Manheim Central townlively.com
FEBRUARY 26, 2025
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LXVI • NO 5
The Bible with a twist BY GEORGE DEIBEL
Café manager Logan Miles (back) and volunteer Deb Mosimann serve a customer at Hope Served Café.
Brewing inclusion at Hope Served Café BY CAT SHANNON
The café is located on the campus of Pleasant View, outside the Hearth and Harrow Restaurant, 2100 Town Square, Manheim. “The café has lots of comfortable seating and free Wi-Fi, ideal for a coffee meeting or a place to hang out with your laptop or a good book,” Schwartz noted. “The Pleasant View campus is very welcoming.” Hope Served Café opened with a temporary manager, Logan Miles, who is a disabled veteran. “L o gan has another work commitment he must depart us for this spring, so we are in the hiring process for our permanent manager,” said Schwartz. “Sierra Martin is assisting as a part-time operations manager, as she has experience running cafés that employ people with disabilities. Sierra will be designing our training programs and food and drink production procedures with a
See Bible pg 5
A calming presence VITA announces free tax preparation BY ANN MEAD ASH
“Most people don’t understand taxes,” said Cliff Mast, site coordinator for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Paradise location at The Factory Ministries, 3293 Lincoln Highway East. “We as a group (of volunteers) work on de-mystifying them or just being a calming presence.” Mast explained that many clients who come to VITA for free tax preparation services feel a lot of anxiety about completing
See Hope pg 2
their taxes. “Our goal is to say, ‘It’s alright. We will take care of this. We will help walk you through it.’” Mast, who has been a volunteer with VITA for nearly a decade, said that the Paradise site, which opened at the end of January, is one of 15 sites located throughout the county that are staffed with volunteer tax preparers. Locally, free tax preparation through VITA is available at Salem United Methodist Church, 140 N. Penn St., Manheim. See VITA pg 3
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top by a new refreshment bar at Pleasant View Communities, and you’ll get much more than a cup of coffee. You’ll be supporting the mission of Hope Served, a nonprofit organization formed to create mainstream jobs in the community for people with disabilities. Ho p e S e r ve d o p e ne d t he refreshment bar in January. It is the perfect vehicle to highlight the organization’s specialty coffee roasting business, Hope Served Coffee. The organization also makes and sells greeting cards, and the new café is another step in Hope Ser ved ’s path toward opening a restaurant in Manheim. “In the summer of 2024, a coffee vendor running a kiosk on the campus of Pleasant View Communities in Manheim vacated the space,” said Steve
Schwartz, executive director of Hope Served. “Knowing our coffee business and our goals to open a restaurant, Pleasant View approached us about bringing our coffee to their campus. After some discussions and business planning , we jumped at the opportunity. It is such a perfect opportunity to showcase our coffee and gain experience in running a disability employment enterprise.” Hope Served Café offers Hope Ser ved Coffee and specialty drinks, including lattes and cappuccinos; hot tea; and light breakfast offerings, such as pastries and yogurt parfaits. “As we get our feet under us, we will expand the drink and food menus,” Schwartz said. “We plan to add protein fruit smoothies, Lotus energy drinks and seasonal specialty drinks. And we plan to add breakfast sandwiches and expand our array of baked goods.”
Wife-and-husband duo Dorothy and Phil Smith of Salunga will have the first show they’ve written performed by an official theater organization for the first time when the Promise Players per form its spring musical in March. The Smiths and their son, C.J., teamed to pen “Muddled Memories: A Bible Journey,” a f a m i l y - f r i e n d l y, staged musical with a Dorothy and Phil Smith are the writers and lighthearted look at directors of the Promise Players’ spring Bible memories with musical. something seriously muddled in the lyrics. the middle, including a monkey, “Probably my favorite thing an emu, and a super man. musically is directing and/or Dorothy, the show’s director, hearing something I’ve comwrote the dialogue and contrib- posed being performed. That is a uted some of the lyrics. Phil, big joy,” said Phil, who is also the the musical director, and C.J., director of the Bainbridge Band a professional musician who and writes some arrangements now lives in Allentown, wrote for that group. the music and the majority of The Promise Players is a