September 8, 2024 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Pet Memorial Day at Paw Prints

_1JF7953-The-Blessing — Pastor Joe Forwood confers a blessing on S’more, Oreo, and Cookie who came to the Pet Memorial at Paw Prints Forever from Hinde's Animal Rescue of Glen Mills.

Anyone who’s ever lost a cherished companion animal knows they weren’t “just animals,” they were family. And when they die, the people cry. To honor that connection, Pete Pagano of Paw Prints Forever held a ceremony at his pet crematory on Route 202 on Sunday.

Pastor Joe Forwood from Siloam United Methodist Church in Bethel Township also said they aren’t just animals.

“I believe animals bring so much joy into our lives. We ask God to pour out blessings upon our pets and our families so that joy will continue. They become part of our family and they’re in our hearts forever. And when they die, the grief is there. People say ‘It’s just an animal,’ but it’s not. That pet is part of our family,” he said.

Photos of the beloved pets cremated at Paw Prints Forever.

Forwood repeated the sentiment during his blessing of the animals.

“Pets are part of our families; they’re our companions and go through everything and walk with us through our lives. The animals of God’s creation inhabit the sky, the earth, and the sea. They share in the fortune of human existence and have a part in human life and our families,” he said.

He continued saying animals are reminders of the “gifts of salvation”. He mentioned how animals were saved in the story of Noah, that lambs recall the Passover sacrifice and the escape from slavery, and a fish saved Jonah.

“We therefore evoke God’s blessing on these animals and, as we do so, let us praise the creator and thank God for setting us as stewards over the creatures of the Earth,” he said.

He continued, giving thanks for animals helping in our work, how they also provide food for us to eat, and how pets become our companion animals.

At that point, Forwood blessed three young puppies — S’more, Oreo, and Cookie — who are up for adoption at Hinde’s Animal Rescue Team on Smithbridge Road in Glen Mills.

Pagano said he wanted to honor the lost pets and their families with the memorial and hopes it will become an annual event.

During the event, those who lost their beloved pets painted memorial stones in their pets’ honor.

About Rich Schwartzman

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.

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All shrooms all the time

Along the Ford

_1JF7940-Mr.-Mushroom — Welcome to the Mushroom Festival

The weather was on the iffy side for the start of the 39^th annual Mushroom Festival but, the crowds came as they have been doing for years. The festival typically draws more than 100,000 people during the two-day event. Why do they come? For the shrooms.

Cook them. Eat them. Drink them. Paint them. Grow them.

Here’s a little visual taste before the rain came Saturday.

No table? No problem. A little curbside dining. It’s all part of the flavor of the event.

The Mushroom Festival is an event where people can learn about mushrooms.

Chef Carla Hall gives a cooking demonstration.

Maitake means dancing mushroom in Japanese. Maitake mushrooms are considered one of the medicinal or functional mushrooms with adaptogenic properties to help the body maintain health.

Mushrooms can lend themselves to arts other than the art of cooking.

Grow your own. The folks at Phillips Mushrooms say their grow kits can yield up to three harvests.

About Rich Schwartzman

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Bennett replaces Merhar in Kennett

Local News Kennett, Local News

The Kennett Township Board of Supervisors officially thanked one member of the Historical Commission and welcomed a new commissioner at the board’s meeting Wednesday night.

The supervisors presented a certificate of merit to longtime commission member Judy Merhar, who has spent 20 years working to preserve the township’s history and is resigning before her term is up. They also unanimously approved township resident Tina Bennett to fill the remainder of Merhar’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2028.

“My understanding is [Merhar] has been a longtime advocate for historic preservation and education within this township, and was responsible for leading the reorganization of the historic resource room that’s contained within the township building along with Tina Bennett,” said Kennett Township Manager Alison S. Dobbins. “She has also offered to continue providing support to the historical commission.”

The Historical Commission is a nine-member board that meets on the first Thursday of the month over Zoom and in person.

Historical Commission Chairwoman Karen Marshall thanked the supervisors “for being so supportive in our efforts.”

Supervisors’ Chairman Geoffrey Gamble called Bennett a great addition to the commission.

“Her enthusiasm is infectious,” he said.

About Monica Fragale

Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.

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Rabbinic Reflections: A different alarm

Religion Today

What happens when you hear an alarm? Does your world narrow into the urgency of now and its attendant worries? Does your world expand as you open your eyes to a new day with new possibilities? Do you do your best to hit snooze until another alarm sounds?

This past week, my son begged me to let him take a shofar (a ram’s horn) to school so that he could blow it each morning for the Hebrew month of Elul that had just begun. It is one of his favorite times of year, a time to get ready for Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year) and a time to demonstrate leadership in his Jewish day school. What I love about his enthusiasm is that he gets better at sounding the notes each year, and he also gets better within each year from the start of the month to the end. Can you think of a better metaphor for starting learning in school than having to practice something and returning to it to gain mastery?

One of the most moving teachings about the shofar that I have heard looks at the openings on each end. The mouthpiece is small and relies on our ability to fill the space with our lips to make a sound; the other end is open wide, emitting vibrant sounds. The shofar cannot make sound the other way. The call of the shofar literally goes from narrowness to expansiveness.

Alarms have been ringing for eleven months in Israel and Gaza and, as a result, around the world. Those alarms have narrowed the world, literally and figuratively. I have found myself pulled into many conversations and experiences where all I want is to withdraw into a small, safe space. And, I have also heard the alarms as a call to engage in hard conversations–careful listening and careful articulation–to expand the possibilities for others caught in constraints. It is exhausting.

So, when I hear the shofar calling to me to prepare my soul for the New Year, I honestly do not know what more I can do. And the shofar calls day after day. I hear its blast cry out; I hear its three-part note break; and I hear its staccato nine notes shatter. And then I hear the great blast go on and on until the person blowing can blow no longer. That is when I realize that it is not that I have more to do; it is that I also have to feel.

We are meant to take this season as a time of repentance and return. That work is too often made out to be about some idealized sense of ourselves. The shofar calls us, though, not to some ideal but rather to who we actually are. It asks us to root ourselves, to return to our experiences, and to find a path forward that acknowledges our narrowness and our expansiveness. The sound of the shofar is a model for the sound of our soul vibrating. We are each our own alarm. Can we hear that different alarm? I pray that this year, we find a way to hear our own and each other’s souls with all their calls.

About Rabbi Jeremy Winaker

Rabbi Jeremy Winaker is the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hillel Network, responsible for West Chester University, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and other area colleges. He is the former head of school at the Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington and was the senior Jewish educator at the Kristol Hillel Center at the University of Delaware for four years. Rabbi Winaker lives in Delaware with his wife and three children.

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