Bringing People Together
Bringing People Together
by Bob Blaisse Publisher
Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors
Sponsoring a Community Is Everyone’s Business When It Means Bringing People Together I hesitated at first. Because I prefer my role as Publisher in our community to be separate from my family life here. But I agreed, because the event influenced my decision to launch our hometown magazine, made possible by local businesses and families coming together. For years I was the Sponsorship Officer of the Newtown Edgmont Little League. My sons grew up watching me hang billboards in the outfields. So, I was not surprised when my oldest son, age 15 at the time, turned to local businesses and
families to lead a change in his community. Ten years later, I see my son’s influence on the mission of this magazine. When Sheila Turner-Hilliard told me “YES,” there is a story worth telling, although personal to me, I agreed. So this month I yield to Sheila to share the story of ten years ago, about a local youth and the influence that young man had on my mission now to be “Bringing People Together.” NS
Bob Blaisse
Publisher, Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors
And The Story Continues
Remember the “Be Prepared 2Stop” Eagle Scout Project? That Eagle Scout Is Now “Prepared 2Start” (Married Life) by Sheila Turner-Hilliard, Photos courtesy of Bob Blaisse Most Newtown Township residents still remember the Boy Scout whose Eagle Scout Project, “Be Prepared 2Stop,” rallied our community back in 2011. That’s because it was a project that so many in our community made possible and because it still impacts our local driving today. John Blaisse as a young scout That Boy Scout was 15-year-old John Blaisse, son of Jean Blaisse and Bob Blaisse, the Publisher of this magazine, Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors. In Newtown Township, stop signs command our road intersections. So many stop signs that perhaps over a million car stops have occurred since teenager John Blaisse was inspired to conduct his Eagle Scout Project in service to his hometown. That inspiration led John to rally his community towards safer nighttime driving by the benefit gained from stop signs that better reflected headlights so drivers could be prepared to stop. Now age 26, that Eagle Scout is all grown up and recently married. In his freshman year at Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor — and still a year away from being a licensed driver himself — John noticed while being driven home from school 14
Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors
September 2021
one day that the stop signs at intersections suddenly no longer had reflector strips running down each signpost. When he asked his dad why, John’s father explained they had just crossed into Newtown Township, and that those reflector strips (a new thing at that time) would likely be added by Newtown Township in the future. But the future Eagle Scout did not want safe driving to take a back seat in his hometown. So John decided to make it his personal Eagle Scout John installing reflector strips on Project to have similar reflecour neighborhood stop signs tor strips added to every stop sign in Newtown Township so headlights would better reflect more noticeable warnings for drivers to Be Prepared 2Stop. The Scout’s goal was fewer car accidents and perhaps to even save lives. The Scout with the rank of Life also hoped to earn his rank of Eagle, which requires a Scout to demonstrate significant leadership among his peers while conducting a service project in the community.
