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Stacking the Pantry BY LOGAN MOYER
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D
ylan Houck has gotten much older, but his urge to feed those in need hasn’t gotten any weaker. Dylan was a 4-year-old when he started his annual Helping Hunger Food Drive in 2015. He collected 400 pounds of food over two weeks in his inaugural effort. Dylan, now 15 and a freshman at Pequea Valley Secondary School, is aiming to collect 20,000 pounds of food for the Chester County Food Bank (CCFB) in this year’s drive. “Children in the summer whose parents can’t come home from work and feed them, they don’t really know where their next meal is coming from,” Dylan said. “They don’t even know when they’ll eat next.” Dylan, the son of Jackie and Thomas Houck of Gap, is joined in the effort by his two younger brothers, Wesley and Tyler. Last year, the family delivered 19,360 pounds of food to CCFB in early May. The effort began in 2015 when a
Dylan Houck and his mom, Jackie, have been staging the Helping Hunger Food Drive every year since 2015.
power outage sparked a conversation about lost food. When Dylan’s parents explained to him that not every family could just go out and get more food, Dylan didn’t sleep too well that night.
“I woke up the next morning still pretty upset,” said Dylan, whose parents suggested they get some food and donate it to a food bank. “Then I started naming all of my little preschool friends, asking if
OCC
Parkesburg Man Publishes First Book BY LOGAN MOYER
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Joseph Amaral remembers pulling up the captain’s ring like it was just yesterday. Amaral was a 34-year-old commercial diver when he found the captain’s ring of the legendary DeBraak shipwreck. The Parkesburg resident turned 76 last month, but the day is still clear in his mind. Last year, he decided it was time to write a book to share
Southeast Region of PFBC Promotes Waterway Well-being BY JEFF FALK
See Food Drive pg 3 Thursday, July 2nd Pittsburgh Pirates at Philadelphia Phillies
VOL XXXVI • NO 10
his experiences from four decades of diving. He started writing the novel in September, and it was done and published by Christmas. Not too shabby of a turnaround, especially for a first-time author. “Without (my publisher), I couldn’t have moved as quickly as I did,” Amaral said. “I was able to tell my stories.” Amaral’s book, titled “My Hunt for the Lost Ships of Histor y,” is a six-chapter, Joseph Amaral’s book, “My Hunt for the Lost Ships of History,” came out in December and
T he southeast por tion of Pe n n s y l v a n i a i s t h e m o s t densely populated part of a predominantly rural state. But that doesn’t mean all those residents have to travel far to enjoy Pennsylvania’s outdoor recreational activities. One of the main initiatives of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is to provide and promote natural fun in and around water. “I think we really need to make people aware of all the opportunities around them,” said Andy Desko, who’s been the outreach and education coordinator for the Southeast Region of the PFBC for 18 years. “We want to help introduce folks to them right in their backyards. There are many accesses (to water) out there. People may not be aware that there are boat accesses near them. I want to inspire people to check out the opportunities.” The PFBC’s Southeast Region office is headquartered just north of the town of Lititz, at 255 W. Brubaker Valley Road, Lititz, at Speedwell Forge Lake. The Southeast Region office, which is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, primarily serves as the rules and regulation enforcement headquarters for PFBC, but it does offer some services and amenities. As outreach and education coordinator, Desko does work out of the Lititz office periodically, but he spends the majority of his work time in the field and around water.
See Book pg 5 was published by Arnica Press. Photo by Logan Moyer
See Fish and Boat pg 6
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