NEWS
May 21, 2012 | By Karen Heller, Inquirer Columnist
John Wister elementary in Germantown is the little engine that could. "We're a quaint, small school," says teacher Marcia Sparagna, "but there's a big sense of community there. " In her classroom, two students clasp hands and dance while an unexpected voice - Dean Martin's - croons: "When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore . " The jubilation in Room 211 is due to Sparagna's third and fourth graders winning a pasta party for raising more money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society than any other Wister class, $450 in three weeks, predominantly in coins, the majority pennies, a whole lot of pennies.
NEWS
May 19, 2012 | Stu Bykofsky
With warm weather bringing out swimsuits, it's time to think about fitness, and a return to the gym. So there I was at the gym, and there it was, up against the wall, a gleaming new machine I hit hard for half-an-hour. It had everything I wanted: Snickers, M&Ms, Three Musketeers, Babe Ruth, Butterfingers, Skittles, iced tea (uh-oh) ... Summer brings not only swimsuit (and Hawaiian shirt) weather, but also the Stu Bykofsky Candidates Comedy Night, steaming into its 22nd year in August.
NEWS
May 5, 2012 | By Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Given the growth of China's robust economy, the Chinese clearly know how to make money. They aren't quite as good at giving it away. In 2010, America's 308.7 million people contributed $290.98 billion to charity. In China, where the population topped 1.3 billion, donations reached a mere $16.4 billion, according to an official Chinese website, China.org.cn. "China still needs to cultivate the nation's awareness of philanthropy and set up a more complete system to develop the cause," Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo said in announcing new charity regulations in March.
NEWS
May 4, 2012 | Freelance
By Seymour I. "Spence" Toll However unimpressive the amounts, I make contributions to a number of charities, and I am being flooded with mailed solicitations as a result. A major component of the flood consists of the countless return-address labels that so many charities now routinely include in their requests for contributions. Not incidentally, many of the labels I'm receiving come from charities I've never dealt with or even known to exist. Against the improbability that some readers may not be familiar with these labels, here's a sketch: Stuck next to each other on sheets of, say, 10 or 20, they are imprinted with the addressee's name and address, often with decorative touches around the edges.
NEWS
May 2, 2012 | By Jeremy Roebuck, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The charity through which former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly met his accusers joined Tuesday in a growing chorus objecting to subpoenas issued by his defense attorney. The Second Mile, the nonprofit for underprivileged youth Sandusky founded in the '70s, asked a judge to toss out requests for disciplinary files on clients and records of any internal investigations into alleged sexual abuse. Also Tuesday, the Mifflin School District filed a motion to quash another subpoena from Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola.
NEWS
April 29, 2012
Edward James Andrews, 87, an Army veteran and paper company worker, died in his sleep Wednesday, April 18, at his home in Voorhees. Mr. Andrews was born in Manayunk and graduated from Roxborough High School in 1942. After graduation, he served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. A year later, he married Annie Louise Benton. He worked at Weyerhaeuser Paper for 40 years. Mr. Andrews was a generous man who donated to various charities, his son James said. He had a great sense of humor and loved word puzzles, board games, and his computer.
NEWS
April 12, 2012 | By Ashley Nguyen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Elbows up and back straight, Nicole Carville took her husband's lead as they waltzed across the second floor of Narberth Borough Hall. In preparation for Narberth's first Mayor's Ball April 13, the two watched dance instructor Rubi Wiswall closely as she counted out the steps to old-fashioned dances such as the Cha-Cha, Fox Trot, and Charleston. Carville wore a pair of jeans as her husband, Bob Wegbreit, in green khakis, attempted to give her a spin. The last time the two danced like this, Wegbreit said, was at their wedding 20 years ago. "I was nervous about the ball before tonight," Carville said after finishing an hour-long dance lesson, "but now I'm just excited.
NEWS
April 6, 2012 | By Matt Volz, Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. - Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson mismanaged the nonprofit organization he cofounded to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and spent millions of dollars of charity money on charter flights, family vacations and personal items, according to an investigative report released Thursday. Mortenson's control of the Central Asia Institute went largely unchallenged by its board of directors, which consisted of himself and two people loyal to him, the report prepared by the Montana Attorney General's office said.
NEWS
March 20, 2012
The Ronald McDonald House Charities Phone Bank, a five-hour on-air fund-raiser, took in nearly $1 million Tuesday to benefit programs supporting children's health and well-being. The five-hour event, telecast on CBS3 and CW57, raised $969,384 from viewers and corporate sponsors, officials said, eclipsing last year's total of $610,350. It was hosted by news anchors Susan Barnett and Chris May, with appearances by on-air personalities from the two TV channels and the region's CBS Radio stations.
NEWS
March 18, 2012 | By Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press
KAMPALA, Uganda - Ugandan criticism of a viral video about a brutal central African warlord continued to grow since a public screening in a remote Ugandan town once terrorized by the Lord's Resistance Army. The head of a Ugandan charity that showed "Kony 2012" said Thursday that he would suspend further screenings after getting overwhelmingly negative reaction from viewers on Tuesday who did not understand why there were so many white faces in the video, or why Kony needed to be made famous.