A belated thank you to the fifth and sixth grade students in the newspaper club at Spring-Ford High School.
During a week when I endured a more-than-usual share of criticism and complaint in the editing of this fine newspaper, these students reminded me of the joy in writing and planning community news coverage.
I was invited to join their end-of-year pizza party and discovered through their enthusiasm that newspapers matter more than many of us acknowledge. Their questions and their insights -- "Do you put out a newspaper EVERY day?" "Does anyone ever say something you wrote made a difference in their life?" "What do you do when nothing's going on, how do you find news?" "Do you ever get to have a party?" -- were amazing to me.
I wish I could bottle their enthusiasm for my work and store it for a rainy day.

Results in the Pottstown primary election Tuesday held some surprises as well as some expected results. But one of the expectations -- that candidates and their supporters behave with respect and maturity -- left us wanting.
Politics in this town is becoming increasingly personal and divisive. The factions no longer fall strictly along party lines. On Election Night, there were at least five different alliances gathering separately -- three groups of Republicans and two of Democrats.
In some cases, individuals who worked together on campaigns in the past this time attacked each other in published comments, conversation and at the polls.
The rhetoric became so severe at one polling place that first a sheriff’s representative was called and then the local police department to warn a former public official that her strongly worded opinions were getting close to voter intimidation.
The attacks were often not sanctioned by a candidate or a party, but were lodged on a battlefield of personalities. On Election Eve, campaign signs for both Pottstown Democratic mayoral candidates were shredded, apparently by supporters acting without the candidates’ knowledge.
In another case, signs with one person’s name and a hash mark through it appeared overnight throughout town in what can only be characterized as a personal smear campaign.
More than one faction tried to use this newspaper as a battleground as well, dropping off photocopies of old news articles, calling with tips, and emailing messages about candidates’ relatives, business dealings and suspected motives.
“You owe it to Pottstown to report on this ...’’ or “You need to look into this ...” were then followed by innuendo that we were choosing sides by not reporting on unsubstantiated rumor or half-truths.
Even news photos taken at a borough council meeting or the recent neighborhood cleanup were seen as favoring one side or another.
Some of this was not new. Hard-fought local elections are bound to result in disagreement about the handling of a campaign by supporters, candidates and the press.
But, a difference this year -- and a signal of a disturbing trend -- is the increasing willingness to hide behind anonymity, to act under the cover of night instead of speaking opening and acting in daylight.
Enter digital communication, and the ripples threaten to become a tidal wave.
The Mercury Web site, www.pottsmerc.com, is intended to be a place where readers can interact electronically and add their feedback to the news online.
What we witnessed in this election is that some people found a way to take advantage of that opportunity by posting comments that would otherwise never pass a newspaper litmus test of legitimacy.
The commenting function of the Web site became a spot to park candidate endorsements on every local news story, regardless of topic. A clever way to get a message out there, but a little conniving as well.
Sound Off is the print version of Web comments, also unsigned and also inherently susceptible to being abused.
Both features, as well as letters to the editor and our ongoing news coverage of local issues, are intended to spur public debate, to involve citizens, and ultimately result in people working together toward better communities. The ability to have an opinion printed or posted online is a right of free speech that we uphold as critical both to this democracy and to the sharing of ideas within our community.
But when those voices become mean-spirited against other individuals, when the forum is about personalities instead of issues, when debate becomes attack, the community as a whole suffers instead of prospers.
This is not a new message, but it bears repeating: Pottstown does not do itself any favors by continuing down a path of divisiveness and attack. In an election, it’s bad politics. In a community, it’s bad form.

The past four weeks I have enjoyed different but equally delightful events right here in Pottstown -- all of them noteworthy and exemplary in a town that bemoans its fate more often than it celebrates.
The discovery that there is much to enjoy here is not new, nor do I claim credit for it. And, it is sad that every time we find ourselves enjoying life in our town, we feel compelled to note it as a wildly counter-intuitive proclamation.
"Pottstown IS a nice place"
"Pottstown DOES have a lot going for it."
"I wasn't AFRAID or BORED here."
When the time comes that the "discovery" appears foolish because of course this is a wonderful place with a lot going on and no good reason to be bored or afraid ... that's when Pottstown will have overcome many of its shortcomings.
Until then, I must tell you about Saturday night at Sunnybrook, my second Saturday night at Sunnybrook in a month, as a matter of fact. My husband and I attended the Spring Pops Concert of the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra, a tribute to the music of the big bands.
We first had dinner at That's Italian, the charming and popular BYOB at the site of the former Blossom restaurant on North Charlotte Street, where I had Chicken Francese with homemade linguini and the best red sauce I have ever enjoyed in a restaurant. I tried, for once, not to eat more than a loaf of their homemade bread before we headed to Sunnybrook for the concert.
The dance hall at Sunnybrook became a concert hall for the symphony, which delivered under guest conductor Jack Moore a musically entertaining and elevating experience.
At intermission, the ever-enthusiastic Bill and Sue Krause took us on a tour of some of the renovated corners of Sunnybrook we had not yet seen. Like most longtime area residents, we walk into the entrance remembering proms, weddings, holiday dances, class reunions, Bobby Rydell and Brenda Lee, family brunches, and afternoons at the pool, but even a newcomer to the region with no history here would have to be impressed by the ballroom and grounds.
Several weeks ago, we spent a Saturday night with family and friends dancing to the Fabulous Greaseband at Sunnybrook. And, on a Saturday night in between, we enjoyed a downtown dinner at Henry's on Charlotte Street just off High.
Henry's, as its loyal following of regulars are quick to attest, is a find among restaurant lovers. We were not disappointed. The food and the atmosphere are out of the pages of a guide to restaurant gems in any city -- but it's right here.
Lots of things are right here, and they're well worth staying in town to enjoy.

My first front-page byline as a Mercury reporter was a story about a boy named Bobby Cook. Bobby Cook was a 4-year-old local boy battling leukemia. I was assigned to write about his illness, the difficulties of his family to pay medical expenses and his desire to vacation in Disney World.
Bobby’s grandmother owned a Pottstown luncheonette, and she had started a fund among her customers to send Bobby on the trip of his dreams. The cause came to the Mercury editor’s attention, and he assigned me the job of writing stories and inviting readers to send in money for the Bobby Cook Fund.
We collected checks and cash, turned it over to the family, and I chronicled for the front page Bobby’s departure from the Reading airport to Florida. The tale was one of those heartwarming stories that instill some humanity into the pages of our newspaper.
During those same early reporting years, The Mercury published another series of stories about the plight of a local family whose mother was suffering from a serious illness. We chronicled the father’s efforts to provide for his ailing wife and take care of their children. It was a poignant and sad tale of struggle, misfortune and the devastating effects on a family wrought by illness.
We started a newspaper fund to help the family, and donations poured in. Each day, a reporter was assigned to write an update about the fund and remind our readers of this family’s need.
But then we learned the truth about this particular family. The mother was ill, but the father was not struggling to provide for his children. Rather, he was using the money solicited and given in good faith to fund a lifestyle of expensive gifts for a girlfriend, and jewelry, hotels, dinners and gambling for himself.
The Mercury was then, as it is now, the kind of community newspaper that wants to help the downtrodden of the towns we cover. We want to believe that when people tell us their stories on the record and for publication that we can trust they are telling us the truth as best they can.
This experience hurt us as a staff and hurt our credibility. From that time on, we vowed to never collect money again for an individual. We will publicize a fund and tell a story of someone’s plight, but only if a fund has been set up independently of us. We will inform readers of that fund, but not solicit their generosity.
The exception is Operation Holiday.
We began Operation Holiday in 1991 to help children in needy families enjoy gifts and food at Christmastime. The fund has raised more than $1 million and has provided food and gifts for thousands of area children, averaging 400 children each year in as many as 175 families. Although our news staff coordinates the list of recipients, we partner with other social service agencies and accept their recommendations of deserving and needy families.
Each year, dozens of people call us and ask to be put on the “Santa-Christmas-Holiday” wish list. People write letters, call, come in the front door and tell us about themselves or their daughters or their brothers or their grandchildren, pleading, sometimes in tears, for help.
We say no. We tell people that they must go through an agency who can verify their circumstances before we will consider them.
In the 10 years that I have supervised the Operation Holiday list, I have made two or three exceptions to that rule. One of them was this year.
Jenna Esslinger wrote a letter asking us to publicize a spaghetti dinner fundraiser being held on her behalf at the Birdsboro Sportsman’s Club. She said she suffered from amyloidosis and was struggling as a single mom to pay medical bills and provide for her two young children. She fit the criteria for Operation Holiday and since there was already a fund established independently for her at Sovereign Bank, I made the decision to add her to our list. She was interviewed for an on-the-record story by a reporter, and we were aware that The Reading Eagle newspaper had also done extensive interviews with her for a column and video on their Web site.
When the Operation Holiday items were distributed, Jenna Esslinger came in as requested to pick up two $75 gift cards for gifts for her children. But when it was time to get the food, it took four phone calls over two days to get a response. That concerned us.
Then, about a month ago, a detective called to say she was under investigation for charities fraud. Last week, she was arrested and charged with misappropriating $12,000 by publicly claiming an illness she did not have.
Like that story of the philandering father three decades ago, our trust – and the trust of our readers – has been violated. As a result, there will be no more individuals or exceptions on our list in the future.
Of the $12,000 Jenna Esslinger collected, only $150 was from Operation Holiday, and as gift cards, it may have been for gifts for her children. We don’t know. But we are concerned that by publicizing her story, we added to her alleged crime.
The greater victims in this travesty though are the people who have real needs, but whose stories will not be believed and whose trust will not be honored in the future.
Helping others always carries with it the danger of helping those who take advantage. Sadly, we have learned this lesson yet again.

Saturday's Bark for Life at Sunnybrook was delightful. Absolutely delighful.
I saw friends, former co-workers, and the women I have come to know as the force behind Pottstown's million-dollar miracle. Ruell Johnson, executive vice president of the American Cancer Society, visited from Atlanta, and I boasted about Sunnybrook's dance floor, springtime in Pennsylvania, and the friendly, positive atmosphere surrounding the Bark for Life.
Our town, with 500 dogs leading the way, was on its best behavior Saturday.
For more on this celebration of four-legged life, read Monday's editorial and see more photos.
And don't forget to vote in The Mercury's Top Dog contest. Cast your votes with a ballot available at The Mercury offices and drop off your cash or check payable to the American Cancer Society. The dog getting the most dollar votes wins a front-page feature in The Mercury and a bag of gifts. All proceeds benefit Relay for Life.

I've been too busy to blog ... where have we heard that before?
But, the truth is we're all on information overload and struggling with the time it takes to digest it all.
Last week I attended a fascinating half-day seminar offered by a media consultant on the tools available to get more of your information out there. I learned about an Utterli Delicious array of tools that could help me Tweet and Googlemap my way through cyperspace -- but by the end of the afternoon, I was reminded that I had a paper to get out (that DAILY lament again ...) and so was detoured on the web map.
The notion of endless web-building through the universe and becoming "of the web" not on it is wonderful and exciting. But exploring takes time.
And, I have a daily paper to get out.
I made a vow to myself though to get with the program. So watch for me in Twitterspace sometime soon.
I promise.

Like many Philadelphia area residents, I'm a Villanova basketball fan. They're always the team with the heart, the spark, the special quality that makes people smile when they win. While I don't join in the March bracket-Madness, I think college basketball is one of the most entertaining and unpredictable sports, and Villanova with Scottie Reynolds doesn't disappoint.

But Saturday night's upcoming matchup will be a little tricky for some people in this area. We want our Super Nova to blaze, but there is a particular North Carolina starter that we also claim as our own.

Tar Heels Number 22 Wayne Ellington grew up in Amity Gardens and played for Daniel Boone Area High School as a ninth grader before transferring to Episcopal Academy, where he shone in the classroom as well as on the court.

With this week's appearance in the Final Four, I am reprising a blog entry I wrote a year ago.

Saturday night brings the best of both worlds: Favorite Philly college team plays favorite hometown high school hero. That's why they call it madness.

Like every sports mom, I have sat through chilly spring evenings watching T-ball, on hard bleachers cheering through basketball, bundled against the fall winds during football, and idled away the time against a wall during gymnastics and ballet classes.

My sons both dreamed of being NBA stars until they stopped growing several inches shy of 6 feet. They have long since moved on to pursue other dreams.

While that is the case with most sports moms and future sports stars, there are some right here in our own backyard that keep growing and keep honing their skills until they're on the way to superstardom. One of the starters in the Saturday night Final Four showdown is one of those young men, an NCAA star who once ran up and down the court at Amity Elementary School, then just another player on a youth sports team, albeit the tallest kid on his team and the highest scorer.

Wayne Ellington is introduced when he takes the floor as number 22 for the North Carolina Tar Heels from Wynnewood, Pa., a graduate of Episcopal Academy and one of the most promising prep players in the national class of 2006.

But long before moving to the Main Line, he lived here, went to Amity Elementary, and then started showing his basketball potential in Daniel Boone Middle School and as a freshman starter for Daniel Boone High School before transferring to Episcopal.

Ellington was in fifth grade and my son Scott in fourth, playing on the same team. He was already a class act, playing with grace and talent, and their team under Coach Ferris was undefeated that year.

But, sports moms have seen lots of class acts give up the game or discover other pasttimes or move on to other things in life. It is still rare to know someone who played with your own kids to reach the elite group of Final Four teams or the NBA.

When Ellington is introduced at the start of a game, when he scores at a crucial moment, I have a proud flashback moment.

He was the tall 10-year-old playing forward when my scrappy 9-year-old brought the ball down the court and passed it to him. Inevitably, Ellington would pass it back and give the little kid a chance to score. Like I said, a class act that we will be watching Saturday night against a classy team. Plenty to smile about in this Final Four.