Chester Education Foundation to open Jetter College and Career Center
CHESTER >> The Chester Education Foundation (CEF) recently announced the opening of the Marie and Cynthia Jetter College and Career Center. “The Jetter Center” will continue the work of the College Access Center of Delaware County (CACDC) and the Chester Higher Education Council (CHEC) spearheaded by Widener University and Swarthmore College.
After the closing of CHEC and CACDC, CEF recognized a continuing need for supplemental college and career programming for the Chester community. Based on their 30year history of partnering with multiple organizations and providing educational support services, it was a natural fit for CEF to continue and expand the work of the CACDC.
The Jetter Center is named in memory of Marie Jetter and in honor of her daughter, Cynthia Jetter, who drove the creation of CHEC and the CACDC in her role as the Director of Community Partnerships and Planning at Swarthmore College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility (Lang Center). Cynthia’s work was inspired by her mother Marie, a lifelong Chester resident, who passed away in
2015.
The Jetter Center will extend college and career services to the Chester Upland community at CEF’s Offices on Avenue of the Arts, at the local high schools, and in partnership with community-based organizations at convenient locations throughout Chester.
Current programming includes Let’s Get Ready SAT prep classes, college visits, and college and career workshops as part of the after-school programs at Chester HS and STEM Academy and CEF’s summer programs. In addition to Lang Center funding of Let’s Get Ready, students from both Swarthmore College and Widener University are providing one-onone tutoring and support to Chester residents. Upcoming activities include tutoring, parent workshops, and career and college exploration. A community advisory board guides this work.
CEF has received funding for the Jetter Center from Ohev Shalom, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, and the Foundation for Delaware County. The former CHEC institutions (Widener, Neumann, and Penn State Brandywine Universities, Swarthmore College and Delaware County Community College) have agreed to partner with CEF to continue these critically needed services in our community.
CEF is a Local Education Fund (LEF) created in 1988 by a consortium of local and state leaders. CEF’s mission is to support educational excellence and promote community revitalization in the Chester community. Year-round academic enrichment, social-cultural enrichment and college preparation services are provided to more than 500 middle-through high school students and young adults.
For more information or to get involved, contact Cheryl Cunningham at cheryl@chestereducation.org or Marcy Boroff at collegeandcareercenter@chestereducation.org
Grief group to meet in Wallingford
Life Changes Bereavement Group, a grief group for those struggling with a loss, is held on the second and fourth Tuesday, from
7-8 p.m., at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 927 S. Providence Rd., Wallingford. For more information, contact Pollie Lang, LCSW Therapist & Founder, at
215-868-6215.
Winter Solstice celebration planned this month
Transition Town Media will celebrate Winter Solstice 7-9 p.m. Sunday, Dec
23 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County, 145 W. Rose Tree Rd, Media. The evening will be filled with soulful music and powerful wisdom from different world traditions.
Celebrating the natural shift from darkness to light is a way to cut through all the holiday commercialization and bring deeper meaning to the season. Spiritual celebrants will include Lenni Lenape Chief Dennis Coker, Shinto Priest Ken Kitatani, Inter-spiritual minister Joni Carley, Native Dancer Vaughnda Hilton, legendary jazz artist, Dave Posmontier, vocalists Marcy Francis and Belinda Patrick, percussionist Jan Jeffries, the Solstice Choir, and a sizzling band.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at: tinyurl.
com/TTM-solstice-2018. Tickets will be $18 at the door.
For more details about the Winter Solstice Celebration, visit the Transition Town Media website: www.transitiontownmedia.org, or e-mail info@transitiontownmedia.org.
Banjo playing humorist to deliver free holiday performance
Renowned area raconteur, humorist, author and theologian, former high school teacher, mummer, banjo player and international storyteller Ed Stivender will deliver a holiday performance at the Peace Center of Delaware County, 1001 Old Sproul Road, in Springfield, , 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and people are invited to the Peace Center before the show for a time of holiday sharing, song, and refreshments. The event is being co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community. Admission is free.
Stivender has been called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” by the Miami Herald. A featured performer at the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival in Ireland, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. He has traveled the world appearing in schools, churches, coffeehouses and theaters.
The performer has strutted in the Comic division of the annual Philadelphia Mummers Parade since 1982. In 1994, he received the Mummers’ Most Original Character Award for his one-man Vatican-American String Band, and in 2006 and 2011, he won first prize for Most Original Character.
A life-long resident of Springfield,. Stivender has authored two books, “Raised Catholic, Can You Tell?” and “Still Catholic After All These Fears.” Both books are recollections of his local parochial school and high school years.
For directions to the Peace Center of Delaware County or more information, visit www.delcopeacecenter.org or call 484574-1148.