Home Blog Page 5

Kenhorst Resident Creates Honeybee Sanctuary in his own Backyard

Jason Hugg
-
0
Kenhorst Resident Creates Honeybee Sanctuary in his own Backyard

Kenhorst is home to a new Honeybee Sanctuary thanks to resident and entrepreneur Branden Moyer. Moyer transformed a piece of his property, which was once a junk yard, into the beautiful apiary where he plans to eventually host honey bee educational workshops.

Moyer is no stranger to bees. During the beginning of the pandemic, he took up bee keeping as a hobby, learning everything about honey bees in the process.

Fast forward a year later, Moyer has expanded his bee keeping operation to building honey bee habitats, and selling honey, all across Berks County, most notably at the DoubleTree in downtown Reading.

 

The “Pollinate Penn” initiative is a join effort between Moyer and Centre Park resident, Nigel Walker, to help support the local bee population by educating the community and provide flower planters for business to display on Penn Street.

Learn more about Pollinate Penn: New Downtown Initiative ‘Pollinate Penn’ Creates Buzz in Reading

The project took Moyer a few months to transform his backyard in the 1400 block of Hancock Boulevard into the sanctuary.

To celebrate the opening of the sanctuary, Moyer held a grand opening event Friday revealing a mural called “Lifecycle of a Honeybee” by local artist Juan Carlos Ruiz Jr. Measuring over 40 foot long, located on the interior of the fence, the mural depicts all the stages of the honey bee.

The sanctuary itself hosts several be hives, a small pond, and several benches to stop and admire the bees.

18 Children Earn New Bikes in ‘Books for Bikes’ Summer Reading Program

Reading Magazine
-
0
18 Children Earn New Bikes in ‘Books for Bikes’ Summer Reading Program

18 children earned news bikes Wednesday afternoon in the Oakbrook section of Reading following a summer of reading in Ready.Set.READ!’s “Books for Bikes” initiative.

Children living in the Oakbrook community who participated and regularly attended an eight week summer reading program celebrated their achievements with a bike and helmet party for the last day of the program, courtesy of Customers Bank.

The summer reading program is a collaboration to ensure the youth receive a nutritious weekday meal and to address summer learning loss. Ready.Set.READ!, managed by United Way of Berks County, delivers the reading portion of the program, along with program partners Alvernia University’s Holleran Center for Community and Global Engagement and the YMCA of Reading and Berks.

Other collaborators include Berks Community Health Center, Customers Bank, the Reading School District (providing meals) and the Reading Housing Authority.

The program began during mid-June offering activities like reading books, writing stories, vocabulary building, word recognition and learning games.

In total, more than 180 children participated in the program over four sites across the city, with 90 students having received their new bikes earlier this month. 18 children received their “new wheels” Wednesday in Oakbrook from United Way and Customers Bank representatives.

“Literacy is the foundation to life-long learning, and it was especially important to connect students with summer learning experiences this year with the disruptions in education caused by COVID. We are grateful for all of the support provided by Customers Bank and the program partners,” said Tammy White, President of United Way of Berks County.

In addition to receiving new bikes, children also received school supplies by program partner, Reading Truck Body.

Over the past 6 years, the “Books for Bikes” program has provided over 300 bikes to children in the City of Reading.

Berks County Public Libraries Adds Indoor Color Blind Glasses to Countywide Collection

Reading Magazine
-
0
Berks County Public Libraries Adds Indoor Color Blind Glasses to Countywide Collection

Berks County Public Libraries is adding eight new pairs of EnChroma indoor color blind glasses to the countywide collection. The newest additions will join eight pairs of outdoor color blind glasses currently circulating throughout the county.

Berks County Public Libraries became the first institution in Pennsylvania to offer EnChroma color blind glasses free for public use during a live reveal event in June 2021.

Learn more about the outdoor glasses in Berks Weekly: EnChroma Glasses added to Berks Public Library Catalog to Kickoff 35th Anniversary

Following the successful launch of the outdoor versions, the library system purchased indoor color blind glasses to further expand its offerings.

Over the last seven weeks since their introduction, the original eight pairs of glasses filled 17 requests from patrons with 11 more holds in the queue that will soon be filled.

“We started the accessibility collection in 2020 after the pandemic exposed a need to bring these tools closer to home,” said Amy Resh, system administrator for Berks County Public Libraries. “This collection demonstrates how libraries are continuously evolving their services and offerings to better meet the needs of their communities.”

Both the indoor and outdoor color blind glasses are available in three styles: adult, adult fit over, and kids. All glasses will be housed at the library system headquarters in Leesport and will travel to any of the 23 member library locations when requested.

Library patrons interested in borrowing color blind glasses should place a hold through the countywide catalog or speak with a library staff member for assistance. To view the different versions online, visit berkslibraries.org and enter “color blind glasses” in the search bar.

RIZE Solidarity Camp ends with Documentary featuring Philadelphia Mural Artist

Jason Hugg
-
0
RIZE Solidarity Camp ends with Documentary featuring Philadelphia Mural Artist

This past week, two dozen local youth gathered at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts to participate in the RIZE Solidarity Camp, held to engage youth from different backgrounds in collaborative projects and to promote tolerance.

The 5-day series consisted of artist-led workshops where youth experienced multiple forms of creative expression (Dance, TV/Film, Painting, etc) as they told stories and created art about their lives.

A few of the attending artist over the week included Jamilah Mustafah of MTV, Esteban Serrano Producer at Viacom, Ty the Stylist, Rahimah Yoba, a Costume Designer, Tyler Simmons, owner of The Plug, Tuffy Questell, a Casting Director, Artist Theron Cook, Dancer Jessica Warchal King, and Shania Thorpe, Choreographer and the GoggleWorks Center Ceramics.

The camp ended Friday afternoon with a special private screening of the documentary, Symbol of Solidarity, which explores how a Jenkintown-based artist, Brian “bbsketch” Bowens used his artistic talents to create a symbol of solidarity during the 2020 summer of protests.

Bowens, best known for creating custom cleats for Philadelphia Eagles star, Brandon Graham, and his captivating illustrations of athletes like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and LeBron James, was asked to speak publicly at a vigil. In response, Bowens created a bright, multi-colored fist surrounded by unifying messages he called, Symbol of Solidarity.

“The more that I filmed Brian, and dug into this story, the more I realized that it was representative of the issues at play throughout the country, and I knew that I had to tell this story,” said the film’s director, Esteban Serrano.

Serrano, through his nearly two decade long career in television, is a storyteller. From his early days at MTV in 2004 producing the iconic TRL, to his present days at the same network helping to relaunch Yo! MTV Raps in countries like Asia, the United Kingdom and beyond. It’s the stories that drive him.

Set to premiere on Thursday, August 18, in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, the documentary also features Reading youth, participating in a RIZE art therapy session at the GoggleWorks, hosted last year by Bowens.

After the screening, Serrano took some time to answer questions from the audience and discuss the filmmaking process.

“I’ve been a contributor to the RIZE program for many years, being able to partner with them on a project has been amazing” said Serrano. “At the end of the day, the message in the film is about the art. The Symbol of Solidarity, the fist with many different colors that represent diversity, is something that I want everyone to understand, no matter how old you are.”

The RIZE program, a Reading based nonprofit, focuses on solutions for social adversity, violence prevention, criminal justice reform initiatives by uniting cultures through performing & media arts education.

Brocmar Smokehouse Serving up heavenly barbecue and homemade sauces

Justin Choate
-
0
Brocmar Smokehouse Serving up heavenly barbecue and homemade sauces

On the season finale of Bites of Berks Justin visits Brocmar Smokehouse in West Reading to try their heavily barbecue and wide variety of homemade sauces. Explaining over the last few years to include four prominent locations in Berks County, Brocmar continues to lead the way serving smoked meats, wings, delicious side and desserts.

1...456...63Page 5 of 63