There are a lot of ways to show you love someone this Valentine's Day. Here are a few ways that are locally focused and unique.

Flying Lessons:
You can give your loved one something that lasts long after the chocolates with a $99 flying lesson at any of the 3,500 area flight schools in the U.S., according to Jo Ann Guear of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Find a flight school (locally there is one at the Pottstown-Limerick Airport on Ridge Pike) at http://www.aopa.org/letsgoflying/ready/choose/search.cfm. During the flight, your sweetie can sit in the pilot’s seat and take the controls to taxi, take off and fly a plane for around 30-40 minutes before landing. All under the guidance of an FAA-licensed instructor.

Wine and Chocolate Trail:
Member wineries of the Berks County Wine Trail are participating in a special weekend this Valentine's Day. Feb. 13 and 14, the wineries involved are open from noon to 5 and are serving special desserts paired with their wines. Maps & directions for this self-guided tour are available on the wine trail's Web site, www.berkscountywinetrail.com. Additional directions are available on the individual Web sites for each participating winery. This event will also be a fantastic opportunity to taste medal winning wines from the 2010 PA Farm Show. Berks County Wine Trail wineries collectively brought home over twenty medals this year including four Gold Medals and a Best in Show!

For a Giving Heart:
Why not give your sweetie something to enjoy while helping others. A great gift for someone who loves to volunteer or make a difference in this world is a breakfast at
St. Mary’s Franciscan Shelter for Homeless Families, 209 Emmett Street, Phoenixville. The only annual fundraiser for the shelter, this breakfast features an all-you-can-eat buffet between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Cost is $9 for adults, $5 for children ages 6-12. Children under age 5 get in free. The buffet will be prepared by Will Christman of Make It Special in Royersford. Included on the menu will be fresh fruit cup, orange juice, English muffins, pancakes, scrambled eggs, fried country style ham, sausage links, homefries, a selection of cold cereal, assorted desserts, coffee, tea and milk. Advanced reservations are requested; call 610-933-3097 by Feb. 5.

Do you want to help Pottstown be revitalized? Why not do so by helping out the area's newest arts venue?

On Saturday, Jan. 30, the theater could use help moving risers in the Newberry Loft from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in preparation for its Black History Month concert. The concert is slated for this Sunday.

Anyone interested in helping should contact to Barb Balaguer at volunteer@villageproductions.org or Facilities Manager Phil Richard at phil@villageproductions.org

The theater is also holding Volunteer in Partnership training on Feb. 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can tour the theater, meet the staff and attend training sessions. The theater is looking for help with Backstage and Technical (set construction, painting, costumes, props, lighting, sound, stage management, run crew, producers and assistant producers); Front of House (house management, ushers, box office, concessions); Facilities (janitorial, maintenance and repairs); and Administrative (marketing, fundraising, event planning and hosting, and lobby coverage). The volunteer coordinator will match your interests with various options.

Contact Barb Balaguer, volunteer coordinator, at volunteer@villageproductions.org if you plan on attending.

"From Out The Fiery Furnace," a one-act play written and directed by nationally recognized playwright Christine Emmert and performed by 40-year veteran of the stage and screen Barbara Hannevig, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, 2 N. Main St., Phoenixville. This program is free.

The play features the stories of life in the 19th century at Hopewell Village. Hannevig brings to life several characters of the period including run away slaves, “fallen” women, indentured servants, orphaned children, and others.

“We are pleased to be able to bring the stories of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site to the community in an exciting new way,” said Hopewell Superintendent Edie Shean-Hammond. “This is an original drama and Hannevig is riveting to young and old alike.”

The play premiered during Hopewell’s Harvest Time event on Sept. 19 to two full house audiences. Emmert and Hannevig volunteered to take the show on the road to new audiences. The NPS chose Phoenixville as an appropriate venue as pig iron from Hopewell Furnace was processed at foundries in Phoenixville for weapons during the Civil War.

Future performances are scheduled at the Phoenixville Library, in Radnor and in Pottstown.

The National Park play showcases how a woman’s life and love could be singularly tracked through her relationship with a Hopewell Stove.

“Hopewell Furnace was famous for not only supporting George Washington in the Revolutionary War, but also for its proliferation of perhaps the most important innovation of the 19th century, the 10-plate cooking stove,” said Shean-Hammond. “We should never take for granted how this important innovation and the industry that created it freed women, both black and white, to pursue their just place in American Society."

At Hopewell Furnace, the National Park Service preserves and interprets an early American industrial landscape from natural resource extraction to enlightened conservation. The site is surrounded by the 73,000-acre Hopewell Big Woods, the largest forest in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Sunnybrook Ballroom is holding a Rock and Roll night this Saturday for a cost of $15. The Sunnybrook Rockers will perform and there will be plenty of room to dance.

Several Oley girls on a mission trip to Haiti for Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church were whisked from a compound last week by members of Global Rescue, who were hired by Brotherhood Mutual, the trip's travel insurance company, according to a report in the Reading Eagle today.

The group said the commandoes showed up at a compound Croix des Bouquets Saturday and took them to the Port-au-Prince airport and back to Pennsylvania. The group had been in Haiti to work at a church and orphanage when the earthquake hit, according to the Eagle. Among the group were Megan Trupp, 21, Sara J. Trupp, 19, and Lauren Williams, 20, all of Oley.

Churchill Artisan and Chocolatier, 137 High St. in Pottstown, is offering two new wine and dinner events.

On Jan. 29 at 6:30 p.m., Chef David Brennan of Catering to Your Tastes will present "A Night in Tuscany" with Italian dishes and four complimentary wines. Cost for the event is $48 per person including tax and service fees.

On Feb. 18 at 6:30 p.m., Brennan will return for a Women's Wine Dinner offering items from grilled pizza and crabe cake to briased duck along with four complimentary wines. Cost is $48 per person.

Tickets must be purchased in advance. Call 610-326-4787 to reserve.

A Berks County man broke the land speed record for motorcycles at the Bonneville Salt Flats recently.

According to a report on readingeagle.com, Chris Carr, 42, of Ruscombmanor broke the 2008 record of 360 mph set by Rocky Robinson. He went 591 kilometers per hour.

Carr races motorcycles for a living and is featured in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. His wife, Pat, is from Oley.

If you've been following the standoff/hostage situation involving a gun shop owner from St. Lawrence, Berks County, things got even stranger as it was revealed on WFMZ today that the wife, Taryn Fisher, has been charged with kidnapping.

Taryn and her 13-year-old son were held hostage in their home for about an hour by Jay Fisher, who co-owns the gun shop on business Route 422 with his wife.

Apparently Taryn and a friend went to a home in Lower Alsace last month and took a man hostage. The forced the man into a car and took him to the Fishers' home on Highland Avenue where Jay Fisher allegedly threatened the man with a gun. The victim calmed Jay Fisher down before fleeing from the home.

Fisher had threatened to shoot his wife and son Sunday afternoon in their home after he came downstairs and found his son asleep on the couch with a melted container of ice cream. An hour after police arrived, Fisher allowed his wife and son to leave the house before surrendering to police himself.

Are you a shark or jet? Get a taste of '60s New York as you watch a love story unfold in "West Side Story," being put on this year by Boyertown Senior High School students.

Advance tickets are currently on sale. Click here to fill out a form to purchase.

Get to know the Reading Museum's only mummy, Nefrina, in a new exhibit that opens Jan. 16.

In 2003, the museum had its mummy CAT scanned at the Reading Hospital under the direction of Egyptologist Dr. Jonathan Elias. Nefrina turned out to be unusual in that she had fake ears! She also had a broken hip, which may have led to her death.

Based on the scan, a sculpture revealing what Nefrini must have looked like in life has been created and will be on display as part of the exhibit, Nefrina's World.

Nefrina came to the Reading Public Museum in 1930, a loan from the University of Pennsylvania. She was purchased by the Reading museum in 1949.

Nefrina's World will run from Jan. 16 through 2011. Entry to the museum costs $8 for adults ages 18-59, $6 for seniors and students with IDs. Members and children under age 4 enter free.

The Amity skatepark is in dire need of help: more participation and better equipment.

To reach that end, a meeting is being held Jan. 12 at the Villa at Morlatton in Douglassville, Route 422 east, for skaters, bikers, parents and other interested citizens to develop ideas to raise funds and improve the park.

"If we don't take care of what we have, we could lose it! If we want more equipment, we need to get participation in planning and organizing fundraisers to get more," reads a press release sent out by the meeting organizers.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. For more information, visit http://amityskatepark.homestead.com/

The TriCounty Performing Arts Center on High Street in Pottstown is holding a special open house this weekend, Jan. 9 and 10, wherein attendees can try out different aspects of being a theater member.

If you dream about performing in a show or learning how to act or do improv, this weekend is for you. The theater is offering free mini classes so you can try out your talents. The classes are for all ages. Offered are the following: acting and improv, an audition workshop, music, voice lessons, and instrument instruction.

All who attend are eligible to win prizes such as tickets to a theater performance, tickets to the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, golf tickets, artwork, makeup and salon products and more.

The open house will be held from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Don't forget to hang around for the N Crowd improv comedy troupe Saturday night.

The mini classes offer a taste of what the theater has to offer, and its current winter class schedule begins Jan. 10. Class descriptions and fees can be found at www.villageproductions.org/Classes.html

The Villa at Morlatton in Douglassville, 1180 Ben Franklin Highway East, will host a free crime prevention seminar on Jan. 14 from 9 to 10 a.m. The seminar will be preceded by breakfast at 8:30 a.m. in the Independent Living Building.

The office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General will conduct the seminar, which will focus on crimes against senior citizens, including scams by con artists such as home improvement rip-offs, foreign lottery schemes, telemarketing frauds and sweepstakes scams.

The seminar will also include tips on how to spot frauds and how to protect yourself from falling victim to them.

Those planning to attend are asked to register on or before Jan. 12 by calling 610-385-5021. Seating is limited.

Lower Providence has received second place honors for its Annual Report, a publication that provides residents with a recap of the year’s major projects and accomplishments.

The publication was honored in a statewide citizen communication contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. The contest recognizes townships that have successfully communicated programs and activities to its residents.

Judges noted that Lower Providence’s Annual Report communicated a great deal of information to the residents and they made special note of the report’s layout and photo treatment. All entries were judged on the usefulness of information presented and how well the information was communicated to residents. Publications also were judged on their overall attractiveness and readability.

Judges for the contest included members of the association’s Publications-Public Relations Committee, representatives from the Governor’s Center of Local Government Services, and staff members of the Pennsylvania Township News, PSATS’s monthly magazine.

PSATS represents Pennsylvania’s 1,455 townships of the second class and their 5.4 million residents.

A modeling show looking for wine models will be part of the Motorsports 2010 expo at the Greater Philadelphia Exposition Center in Oaks.

The Dangerous Red Wine Model Search is being presented by Jamerson Motorsports and sponsored by Valenzano Winery in New Jersey.

Women age 18 and older are invited to be part of the event, which is free to participate in. The Jan. 22 event will start at 8 p.m. where the participants will be judged on poise, appearance and choice of attire. Four winners will be chosen, each receiving $500. The four will be representatives of Dangerous Red Wines and be required to participate in appearances for the wines at the StreetBlaze 100 Race Car & Trade Show on Saturday and Sunday. They will also participate in a calendar photo shoot in 2010 and make one other public appearance in the new year.

Dangerous RED will have their own NASCAR Nationwide Series car on display at the racing expo. Also appearing at the expo will be the owners of Valenzano Winery and Mark Woods, the founder of Operation Troop Aid. A portion of proceeds from sales of Dangerous Red Wines will go toward Operation Troop Aid.

Russ Newberry, the deck boss on the Time Bandit/Wizard on "The Deadliest Catch" will be signing autographs throughout the three-day show that runs Jan. 22-24. Newberry endorses Dangerous Red Wines.

A contestant application for the model search and judging can be found at www.aarn.com.

All contestants must be at the show and registered for the model search by
7 p.m. Jan. 22, and those who register in advance at will receive a free ticket
to the show.

Winners of the model search will also be invited to compete in the BPG Racing Ms. Motorsports Pageant on Saturday, Jan. 23 at the expo. Former winners of the Ms. Motorsports competition may compete in the model search.

Dangerous Red wines are currently only available in New Jersey, but Valenzano Winery is hoping to expand its sales area into Pennsylvania in 2010.

For more on Dangerous Red wines, visit www.dangerousdeckhands.com and click on the wine symbol.