Community

Riding in a balloon. Eating barbecued chicken. Those were among the activities at the first Plymouth Day Saturday. The event was sponsored by the township's Parks and Recreation Department. It was designed to bring the community together and is planned to be held annually.

Tiesha Clark gets a little help from her mom yesterday at a skating party sponsored by Neighborhoods United Against Drugs at the Elmwood Roller Rink on 71st Street near Paschall Avenue. About 300 children came to the party, part of anti-drug community group's efforts to keep kids drug free.

Members of the board of trustees at Arcadia University were no fans of Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, whom they fired as president last month, but the Cheltenham Township commissioners appear to feel very differently. The commissioners Wednesday honored Oxholm for "his leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to improving the quality of life in the region" and his efforts in forging partnerships with the township, home to Arcadia's 55-acre campus in Glenside. "He's done a fantastic job of reaching out to the Cheltenham and Glenside community.

Cramer Hill hasn't changed much in the six years since federal authorities say former State Sen. Wayne Bryant used the Camden neighborhood's hopes to line his own pockets. The community of about 10,000 residents that was promised an urban renaissance is still plagued by abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and high unemployment. It's a familiar story in many U.S. cities. Bryant's alleged role in that story, to be detailed in a corruption trial set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Trenton, also is familiar: Politics and power often trump the public good.

In the middle of 1990 Frankford, a spectacular mural takes viewers back to the area at the turn of the century. The huge painting is the result of a transatlantic collaboration. FrankfordStyle, a division of the Frankford Group Ministry, and the British group Pioneers Art Group, combined their efforts to brighten the neighborhood and involve the community.

At the end of a trip throughout Northwest Philadelphia on Tuesday night to visit neighborhoods observing the 29th annual National Night Out, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey stopped to reflect on the event's message. "It highlights the partnership between the community and the Police Department, but it needs to be 365 days a year," Ramsey said as he stood along Germantown Avenue with members of Germantown Deaf Ministries and Town Watch. "These are the most committed people. We need more people to get involved.

With only a high school diploma and no formal business training, Ray Murphy, after a lot of turndowns from loan officers, managed to borrow $100,000 in 1972 to buy the already well-known Tommy's Men's Shop in North Philadelphia. Forty years later, that storefront is a neighborhood landmark. Loyal customers credit Murphy as the reason the shop has been successful enough to celebrate its 40th year at 2917 N. 22d St. But to Murphy, the longevity of his store is a testament to the surrounding area, not his business savvy.

Gilbert A. Wetzel, former president and chief executive of Bell of Pennsylvania, yesterday was named executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Economic Development Coalition, effective July 1. Walter D'Alessio, coalition chairman and president and chief executive of Latimer & Buck, said he was pleased to have Wetzel, a "high visibility, high quality, proven executive," join the coalition. "We are delighted that Gil has agreed to be drafted and will lend his considerable management and executive talents to the coalition for this interim period," he said.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waded Monday into one of Israel's deepest political morasses, urging lawmakers to find a "just" replacement for a law that has exempted tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service. The Israeli leader appeared before a parliamentary committee charged with crafting a new draft law after the current system was deemed illegal by the country's Supreme Court. With a July 31 deadline looming, the committee must find a compromise palatable to both to secular and modern Orthodox religious parties, whose followers serve in the military, and to ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who say their loyalists are serving the state by serving God. Netanyahu told the panel's first meeting that a more equitable sharing of the country's defense burden must be implemented gradually, and without pitting any one sector against another.

For local artist James Burns, creating a mural depicting the emotions surrounding suicide hits close to home. "Suicide is not just about ending one person's suffering," Burns said. "What people don't realize is that it starts a whole chain reaction of sorrow for those who are left behind. " Burns, 37, is head artist on the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's latest project, "Finding the Light Within," at 119 S. 31st St. The painter was denied the opportunity to know his grandfather because of his untimely death, and while working on the two-year project, he lost friends from graduate school and high school months apart.