Organizer

Cassie Harris had a problem: Her niece was struggling with math and reading and needed summer school classes, but the nearly broke Philadelphia School District wasn't offering them. Enter Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, where on Tuesday 20 students bent over worksheets, summarized passages, and worked one-on-one with teachers on word problems. All free. "It's like a miracle," said Harris, whose niece and daughter are both attending the Mother Bethel summer school, which began this week and will last through Aug. 3. Niece Sabrina Harris is catching up, Harris said, and her daughter, Briana, is soaking up enrichment activities.

PITTSBURGH — Former Kings coach Terry Murray, who was fired by Los Angeles on Dec. 12, is close to beginning an unprecedented fifth stint with the Flyers' organization. As first reported by RDS' Renaud Lavoie, Murray could become the next head coach of the Adirondack Phantoms. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren confirmed the two sides have spoken about a job. Apparently, a position as the Phantoms' top coach is not the only offer on the table. "We have spoken," Holmgren said.

ARTPLACE, A new national collaborative grant program dedicated to fostering public creative spaces, has awarded $15.4 million in grants to 47 arts organizations around the country. Three of the grants were awarded to Philadelphia organizations — though only one of them is using the money to create a giant hammock.   The humongous recliner is courtesy of the Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, which received $200,000 to kick-start activity on the waterfront through the creation of multiple layers of nets that people can climb on. The project was designed by the Croatian-Austrian design collective Numen/For Use, and the local installation will reside at the Race Street Pier.

IT WAS ONE of those letters that made me throw my hands in the air. "Please help my son get a kidney," the woman wrote in shaky script. "I am elderly, and he takes care of me. He has bad kidney disease and is getting sicker. He needs a kidney. " So, she asked: Could I find one for him? I was about to call and tell her that some things are beyond the powers of even the most sympathetic reporter, but then a letter landed on my desk. It was from an inmate in a Pennsylvania prison, and he had a request.

Facebook is the biggest online social medium in the world. People love it, are uneasy with it, even a little suspicious. It just may have done something inarguably good, with immediate, measurable impact. So far, that seems to be the case with Facebook's new organ-donation push. On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced that users can now choose to indicate to their Facebook world that they wish to be organ donors. And, if you choose, a link can whisk you right to your state's donor registry, where you can register online.

YOU DON'T HAVE to be a technical whiz or science smarty to dive into the two dueling festivals kicking off in Philadelphia on Friday. The bigger 10-day Philadelphia Science Festival welcomes all comers, said Steven Snyder, vice president of exhibits and program development for the fest-planning Franklin Institute. "Our goal is to underscore how much of a science city Philadelphia is and how science plays into every aspect of our lives. The festival is geared for anybody who's interested in anything.

A North Philadelphia drug kingpin got a life sentence Tuesday in federal court for running a large-scale trafficking organization that involved his wife and mother-in-law. Alexander "Reds" Rivera's gang operated in a troubled Kensington neighborhood between February 2006 and September 2010. The gang controlled drug distribution in and around the intersection of Indiana Avenue and Lawrence Street as well as in other areas of Philadelphia. Rivera, 30, obtained cocaine, crack, heroin and PCP that he and his codefendants then peddled on the street.

Nine music organizations have been awarded a total of $858,430 in grants through the Pew Charitable Trusts's Philadelphia Music Project, a program run by Pew's Center for Arts and Heritage, center officials announced Wednesday. The Opera Company of Philadelphia was awarded $200,000 to produce Silent Night , a new opera by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, co-commissioned by the opera company and the Minnesota Opera, where it received its world premiere in November 2011.

SANFORD, Fla. - Thousands joined a march Saturday through the Florida town where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, vowing to continue protesting until an arrest is made. Protesters carried signs, chanted "Justice for Trayvon," and clutched the hands of their children while they walked from Crooms Academy of Information Technology - the county's first high school for black students - to the Sanford Police Department. The march was organized by the NAACP and was one of several taking place over the weekend.

Dan Pennachietti is a three-meatballs-are-better-than-one kind of guy, usually from an eating perspective. But lately, the Italian American food vendor in Philadelphia is applying his strength-in-numbers point of view beyond gastronomic cravings. His goal is to improve the business climate in the city for his burgeoning industry. Pennachietti has cofounded the Philadelphia Mobile Food Association (PMFA), incorporated as a nonprofit organization in February, to coalesce the concerns of a diffuse group of independent business owners into one influential voice.