Step by Step Learning Centers provide grab-and-go meals for local children

UPPER DARBY » Step by Step Learning Centers, local early-learning centers, are providing graband-go meal bags for the local community and for the families enrolled in their schools. Each graband-go bag has a day’s worth of meals - one breakfast, one lunch and a dinner.

Many residents of the community have supported the effort with contributions such as lunch snacks and Wawa gift cards, along with fresh produce. Donors have included Donna Chism, The McFadden Family and St. Joe’s Prep.

Veronica Crisp, owner of Step by Step Learning Centers, also wants to give a shout-out to the center’s teachers, who not only continue to educate via online classes and Facebook posts but also continue to feed many of the local families even during this pandemic: Tami Pyfrom, Anastasia McPoyle, Laura Rementer, Shonnie Hubbard, Jenine Amato, Veronica Crisp, Nicole McLaughlin and Christy Tremoglie.

Grab-and-go meals can be picked up every Tuesday and Thursday during the pandemic from 10 a.m.-noon at two of Step by Step’s locations: 3434 Garrett Road, Drexel Hill, and 2230 MacDade Blvd., Holmes.

Garnet Valley parent donates signs to honor GVHS Class of 2020

CONCORD » Elaina Adams of Glen Mills, a senior parent in the Garnet Valley School District, had signs made to honor each and every senior graduating from Garnet Valley High School in 2020. Adams and Beth Matich Wiesendanger delivered the signs to seniors’ homes throughout Concord, Bethel, Chester Heights and Chadds Ford, for families to place on their lawns to show pride and happiness for their graduating family member.

Local Episcopal congregations help to feed families in need

NEWTOWN » Parishioners at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wayne and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Newtown Square are pulling together to help students and families at St. James School, the only Episcopal school in the city of Philadelphia.

With the support of the Episcopal community throughout the region, St. James School is feeding 250 families each day, including breakfast, hot lunch and groceries for dinner.

Located in North Philadelphia, St. James School is a tuition-free, private Episcopal middle school that provides students with year-round academic, physical, spiritual and creative nourishment while working to uplift the surrounding community, where many live in poverty. Visit stjamesphila. org to learn more about how local residents are supporting the school’s holistic approach to serving its community.

Ridley residents honor graduating RHS seniors

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » The “Ridley Good News Campaign” celebrated its fifth anniversary on Facebook this week. The Facebook page is currently featuring Ridley High School seniors with short notes from their families and a list of their accomplishments.

One such accomplished senior featured in the 2020 Senior Spotlight is Harry Cotter, who scored a perfect 1,600 on his SAT and was recently accepted to Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh, Drexel, Penn State, and Vanderbilt. Harry chose Harvard, where he will major in mechanical engineering.

Harry has taken the most rigorous academic courses offered at Ridley High School, including four Advanced Placement courses as a junior and four A.P. courses as a senior. He scored fives on all of his A.P. exams. He is the captain and leader of the mock trial team which reached the Delco playoffs this year. Harry is also a leader and captain of both the boys cross-country and boys track teams. He came up with the idea of the SAT/College Prep club, created as a means of helping his fellow students navigate the ins and outs of the college application and test-taking process.

Harry was named Rotary Senior of the Month for January. In addition, he was elected by his peers to serve as president of the Ridley chapter of the National Honor Society. To read more Ridley good news, and read more accomplishments of Ridley’s seniors, visit https:// www.facebook.com/RidleyGoodNews.

Plush Mills residents plant flowers for hopeful future

NETHER PROVIDENCE » When SageLife owner Kelly Andress, a farmer’s daughter, heard that a local farm was losing most of its annual sales of Easter and Passover flowers, she got the idea to buy them by the truck load.

To ensure these flowers literally did not go to waste, SageLife filled vans and trucks to deliver Passover/Easter arrangement to residents at all of its senior living communities in the region, including Plush Mills in Nether Providence.

Residents are now planting these perennials in a special garden on property so every year there will be a reminder of how the community pulled together to get through this challenging time.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Paul Rosen, left, general manager of Plush Mills and Brendon Hughes, maintenance team member of Plush Mills, stand with the tulips that would be planted at Plush Mills. The owner of Plush Mills bought a truck load of flowers to help a local farmer who had prepared them to sell for Easter but was unable to sell because of the current quarantine situation.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Shonnie Hubbard of Aldan, an administrator and lead teacher at Step By Step Learning Center in Drexel Hill, hands grab-and-go meals to parent Ebony Medina of Lansdowne. Teachers at the Drexel Hill and Ridley Step By Step locations continue educating the children with online classes, as well as provide them with meals.

SUBMITTED PHOTO The Rev. Andrew Kellner, chaplain of St. James School and Rose Cooper, president of the Ridge/ Allegheny/Hunting Park Civic Association, stand with the boxes of food for St. James families donated by parishioners of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wayne and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Newtown Square.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Harry Cotte is just one of Ridley High School’s Class of 2020 honored on the Facebook page, “Ridley Good News Campaign.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO Elaina Adams of Glen Mills made and distributed signs to display outside homes to honor each and every Garnet Valley High School senior.