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FEBRUARY, 2003
Morrisville 200 Valentine Dinner Dance
Michaels, Route1, Morrisville, PA. (click here to read
article which appeared in the Yardley News)
2/14
DECEMBER, 2002
50th Anniversary Party
The Village at Cottage Green, Philadelphia, PA
12/28
Holiday Music at The Brick
The Brick Hotel, Newtown, PA
Joined by Susan Fowler, vocalist
Various dates from 12/12 to 12/20
Woodlands Social Club Holiday Party
The Woodlands, Hamilton, NJ (click
here to read a review of the event!)
12/14
Yardley-Makefield Lions Club Holiday Party
Merlino's Waterfront Restaurant, Trenton, NJ
Joined by Pamela Linkin & Tom Orr, vocalists
12/10
Winterfest at Morrisville, PA
Joined by Susan Fowler & George Reilly, vocalists
12/7
Novo-Nordisk Holiday Party
The Hyatt-Regency, Princeton, NJ
Joined by Susan Fowler & George Reilly, vocalists
12/6
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NOVEMBER, 2002
Civil rights activist honored
Friday, November 15, 2002
By ALBERT RABOTEAU
TRENTON - Forty years ago, Lana Joyce Simms was getting arrested. Last night,
she was being celebrated.
As a student activist, Simms was jailed alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and
others for protesting segregation in Atlanta.
Last night, her longtime friend and King's widow, Coretta Scott King, was among
200 attending a retirement party in Simms' honor at the Trenton Marriott at
Lafayette Yard.
Simms, 60, of North Brunswick, worked nearly 20 years for the state and in
October retired as director of the Division of Purchase and Property.
In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Coretta Scott King called Simms
"a great lady and a great sister-friend."
"She decided that it wasn't good enough to study history, because the time
had come to get involved and start making it," Coretta Scott King said of
Simms.
Simms, who grew up in Tennessee, said she, like many blacks in the North and
South, was infuriated by discrimination.
Through the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., people were able to channel
their anger into orderly, nonviolent protest that changed the country, Simms
said.
"We had no special predisposition to be nonviolent," she said, later
calling the civil rights movement "a life changing experience."
Among the organizers of Simms' gala was Edith Savage Jennings of Trenton, a
longtime official with the King Center, an Atlanta organization Coretta Scott
King founded to carry on her husband's work after he was assassinated in 1968.
While many of the most famous images of the civil rights struggle are from
protests in the South, blacks faced similar problems in the North, Jennings
said.
Jennings recalled attending Trenton High School in the early 1940s and not being
allowed to use its swimming pool and photographic equipment because she was
black. "This was a segregated town when I was growing up," she said.
In 1957, Jennings helped found a Trenton chapter of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, an organization Martin Luther King Jr. made famous not
long afterwards.
"It was a troubled time," she said. "There were just things that
you have to do, and if you felt really interested in doing them you just devoted
a lot of time to it and did it. There were some really tough times, eggs on the
house and all kinds of phone calls and threats that people were going to sue me.
It wasn't easy. I still think all that happened was meaningful and
important."
The civil rights movement is credited with leading to the Civil Rights Acts in
the 1960s and to blacks breaking into government and many jobs closed to them
before.
Getting in was one thing, but proving to some skeptics that they were qualified
and capable was another, Jennings said.
She said Simms' long, distinguished service advanced the cause of equality just
as her protesting did.
"She is a validation of all that women and minorities have fought to
demonstrate through their sacrifice and struggle all these years, namely that if
you give us a chance, not only will we perform, but we will do so at a level of
excellence," Jennings said.
Lenora Taitt of New York City's Washington Heights section was also arrested in
Atlanta with Martin Luther King and Simms.
"I don't think we realized the importance of what we were doing," she
said.
While Martin Luther King has become an icon to many, he was really just a person
doing what he felt was right, she said.
Today, that spirit of activism he exemplified does not seem as prominent, Taitt
complained.
"I think we need to see that type of passion and don't see that type of
passion nowadays," she said.
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News from the Woodlands
January 2003
by Beverly Schrum, Editor
Laughter and music filled the air signaling the Woodlands first holiday
party was in full swing in the Clubhouse Saturday, December 14. It was a
festival of feasting, giftswapping, dancing and singing.
A trip down memory lane topped the evening in the capable hands of
Soundecision - live performers who made the rafters ring with the big
band sound of seasonal oldies like Winter Wonderland, Chestnuts
Roasting
On An Open Fire, Jingle Bells, and White Christmas.
Ably assisted by DJ Ted Skolits, the dynamic twosome, Susan Barto on
keyboard and her husband Jim on trumpet, kept the musical grab bag
moving and full of surprises.
Along with the danceable slow numbers, the floor echoed with shuffling
feet as the evening was peppered with favorites like the polka, cha-cha,
jitterbug, tango and some very creative line dancing.
Each partygoer went away with a souvenir compliments of the musicians -
a free CD of their Soundecision music. Neat!
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LOCAL TALENT ENTERTAINS FOR
MORRISVILLE 200 VALENTINE DINNER DANCE
Morrisville 200 will
host a Valentine’s Day fundraising dinner dance on Friday, February 14, 2003
at Michael’s Restaurant, Route 1, Morrisville, PA.
The $50 per person ticket price will include a $25 receipted contribution
to Morrisville 200 for the bicentennial celebration of Morrisville’s Charter
in 2004. The event will begin with
a 5:30 cocktail hour, followed by a prime beef/capon dinner, and capped with an
evening of entertainment. For information and reservations call Kathy Panzitta at (215)
295-1264 or Barry Vannauker at (215) 943-5648.
Sculptor James Gafgen, Sr. will unveil a bronze miniature of his Robert
Morris sculpture, a work of art rich in historical significance and detail. Mr.
Gafgen and his wife, Doris, have
generously contributed this 21” replica (one of five to be cast, with a market
value of $5,500)
to Morrisville 200 as a fundraiser for the 2004 celebration.
Raffle tickets, priced at $10, will be on sale for the first time that
evening. The raffle drawing for the
replica will take place on October 2, 2004 at the unveiling of Mr. Gafgen’s
7’ 3” bronze Robert Morris sculpture at the Robert Morris Plaza located at
the corner of Bridge Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Morrisville.
Actor’s NET of Bucks County will also be on hand to present a scene
from its upcoming “The Man Who Bought A Country”, an original musical based
on the life of Robert Morris with book, music and lyrics by Joe Doyle, Managing
Director of Actor’s NET. Master
of Ceremonies Tom Wisnosky, Mayor of Morrisville, will introduce the “proposal
scene” of Robert Morris to his future bride, Mary White.
In keeping with the spirit of Valentine’s Day, “Morris”, played by
local actor Steve Lobis, will sing “Love For A Lifetime”.
Besides providing musical entertainment for the evening, Jim and Susan
Barto will be part of the artistic team developing “The Man Who Bought A
Country”. Jim Barto is the commissioned arranger of the musical score
and Susan Barto is slated as Musical Director for the show’s world premier
production in July of 2004.
When not producing musical theater, the Bartos and their partner, DJ Ted
Skolits, comprise Soundecision, which specializes in the music of the Big
Band/Swing Era. Their repertoire consists of standards and popular favorites
by such musical masters as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael,
Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, as well as a sprinkling of Sinatra hits and
Broadway favorites. Soundecision will perform throughout the entire evening,
providing cocktail, dinner and dance music.
The full program of events scheduled for the evening prompted Mayor
Wisnosky to remark “We are very fortunate to have in and near Morrisville the
quality of artistic talent that will be on display at this event.”
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by KJS