As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, all the festivities are winding down and after March 17, St. Patrick’s events will be put to bed for another year.
I have to say, whether you are Irish or not, Greater Pittston truly loves the month-long St. Patrick’s events.
This coming Friday, on St. Patrick’s Day, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick will hold their biggest event by honoring several local natives. If you’ve never been to the dinner, it’s a big deal.
This year, Ki-Jana Carter, former Penn State standout, is this year’s keynote speaker and that will make a lot of Penn State fans happy, especially Dr. Frank Colella.
Honorees are James Rooney, Swingle Award; Joseph McFarland, III, Achievement Award; Shawn Brogan, President’s Award; P.J. Melvin, Man of the Year Award.
All men are well deserving of the awards and it’s a fun night especially when Fr. Paul McDonnell is the toastmaster, who is huge Notre Dame fan. I’m guessing the barbs will be flying that night.
With winter stilling holding firm, it’s been an active week and week to come.
Pittston Area and Wyoming Area, as of penning this column, are still in state playoffs with hopes of a win to get into the next round.
The Phoenix Performing Arts Center is ready to put on another performance with the School of Rock musical starring local students that do a great job.
I sat in on rehearsals recently and talk about dedicated performers and staff. These children and adults are so dedicated to the arts that they bought the building where the theater resides on Main Street, Duryea.
Lee LeChatte, the driving force of the theater and leader, said Phoenix isn’t going anywhere. They now have a permanent home.
In addition to the theater, they have an additional storefront that they will clean out, clean up and rent to a perspective retail store.
It’s a smart move for the theater company, and to help pay the mortgage, they will collect rent from the store.
If you’ve never been to a production, you have to get out and support the arts and the people that put in the time, blood, sweat and tears to make it happen several times a year.
On average, the theater group charges a ticket price of $10 per person and that’s a bargain these days.
School of Rock will run for two weekends starting this coming Friday, March 17 with a 7 p.m. show followed by a 7 p.m. show on Saturday and 2 p.m. show on Sunday. The show times repeat the following weekend.
Lee tells me the show’s great with lots of fun and music. She said people will be stomping his or her feet during the show.
Good luck to Phoenix and break a leg and congratulations on the purchase of the building.
Next Saturday, for those who live in West Pittston, will have a chance to showcase memorabilia from the 165-year old borough.
Mary Portelli, West Pittston Historical Society president, wanted to mention if anyone from the borough has an item they would like digitized, scanners will be on hand.
Speaking of West Pittston, when I hear from Gina Malsky the Cherry Blossom Festival can’t be to far off in the future.
You know when spring is around the corner with St. Patrick’s events in Pittston followed by the West Pittston Cherry Blossom festival.
Winter high school sports is winding down and spring sports is just around the corner and I can’t wait.
Both Pittston Area and Wyoming Area have some pretty exciting teams to watch this spring heading into graduation. Let’s get out and support our local high school teams.
On a personal note, I was asked to be on WILK’s Nikki Stone Show last week and I have to admit, it was fun.
Once upon a time, I had to make a decision on what to major in college and it came down to radio and TV or journalism and public relations. I obviously chose the later, but after my three-hour spot on Nikki’s show, maybe I made a mistake?
Talk radio can be fun and the way I looked at it, it’s like putting together a column but you have to do it five times a week.
After the first hour, I looked up at the clock and thought one hour down, two more to go and not exactly knowing the format, the first hour seemed to be a bit slow. I can’t say that about the next two – they flew by.
Nikki’s show usually mixes politics and current events with a touch of music so having me on the show, which is the furthest thing from politics, hopefully was refreshing for her. I’m not sure about her audience.
I had the chance to use some of my music knowledge and offered my background that led me to where I am today.
After listening to the show later on, I thought we played off of each other without me stepping on her toes.
While at the studio, I ran into our good friend, Jeff Walker.
When it was over, I was very happy she asked me to be a guest and she was nice enough to offer the chance again so stay tuned.
Quote of the Week
“Pop music often tells you everything is okay, while rock music tells you that it’s not okay, but you can change it.” – Bono, U2
Thought of the Week
“You can look at a picture for a week and never thing of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and thing of it all your life.” Joan Miro
Bumper Stick
“Nothing happens unless something is moved.” – Albert Einstein
