Family Affair

Renee Rich thought she had a lingering cold in April 1991 when her doctor told her it was leukemia. The 23-year-old hairdresser from Marple Township pledged her life to helping others just before her death on Nov. 23, 1994. Footprints for Leukemia, a nonprofit organization that assists families with critically ill children, is keeping Rich's promise, said Betty Rudloff, Rich's aunt. "Renee talked about helping others after she was cured. The day she died, I decided to keep the fund going in her memory," Rudloff said.

Philip Wigle (a.k.a. Vigol) was one of the first heroes of Pennsylvania's storied "Monongahela rye," a convicted instigator in the Whiskey Rebellion sentenced to hang, then pardoned by a reluctant George Washington. It's only fitting that one of the new distilleries now reviving Pennsylvania's rightful place as a rye capital should be named in his honor. Wigle Whiskey, opened just two months ago with a visitor-friendly distillery in Pittsburgh's Strip District, is a family affair — retired lawyer Mark Meyer running the still with son Eric, daughter Meredith Grelli doing marketing, and mother Mary Ellen Meyer spiking the marshmallow treats with booze for her signature "Wigle Krispies.

PRESIDENT Bush is willing to inflict on the world's poorest people 2 million more unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 more induced abortions, 4,700 more deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth, and 77,000 more deaths of children under five. And all to please the hardest of right wingers in the Republican Party. The $34 million appropriated by Congress for use by the United Nations Population Fund, known as UNFPA, would have provided these estimated benefits in 142 countries.

No matter what else is going on, whenever this mother-and-son duo get in their car, they pop in a CD and sing show tunes. "It is a rule now," said Alex Tuttle, 13. They practice, on the road and in the kitchen. They're actors with parts in "The Music Man," the first production of the Moorestown Musical Stage, which opened this weekend. Two more shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the auditorium of Moorestown High School. Performing in the show's brought them closer.

How often does your family spend time singing songs around the piano? Is it one of your childhood memories from holiday times? Music has always played a large part in the life of the Yates family, whose talented brood presents "Peter Rabbit" to a Valley Forge Music Fair audience tomorrow at 11 a.m. "We're a family of performers," said Peggy Yates - mother of nine, grandmother and general manager of the Yates Music Theatre. "All of our children are professional performers. They are musicians, dancers, actors and even scenery designers.

I have my family out here with me now, and we're having a blast. My wife, Tracy, and our kids, Brandi, 7, and Brett, 4, are decked out in red, white and blue all the time. Brett chants "USA!" all day long. He talks a lot, just like his dad. Tracy was interviewed on the scoreboard TV at the E Center during our game Monday against Belarus. I was in the locker room - the interview was between periods - but I understand she noted that her husband "is seldom at a loss for words. " Thanks a bunch, Tracy!

It was what one would expect from a welcome-home scene, now played out repeatedly across the nation - a fluffy white cake with a frosted yellow ribbon, trays of food, cocktails and cheering. But the emotional aura that filled Oaklyn's American Legion Post No. 84 as five local freshly returned-home soldiers entered the room made it seem as though the celebration were the first of its kind. Because their waiting families had come to know and count on each other throughout the Persian Gulf crisis, they appeared as one extended family during the festivities at the post Friday night.

When we say Gracie is a family flick, we mean it. That would be the Shue family, equally known for its contribution to soccer as to acting. Elisabeth and Andrew Shue's new project is a story based on real life: It's a coming-of-age drama about a young North Jersey lass growing up in the '70s whose soccer skills are so phenomenal, she plays on an all-boys team. Her life is changed when her soccer-hero brother dies. The Shues' brother, William, died in '88 in a freak accident. He was 25. Directed by E.S.' husband, Davis Guggenheim, the flick will feature the sibling actors in small roles.

Philip Wigle (a.k.a. Vigol) was one of the first heroes of Pennsylvania's storied "Monongahela rye," a convicted instigator in the Whiskey Rebellion sentenced to hang, then pardoned by a reluctant George Washington. It's only fitting that one of the new distilleries now reviving Pennsylvania's rightful place as a rye capital should be named in his honor. Wigle Whiskey, opened just two months ago with a visitor-friendly distillery in Pittsburgh's Strip District, is a family affair — retired lawyer Mark Meyer running the still with son Eric, daughter Meredith Grelli doing marketing, and mother Mary Ellen Meyer spiking the marshmallow treats with booze for her signature "Wigle Krispies.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Dave Weaver was in his usual seat, 20 rows behind home plate, drinking a beer and shouting instructions to his son in the quiet lulls between pitches. His wife, Gail, was alongside him, calmly enjoying a little night baseball. It really could have been any night in three lives filled with similar evenings at ballparks all across Southern California. Instead, Jered Weaver made an ordinary Wednesday at Angel Stadium unforgettable for the close-knit family that put him on that mound.

The Blue Cross Broad Street Run means different things to the various participants, but for Renie Shields and her son, Jim, it will truly be a family affair. Mother and son will participate together in the race, which begins at 8:30 Sunday morning. The 10-mile race will begin at the Central High athletic field at Broad Street and Somerville Avenue. It will conclude at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the end of Broad in South Philadelphia. Renie Shields is a three-time champion, having won three consecutive years (1985-1987)

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - As with most veteran filmmakers and directors, Greg MacGillivray's imagination was lush with visions of how his new project might look. What he didn't picture when he started the new IMAX documentary To the Arctic was just how personal that project would get. For one thing, every member of his family of four - his wife Barbara, son Shaun, and daughter Meghan - participated behind the scenes. Eight years ago, Greg and Barbara cofounded the MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation, which aims to contribute to the conservation of natural and cultural resources through giant-screen films and companion educational programming.

This is really a family affair, one that got Ste'yce McNeil into track, then pushed her into the headlines, and now into college. The Winslow Township senior made her next destination official by signing a letter of intent Tuesday in the school library to attend Mississippi State on a track scholarship. McNeil has come a long way, and her family has been there every step. Her mother was a record-setting hurdler at the same high school, which was called Edgewood at the time.

This is really a family affair, one that got Ste'yce McNeil into track, then burst her into the headlines and now into college. The Winslow Township senior made her next destination official by signing a letter of intent Tuesday in the school library to attend Mississippi State on a track scholarship. McNeil has come a long way from her beginning, and her family has been there every step. Her mother was a record-setting hurdler at the same high school, which was called Edgewood at the time.

For as long as anyone could remember, Angela DiMedio Carlino wanted to put down the recipes that built Carlino's Market into a suburban institution. The holiday soup, the wedding peaches, the meatballs. "She always said, 'I'm-a-write a cook-a-book and I call it Wanna Taste? ' " said Jill Santoro, who has worked at Carlino's for 15 years, lovingly mimicking "Mama" Carlino's thick accent. Mama Carlino died Nov. 4, 2007, on her 70th birthday - two days after her family opened a second store.

SCRENCI'S Restaurant in Sea Isle City, N.J., never gave in to the winter. "It was as crowded on Saturday nights in February as it was in the summer," said Joseph Mitchell, a Screnci-family friend. "It was extremely popular. " One reason for its popularity was the delicious Italian and seafood meals concocted by the cook and eventual owner, Richard Burke Screnci. Richard was the son of Nicholas Screnci, longtime dining-room manager of Old Original Bookbinder's, in Philadelphia, who founded Screnci's in 1978.

EMILIO Estevez's oddball road movie, "The Way," does not have a moneymaking bone in its body, and I mean that in a good way. It's a true indie, financed outside the system, promoted via an old-fashioned barnstorming tour by Estevez and his dad, Martin Sheen, who are riding around the U.S. in a bus, hosting promotional screenings. The whole thing is a family affair - the idea came from one of Estevez's own sons who, while living in Spain, learned of the ritual of the Camino de Santiago - an 800-kilometer spiritual pilgrimage through the Pyrenees and Basque region of Spain.

The tale of the Colleluori family of Holmes, Delaware County, is one of triumph emerging from tragedy. It began in 2005, when son Nicholas, then 19, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. While he was being treated at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania for more than a year, his mother, father, and three brothers virtually "lived at Penn for weeks on end," mother Cheryl said. "We promised we would never leave him," she said, weeping. Despite his treatment, Nick Colleluori, a 2004 graduate of Ridley High School and a Division I lacrosse player at Hofstra University, died Nov. 28, 2006, at 21. But before that, he had laid the groundwork for a nonprofit to raise cancer awareness and help others affected by the disease.