The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
‘SET THE BAR HIGH’ Area high school receives national recognition
SOUDERTON » As he stood in a packed-to-capacity gymnasium at Souderton Area High School Thursday morning, Dr. Tim Shriver addressed the students directly and eloquently.
He spoke of a divided country, of a divided Pennsylvania. But his message was about acceptance, inclusion — and what a unified community can accomplish.
“I want you to just take a minute, and try to collect all this energy and all this excitement, and forget the fact that this pep rally is getting you out of homework and class, and I want to invite you to recognize that right now, this is your moment.
“We’re here to open our hearts and minds to a different future and celebrate not what you young people will do later. Right now you are celebrating for us the hope and commitment to a more inclusive Pennsylvania, United States, the world.
“Where I sit, as a teacher, educator by training and as a Special Olympics fan by birth, this is a beautiful moment of convergence where we’re beginning to see the possibility of a whole new future.”
Thursday’s celebration was the national banner presentation recognizing Souderton Area High School as the newest member of the Unified Champion of Schools, a place where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates.
According to information provided by Special Olympics PA (SOPA), more than Dr. David Volkman, executive deputy secretary of the PA Department of Education
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job in preventing the fire from spreading further,” Martino told Dennis Orangers, who has been company chief for six years, and 10 of his volunteer firefighters. In addition to giving her thanks, Martino also presented the firefighters with two trays laden with brownies and chocolate chip cookies.
In reply, Orangers also gave thanks.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you,” he said. “It’s a such a rarity that a resident pays us a visit to thank us for what we did at the scene.”
“I’m from Ohio,” Martino said. “This is what my mom, aunts and I used to do when we heard that something bad had befallen a friends or a neighbor. We would make some goodies to cheer them up.”
The Trinity Lane fire occurred during the daytime on a weekday, which meant that the Martino family was not home at the time.
When she received news of the fire, Martino left her job in the orthopedic department of a Philadelphia hospital and hurried home in time to see her house surrounded by fire trucks and manpower.
Surprised by the number of fire trucks and firefighters at the scene, she asked Orangers about it. “Between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., most of our volunteers are at work and it’s tough to get enough manpower to respond to emergencies,” he explained. “To supplement our own personnel, we have to rely on mutual aid companies. It was because of this extra assistance that we were able to contain the fire,” said Orangers.