Octorara townlively.com
MAY 15, 2024
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL XXXIV • NO 11
Chazak Rescue provides training for international first responders BY FRANCINE FULTON
“People coming in all have a direct calling to help rescue people and help people in need,” said public relations director Troy Bouffard, when describing those who choose to be a part of Chazak Rescue, a nonprofit
international rescue and relief organization. “(We get) a mix of people who are ready for action and really enjoy trying new things and being challenged in body, soul and spirit.” Chazak, pronounced “khawzawk,” is a Hebrew word that denotes strength and courage. See Chazak Rescue pg 4
Students from the Octorara Area Career and Technical Education Programs are planning the event.
Octorara to present OABEST Expo on the newly created OABEST Expo Instagram page. “We will be doing something with a robot. We might be racing CO2 cars,” noted Gavin Boyer, a student in the Engineering and Drafting Technology program, explaining that CO2 cars are miniature race cars that are propelled by a carbon dioxide cartridge. “We are running a milkshake truck alongside a petting zoo,” added Daniel Rowe, a student in the Animal and Plant Science Technology program. Home Security and Protective Service Academy students will be organizing the displays by local first responders, and students in the Child Care Education program will present children’s crafts and pages for kids to color. Also featured will be a dunk tank, where district administrators will volunteer to get dunked. For the yard sale, residents of the Octorara Area School District
A Chazak Rescue guardian provides food to a resident of Ukraine.
OWA takes the creek to the streets BY FRANCINE FULTON
Members of the Octoraro Watershed Association (OWA) took the organization’s mission of educating the public about the Octorara Creek on the road by taking part in Oxford’s First Friday program. During the event, OWA members displayed a live touch tank in which visitors could view a sampling of macroinvertebrates that were found in the creek. This year’s display included crayfish, crane fly larvae, hellgrammites,
caddisfly cases and dragonfly nymphs. In addition, attendees were able to make rubbings of raised paper images of other types of macroinvertebrates. The samples were collected by OWA president Chotty Sprenkle several days before the event. “I took a small net and went into the Octorara Creek and some of the feeder streams, lifted up rocks and collected them,” she stated. “I like to get a good quantity (to display).” She added that the creatures were returned to the creek after the First Friday event.
See OABEST pg 3
17th Annual
See OWA pg 8
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petting zoo, crafters and vendors, food tr ucks, first responder displays and live entertainment, as well as student performances and demonstrations, are just some of that activities that will be featured during the annual Octorara Agriculture, Business, Environmental Science & Technology (OABEST) Expo. The event, which is designed to showcase the best of Octorara, will take place on Saturday, May 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the school grounds at Octorara Junior- Senior High School, 228 Highland Road, Atglen. Members of the Octorara Area Career and Technical Education Programs (OACTEP) student advisory board are helping to organize the event along with Mark Peticca, Octorara’s director of career and technical education. Peticca noted that between
1,000 and 1,500 people attend the event over the course of the day. “It’s open to the entire community,” he said. “We will have a Kids Zone, where they will have a lot of activities like an (inflatable) ax throwing station, and a community yard sale. We will have more than 60 vendors coming this year, including (people) representing their companies, arts and crafts vendors and a lot of food vendors.” Each area of study in the OACTEP will be represented at the event, including Business, Marketing and Entrepreneurship; Graphic Design and Illustration; Culinary; Home Security and Protective Service Academy; Diversified Occupations’ Woodworking Technology; and Child Care Education. “We will have a lathe, and we will be making crosses and cutting boards,” noted Johan Torres, a student in the Woodworking Technology program. Photos of the cutting boards can be found
R106943
BY FRANCINE FULTON