As one of my final projects for my internship at the Reading Eagle this summer, the other interns and I teamed up to look into the future of farming in Berks County, PA. Read my segments on farmers’ children’s decisions to either stay or leave farm life with the links below.
Farm children have an advantage if they choose to stay in the industry
Farm children talk about the big question: Will they stay or leave?
Read the original story here.
The iPhone has come a long way since Steve Jobs and Apple first released it for sale in the United States on June 29, 2007.
Read the original story here.
There are many aspects of the Kutztown Folk Festival that are square, from the dancing to the meals to the traditional hex square patterns painted on barn wood.
But the event itself must not be too square, as it is expected to attract up to 140,000 visitors over nine days.
Read the original story here.
When PTO leader Yvonne Stitzel looked at the construction site beside Perry Elementary School on Saturday, she didn’t just see a group of people putting together playground equipment.
She saw years of organizing bingo games, raffles and bake sales finally coming to fruition. But she also saw the chance for special-needs children to finally be able to play with friends at recess, rather than having to sit on the sidelines and watch other kids having fun.
Read the original story here.
Kay Haring, Kutztown native and sister of late artist Keith Haring, stopped by the Berks History Center on Thursday to read from her book, “Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing” to a group of about 20 people.
The book tells the story of her brother’s life and how his love for art started from a young age, as did his generosity.
Read the original story here.
Massive bubbles made summer pop into Berks when the Berks County Parks and Recreation Department held a summer solstice celebration Wednesday.
The event at the Berks County Heritage Center featured music, crafts, hiking and more, but the star of the show was Grandpop Bubbles, a man with huge handmade bubble wands that created bubbles often bigger than the children blowing them.
Read the original story here.
A tennis instructor and five teenage boys wearing ankle monitors walk into the Reading Barber Institute. No, it’s not the setup for a bad joke. It’s three men’s effort to change the boys’ lives before they make a decision that could land them behind bars.
The boys were brought to the institute, at Eighth and Oley streets, as part of the Life Skills Crime Prevention Clinic, run through Set Point Tennis. Participants are in the Evening Reporting Center program at the Children’s Home of Reading, which serves as an alternative to juvenile detention centers.
Read the original story here.
About 25 activists gathered on Sunday at a vigil held by Shut Down Berks Interfaith Witness in protest of the Berks County Residential Center, which houses undocumented immigrant families, including children, seeking asylum in the United States.
The vigil included readings from the Bible and the Quran in English and Spanish as well as several gospel songs. In the past, women and children being detained at the center have come as close as possible to the vigil in order to sing and express their appreciation. At Sunday’s vigil, the area where they normally gathered was empty, except for one boy who rode his bike up to the fence to listen for a few minutes. Several Shut Down Berks members thought this, along with the fact that there were only three police cars stationed near the vigil, was odd, as the detainees have been known to approach past vigils, even in bad weather.
Read the original story here.
It’s been 50 years since the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage was legal in Loving v. Virginia, and the number of interracial American couples is now higher than ever. Even since the beginning of the 21st century, racial intermarriage has become more widespread – not just in practice, but in social acceptance.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that of all married couples in the country in 2010, 10 percent were intermarried. In 2015, 17 percent of newlyweds in the U.S. were married to a person of a different race or ethnicity, according to the Pew Research Center, suggesting that the rate of intermarriage will continue to increase over time.
Read the original story here.
Dominic Langford’s favorite part of Father’s Day was getting to play with two guns. His dad, Drew, was completely fine with this, probably because the guns were Nerf.
The Langfords joined 163 other fathers and children at Coventry Mall on Sunday for a foam dart battle. According to Nichole Bartholomew, the event’s organizer, spaces for the battle filled up almost immediately after it was announced.
ellen bardash 