education

Can you imagine a 21st century school district and community raising $176,000 for a single musical instrument? Can you fathom that the equivalent of that figure was raised in Erie, PA, for a pipe organ in the midst of the Great Depression? In these days of STEM obsession, it’s important to remember that the arts were…

The arrival of a new year often makes people feel uncomfortable. This is when the rapid passing of time becomes the most apparent and the uncertainty of the future somewhat unsettling. At least that’s the way it feels for me. It’s the way I’ve been since I was thirteen, and we were entering a new…

On a brisk but sunny evening, we boarded the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority’s water taxi at the Wolverine Park marina for session eight of the Erie Ambassador program. The water taxi operates daily from late May to early October ($9 round trip/$7 one-way/$7 children) and crosses the bay to Presque Isle Water Works from both Dobbins Landing and Liberty…

Did you know that used restaurant cooking oil is a “hot” commodity? Did you know there are companies that make a business out of collecting used oil and selling it to biodiesel companies? If you knew those two facts, did you also know that the grease traps these companies provide to restaurants must be locked…

Week four brought us to the Erie County Technical School (ECTS) on Oliver Road for the education session of the Erie Ambassador Program’s Spring 2014 class. My husband, Jim, and I hadn’t been in the building for nearly a decade. The last time was when we attended an informational meeting regarding a sister-city trip to Zibo, China, that our…

Our third Erie Ambassador Program session took us to the Erie Playhouse where we learned about several arts organizations in the area. They were the Erie Playhouse, the Erie Art Museum, the Erie Philharmonic, and Erie Arts & Culture. Of course, we were already aware of these organizations, but it was good to hear about…

A few years ago, I met Susan Henninger at the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival. Since then, she and I have loosely kept in touch. She helped me with some key research for my writing project, and I connected her with a source for hers. This is one of the many valuable benefits of conferences in any field.…