscript got high marks from a writers group Micklos is part of in northern Delaware, and his agent passed it along to Penguin Publishing. “Eight days later, Nancy Paulsen from Penguin wrote and said, ‘I love this. Let’s do it.’ From then, it took another two and a half years,” Micklos said. “That’s a fairly typical time frame.” The publisher found Irish illustrator Clive McFarland to supply the vibrant, colorful pictures, and the result is a book that succeeds on every level. Since his books are widely used in classrooms,
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Micklos puts together school visits where he can tailor his presentations to all ages. He can come in to read poems to kindergartners, work on writing and revision with elementary age students, and talk about the life of an author to middle school and high school students. During his school visits, he gets to interact with his readers directly, and they share ideas for topics they’d like to read about. And, inevitably, there are students who are growing up in homes without books. Many of them are beginning to give up on the idea that they could be writers. “I was at a school one time, and I had been warned that there was this one student who had a really bad temper and got bored easily,” Micklos said. “I asked the students to write a poem on their own. This one girl was glaring at her paper. I asked if I could help her, and she said, ‘I’m thinking!’ I left her alone. She came up with a shape poem that was written in the shape of an ice cream cone. It was a very clever idea. As the class was leaving, she looked at me and said, ‘I thought poetry was going to be really stupid, but this was really kind of fun.’ The teacher told me later it was the first thing the girl had voluntarily written all year.” Getting words out of children who are not accustomed to writing can sometimes be a big job. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting that first word or a topic sentence down,” Micklos said. “If they’re just staring at the paper, I’ll ask, ‘What do you care about? What’s important to you? Do you have a pet? What’s your favorite food? Can you describe it? What’s your favorite sport?’ Bit by bit, they get started. More often than not, that works.” Micklos also works with students on revising what they’ve written – a crucial skill for every student in later grades. And he makes sure that writing is fun, not a chore. The importance of literacy is reflected in the work Micklos does for the Imagination Library, a book distribution non-profit that was started by country superstar Dolly Parton in her home county in Tennessee. “She grew up dirt poor in the mountains of Tennessee, and she always saw reading as showing her the wider world that she might one day Continued on Page 26
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John Micklos Continued from Page 25
be part of,” Micklos said. “She started the Imagination Library so that every child born in Sevier County gets a book a month from the time they are born until they turn 5. She’s done this for over 20 years. Other communities got into it as well, and now the program mails more than 1 million books a month to children across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.” Micklos is on the committee that selects which books – all printed by Penguin Publishing – are given to the children. When his own One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count With Me! was up for consideration last year, “I had to sit out that discussion,” he said, smiling. This year, though, his vibrant, colorful counting book will be given to thousands of young children across the country. To supplement his writing, Micklos has worked for the past couple of years with the Global Reading Network (GRN), a USAID grant-funded project which promotes early reading and book distribution in low-income countries around the world.
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The group is also involved in the Enabling Writers Workshop Program, which uses Bloom book writing software, a series of templates that allow teachers and other writers to create books in more than 100 languages. “It’s in six pilot countries, and they’ve been getting teachers to write hundreds of books in local languages,” Micklos said. “The books can then be uploaded to the internet so that people in other countries can also read them. There’s translation software, too. The advantage is that you get books that fit the local culture, and are part of what the kids know about. “It’s still in its starting stages. But it can only grow, and has the potential to be really wonderful,” he said. “All in all, I’ve been really fortunate to do the sort of writing and editing work that fits with my interests.” For more information, visit www.JohnMicklosWriter. com, or email jjmj197@comcast.net. To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email jchambless@chestercounty.com.
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|Newark People| Lee Zimmerman has traveled all over the world performing his rock and roll marionette show. This is how the Newark resident made a name for himself as...
The Puppet Guy All photos courtesy
Lee Zimmerman, a.k.a. The Puppet Guy, has performed around the world.
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By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
I
t’s a Thursday in the middle of March and the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament is on the television at the Deer Park Tavern in Newark. Lee Zimmerman, a.k.a. The Puppet Guy, just got back from a show in Dallas a few days earlier, and the next day he will be heading to Canada for a two-week circus arts camp where he will be teaching atrisk children. But for now, Zimmerman is in Newark—home, the city that he grew up in—and he is quite comfortable to be here. Zimmerman talks about the Deer Park Tavern’s impressive history. He gushes about growing up in Newark. He jokes with a waiter-- “Deer Park. It’s a great place to park your deer.” The waiter grins. Of course, he has no idea that he is talking to someone who has spent more than 30 years touring the world with Jimi Hendrix. Wait a minute, you say. Jimi Hendrix, the most electrifying guitarist in the history of rock? How can that be? Hendrix’s career was like his legendary performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock— dazzling and brilliant and memorable and incendiary—but also spectacularly short. When Hendrix passed away in 1970, he was only 28—and his mainstream musical career had lasted just four years. Hendrix’s innovative and virtuoso performances on the guitar are still inspiring musicians 50 years later. Hendrix also inspired a young Zimmerman, which led him to make a little Jimi Hendrix puppet. That puppet then led to the improbable birth of The Puppet Guy. Zimmerman fondly recalls his childhood spent in Newark. He attended Christiana High School. He was always drawing, and he liked various kinds of art. One day, he went to the old State Theater on Main Street and watched concert films featuring Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. His life would never be the same.
Lee Zimmerman has traveled all over the world performing his rock and roll marionette show, captivating audiences with his humor and skill.
Continued on Page 30 www.newarklifemagazine.com | Spring/Summer 2018 | Newark Life
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The Puppet Guy Continued from Page 29
Zimmerman can make puppets modeled after many different kinds of pets and animals.
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“I had never seen anything like that before,” he recalls of the musical performances by two legendary acts. “I walked out of the theater stunned.” As soon as Zimmerman saw Jimi Hendrix in the concert film, he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He wanted to be a rock star. No! He wanted to be Jimi Hendrix! He took up playing the guitar, but quickly discovered that he wasn’t very good at it. And there was no chance he was ever going to be Jimi Hendrix. “I quit playing the guitar,” he explains. “I took my brother up on his offer to teach me how to build marionettes out of wire and papier mâché.” Zimmerman said that he and his brother, Drew, checked out a book, “Puppet Circus” by Peter Fraser, out of the Newark Library, and set out to create a Hendrix puppet. Zimmerman was a teenager at the time, so it goes without saying that one of his motivations for building a puppet was to impress a girl. Zimmerman had no reason to think that that first puppet would help shape the course of his life. Before they graduated, the girl that he wanted to impress with the Hendrix puppet wrote in Zimmerman’s yearbook that he would spend his life in a way that combined his love of music and art. More on the girl later. After high school, Zimmerman enrolled in the
Art Institute of Philadelphia because he did have a talent for art. While he didn’t play the guitar regularly anymore, it was difficult to let go of the dream of becoming a rock star. During his high school years, it was really all he wanted to be. “I never wanted to be anything else, except maybe a comedian,” Zimmerman explains. At some point in 1981, he ran short of money for art supplies for his classes at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He decided to give street performing a try. It’s safe to say that he was the only street performer in the city who ever had a Jimi Hendrix puppet as the centerpiece of the show. Zimmerman found out that he had a talent for staging a lightning-fast puppet show, complete with air guitar, air drums, and lots of energy. The show attracted attention, and before long Zimmerman had been featured in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. If you’re going to do a rock and roll marionette show, it helps to look like a rock star, and Zimmerman had the look of the rock stars that were starting to dominate the airwaves. With the unique combination of humor and skill, he was able to bring some of the greatest musicians in history to life. Zimmerman still did not comprehend that the Jimi Hendrix puppet could be the conduit to a career. He continued street performing and eventually left Philadelphia for California. He found a job working in special effects, while continuing to develop the rock and roll marionette show. He added Tina Turner, David Byrne, and Homer Simpson on the drums to his repertoire of rock and roll puppets. Focusing on what makes each rock star so unique, Zimmerman crafted a show that appeals to all
ages. Children don’t have to know who Jimi Hendrix is, or have a concept of his musical legacy, to understand what Zimmerman is doing with his show. “It’s just a little guy with a guitar who is beating up the amplifiers,” he explains. Within six weeks of moving to Venice Beach, California, Zimmerman achieved something that many performers can only dream about, securing a spot in the lineup of one of the most prestigious comedy clubs in the world. On June 24, 1991, Zimmerman got an opening slot at The Improv in Hollywood, California. Across the years and all the miles, Zimmerman can still recall that evening’s performance almost as if it took place yesterday. He says that he could feel the crowd wanting him to succeed that night as he went through the performance, their cheers pushing him to do his best work in the moment, on that big stage. “I remember thinking, this is my moment,” he explains, smiling at the memory of it all. Before long, Zimmerman was a regular at The Improv. Top comedians like Tom Arnold, Rosanne Barr, and Jerry Seinfeld played there. He had reached the pinnacle with absurd speed. But let’s go back for a minute, because The Puppet Guy’s story is filled with improbable moments and events that double back on each other. Zimmerman has a clear memory of when he was a 14-year-old, and he and a friend were looking at a recent issue of Playboy magazine. Zimmerman, like thousands of boys before and since, pointed to the woman on the cover and said, “I’m going to marry that woman,” to a buddy. Continued on Page 32
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The Puppet Guy Continued from Page 31
Enter Debra Jo Fondren, the 1978 Playmate of the Year, who was well known for her stunning looks and long hair. Years later, when Zimmerman was in California and met Fondren for the first time, he did not recognize her from the Playboy cover. She was looking to book The Puppet for a show. He auditioned in her apartment, and not long after that they were dating. Zimmerman said that he and Fondren enjoyed the Hollywood life, encountering celebrities, sometimes partying, and working on the production side of the movie business. When a big-name celebrity received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they would attend. “We were together for about ten years in Hollywood, which is longer than 30 years anywhere else,” Zimmerman says. Zimmerman’s show became a regular feature at Universal Studios for nine years. He would do nine shows a night for five or six nights a week. Universal Studios is close to
the epicenter of the entertainment industry, and people in the industry were always seeing his shows—and offering him the chance to do performances, sometimes in private for some of the biggest names in show business. Having such a unique entertainment show in Hollywood opened many doors for Zimmerman. He appeared on dozens of television shows and films, including “The Drew Carey Show” and the cult film, “Eddy Presley” with Quentin Tarantino. The Puppet Guy entertained the cast and crew at the “Seinfeld” wrap party. He did intimate shows for many notable people, ranging from Hugh Hefner to Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the Sultan of Brunei to Guns ‘N’ Roses. He performed for Terry Bozzio, the respected drummer who is perhaps best-known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. Moon Unit Zappa saw his show and loved it so much that she enlisted him to play for her father in his home. The performance happened to occur about six
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weeks before Zappa would pass away, and Zimmerman has fond memories of being able to entertain him at that point in his life. “I was able to meet so many people that I really admired,” Zimmerman explains. “I don’t know how that happened, but I do know that I listened to my instincts. I never challenged them.” Zimmerman also developed an uncanny ability to rise to the occasion—the way that he did during his first night at The Improv. One time, he found himself in Singapore without his gear, and he needed to provide entertainment as a roving act for a group. He went out and purchased two Etch a Sketch toys and, on the spot, created a new character, Etch a Sketch Guy, using only his quick wit and even quicker drawing abilities to entertain. He added a costume of sorts, and still performs to this day as Etch a Sketch Guy. For an episode of “The Drew Carey Show,” during which the entire cast turns into marionettes, Zimmerman made ten marionettes in just 22 days, which still amazes him to this day. He traveled extensively, and made the most of his
Zimmerman will make custom marionettes for people. Here are some examples of his work.
opportunities. He enjoyed some incredible experiences. When he went to a Street Performers Festival in Edmonton, Canada, he met people who were kindred spirits. “These people are just the most unique, brilliant people,” he explained. “They are all geniuses.” He described the group as a family. Continued on Page 34
SEARCHING FOR A NEW HOME IN DELAWARE?
Building new homes in Delaware since 1978 Bowers Landing: Ranch and two-story single family homes on ½ acre lots, from the mid $200’s. Bike to the Delaware Bay and Bowers Beach’s open-to-the-public white sand beaches. Close to Dover Air Base and Dover Downs. 40 minutes to Live Close Rehoboth Beach. Lake Forest School District. to Delaware Avonbridge at Odessa Chase: Two quick delivery homes available soon. New Carriage homes adjacent to the Odessa Beaches! National Golf Course from the mid $200’s. Golf Course Clubhouse now open. First floor master bedrooms available. Bon Ayre: Manufactured homes in an established 55+ landlease community in historic Smyrna close to Bayhealth & Christiana Care. From the low $100’s. Beautiful clubhouse on site. Call 302-659-5800. Visit www.BonAyreHomes.com. Low Quick Delivery Homes available immediately! Energy-efficient natural gas appliances available. Mearfield: Ranch and two-story single family homes within the City of Seaford, from the low $200’s. Close to Rte. 13 & Delaware area shopping. Quick Delivery Homes available immediately! Property Sunnyside Village: Singles in the historic Town of Smyrna, from the $200’s. Eight ranch & 2-story models to choose from. Taxes! Close to schools, day cares, fitness center, health care and shopping centers. Energy-efficient natural gas appliances available. Cambria Village: Town homes in the Town of Smyrna, from the $170’s. Very Close to downtown Smyrna, Rte. 1 & Rte. 13. Four models to choose from. Quick Delivery Homes available immediately! Brookefield: Single family homes along Voshell’s Pond in Camden, from the mid $300’s. Caesar Rodney School District. First floor master bedrooms available. Quick Delivery homes available immediately. Energy-efficient natural gas appliances available. Huntington Mills, Clayton, DE: Ranch and two-story single family homes in a well established community from the mid $200’s. One quick delivery home available. Energy-efficient natural gas appliances available. Old Country Farms, Clayton, DE: Ranch and two-story single family homes in an established community from the high $200’s. Adjacent to the new Clayton Middle School. Quick Delivery Homes under construction now! Watergate at Milford: New townhomes for rent from $1,100 per month. See www.WatergateAtMilford.com
There’s Never Been A Better Time to Buy! For more information call 302.653.1650 or visit www.LenapeBuilders.net www.newarklifemagazine.com | Spring/Summer 2018 | Newark Life
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The Puppet Guy Continued from Page 33
One of the more meaningful efforts that he became involved with is the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival Circus and Magic Partnership (CAMP), a circus arts program designed to help children who are at-risk. Neal Rempel is the executive producer of the event. During the camp, the visiting artists set up an artistic circus, do shows for the children, and teach them how to perform. Then, toward the end of the camp, the children perform, using the skills that they have learned. Zimmerman has participated in the camp for the last 20 years. He said that it’s amazing to see how the children gain confidence and enjoy themselves during the circus. A child who is so shy that he won’t talk to the instructors on Monday will be up on the stage performing by the end of the camp. “It’s the most important gig I’ve ever had,” Zimmerman states. Zimmerman’s journey eventually brought him back home to Newark. While he still travels a fair amount to perform, he enjoys being back in his hometown and enjoying his life here. It has been a joy, he said, to rediscover his hometown and its smart, friendly people. Zimmerman performs the marionette show locally when he can. In December of 2017, he was one of the honorary chairs of the popular Hockessin Art & Book Fair. He does a lot of private events. He also wants to share his knowledge about how
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to put on a puppet show with others. He offers private workshops for children and adults. He also teaches at the Center for the Creative Arts in Hockessin. “If I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that there’s no age limit on playing with toys,” Zimmerman explains. He uses his talents making marionettes to do custom gifts and what he calls pup-pet portraits—puppets that resemble a person’s pet. He has done about 100 replicas of dogs, cats, horses, and other pets. The rewarding work that he has done with the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival Circus and Magic Partnership has really changed him, and he wants to do more to help children. He has launched a project on Kickstarter.com, a crowd fundraising site, where he wants to build and design teaching puppets that are specifically designed for children with Autism. He has met with local agencies like the Easter Seals and Autism Delaware to set up special workshops. No one could have predicted the strange, amazing journey that Zimmerman has enjoyed as The Puppet Guy.
Lee Zimmerman has a website at www.thepuppetguy.com. He can also be contacted at thepuppet guy@ hotmail.com.
Well, almost no one. Remember the girl in high school who said that Zimmerman would find a way to combine his love of music and art to make a living? The same girl that he first made the Jimi Hendrix puppet to impress? Her name is Lori Veale Cherney, and she and Zimmerman are together again. But that’s a story for another time. Reflecting on his incredible life, Zimmerman remarks simply, “Amazing things happen to The Puppet Guy.” To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@ chestercounty.com.
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Summer Camp & Education Guide
Choosing a camp Make the right choice for a super summer experience
A
ccording to the American Camp Association (ACA), more than 12 million children attend summer camps, offering a return to outdoor fun, sports, swimming, and activities; and a much-needed respite from social media, smart phones, internet, and television. So, how can you make sure that you are finding the perfect camp for your child? According to Andy Pritkin, past ACA president, there are several surefire ways you can find the camp that is the right fit.
ASK ABOUT ACCREDITATION. American Camp Association gives the “stamp of approval” for high-quality supervision, program and facility. Their accreditation program is designed to educate camp owners and directors in the administration of key aspects of camp operation, most importantly program quality and the health and safety of campers and staffs. You can find accredited camps by zip code online atwww.acacamps.org. TAKE ME THROUGH A CAMP DAY. Does the camp provide an extensive menu of activities to fit the needs or interests of every child, or are they more restrictive to cater to a certain skill set? Do the campers get to choose electives or is there a set schedule they must follow? How does the camp find its teachers, and are the curriculums set or are they fluid based on the needs and wants of the campers? What about field trips, special, events, and swim instruction? If you are investing in making this special for your child, you need to make sure your child will get the most of out of their experience.
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IS IT ALL FUN & GAMES? Camp is all about having fun, but is the camp providing more than just baby sitting? What will your child take away from the experience? Does the camp incorporate youth development into their programming? Do they have a philosophy on what children should get out of their camp experience? Do they promote social skills, team playing, positive self-esteem, long-lasting friendships? After all, camp is a significant financial investment and you want to make sure that investment gives you long-lasting results. FIND OUT WHO’S IN CHARGE. Who is directly interacting with your child? The best camps have teachers and college students running their programs with high schoolers assisting. Ask about the average age of counselors and how the camp staffs their leadership positions. You want to feel comfortable and confident that your child is not only happy, but also protected and well cared for. You also need to know that throughout the summer, the staff will keep you informed and updated on everything that is going on.
STOP BY FOR A VISIT (OR TWO). You should never choose a camp based solely on the website or brochure if possible. Meet the director in person, for it is their personality and philosophy that trickles down to the rest of the camp. Walk around the camp and take a look at the bunks, the pools, the playing fields, the theater. If your tour invokes excitement and happiness for your child, you know you have made the right choice. CALCULATE THE COSTS. There are camps for every budget, but just like anything, you usually get what you pay for. Find out about discounts and the refund policy, and make sure you know all the costs before you sign on the dotted line, including busing, field trip fees, and extended care expenses.
NEVER SETTLE. You are spending you hard-earned money to give your child a super summer; don’t hesitate to inquire about concerns regarding bus transportation, dietary restrictions, allergies, or special needs. Remember without campers, there is no camp, so a quality camp will do its best to cater to your needs. ASK AROUND. Speak to friends who attend the camps you are considering, or ask the camp if you can contact local families with like-aged children. “Word of Mouth” is often more impactful than a snazzy website or marketing materials. Camp is a big decision for your family on a financial and emotional level, so take your time, do your homework, and trust your instinct. Then when school’s out, there will be no doubt that your child will enjoy a super summer. Continued on Page 38
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Summer Camp and Education Guide Continued from Page 37
Art First This is the Summer Developmental Program of Art First, Inc., for ages 4-14. It is an all-encompassing exploration of the arts, involving mind, senses and spirit. Art First, Inc. is committed to the high quality of materials and teaching abilities offered. The staff has a broad spectrum of experience and talent and will open worlds for our community’s children with their fresh perspectives as dedicated artists and educators. Call 302-239-3544 for email diane@artfirst.com
Barbizon Summer Camps available. Fashion Design Camp and other summer sessions going on all summer. Let your child experience the summer of a lifetime. Contact 302658-6666 or email info@barbizonchique.com
Camp Arrowhead Summer camps are offered in five sessions for grades 2 to 11 from June 25 to Aug. 11 at a wooded site on the Rehoboth Bay. Day and overnight camps are offered. Call 302-945-0610 or visit www.camparrowhead.net.
Camp Fairlee Easterseals Camp Fairlee located on the Eastern Shore and provides year-round respite and recreation for children and adults with all types of disABILITIES. Nine summer camp sessions run June through August including two weeks for children with autism. Activities include canoeing, swimming, climbing tower, zip line, ropes course, horseback riding, arts/crafts, outdoor / indoor games and more. All new fully accessible facilities and cabins with A/C since 2015. Health Center with nurses. Specialized diets accommodated.
Cecil College
Summer camps are offered this summer for ages 6 to 8, 9 to 12, and 13 to 17, with outdoor activities and exploration of career pathways. Call 410-392-3366, ext. 628, or visit www.cecil.edu/youth.
Centreville Layton School Summer Program
6201 Kennett Pike, Centreville, Del. A summer program is offered for youngsters in June and July, for pre-K to eighth grade, and middle and high school students. Call 302-571-0270 or visit www.centrevillelayton.org. Continued on Page 40
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City of Newark Parks & Recreation
Summer is right around the corner and the City of Newark Parks & Recreation Department has you covered! Our Summer Activity Guide, including all our 2018 camps, fitness classes, sports leagues and instructional classes, swim lessons, dance, art & theater, special events and so much more is available now at www. newarkde.gov/play. Call 302-366-7000.
Delaware Aerospace Academy
Children in grades 1 to 10 can take summer camps focusing on science and technology, engineering, mathematics and space exploration, with a variety of packages available at Newark or Smyrna, Del., locations. Call 302834-1978 or visit www.dasef.org.
Delaware Museum of Natural History
4840 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, Del. Thirty two summer camps are offered for ages 2 to 12, exploring the natural world. Call 302658-9111 or visit www.delmnh.org.
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Fairwinds Farm 41 Tailwinds Lane, North East, Md. Horse Camp to learn the basic skills of horsemanship is offered on weekdays this summer. Call 410-658-8187 or visit www.fairwindsstables.com.
Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Four resident camps and three day camps are open to girls entering grades 1 to 12 this summer, focusing on a wide range of outdoor skills and interests. Visit www.gsep.org/camps.
Hockessin Athletic Club 100 Fitness Way, Hockessin, Del. Summer camps are offered for ages 3 to 12, with swimming, crafts, sports, games and volunteering. Call 302-766-7482 or visit www. hachealthclub.com.
Iron Hill Museum 1355 Old Baltimore Pike Newark Explore Delaware’s natural history, geology, or prehistory and fossil record, learn what archaeology can tell us about people from the past, or discover the world of insects at one of the Iron Hill Museum’s Science Adventure Camps this summer. Call 302-368-5703
Newark Day Nursery and Children’s Center Newark Day offers early care and education of infants (6 weeks) THrough tweenies, preschool and school age students. School aged children can attend our summer camp program for one week or all summer. We offer an active atmosphere focused on nature with planned themes, events and projects to support children’s summer learning. 302-731-4925 www.newarkdaynursery.org
North East River Yacht Club Learn to sail on the Northeast River on the Chesapeake Bay. Campers@neryc.com. 410-287-6333.
St Elizabeth’s St. Elizabeth High School is a close-knit Catholic school that follows the Benedictine tradition and offers a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. Located on the southwest edge of the city of Wilmington, the Vikings have hospitality at the core of our values with service, spirituality, and 21st-century skills as our focus. St. Elizabeth’s summer programs are co-educational camps for rising Pre-K through 8th graders. Our programs are run by experienced educators and strive to foster learning, creativity, and fun in a safe and caring environment. Call 302-656-3369. St. Elizabeth’s summer programs are coeducational camps for rising Pre-K through 8th graders. Our programs are run by experienced educators and strive to foster learning, creativity, and FUN in a safe and caring environment. Variety of camps.
St. Annes Episcopal Day Camp
Sanford School
At our Day Camp, children make friends of all ages during the morning meet & greet, the all-camp lunch, the camp-wide activities, and at the close of each day. They’ll bond with those in their age-specific groups during morning and afternoon sessions run by our own St. Anne’s faculty. Email mferster@ stannesde.org or call 302-378-3179, ext. 358.
6900 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, Del. The school offers day camps for ages 3 to 14, with sports and arts camps for ages 8 to 14, and specialty camps in tennis (June 12-16, 19-23 and 26-30) and Coach Hutch’s Sports Camp (June 12-16, Aug. 14-18, and Aug. 21-25). Visit www.sanfordschool. org. Continued on Page 42
96% of graduates are college-bound • Academic Excellence • Leadership Opportunities • Technology-Infused Curriculum
• Active Learning • Small Class Sizes • Faith-Based Service Community
StEschools.org 302.656.3369 x 3039 www.newarklifemagazine.com | Spring/Summer 2018 | Newark Life
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Summer Camp and Education Guide Continued from Page 41
Tatnall School
Wilmington Friends School
1501 Barley Mill Rd., Wilmington, Del. Summer camps are offered from June 19 to Aug. 18 for ages 3 through 12th grade. There are sports camps, an on-site pool, music classes, science and technology classes, dance camps and more. Bus trips to local attractions are available. Call 302-892-4347 or visit www.tatnall.org.
A camp for ages preschool to ninth grade has one-week sessions from June 18 through Aug. 24, with a variety of activities and themes. Call 302-576-2998 or visit www.wilmingtonfriends. org/summercamp.
Wilmington Ballet 1709 Gilpin Ave., Wilmington, Del. Founded in 1956, Wilmington Ballet Academy of the Dance is one of the longest surviving ballet schools in the tri-state area and has a history of professional-level instruction to prepare young dancers for wherever their dance aspirations take them. The Academy is dedicated to providing superior classical ballet training to foster discipline, confidence, and poise to students of all ages in the Wilmington area. Summer camps available. Call 302-655-1004 or email info@wilmingtonballet.org.
Wilmington Youth Rowing Association 500 E. Front St., Wilmington, Del. Three camps are offered: “Row For It!� for ages 10 to 14 (July 12-July 14); “Rowing 101� for ages 13 to 18 (June 25 and Aug. 14-18); and “Christina River Rangers� June 25-29, Aug. 13-17 for ages 10 to 13, with visits to the DuPont Environmental Education Center in the mornings and rowing lessons in the afternoon (July 23-27).Call 302-777-4533 or visit www.wyra.org.
YMCA Camp Tockwogh An overnight camp on the Chesapeake Bay offers summer camps in one-week or two-week overnight sessions from June 4 to Aug. 17, for children who have completed grades 2 to 9. There is a wide range of camp sites, age groupings and themes. Visit www.ymcacamptockwogh.org. Continued on Page 44
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The Tome School The Tome School sets high standards in academics and personal behavior with a rigorous academic program and a dedicated, caring faculty that helps students reach their potential and acquire the skills that they will need to lead successful lives. “Tome is unique,” said head of school Christine Szymanski. “We put a big emphasis on respect, personal responsibility, and academic rigor. We talk about doing things the ‘Tome Way.’” The ‘Tome Way’ has always been to provide a topquality education to students at an affordable cost—that was what Jacob Tome envisioned when he founded the school in 1889. Jacob Tome, a banker, politician, and philanthropist, built one of the largest fortunes in the U.S. at the time while he was living in Cecil County. He wanted to create a school in the area that would offer the finest education for students willing to undergo its challenging regimen, regardless of their families’ ability to pay the cost for that education. With its long tradition of excellence, the Tome School continues to be true to that mission today, focusing on academics, character, and community. The school
educates approximately 455 K-12 students each year. With small class sizes—the maximum number of students is 14 in kindergarten, 20 in grades 1-8, and 25 in grades 9-12—the faculty members offer the personal attention that students need. Tome graduates are well-prepared for the future. In two recent graduating classes, the school’s seniors exceeded the state average SAT scores in reading, math, and writing by more than 100 points. When a graduate of The Tome School arrives on a college campus, he or she is typically ready for the new academic challenge. “We are very academically driven,” explained Szymanski. “So when students get to their next schools, they are very well-prepared.” Tome School keeps tuition significantly lower than other independent schools, partly because of the substantial funding from The Jacob Tome Institute and partly because of parental assistance. Volunteer efforts by Tome families help keep tuition increases to a minimum. The Tome School is proud to be a part of the Cecil County Community, and has been an active member of the Cecil County Chamber of Commerce for 30 years. The Tome School is located at 581 S. Maryland Avenue in North East, Maryland. The telephone number is 410287-2050. For more information, visit www.tomeschool. org.
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Summer Camp and Education Guide Continued from Page 42
A guide to area private schools and colleges 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
St. Andrew’s School 350 Noxontown Road, Middletown, 378-9511, standrews-de.org St. Annes 211 Silverlake Road, Middletown, 378-3179 The Tatnall School 1501 Barley Mill Road, Wilmington, 998-2292, tatnall.org Tower Hill School 2813 W. 17th St., Wilmington, 5750550, towerhill.org
Sanford School 6900 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, 239-5263, sanfordschool.org
Ursuline Academy 1106 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, 658-7158, ursuline.org
Continued on Page 46
Rolling Hills Ranch
YEAR ROUND HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS FOR EVERYONE Day Camps offered 4 weeks in the Summer & Holidays Home of Freedom Hills Therapeutic Riding Program for people with disabilities Bed and Breakfast at Rolling Hills Ranch Volunteer Opportunities Available
33 Rolling Hills Ranch La Port Deposit, MD
410-378-3817 www.rollinghillsranch.org • www.freedomhills.org 44
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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 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 Neumann University One Neumann Drive, Aston, Pa. 19014-1298, 610-5585616 or 800-9-NEUMANN, www.neumann.edu/visit 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; 3411 Silverside Road, Wilmington, 877-967-5464; 651 N. Broad St., Middletown, 877-967-5464.
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|Newark Business|
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Finding just the right piece of the past Practice the fine art of browsing at Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall By John Chambless Staff Writer
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All photos by John Chambless
Left: Margaret Flanagan owns the antique mall and works there several days each month.
here’s a handwritten sign behind the counter at Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall in Newark that pretty much sums up the appeal of antiques browsing: Your grandma had it. Your mom threw it out. We found it! Now you can buy it back! For Margaret Flanagan, who has run the collective of dealers for the past eight years, antiques have been a lifelong passion. “My mother was an antiques dealer in Delaware for over 40 years,” Flanagan said recently in the front room at the antique mall, which serves as a meeting and conversation space. “I grew up with it. She packed the house full. She and I started here 10 years ago by renting rooms when it was owned by someone else. My mom had her own shop before that, though. She was where Grain is now. And then she rented space in a huge warehouse mall in Smyrna until that burned down. So she and I came here years later. “She used to do antiques shows all the time, before her health got too bad. She would leave in the morning at about 4, and then my dad would take us to help her pack up and come home.” Flanagan grew up in the area, went to the University of Delaware, and worked as a special education teacher for more than 30 years, ending her career at Christiana High School before retiring. In 2008, she bought the antique mall. Given her mother’s proclivity for collecting, Flanagan admitted that as a seamstress, she has a passion for collecting old sewing machines, textiles, threads and accessories, “but I sell them, too,” she said. Presiding over 30 dealers who set up at the antique mall could be tempting for a collector like Flanagan, but she smiled and said, “I can resist” when tempting new merchandise comes through the door. Continued on Page 50
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Antique Mall Continued from Page 49
The large, rambling building that holds the antique mall has a rich history, and many longtime Newark residents remember its past incarnations. “It was built in the 1940s and was a Methodist church,� Flanagan said. “One of our customers brought us a picture of a Sunday school class that was downstairs, and a picture of her mother getting married in the church. Up in the attic is the domed ceiling. The altar was at the far end of the building. “In 1973, the church left and it became the Newark Police Station,� she said. “A lot of the people who come in here remember that. Upstairs are the old evidence lockers, and the cells were downstairs. There was another part of the building that they put on the back that was torn down when the police left. “In 1993, it opened as an antiques business with a different owner. Owners have come and gone. When I took over, I changed the name and we’ll celebrate our eighth year in July,� Flanagan said. When Flanagan took over, the building’s landlord renovated and cleaned up the lower level, which now holds more than a dozen dealer booths. “Right now, we have about 30 dealers,� she said. “At capacity, we could have about 40. Some have been with us since 1993. Some people come for just a little while because their parent died and they have a ton of stuff to sell.�
Downstairs at Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall is where the cells were located when the building was the Newark Police Station.
Continued on Page 52
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Antique Mall Continued from Page 50
Being located in a college town has its advantages, Flanagan said. “We have parents who bring their kids in who want antiques. Furniture always sells. “Tables, too. People like miniatures, little shadow box things. Tins are always a good seller as decorations, and mid-century has come back. A lot of people, when the students are moving in at the university, they’re looking for furniture – dressers, tables, nightstands. We advertise in the planner that all freshmen get.” Collecting trends have come and gone in the time Flanagan has been involved in the business, and she laughed when discussing the college students who come in looking for items from long ago – like the 1980s. “The 1980s was just yesterday to us, but to students who were born in the late 1990s or early 2000s, it’s eons ago,” she said. The business has also shifted away from the book price guides that used to govern the value of items. All the price guides are online now, Flanagan said. And the arrival of eBay in the mid-1990s rocked the antiques business, she said with a sigh. “When EBay started, people would come in and say, ‘I can get this on eBay for $15, and you have $29 on it.’ And then TV changed it a lot as well, with ‘Storage Wars’ and ‘American Pickers.’ People see what the item
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is worth on TV, but those are different markets,” Flanagan said. “We price our stuff for the community that we’re in. We may use eBay as a guide to what something is selling for. Continued on Page 54
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Antique Mall Continued from Page 52
“For a few years, it was tough to compete,” she added. “I think people now realize that online is not the end-all when it comes to buying. For some people, it’s important to see the item and touch it. That’s great. I love that. The business is on an upswing now, especially in the past couple of years.” Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall is the kind of place browsers love. “People can spend hours in here, looking at things,” Flanagan said. The rooms vary from fairly organized to intriguingly cluttered, with nooks and drawers to explore. Items from virtually every era can be found – artwork, paper collectibles, tools, kitchenware, toys, small furniture – and you never know what’s going to pop up, because the dealers come in regularly to change the merchandise, Flanagan said. All the prices are set by the individual dealers, although there’s an informal collective of other dealers who can offer advice about items when they come in to be put on sale. “I still go to estate sales, garage sales, I do enjoy shopping,” Flanagan said. “If I can get a great deal, I won’t turn that down! Right now I’m going through my mom’s Continued on Page 56
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Antique Mall Continued from Page 54
inventory and selling it, so I have plenty. I’m finding things that my mom had in the 1980s that have a $2 price tag. I look it up and it’s worth $35 now, you know? It’s been great fun.” In the off chance that a customer doesn’t find what they’re looking for, there’s a “wish book” at the front counter with customer requests. “We have a customer who collects fountain pens, and they don’t last long here – they sell quickly. So a dealer can put them on hold for a buyer,” Flanagan said. “If somebody comes in looking for something, and I know I have it at home, I can have them come back the next day.’” That kind of personal shopping service is what makes a business like Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall appealing for buyers. And the dealers who sell there like the fact that they pay a flat fee per month, and there are no commissions taken from sales. Each dealer agrees to work at the counter several days each month. And how many times has Flanagan heard, “My mother had one of these!”
She laughed. “I’ve lost count,” she said. As collectibles go in and out of favor with buyers, Flanagan said she’s concerned that books and magazines will eventually disappear. “People will want them back eventually,” she said. “I probably won’t live long enough to see that, but people are going to want to touch books again.” Flanagan said she still locks up the mall each day, and can be found at the business six to 10 days a month. “I’m never sitting still,” she said. “I have a lot on my plate. But for me, the best thing about this business is the customers. They are awesome. People are happy when they’re shopping for antiques. They want to be here, and I love talking with them.” Aunt Margaret’s Antique Mall (294 E. Main St., Newark) is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Visit www.auntmargaretsantiquemall.com. To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email jchambless@chestercounty.com.
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|Newark Arts|———————————————
Four chords in the better place Twice a month, ukulele enthusiasts get together and share tips, songs and the plucky sounds of a small musical instrument. They’re the Newark Ukesters, and they’re here to play By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
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ake Shimabukuro, a ukulele virtuoso who’s considered to be the greatest player in the world, enjoys the fact that the musical instrument that has made him famous is not taken seriously. Many people look at the ukulele more as a toy, and that’s a good thing, Shimabukuro believes, because rather than intimidate the musician, the ukulele is approachable, manageable, easy to lug around, fairly uncomplicated and, for the newcomer, highly affordable. And then there’s that sweet, unpretentious, friendly sound coming from the four strings of the ukulele, one that seems to ring in the ears like an invitation to put off all cares, pull up a chair and stay a while. “If everyone played the ukulele,” Shimabukuro is quoted as saying, “the world would be a better place.” The Newark Ukesters, a small group of ukulele enthusiasts who meet at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark on the first and third Tuesday evenings of every month, do not feel the obligation to keep Shimabukuro’s hope alive. Rather, for a few hours a week, they work their fingers through chords and their voices through songs like, “Drop Baby Drop,” “Little Birds” and “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue,” for no greater reason than to share a common passion. “I love the simplicity of the instrument,” said Frank McKelvey, who joined the Ukesters last October. “My ukulele is always there in my house and in the open, so 58
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it’s very easy to pick up and put down and play with for as long as I wish to, whether it’s five or ten minutes, or longer. To be able to convert music from a page to sound is good for everyone. “It’s like a form of meditation. It’s like washing your mind from the other issues of the day.” The Newark Ukesters, who now enjoy a 25-person membership, were formed last September by Jane Luke, largely out of a need to share her love of the ukulele with others. “I kept thinking that there are a thousand ukulele players who regularly attend meet-up gatherings in Philadelphia, so what’s wrong with Newark and Wilmington?” she said. “How come we can’t get the same thing going on down here? If they can get a thousand, we can at least get a couple of people together here.” When Luke was a child, growing up in Hawaii, the sound of the ukulele was everywhere, and she quickly learned some chords of her own. But, over time, her obligations changed and her relationship with the ukulele drifted away. About about eight years ago, Luke took up the instrument again, and it has remained her constant traveling companion on her many trips to Japan, Italy, Germany, Holland and Turkey in her role as a mental health professional who supports military families. “I had played a guitar for a long time, but I have found that the ukulele has just as much complexity as a guitar, and it’s easier to play,” Luke said. “I would play it a lot overseas in hotel rooms, but about two years ago, I began to think, ‘I really have to start playing with other
The Newark Ukesters meet twice a month at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark.
people, because playing solo isn’t working for me,’ so I began to have this vision of a group of ukulele players in Newark, playing outside on the Green at the University of Delaware.” Developed in the 1880s in Portugal and later introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants, the ukulele was popularized for a stateside audience during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. Its popularity quickly grew, and the instrument began to be heard in Hawaiian-themed songs written by Tin Pan Alley songwriters, and by entertainers like Roy Smeck and Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards. As the jazz age hit the U.S. in the 1920s, the ukulele became the instrument of the times. It was played by Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest V. Stoneman, as well as by early string bands, including Cowan Powers and his Family Band, Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters, Walter Smith and Friends, The Blankenship Family, The Hillbillies, and The Hilltop Singers. From the late 1940s to the late 1960s, the ukulele continued to be popular, appearing on many songs throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, before it declined in popularity over the next 20 years. By the 1990s, however, the instrument experienced a resurgence, as manufacturers Continued on Page 60
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began producing ukuleles and a new generation of musicians took up the instrument. In 1993, Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo’ole helped repopularize the instrument, in particular with his reggae-like medley of “Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World,” which has been used in films, television programs and commercials. Ukulele festivals are held throughout the world every year, and this year’s lineup is no exception, with large concerts scheduled for the United States, Finland, Austria, New Zealand, Poland and the United Kingdom. While no one in the Newark Ukesters aspires to be on the world stage, each member brings with him or her a story that connects the instrument, in some way, to their past. When McKelvey was a college student in upstate New York in the 1960s, he was captivated by the folk music scene, which took the work of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary and made it a part of the common vernacular. What he was hearing inspired him, and soon McKelvey could be found playing his guitar with other students on the campuses of Hudson Valley Community College and Syracuse University. Over time, however, his obligations changed – McKelvey began to raise a family and pursue a career – and eventually, his guitar became just a another neglected relic from his past, brought out occasionally for reminiscing. “I had the urge a year or so ago to try a ukulele, because my finger stretching is not as severe as when I played a guitar,” McKelvey said. “This is a very sympathetic group. I am still learning, but it’s a lot like riding a bike. It comes back again to me. The fingering is different, but I am able to pick up pretty quickly from learning the basic dozen chords that we play here.”
Ray Weigand, Jane Luke and Frank McKelvey work their way through a song.
For Karen Barker, who has been playing the ukulele seriously for the past two years, strumming the instrument takes her back to her childhood, when she would listen to her father playing while watching the Mummers Day Parade on television. Barker plays with the same ukulele her father used. “I love to play a lot of Tin Pan Alley songs, just like he did,” said Barker, a middle school science teacher. “Even when he got older, in failing health and living with dementia, I would bring him his ukulele and play music with him. Even when he was forgetting other things, he could still remember to play.” On a recent Tuesday evening at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark, the six members of the Newark Ukesters who were in attendance started songs, stopped them and started them up again in a gentle tug between performance and simple enjoyment. Instead of applause between songs, the room was filled with laughter. “I read an article recently that said people who play music together improve their brain power,” Barker said. “For me, it’s the love of acceptance, and the desire to sing and make music together. Playing the ukulele has not necessarily made me good at playing, but it makes me enthusiastic and happy.” The Newark Ukesters ukulele group meets from 6 to 8 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark (420 Willa Rd., Newark). To learn more about the group, visit its Facebook page. To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com. Continued on Page 62
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Newark Ukesters Continued from Page 60
Tips for Purchasing Your First Ukulele Do you think you’re ukulele ready? If so, follow these tips as you navigate your first steps into the instrument: 1. Determine your interest and skill level. Are you just a casual hobbyist or a fanatic? For example, you should reconsider buying a ukulele for $1,000 if you’re just playing the ukulele as a casual hobby, or if you have zero musical background. Remember, you could just upgrade to a higher quality ukulele (aka more expensive) once you’ve mastered the basics. 2. Research the various types of ukuleles. There are four main types of ukuleles: soprano, concert (or alto), tenor, and baritone. Soprano is the original, most common and smallest type of ukuleles, perfect for traveling. They have the jangly, light sound commonly associated with ukuleles. People with larger hands or fingers might have difficulties playing the soprano ukulele, as the frets are closer together. The strings also have less tension, so you might find it easy to accidentally bend a string out of tune.
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Concert (or alto) ukuleles are a bit bigger than the soprano, so they have a deeper and a fuller sound than the soprano ones. As all the next uke sizes, it has a longer neck, and more frets as a result. This type of ukulele is easier to play for people with larger hands. The Tenor ukulele is a little bigger than the concert, and the overall sound and tone is even fuller than its smaller siblings. It’s great for performers. Baritone ukuleles are the biggest of the ukes. They have the deepest sound, compared to the others, and while you can still strum a baritone ukulele like any other ukulele, you’re going to really lose that bright crisp sound that you’d get with soprano. It sounds more like a guitar. Great for blues players and anyone who prefers that deeper and fuller sound. 3. Understand the types of wooden ukuleles. If you’ve set your mind on a solid wood ukulele, mind the various types of wood from which they’re made. Each wood has its special characteristics that affect the sound. Mahogany - one of the most common woods in ukulele making, it has a reasonable grain finish providing good looks, but provides a good balance between the bright treble sounds the ukulele is famous for, whilst beefing up Continued on Page 64
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the bass. Also projects sound well and with good volume. Koa - the best-known hardwood of the Hawaiian Islands. Acacia koa is a native forest tree, unique to Hawaii, and held in reverence. The wood is beautiful to look at with amazing grains (particularly the curly variety), very sweet sounding and warm. Loud, rich in sound, and used in the finest (and most expensive) ukuleles. Cedar - a common, reddish soft wood often used in acoustic guitars, has a plain finish and provides a very warm sound, evenly distributed among the strings. Spruce - very common, pale yellow wood used in guitar manufacture. Now seen on many cheaper ukuleles on the top only (usually with rosewood or mahogany backs and sides). It is a tough wood that makes for excellent strong soundboards and the Sitka variety is characterized by a very bright and rich tone, with less of the bass rounding that Mahogany provides. They are also very loud woods. Engelmann spruce is a slightly more mellow version which is often used in classical instruments. Maple - good density and resistant, very treble, comes in
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many types. A hard, resilient wood that is often chosen for its dramatic looks, particularly flamed or spalted woods that are stunning to look at. It provides a very bright tone on the ukulele. Mango - beautiful looking, orange wood with beautiful grain, that is used increasingly as a more sustainable wood choice (as Mango is a fruit tree, the wood is harvested after the tree is no longer efficiently producing fruit, and is then replanted). Mango provides a warm yet bright tone, similar to walnut. 4. Talk to other ukulele players. Ask for brand recommendations, and learn from them, whether they’re experienced professionals or casual players. Find out which brands has the best sounding ukuleles, yet won’t drill a hole in your wallet. 5. Find a good instrument shop. The store should have a variety choices of brands, types, and pricing of the ukulele. Ask your ukulele playing friends if they know of a good store near you. 6. Find the ukulele that’s right for you. Hear the difference between the uke sizes. Once you figured the desirable size, pick a couple of instruments of different brands and examine them. Source: wikihow.com/Buy-A-Ukulele
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|Around Newark|
The value of learning
The University of Delaware serves residents of all ages with its professional and continuing studies offerings By Kevin Barrett Correspondent
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he University of Delaware is viewed by many in Delaware and throughout the region as a place where teenagers and twenty-somethings earn degrees. It actually offers a lot more through its Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) offerings, according to Steven M. Kendus, the manager of marketing and communications for Professional and Continuing Studies. He would like everyone to know there are classes and programs for children as young as 4, as well as for people in their 80s and older. They might be considered non-traditional learners, but they are important to the University of Delaware. Dr. Jim Broomall, Associate Vice Provost For Professional and Continuing Studies and Online Initiatives, said that the division has been around since 1923, but has grown considerably since the mid-1970s. According to the university’s 2017 impact report, the PCS impacted almost 17,000 learners. While most were seeking credit, there were about 2,000 non-credit students. There were also more than 3,700 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) members. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is designed for people over 50, and there are locations in Wilmington, Dover, and Lewes/Oceanview. According to Kendus, it
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is the second biggest Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in the country, and there are more than 131 throughout the United States. Originally established in 1980 as the Academy of Lifelong Learning, OLLI offers hundreds of courses to its thousands of members, who pay an annual membership fee. There are classes in 25 subjects, including languages, music, art, history, religion, information technology and literature. There are also courses about planning for retirement. According to Kendus and Broomall, continuing education is very important to retirees, and it contributes to healthy aging. The presence of OLLI in southern Delaware is a major reason people choose to retire in places like Rehoboth. It’s a great way for retirees without a built-in social network to find like-minded people. “There is a pretty large social aspect built into it, but the core is the classes,” Kendus said. Newark resident and OLLI member Paul Hess, 73, has been in charge of OLLI’s concert band for the past 10 years and is currently the chair of the music committee. The band is comprised of about 80 individuals. Hess’ wife, Joyce, also works with the concert band and teaches a clarinet ensemble. Both Paul and Joyce Hess are graduates of the University of Delaware and worked as music educators. Paul, who taught at Shue-Medill Middle School for 18 years, said that OLLI offers about 25 different
The office of Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Delaware (left). Among the offerings of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is an orchestra (right).
performing ensembles, including a jazz band, a string ensemble, a rock band, a flute ensemble, and a recorder ensemble. He retired from teaching in 2007, and not too long after, he was recruited to run the concert band. The person who had been running it could not do so anymore. At first, Paul was not sure he would be interested. “I wasn’t open to it until I saw what the band was,” he said. “Then I welcomed the opportunity.”
The music program involves about half of OLLI’s population. “The people at OLLI are amazing – they just really are,” he said. “They have diverse and interesting backgrounds.” Joan Miller, 77, who lives in Brandywine Hundred, was the chair for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute until recently, and has been involved with the institute for 11 Continued on Page 68
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years. She got involved after she moved to Delaware from the New York City area, and she has been lecturing for the past six years. She has lectured on a variety of subjects, such as the history of New York City and Colonial America. Most people who lecture also take courses, and Miller is no exception. Recently, she has been taking courses on butterflies, and the battles of Great Britain. She has also studied Latin at OLLI. “It all depends on what I’m in the mood for,” Miller said. There are also languages courses on German, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, and Italian available. Miller said that OLLI is one of the reasons she decided to retire in Delaware. She told her real estate agent that she liked learning new things, and the agent told her about what the University of Delaware had to offer. She signed up for a class before she bought her house. OLLI offers something called Special Event Wednesdays. The events are available to all members, and they occur at the Wilmington campus at lunchtime. Miller said that the governor has spoken, and there was recently a
performance by The First State Ballet Theatre. The Delaware Theatre Company has also performed. According to Miller, those running for office frequently meet with OLLI participants. “We’re a highly intelligent and active group of people who also vote,” Miller said. OLLI may have thousands of members, but it is always looking for more. Miller said that representatives frequently go out to community centers and churches to encourage others to join. There are grants and scholarships available to those who are not able to afford the cost of participating. “We call OLLI the best-kept secret in Delaware,” Miller said. In addition to keeping people over 50 active and engaged, the University of Delaware’s Professional and Continuing Studies helps those younger than “traditional” students. For example, there are grade-appropriate reading programs designed to help children read at a higher level. Kendus said they have been increasing in popularity recently. There are programs for children as young as 4. There are also speed reading and study skills programs for older students. Test preparation classes are offered to help high schoolers study for the SAT and ACT. High school students can even take courses to earn college
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credits while still in high school, and about 280 students took advantage of that opportunity in 2017. In addition, exam prep courses for the GRE, LSAT, and GMAT are offered. The University of Delaware is also committed to making sure that people can update their skills in order to adapt to today’s constantly changing professional marketplaces. They have newly redesigned social media marketing programs. Social media courses have existed for about five years, according to Kendus, and they are constantly being updated as social media changes. The university wants to be able to help people build careers around social media. In addition to teaching the basics of using the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Pinterest and YouTube, the courses teach students who want to make social media a career how to build social media campaigns.
The University of Delaware’s Goodstay Conference Center and Arsht Hall in Wilmington.
For example, the two courses teach how to measure the results of social media campaigns and how paid advertising works. The goals of the courses include gaining market share, building brand awareness, and driving engagement through the social media campaigns. The more advanced of the two courses also teaches about platforms such as Wikipedia, Houzz, FourSquare and Yelp. In 2016, the university’s Social Media Marketing Strategy Certificate won a national award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA).
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One of the university’s more offbeat offerings is professional drone pilot training. According to Kendus, drone training is now required if a person wishes to use a drone for professional reasons. For example, first responders, private investigators, real estate agents, professional photographers, and construction professionals require a certification to operate a drone. Kendus said the course actually sold out two months early. It was held in Wilmington in March, and it covered topics such as FAA basics, emergency procedures, weather, flight training, airport operations, airspace restrictions and aviation physiology. Brian Wagner, an employee of the Belcher Roofing Corporation, participated in the two-day training in He took the course so that he could use drones to inspect roofs, which is a great deal safer and far more cost-effective than how things have been done in the past. People do not need to go up on ladders to inspect a roof, and several roofs can be inspected at once. He took the test to receive his certification to fly unmanned aircraft two weeks after he took the course, and he passed.
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Lifelong learning can include playing in a musical ensemble organized through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
He said he had been doing self-study for about a month prior to the flight training course, but the class opened his eyes and answered a lot of the questions he had. It benefited him, he said, because he likes to learn face to face. “It was extremely positive for me, and I had a great time,” Wagner said. “The instructor was great and Continued on Page 72
K
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Continuing Education Continued from Page 70
very knowledgeable. I took a lot away from it.” The University of Delaware’s Professional and Continuing Studies also offers a number of courses and certificate programs for healthcare providers, including courses on healthcare risk management, occupational safety, and a RN refresher course. In fiscal year 2017, 84 students were enrolled in healthcare education courses, and there were 120 certificate program students. There were 744 conference attendees. In total, there were 948 people enrolled in their 10 programs. Jack Berberian, who is the CEO of SecureNetMD. com, recently took the university’s Advanced Telehealth Coordinator (ATC) certificate program. The 14-week course is designed to help its students improve access to healthcare services and specialties, as well as coordinate telehealth technologies. SecureNetMD.com provides HIPAA-compliant managed information technology services to healthcare providers. Berberian said that his company has seen many institutions that adopt Telehealth programs, but they lacked the
proper procedures, training and policies necessary for their teams. He believes that the telehealth industry is about to see an explosion of services, so he took the ATC course so his company would be prepared. He added that Carolyn Morris, the program’s instructor, has compiled a course necessary for every healthcare professional to take in order to properly implement the correct policies and procedures to establish a Telehealth program. “The UD ATC class is a must for anyone looking to build their Telehealth team,” Berberian said. “The ATC course provided me with the knowledge and tools necessary to assist our clients with their Telehealth needs.” The University of Delaware’s Professional and Continuing Education also offer courses and programs in data analytics, HR certification, paralegal studies, and project management. “We are always looking for new and innovative courses, which are needed because of the evolving job market,” Kendus said. “We’re also looking for courses people want to take.”
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|Newark Photo Essay|
A better way to play
Newark is home to a company that, whether you know it or not, affects the way guitarists rock. Scott and Claire Lawing incorporated their company, Lawing Musical Products LLC, in 2010. The company makes Zexcoil pickups for electric guitars that eliminate the hum that has bothered artists and audiences since guitars went electric. Scott has been a guitar player for more than 30 years. He’s also an engineer with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with numerous technical papers, patents and presentations to his credit. His Zexcoil pickups are designed and assembled in America,
Photos by Jim Coarse
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Photo Essay Continued from Page 74
part of the company’s commitment to support the local economy and source as many parts as close to home as they can. There’s a lot of technical detail in how the pickups are designed and manufactured, but the company website sums it up as, “Basically Zexcoils are just magnets, metal and wire. The real trick is the fantastic engineering in how we put it all together.” The pickups are offered directly online, keeping the prices as low as possible. “It’s not about making as much money as possible,” the company website states. “It’s about making enough money to be viable and sharing the benefits of our efficiencies with the end user as much as we possibly can.” The company has plenty of fans in the world of professional guitarists, including Elliot Randall, Steely Dan’s guitarist, who wrote that his Stratocaster “has had its first hardware change since the late ‘70s. It’s a Zexcoil Guitar Pickups SV5O in the middle position. And what an addition to the tonality of my fave solid body! One word: WOW. Totally Continued on Page 78
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Photo Essay Continued from Page 77
new and different voice to my fave guitar. You rock. … Totally magical, sounds amazing … Great work, Scott!” Guitar hero Alex Lifeson of Rush wrote, “Since learning about the Zexcoil line of pickups, I installed them in my Strat and Tele. I was very impressed with the tone, output and warmth that transformed the character of both those guitars. Needless to say, they both get a lot more play!” For those who are prepared to rock, visit www.lawingmusicalproducts.com.
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|Newark Business|
The sweet aroma and seasonal taste of education
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Since it opened on Haines Street last September, Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company has been introducing customers to varieties from around the world Roasting beans are shipped to the store from a New York-based supplier of ethically sourced and organically grown coffee beans.
Photos by Richard L. Gaw
Olivia Brinton and Joe Lins of Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company in Newark.
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
N
ewark didn’t need another coffee shop. The town’s varying demographics – college students, townsfolk and transients – were already hepped up enough on caffeine and choices, thanks to the fact that from any direction, one can throw a rock in Newark and hit the side of an establishment that serves up mocha frappes or latte supremes or dark roast in take-away cups that approximate the capacity of a paint can. Joe Lins and Olivia Brinton both knew this, and their decision to open Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company in the epicenter of competition last September was a stroke of defiance that all great business visionaries have: To see a need, and fill that need. Continued on Page 82
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Little Goat Coffee Continued from Page 81
Yes, they thought: Newark had its coffee shops, but they didn’t have one like this. “We thought that people are going down the street anyway, so why not put our place nearby?” Lins said. “I felt like it was a great advertising technique to open up right near our main competitor. When we first opened, we definitely had people obviously headed on their normal coffee route and then we began to see heads turn, and then we began to see cars turn into our parking lot.” Although it is now firmly entrenched at the former home of Switch on Haines Street, the story of Little Goat Roasting Company began, in part, at the Dynamite Roasting Company in Asheville, N.C. several years ago. When she was a college student at a nearby school, Brinton worked at the company and learned all phases of the coffee industry. “That’s where I truly learned to appreciate what goes into a single cup of coffee, starting with the cultivation of beans, to sourcing it and finally, to the proper roasting techniques,” said Brinton, who has known Lins and his wife, Elisabeth, for several years. “I quickly learned that coffee is not a sustainable product for North Americans to consume, so I began to consider how we as Americans can offset the fact that what we’re drinking comes from shipping containers from other countries in the world. I began to ask, ‘What can we do as a consumer to balance that?’ The answer, I found, is by approaching it holistically.” After Brinton returned from North Carolina, Lins began to experiment with home roasting while also tinkering with the possibility of marketing his product to local customers. “I had a scientific curiosity that was calling out to my life, and I decided that I would start playing around with it,” Lins said. “When we figured out that Olivia had already watched a roasting company grow exponentially into a great business model, and hearing about that, and seeing the way the industry was going,
Emily Eichenlaub prepares to enjoy an iced matcha vanilla latte.
Continued on Page 84 The company provides a continuing variety of organically grown coffee, either for roasting or by the cup. 82
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we decided to see where we could take our ideas.” Soon, the two friends began to brainstorm, and within months, Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company was born. They began selling their product at local farmers’ markets, and the response was incredible. “We had customers come back to us every single week to buy more coffee, and when the farmers’ markets closed for the winter, we would still have customers email us, saying ‘Can you meet me in the parking lot and bring me a bag of beans? I can’t survive without your coffee,’” Brinton said.
The company is dedicated to educating its customers about the coffee they serve, which comes from coffee-growing countries around the world.
Continued on Page 86
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The Diedrich roasting machine at Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company.
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Little Goat Coffee Continued from Page 84
In August of 2016, the slow move to the Haines Street location began -- first with renovations that included creating the 950-square-foot space into both a café and roasting company. All was done in time for the September 2017 opening. The company works with Royal Coffee, a New Yorkbased importer of ethically grown coffee products, to offer a constantly changing selection all year long. Every week, customers can see Fair Trade Certified products from Colombia, Peru, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Papau New Guinea – all according to their peak seasons. Every day, Brinton and Lins switch off on roasting the beans in their Deidrich roasting machine that dominates a small kitchen. There’s also room for a continuing shipment of beans, which are delivered in burlap bags. “At first, Joe and I looked at this tiny spot to just use as a roasting company, but we’ve found that the café and the roastery play off each other,” Brinton said. “The café began as a necessary consequence of the business, but we
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thought, ‘How can we convince customers try our product without being able to offer them the opportunity to taste our product?’ It’s been able to help expose our customers to our coffees every day.” While the primary mission of Little Goat Coffee Roasting Company is to grow both the retail and wholesale side of the business, it has a secondary one, too: Educating the consumer. “We want to educate our customers on the fact that it’s a privilege to consume coffee, to know how lucky we are to be able to smell and savor the aroma of a dark roast, or be able to tell the story of our Sulawesi, which when ground, smells faintly of blueberries,” Brinton said. “The tasting notes are from the conditions in which the coffee is ground – the minerals in the soils of Ethiopia that create this flavor profile.” Throughout the store’s counter space are several information sheets that detail the history, origins and cultivating Continued on Page 88
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Little Goat Coffee Continued from Page 86
trends and practices of each coffee sold. It’s part of the business goal to raise what Brinton calls a “coffee consciousness.” “It has gotten to the point where most consumers don’t view coffee as a seasonal product,” Brinton added. “They’re used to visiting a large chain coffee shop and ordering the same Sumatra varietal every day of the year. If that’s what they want, then fine, but to me, it’s like comparing an heirloom tomato at the end of August with a hydroponically grown tomato. There’s a huge taste difference.” There are two moments that serve as time bookmarks to the everyday hustle and flow of owning and operating a coffee roasting company and its café. They occur very early in the morning and very late at night, and they serve as the moments Lins opens up a big burlap sack of beans, and works with the Diedrich roasting machine. In the 13 minutes it takes to properly prepare a five-pound batch of freshly roasted coffee, Lins makes six adjustments to the machine and regulates constant fluctuations in temperature. Making a great cup of coffee is about science, it’s about art and it’s about mechanics, he said. “It’s also about knowing that bean, and ultimately knowing how to control that bean,” Lins said. “We’re trying to teach people about the stories behind these coffees in other parts of the world. It’s allowed Olivia and I and our staff to be a part of a very cool thing.” Little Goat Coffee Roasting Co. is located on 16 Haines Street, Newark. Its products are also available at Newark Natural Foods, and at the House of William & Merry and The Perfect Cup, in Hockessin. To learn more, visit www.littlegoatcoffeeroasting.com, or call 302-455-1040. To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com.
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|Newark People|
Volunteers recognized at City of Newark Jefferson Awards ceremony
Courtesy photo
The recipients of the Jefferson Awards include Judy Taggart, Steve Sinko, Deb Buenaga, David Milsom, and Carole Walsh.
Several outstanding volunteers who serve the Newark community were recently presented with Jefferson Awards at a ceremony held at Grain Craft Bar & Kitchen. Organizations and groups engaged in LEAD360 projects were also recognized with certificates of achievement. “We have so many amazing individuals in our community, who are committed to serving others and making a positive impact,” said Mayor Polly Sierer. “It’s an honor and a privilege to recognize their efforts and thank them for their selflessness and dedication.” Founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Robert Taft Jr., and Sam Beard, the Jefferson Awards Foundation identifies and honors local unsung heroes, celebrating their outstanding community service. Below is a list of the individuals recognized this year, along with a portion of their nomination submission:
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Judy Taggart (Friends of Newark Library)
Steve Sinko (Fusion Inclusion)
Judy has provided a lifetime of volunteer hours to the community of Newark. In addition to her service to the library, she has served as Director of the Chesapeake Girl Scout Council, President of the New Castle County League of Women Voters, and is a Director of AARP of Delaware. She is on the board of the Newark Senior Center and volunteers as a school mentor. Through her quiet dedication, she touches the lives of countless Newarkers of all ages.
If you’ve ever seen a Fusion Inclusion running chair in action at a local road race, you know what it means for everyone to have the opportunity to participate. Laughter, smiles, cheers - the multiply when Fusion Inclusion chairs are present. The good vibes are invigorating and motivating. And though he’d never admit it, those positive feelings are a direct result of the work Steve puts in to make Fusion Inclusion part of the racing community. He helps other runners see the people in the running chairs as more than just individuals with a disability. They become familiar faces and even friends. Our Newark community is strong - and more inclusive - because of Steve.
Newark Life | Spring/Summer 2018 | www.newarklifemagazine.com
Deb Buenaga (Preston’s Playground) In two years, Deb has helped raise over $500,0000 for the completion of Preston’s Playground, an all-inclusive playground named after her son. She also runs her own non-profit called Preston’s March for Energy, which gives away adaptive bikes to kids with special needs. Her organization has given away over 100 bikes to date. Her impact and dedication to the community to help bridge the gap for inclusive activities is remarkable. Her commitment and involvement with the City of Newark has enabled this playground to be realized and construction/installation at the Newark reservoir will begin in the coming months.
David Milsom (Newark American Little League) Countless families have been positively impacted by Mr. Milsom’s firm but caring approach to coaching and mentoring. His leadership and engagement with his players and families surpasses that of typical coach. He draws from years of experience to motivate and guide in the right direction, while calmly and constructively suggesting opportunities for improvement, providing training options, and developing the character of hundreds of young men and women in Newark.
Carole Walsh (Parks & Recreation/League of Women Voters) Carole is an integral part of the Newark Parks and Recreation Department, instructing fitness classes since 1971 and continuing to teach class today. She is the longest-standing employee for the department, with over 45 years of service. Carole’s lifelong commitment to fitness and dedication to her classes has provided countless people the opportunity to build and maintain their fitness level. Her classes have a regular following of participants, some of whom have been a part of her class for decades. She truly deserves the recognition for all her years of service to the Newark community.
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