Goodwill

IN A Robin Hood tale gone awry, a woman allegedly told Upper Chichester police that she was stealing from the poor to give to the poor. After Abbie Merritt, 61, was caught this weekend stealing from a Goodwill donation drop box, she told them that she gave away the items she stole to those in need, according to police. Sales of clothing and items donated to Goodwill help support job training for people with disabilities and are often purchased by people on fixed or low incomes.

Penn guard Jerome Allen was among 12 college players selected to the U.S. basketball team for the Goodwill Games, July 23 to Aug. 7 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Also named to George Raveling's team were Arkansas' Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman, Florida's Andrew DeClercq, Duke's Cherokee Parks, Arizona's Damon Stoudamire, Wisconsin's Michael Finley, Michigan State's Shawn Respert, UCLA's Ed O'Bannon, Indiana's Alan Henderson, Massachusetts' Marcus Camby and Wake Forest's Randolph Childress.

Leandra Reilly left Moscow with some special memories of the Goodwill Games. Mostly she will remember her impressions of the Soviet people. "The people are real nice, but they don't smile," Reilly said before leaving for Houston, where she will co-host the U.S. Olympic Festival for ESPN. "At our 25-story hotel they had four banks of elevators. They have two guys at each bank 24 hours a day. It became a personal challenge to me. I'd smile and say, 'How are you doing this morning?

You think there is pressure on sportscasters doing the World Series or Super Bowl? Try this assignment. Ted Turner has organized the Goodwill Games, scheduled 129 hours on his own network and predicted they will be "bigger than the Olympics. " Pressure? What pressure? "I do so damn many events already," Skip Caray was saying yesterday from Atlanta, "around 200 a year between baseball and basketball, and I assume he (Turner) watches a good portion of those. If he wanted to fire me, he could have done it any time in the last 10 years or so. Ted's going to be over there so he'll probably see less of it than most people.

The Goodwill Games, brainchild of Atlanta broadcasting magnate Ted Turner, begin Saturday in Moscow with opening ceremonies at Lenin Stadium and competition in sixsports. Turner arrived in Moscow on Tuesday and was met at Sheremetyevo Airport by Enrikas Yushkiavitshus, deputy chairman of the Soviet State Radio and Television Committee, and Vyacheslav Gavrilin, deputy chairman of the State Committee on Sports and Physical Culture. Nearly 3,500 athletes from more than 50 countries will compete in the Games.

The most important question about the future of the Goodwill Games is: Do they have one? Despite agreement among the principals that the Games should go on, a number of factors suggest that, as of their conclusion here Sunday, they may have breathed their last. If so, it will be no big deal for the majority of American sports fans, who pay minimal attention at best to Olympic-style competition in non-Olympic years. But it will mark a serious loss for the athletes, coaches, national teams and keepers of the flame in such low-profile sports as rowing, swimming, water polo and wrestling.

Connecticut forward Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Massachusetts center Lari Ketner were among 33 college players invited yesterday by USA Basketball to compete for 12 spots on the United States team that will play in the Goodwill Games this summer in New York City. The 6-foot-6 Hamilton, who played for Coatesville High, averaged 21.5 points per game and 4.4 rebounds for the Huskies and was named Big East player of the year as a sophomore. Ketner, a 6-10 junior who played in high school for Roman Catholic, was the leading scorer for the Minutemen, averaging 15.2 points per game and 7.4 rebounds.

When wrestlers rise to as high a level as the men vying for spots on the Goodwill Games and world championship teams this week at the Palestra, they're pretty much aware of how good they are. Sometimes, however, a couple of good wins do a lot for a person's confidence. "I always thought I was good," Team Foxcatcher's Rico Chiaparelli said as he stepped out of the sauna, "but this did a whole lot to reinforce it. " Chiaparelli, of Baltimore, was happy because he had just eliminated Melvin Douglas, the defending 180.5-pound world silver medalist, from the John E. duPont Freestyle World Team Trials, which run through tomorrow at Penn.

Former Temple star Marc Jackson, College Player of the Year Shane Battier and NBA Rookie of the Year Mike Miller were among 12 players selected to the U.S. team for the Goodwill Games. The team is composed of NBA players who were either drafted in 1999 or 2000 or who are 22 or younger. The players were chosen by a nine-member USA Basketball committee chaired by Stu Jackson. Marc Jackson, of the Golden State Warriors, Battier of Duke and Miller of the Orlando Magic will be joined by nine NBA players for the Sept.

Carol Murray's dream wedding dress has sleeves - sheer, maybe even lacy. She says she's "not fancy," but she wants something beautiful and breathtaking that will fulfill all the bridal clich?s about being a princess on the most important day in her life. And she's shopping for her dress this weekend at Goodwill's first-ever bridal event, in Pennsauken, where she will find at least 100 new and "gently used" gowns - donated by former brides and bridal salons - priced from $99 to $299, as well as shoes, veils, jewelry, and even lacy undergarments.

Goodwill wants your stuff: old sneaks, designer dresses, even that wine-stained tablecloth. In this downsizing economy, Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia is expanding its stores and drop-off centers, and has started the area's first regional outlet in Bellmawr, Camden County. The nonprofit also is hiring workers. Tuesday, local politicians joined Goodwill executives to open the outlet in an industrial park on Benigno Boulevard, off the Black Horse Pike.

Circle Thrift 2233 Frankford Ave., 215-423-1222 1125 S. Broad St., 215-468-0645 circlethrift.com Goodwill Various locations, goodwill.org ORT Resale 29 S. 19th St., 215-563-2377 Philly AIDS Thrift 710 S. 5th St., 215-922-3186 phillyaidsthrift.com. The Second Mile Center 214 S. 45th St., 215-662-1663 thesecondmilecenter.org. 2nd Avenue and Village Thrift Various locations, 2ndavestores.com.

MILWAUKEE - "Red Nose" just meant a reindeer named Rudolph to Karen Mallet until she bought a print by that name for $12.34 at a Goodwill store in Milwaukee. It turned out to be a lithograph by American artist Alexander Calder worth $9,000. Mallet's good fortune is at least the fourth time in six months that valuable art has turned up at Goodwill, where bargain hunters search for hidden treasure among the coffee cups, jewelry, lamps, and other household cast-offs. Last month, a Salvador Dali sketch found at a Goodwill shop in Tacoma, Wash., sold for $21,000.

TABERNACLE, N.J. - Hundreds of people gathered here over the weekend to honor the accomplishments of a pioneering aviator from Mexico who was killed in a crash in the Pine Barrens more than 80 years ago. American Legion Mount Holly Post 11 on Saturday staged its 84th annual tribute to Emilio Carranza, a captain with the Mexican Army's Air Corps who was killed when his plane went down in July 1928 near this Burlington County town. The event, held at a memorial erected in Carranza's honor, is meant to honor Carranza and foster goodwill between the United States and Mexico.

IN A Robin Hood tale gone awry, a woman allegedly told Upper Chichester police that she was stealing from the poor to give to the poor. After Abbie Merritt, 61, was caught this weekend stealing from a Goodwill donation drop box, she told them that she gave away the items she stole to those in need, according to police. Sales of clothing and items donated to Goodwill help support job training for people with disabilities and are often purchased by people on fixed or low incomes.

LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II marked her Diamond Jubilee on Monday with a message thanking all those who had supported her over her 60-year reign and reaffirming her dedication to serving the British people. The 85-year-old monarch ascended the throne when her father, George VI, died on Feb. 6, 1952. She is the longest-serving monarch after Queen Victoria, who reigned for more than 63 years. Before a year's worth of festivities to celebrate her milestone, the queen said she and her husband have been "deeply moved" to receive so many kind messages about her Diamond Jubilee.

IS FOP President John McNesby PO'd at Gary Barbera? Boy, I guess. On Friday, McNesby and the Philadelphia Police Department began receiving calls that the well-known Philly car dealer had used the photos of fallen Philadelphia police officers, the department emblem and the Fraternal Order of Police emblem in his billboard advertisements. "Somebody called me and said 'What are we doing?' " McNesby said. "So, I rolled out there and when I looked, I just couldn't believe what I saw. " The billboards, one of which was spotted at Ashburner Street near Torresdale Avenue in Holmesburg yesterday, read: "We will always remember because Barbera cares.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Goodwill worker who spotted a photograph of Confederate General Robert E. Lee has helped the charity make $23,000 in an online auction. The tintype photograph was in a bin, about to be shipped out, when a worker grabbed it and sent it to the charity's local online department. The item was then put up for auction, which closed Wednesday night. "It would have gone to our outlet store where everything is sold by the pound," Goodwill spokeswoman Suzanne Kay-Pittman said yesterday.

Seventy-five years ago this week, the 55-year-old columnist and entertainer Will Rogers, along with the aviator Wiley Post, died in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska. This was before the advent of the 24/7 news cycle, so it took a while for word to get around. It wasn't until the next day that Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson, a longtime friend of Rogers', stood up on the Senate floor to announce: "Will Rogers, probably the most widely known private citizen and certainly the best beloved, met his death some hours ago in a lonely, faraway place.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - For the first time in a week, Luc Bouquet would have more than his fill for breakfast. His 82-year-old father-in-law had arrived the night before with a haul of fresh fruits and vegetables from the family's farm four hours outside Port-au-Prince - passionfruit, grapefruit, yams, and three kinds of bananas. "Ah," he said, sitting down to a heaping bowl of boiled yams, plantain, mackerel, and fiery tomato sauce. "This is too much. We can't eat all this.