35th Early Bird Fiddle Festival fills the Berks County Heritage Center in Bern Township

The Reading Eagle

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The guitar player onstage started his set by saying that with all the love songs in the world, there really should be a few about eating.

As he launched into a song Saturday about Oreos, dozens of listeners who had parked their lawn chairs in the shade began to tap their feet and nod with the beat and another chapter in the 35th annual Early Bird Fiddle Festival, part of Berks Country Fest: An American Jamboree, was underway at the Berks County Heritage Center in Bern Township.

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Blue Marsh event promotes outdoors activities

The Reading Eagle

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Young boys huddled Saturday and clutched tiny fishing poles around a temporary above-ground pond.

They were trying to reel in catfish in the murky water being swirled by a fountain in the center of the pond.For the moment the fish weren’t biting, but that was hardly a deterrent to the determined youngsters.

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20 Central Catholic High grads mark 70th anniversary of graduation

The Reading Eagle

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The Central Catholic High School Class of 1947 meets every year on the date of its graduation, and Thursday marked the group’s 70-year anniversary.

About 20 of the former classmates gathered at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Reading for Mass before reminiscing over lunch.

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Reading Housing Authority

The Reading Eagle

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The Reading Housing Authority unveiled its new bike share station at Oakbrook Homes in Reading on Wednesday morning.

The station is run by Zagster, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that hosts more than 160 bike-sharing programs in 35 states. At the Oakbrook station, five bikes will be made available to Oakbrook residents to ride for recreation or transportation, for running errands or other reasons.

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Volunteers help renovate home of veteran’s widow in Reading

The Reading Eagle

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Wells Fargo employees have joined with Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Berks to improve the home of an Army widow in Reading.

Fourteen volunteers spent a day working on the porch, fence, windows and roof of Anna Marie Endy’s Bingaman Street house through a program called Operation Renovation: A Veterans Affair.

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Drumming principal surprises students with concert

The Reading Eagle

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Deacon Thomas Murphy, principal of St. Francis Academy in Bally, sat down behind a drum set onstage in the school’s auditorium. He looked at the drums with confusion and hit them hesitantly a few times.

Then, as Murphy and the two other musicians onstage launched into the start of their set, it became clear that the confusion was all an act – Murphy was more than a little familiar with drumming.

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Penn Street Market begins its 3rd year

The Reading Eagle

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Clear skies and the return of the sun welcomed downtown shoppers Thursday to the season opening of the Penn Street Market.

Now in its third year at Penn Square, Fifth and Penn streets, the outdoor market has about 15 vendors, some of whom will attend on rotating weeks. The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday through Sept. 28. Previously, the market was in the 800 block of Penn Street.

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Ten Thousand Villages to hold children’s festival in Ephrata

The Reading Eagle

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Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit retailer selling fair trade artisan products made around the world, will introduce children to the plight of refugees this weekend at its 23rd annual International Children’s Festival in Lancaster County.

The festival will feature live music from the Andes mountains as well as a variety of food, crafts, games and other activities. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Ten Thousand Villages, 240 N. Reading Road, Ephrata. Admission is free, although food and some activities have a cost associated with them.

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GEICO Skytypers to be part of World War II Weekend

The Reading Eagle

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Skywriting has come a long way since the Wicked Witch of the West wrote “Surrender Dorothy” with the smoke trailing from her flying broom.

Skywriting is a complex art, and this week one of the most precision-focused groups to spell out messages in the sky will come to Reading.The GEICO Skytypers, pilots who use exhaust and precision flying to “type” out giant messages, will make their first appearance at Reading Regional Airport during the 27th annual World War II Weekend hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.

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