At their meeting on Wednesday, April 15, the Chester County Commissioners gave a pat on the back to the county’s volunteer corps and its telecommunicators.
Evan Dominick, a nine-year Chester County employee, holds the proclamation for Public Safety Communications Week. He is joined by Commissioner Terence Farell (from left), Commissioner Michelle Kichline, Deputy Director of 9-1-1 Operations John Haynes, and Commissioner Kathi Cozzone.
Commissioners’ Chairman Terence Farrell explained that the week of April 12 to April 18 is not only Public Safety Telecommunicators’ Week, but also Volunteer Appreciation Week.
Commissioner Kathi Cozzone read a proclamation applauding the county’s 72 full-time and eight part-time telecommunicators for handling 282,992 emergency telephone calls for assistance during 2014. And Commissioner Michelle Kichline recited the one for county volunteers, referencing the fact that they save taxpayers more than $1 million every year.
John Haynes, the deputy director of 9-1-1 operations, said he was grateful for the recognition as well as the fact that the telecommunicators’ dedication and professionalism contribute to a “truly world-class” emergency services operation.
Jeanne Casner, who heads the county’s Health Department, thanked the commissioners for spotlighting the volunteers. About 40 volunteers provide invaluable assistance to her department , logging 3,300-plus hours a year, she said.
Rebecca Brain, the county’s public information officer, announced the debut of a new Web page, Volunteer Chesco, a site that combines all of the county government volunteer opportunities in one place. Brain said the county offers a mix of options that range from serving in the Medical Reserve Corps to working as a computer tutor to supporting Chester County’s Animal Rescue Team.
“We have an incredible spirit of volunteerism here in Chester County,” Cozzone noted, pointing out that the week also honors the many volunteers who are first-responders or serve area nonprofits.
To learn more about county volunteer opportunities, visit http://chesco.org/index.aspx?NID=2969 . It can also be accessed by going to the county’s home page – www.chesco.org – and clicking on Volunteer Chesco.
I am the perfect one. I’m Dustin, a 2-year-old American pit pull/terrier mix. I came to the Chester County SPCA on March 13. I’m a pretty low key guy, and very well behaved. Just let me put this out there — I walk well on a leash. I am calm. I know how to sit and stay (and pose for photos), and I kinda know down, but that depends on the treat. I’m very smart and would love for you to teach me. I’m friendly and fairly docile but also love to play. You really have to come meet me, as long as you don’t have cats. I don’t do cats. But people who want to be my best friend, I definitely want them.
There were no substantive changes, but Concord Township supervisors approved on Tuesday, April 14, an addendum to their March resolution granting preliminary approval for the Vineyard Commons project.
The addendum clarifies four of the 19 conditions placed on the developers.
Attorney Jaros, representing the applicant, said some of the conditions “lacked specificity with regard to the timing of improvements and payment of impact fees.”
He added that the clarifications would help avoid any appeal of the conditions.
Among the points addressed were the timing for road improvements to Beaver Valley Road, adding a second southbound turn lane (left turn) from southbound Route 202 onto Naamans Creek Road while also adding a second through lane for northbound Route 202 traffic approaching Naamans Creek Road.
The developers are required to pay $5,000 for adjustments to the adaptive traffic light at the intersection of Route 202, Beaver Valley and Naamans Creek and to perform traffic counts along Summit, Dain and Watkins avenues before and after construction to determine whether motorists are using those roads as cut-through streets.
The clarification says the work on the roads can be done in phases — coinciding with the four phases of planned construction — but there is a specific timing to be followed.
According to township solicitor Hugh Donaghue’s recommended revision, “Those improvements have to be completed within three years of the time the first shovel hits the ground, or the start of phase three, whichever comes first.”
Improvements to Beaver Valley Road itself are to be completed before the final phase is 50 percent completed, Donaghue said.
In addition, if any developer submits a plan during the build-out phase of Vineyard Commons that would affect the existing intersection of Route 202 and Watkins Avenue, the township would request that developer contribute to any traffic calming measures the applicant installed, the addendum says.
Another condition clarified concerns the possible loss of building lots because of Department of Environmental Protection stormwater requirements.
According to the new wording, “A lot line change of an identified building lot is permitted, as long as said lot meets the applicable area bulk and setback requirements. However, should conformance to the requirements of the NPDES cause the elimination of a lot, no relocation and/or replacement to another location within the project is permitted.”
The applicant must also enter into a well guarantee agreement to protect the water supply of homes within 1,000 feet of the development. The guarantee will be “appropriately tailored for a preliminarily approved residential development that proposes both public water and public sewer.”
The final condition clarified concerns the timing of fee-in-lieu payments, which allow a developer to pay a fee in lieu of providing land for open space. According to the new wording, fee in lieu payments “will be apportioned and paid upon the filing of plans reflecting the phased development of the site.”
The Vineyard Commons project would develop 230 acres of the 320 acres owned by Woodlawn Trustees from the Delaware state line north to Smithbridge Road and from Route 202 west to the border with Chadds Ford Township. Woodlawn is the legal owner, while McKee-Concord Homes and Eastern States Development are equitable owners.
However, residents and politicians are looking for a way to raise money for any conservation group interested in buying the property.
State Rep. Stephen Barrar said he wants to facilitate finding grants and a possible buyer who would preserve the property. He held a meeting on the matter on March 27.
Supervisors’ Chairman Dominic Pileggi announced on March 18, the night the board gave preliminary approval for the project, that the township would put up $500,000 and Delaware County would put up an additional $250,000 to save the valley.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
• Police arrested Donald Scott Hazelton, 44, in connection with a robbery at the WSFS Bank on Route 202. Police said Hazelton entered the bank, located north of Smithbridge Road, shortly before 5 p.m. on April 10. The accused, with hands in his pockets, approached a bank teller and demanded money, according to the report. The teller complied, handing over an undisclosed amount of cash. Hazelton fled in a silver Chrysler Sebring convertible. He was taken into custody without incident two days later at Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino.
• Police arrested two people suspected of stealing from vehicles. Robin Dean Wilson Jr., 27, reportedly from Chadds Ford, and Valerie Ashley Sannuti, 24, of Trainer, were taken into custody from a residence on South Point Drive on April 5. The pair was initially pulled over during a traffic stop on March 8, police said, and troopers could see suspected stolen merchandise in the vehicle. After obtaining a warrant, police searched the vehicle and recovered the property. Arrest warrants for Wilson and Sannuti were issued on March 12, but the pair could not be found at first. When the accused were found, police also discovered more stolen property, the report said.
• State police said a 75-year-old woman from Lower Oxford was arrested for retail theft after being caught stealing $80 worth of DVDs from the Walmart in East Marlborough Township. Police also said this was the eighth time Ruth Ann Horne was arrested for retail theft. Horne was arraigned and then committed to Chester County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail, according to police. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 14. The incident happened at 2:46 p.m. on April 8.
• Pennsylvania State Police from Troop K, Media barracks, are investigating the theft of more than $20,000 from a Sprint Corporation property in Concord Township. According to the report, someone removed 20 Alcatel-Lucent batteries, weighing 105 pounds and valued at $1,000 each. Two copper bars were also stolen. The thefts took place sometime between July 14, 2014, and April 8 of this year.
• A Kennett Township man awoke the morning of April 11 to find a stranger sleeping in his living room. State police from the Avondale barracks are investigating the criminal trespass, a report said.
• Kennett Square resident Bruce Benjamin Levy was arrested for DUI and drug possession on April 14, according to state police. A report said Levy was stopped for traffic violations at 12:25 a.m. on Route 926 at Newark Road in East Marlborough Township.
• A 17-year-old from Chadds Ford was arrested for DUI following an April 12 traffic stop on Cossart Road in Pennsbury Township. Police said the unidentified youth had drugs and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. Charges were pending.
• Cynthia Foore, 50, of Glen Mills, was arrested for DUI following a traffic stop on Route 1 at Cheyney Road on April 11, a police report said. Police made the stop at 1:21 p.m.
• Police arrested Oshakyi Thomas, 22, of Collingdale, for DUI after a 1:50 a.m. traffic stop on April 4. The stop was made on Route 202 at Springwater Plaza.
• Daniel Thomas Newcott, 36, of Newark, was determined to be DUI following a traffic stop on Route 202 at 12:40 a.m. on April 4, according to a police report.
• A motorist from New Haven, Conn., 39-year-old Leonardo Callata-Luque, was cited for striking two vehicles that had stopped for a traffic light on northbound Route 1 at Cheyney Road shortly after 12 p.m. on April 3. According to police, one vehicle was in the left lane and the other in the right when Callata-Luque drove his Toyota directly between the two.
• On April 6 at 10:45 p.m. Dominick Facciolo, 54, was cited for harassment after pushing a 50-year-old woman during an argument, police said. The incident happened on Feldspar Drive in Concord Township.
• Police arrested Gregory Scott Mink, 44, of Glen Mills, for DUI at 11:46 p.m. on April 4, according to a report. The stop was made on Concord Road near Edward Jennings Road.
• An 18-year-old from West Grove was cited for an improper left turn at the intersection of Route 1 and Onix Drive in East Marlborough Township on April 8. Police said the accused was turning left onto Onix when he struck a vehicle heading south on Route 1. No injuries were reported.
• Erica Rochelle Huss, of Newark, was arrested for DUI and drug possession following a traffic stop on Stockford Road in Pennsbury Township shortly before 11 p.m. on April 3, according to a police report. Charges were pending.
• According to a police report, Matthew Salvatore Cardile, 29, of Avondale was arrested for DUI on Route 52 at Clarks Lane in Pocopson Township on March 29. Police said the arrest was made at 1:21 a.m.
• Chadds Ford Gallery presents The Return, featuring the works of two popular and successful artists, Billy Basciani and John Hannafin. The opening reception is Friday, April 17, 5 to 8: p.m.
The Bids for Kids fund-raiser is Friday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. at Llanerch Country Club.
• The Bids for Kids fundraiser is Family Support Line’s key fundraising event and will be held at Llanerch Country Club on Friday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person and include valet parking, beer and wine open bar from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and hors d’ oeuvres. The event offers a silent and live auction with collector’s items, sports tickets and memorabilia, getaways, personal services, jewelry and much more. To see a list of items and to purchase tickets go to http://Support15.myab.co. For more information, visit FamilySupportLine.org
• The public is encouraged to visit www.TalkPATransportation.com to register for an interactive online public meeting being held from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, as part of the update to Pennsylvania’s 12-year transportation program. The program, which serves as a blueprint of prioritized transportation projects, is updated every two years to enable all Pennsylvanians to contribute their priorities and suggestions.
• Saturday, April 18, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. is the annual Brandywine Creek cleanup. Join the Young Friends of the Brandywine and help to clean 12 miles of the Brandywine from Lenape Bridge outside West Chester to Thompson’s Bridge in Delaware. This event is suitable for children over the age of 5. To register, contact Kathy Smith at 610-388-8315. Please meet in the parking lot of the Brandywine River Museum of Art.
• Pinot’s Palette in the Village at Olde Ridge is celebrating Earth Day by hosting a fund-raiser for Delaware Zoological Society and Brandywine Zoo from 7-9 p.m. on April 22. The event coincides with the arrival of the Brandywine Zoo’s new burrowing owl, so the painting project of the evening will be that of an owl. So, open your favorite bottle of wine and get ready to be inspired by our local artists who will guide you step-by-step through the featured animal painting. At the end of the night, leave with your own masterpiece. Light snacks provided. Space is limited so contact Pinot’s Palette at 484-451-8166, email glenmills@pinotspalette.com or visit www.pinotspalette.com/glenmills
Tickets are on sale for “Charlotte’s Web.”
• Due to popular demand, advanced general admission tickets for “Charlotte’s Web” at Unionville High School may be purchased through Tuesday, April 21, from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the UHS main office. Tickets may also be purchased at the box office prior to each show. Show times are 7 p.m., Friday, April 24, 1 p.m., Saturday matinee, April 25, and 7 p.m., Saturday, April 25. Prices are $7 for adults, $5 for students and free for kids 3 and younger. Cash or check. For groups larger than 10, contact uhstickets@gmail.com.
• Chadds Ford Township and the Chadds Ford Civic Association will hold their annual recycle day and roadside cleanup for township residents, Saturday, April 25, at the township building. Activities will begin at 8 a.m. with roadside cleanup. From 9 a.m. until noon, residents will be able to donate nonperishable foods, gently used clothing, furniture and home goods, as well as electronics for re-use. Additionally, residents will also be able to drop off for recycling the following items: electronics or “anything with a plug,” confidential documents for shredding, and residential propane tanks and gas cans. Items containing hazardous materials, such as Freon, and single-stream or curbside recyclables and hazardous materials, such as oil-based paints, will not be accepted. For more information, contact Chadds Ford Township at 610-388-8800 x100.
• April 25 is also the date for the 14th annual Community Yard Sale in Pennsbury Township. The event runs from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the township park behind the township building. The yard sale is part of Spring Clean-up Week. The rain date is May 2.
Saturday, April 25 is the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day free community event at six locations throughout Chester County. Bring your kids and family to explore fun, fitness and healthy living to keep their bodies and minds active all summer long.
• The YMCA of Greater Brandywine’s Healthy Kids Day events take place on April 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Brandywine YMCA in Coatesville will host the event at Ash Park, 300 Kersey St. in Coatesville; the Jennersville YMCA will be celebrating in downtown Oxford on 3rd St., between Market and Hodgson. The Kennett Y will be having their festivities in downtown Kennett Square on Broad Street between Cypress and Mulberry Street. Both the West Chester YMCA and the Oscar Lasko Youth Program Center together will welcome guests at the East Goshen Park, Veteran’s Pavilion, 1661 Paoli Pike in West Chester. The Lionville Community YMCA and the Upper Main Line YMCA will both host their festivities at their branches. To learn more about Healthy Kids Day events in your area, go to http://ymcagbw.org/hkd
• On Saturday, April 25, owner Dean Carlson will host his second-annual Wyebrook Music Festival at Wyebrook Farm (150 Wyebrook Road, 610-942-7481), a lively all-day celebration of music at one of the region’s most stunning outdoor settings. Doors will open at 10 a.m., with music starting one hour later, and throughout the day, guests will enjoy exciting performances and farm-fresh food from Chef Andrew Wood. Tickets are just $25 in advance (click to purchase) and $35 at the gate, space permitting, and include seven bands and all-day admission to the festival grounds, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Children under 12 will be admitted for free. Music lovers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating, and a pasture will be made available for convenient on-site parking, with handicap parking available to those with a valid permit. Dogs are welcome, so long as they are friendly and on a leash at all times. For more information about the 2015 Wyebrook Music Festival or Wyebrook Farm, call 610-942-7481 or visit www.wyebrookfarm.com.
Native Plants for Native Pollinators, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 30 at Newline Grist Mill.
• Newlin Grist Mill, at Route 1 and Cheyney Road in Concord Township, is hosting a lecture, Native Plants for Native Pollinators, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 30. Presenter David Korbonits is the Meadow Area Horticulturist at Mt. Cuba Center and author of The Meadow Plants at Mt. Cuba Center. Pre-registration requested; $2 suggested donation. For more information, email info@newlingristmill.org or call 610-459-2359.
• The annual St. Michael Lutheran Church yard sale is Saturday, May 2, and runs from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the Chester County Migrant Ministry. So come early and shop for the best bargains. A favorite part of the yard sale is the annual shredding/electronics recycling event open to the community. Bring old computers, printers, cell phones and other electronics to have them easily and safely recycled. And, bring those boxes of old documents to have them security and privately shredded while you wait. And, while you’re there, make sure to get your car washed by the church Youth Group. Proceeds will benefit the St. Michael Youth Trips scheduled for the 2015 season. The church is at 109 East Doe Run Road in East Marlborough Township.
• The Glen Mills-Thornbury Rotary will hold a Designer Bag Bingo event on Sunday, May 3, at Penn Oaks Golf Club on Penn Oaks Drive. The doors open at noon and games begin at 1 p.m. The cost is $45 for 10 cards. Additional cards are $5. Proceeds go toward local charities. Tickets may be purchased at http://www.gmtrotary.org.
• The Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art will hold its annual Wildflower and Native Plant Sale on Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the museum’s courtyard. Brandywine staff and volunteers will be available to answer questions and provide planting and horticultural information. All proceeds from the sale benefit the conservancy’s diverse and beautiful gardens.
• The final numbers are in for the 2015 Chadds Ford Art Sale & Show. According to Publicity Chairman Diane Micklin, the event grossed more than $60,000 and drew more than 1,000 visitors. Of the $60,000, the Chadds Ford Elementary School PTO gets 30 percent, or $18,000, minus expenses.
You are ready to start your week. You are motivated to pursue your goals. You are rested and wake up early to get a head start.
Then, you look at your calendar and realize that most of your week is already overrun by appointments. The workweek hasn’t even begun, and the majority of your time is already taken.
You ask, “Who scheduled all these meetings? Did I make this happen?”
Is Your Week Already Booked?
Before you start your day, look at your calendar. Is it nearly completely covered with meeting after meeting running together with travel time in-between?
Take a quick assessment: how many hours of meetings do you have scheduled?
Then, ask yourself, “When am I going to get my own work done?”
Here are some things to consider about the many meetings cluttering your calendar:
How many meetings are standing meetings? Avoid meetings that repeat no matter their status or whether there is an update. Updates and follow-ups can be done via email.
How many of them are actually productive? Ensure they have an actual purpose, advance agenda, and work to be performed.
How many meetings are too long? Consider cutting their scheduled duration in half.
Which should be conversations? Some of your meetings would be better handled by having a one-on-one conversation instead of summoning a group into a conference room.
Which meetings do you need to decline? Just because you received a meeting invite doesn’t mean you have to drop all your priorities to attend. Decline the ones that you cannot or should not attend.
Do you have any meetings for your own work? Beware letting your calendar be overrun with everyone else’s priorities before you take time for your own. Schedule meetings with your own tasks to ensure you get them done.
Take Back Your Calendar
You won’t get your work done if you are sitting in meetings all week long.
Resist repeating meetings and decline ones that you shouldn’t attend and that may be a waste of time. Reduce the duration of meetings that you must attend.
Own your own time, and get your most important priorities on your calendar before meetings fill it up.
* Maria L. Novak Dugan is president of Marketing Solutions & Business Development, a firm in West Chester, PA, offering creative marketing services and goal implementation for small & medium sized businesses. For more information, contact Maria at 610-405-0633 or MariaNovak001@yahoo.com or visit www.Maria-L-Novak.com
Maria L. Novak Dugan is president of Marketing Solutions & Business Development, a firm serving Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, offering creative marketing services and goal implementation for small businesses. She has more than 30 years’ experience in the Marketing & Sales Industry ... 13 of those as the sole sales representative for a Pennsylvania payroll company growing their client base by over 500%. Maria Novak Dugan is also the former Managing Director of the Delaware Chapter of eWomenNetwork. Creating, developing, and conducting this division of a national organization strengthened her knowledge of networking, event planning, fundraising, and small-business development.
For more information, contact Maria at 610-405-0633 or Maria@Maria-L-Novak.com or visit www.Maria-L-Novak.com
My ears perked up the other day when I heard Mark Bowden being interviewed on NPR relating to his recent article in Vanity Fair about Judy Clarke, the attorney who is defending Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Because Southern born and bred Judy Clarke eschews publicity and notoriety, she may not have “celebrity status.” However, Bowden considers, “Among those who want capital punishment abolished in this country, Judy Clarke is the most effective champion in history.”
Before being Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, she has defended numerous others whom the media and the public have already condemned.
She was the defense for Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber; for Susan Smith, who drowned her children; for Eric Rudolph, the racist terrorist and Christian extremist who detonated a bomb at the summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Rudolph, we should remember, killed two people and injured 150. Also Clarke defended Zacarias Moussoui, who was accused of being a part of the Sept. 11 attacks; and she defended Jared Lee Loughner, who in 2001, opened fire at an outdoor event in Arizona where he severely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and murdered six others. While Attorney Clarke may shun the limelight, her clients achieve the fame of infamy through their heinous crimes.
Clarke’s defenses rest not on proving the innocence of her clients as much as it is to wrest them from the death penalty, which she considers “legalized homicide.” She has told her students that the attorney stands between the power of the state and the individual. She has also commented that “no one should be defined ‘by the worst moment, or worst day’ of his life.” (Bowden) Her goal at trial is to reframe the narrative about the accused, showing what factors and circumstances may have been foundational to the crime. According to Bowden, “She seeks not forgiveness but understanding.”
Perhaps it is her compassion in seeing the broken humanity of the individual that allows her to be so persuasive in court. Bowden remarks that Clarke has a steeliness that doesn’t usually get associated with kindness, and that it is her steeliness that makes her defiant and committed. However, compassion and steely tenaciousness are not antithetical to each other. In fact, for authentic action, they work hand in hand. That old cliché, “don’t mistake kindness for weakness,” comes to mind.
While reading about Judy Clarke’s relentless work against the death penalty, I remembered a horrific story of a man and woman falsely convicted of murder. Sunny Jacobs and her husband Jesse Tafero were both given the death sentences. Tafero burned to death in a botched execution. Jacobs was released after almost 20 years in prison. There are other shocking stories told in the movie, The Exonerated. Or, consider the Innocence Project, “a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.”
Judy Clarke’s defense of the guilty may one day bring light to the other dark side of the death penalty: the wrongful execution of the innocent.
*Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.
Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.
Unionville boys are getting closer to winning the Ches-Mont League title with another important 5-2 win over rival Rustin Tuesday afternoon. Indians are now 12-0 (9-0 Ches-Mont).
Indians swept the doubles again against a team, which is known to develop strong doubles teams. Just two years ago, Coach Billy’s boys Derek Sommers and John Lim won the PIAA doubles title. The strength in doubles is the key for Indians to stay perfect this season.
Senior co-captains Atma Bery and Sri Garlapati
Senior co-captains, Atma Bery and Sri Garlapati played very well again, beating Rustin’s Gustavo Vaselli and Luca Greco 6-2, 6-4.
On Monday, this Rustin team defeated Kennett’s first doubles that was responsible for Atma-Sri’s and Indians’ only loss in doubles this spring. Senior Champe Fisher and Sophomore Harris Avgousti stayed undefeated, taking down Golden Knights Phil Clark and Kyle Bradley 6-2, 7-5. Indians’ 3rd and 4th doubles were dominant again in their wins: Matt Daniels and Mikey Muscato over Liam Gillespie and Mosey Nsereko 6-0, 6-3, while Will Blair and Daniel Hopping disposing Nick Avrillo and Stephen Gladfelter 6-1, 6-0.
Rustin’s Luke Shevlin edged UHS senior co-captain Zeyad Zaki 6-3 and 7-5 on the line 1. Zaki played very well, hitting balls hard, and dictating most points. However, Shevlin was playing unbelievable defense and he won most long rallies. Zaki was leading 4-1 in the 2nd set.
Golden Knights also won the second singles. Riley Dunn’s aggressive plays wore down Hunter Whitesel 6-3 and 6-4. Hunter was leading 3-0 in the 2nd set. However, Freshman Zach Sokoloff beat Ryan Fincher 7-6(6), 2-6 and 6-1, to save Indians from being swept on singles. Sokoloff failed to hold serves in the second set committing too many double faults. He made adjustment in serves in the third set, while continuing to pressure Fincher with hard grounders and well executed lobs.
Freshman Zack Sokoloff
Among so many well played points in the third set, one went like the following, after baseline exchanges, Fincher hit a deep approach shot to Zokoloff’s forehand, Zokoloff ran down the ball and threw a deep lob, Fincher ran back and hit a beautiful twinner (in between leg shot), Sokoloff was ready, sending the twinnered ball to Fincher’s backhand corner to win the point. The shot brought cheers from the Indians assistant coach and a dozen or so UHS players.
Indians will play at Downingtown West on Wednesday, 4/15.
This year’s Ches-Mont American Singles Championship will start this Thursday morning, April 16 at Kennett High School, because of the rain forecast on Friday. The semi-final and final will still be held on Saturday. Last year, Unionville’s Johnny Wu won his 3rd consecutive league title. He went on to become the district and the PIAA boys tennis champion.
Singles: Luke Shevlin (R) def Zeyad Zaki, 6-3, 7-5; Riley Dunn (R) def Hunter Whitesel 6-3, 6-4; Zach Sokoloff (U) def Ryan Fincher 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-1
Doubles: Atma Bery-Sri Garlapati (U) def Gustavo Vaselli-Luca Greco 6-2, 6-4; Champe Fisher-Harris Avgousti (U) def Phil Clark-Kyle Bradley 6-2, 7-5; Matt Daniels-Mikey Muscato (U) def Liam Gillespie-Mosey Nsereko 6-0, 6-3; Will Blair- Daniel Hopping (U) def Nick Avrillo-Stephen Gladfelter 6-1, 6-0.
