Warwick townlively.com
JANUARY 22, 2025
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LXV • NO 46
At LPL, reading out loud has gone to the dogs BY JEFF FALK
Panelists engage the audience at last year’s Welcome to the Battle.
Welcome to the Battle aims to disarm the enemy BY JEFF FALK
Welcome to the Battle is NSI’s annual panel discussion that ou’re invited to a fight, a involves experts from all areas confrontation between of the front lines providing facts, good and evil, a struggle dispelling misconceptions and for lives. spreading information on the In the war against human trafficking, the North Star Initiative (NSI) event Welcome to the “My intent is to have Battle is a preemptive strike. It is people walk away an attempt to deal the enemy a blow before he or she can mount with hope and feeling an offensive. empowered.” “The battle is to end human trafficking in our community,” said Melinda Clark, NSI’s chief executive officer. “Our commu- state of human trafficking in nity doesn’t want trafficking to Lancaster County. This year’s happen here, and it does. The Welcome to the Battle will be conbattle line is long, and everyone ducted on Tuesday, Jan. 28, from has a chance to step up and be 6 to 8 p.m. at Lives Changed By a part of the battle. Part of the Christ Church’s Ephrata Campus, battle tactics is to know what 5 Hahnstown Road. it looks like and have everyone Members of the panel will know what to do when they see include Brad Ortenzi, coordiit.” nator of the Lancaster Human
See Paws 2 Read pg 5
Vietnam War veterans share firsthand accounts with students BY CATHY MOLITORIS
Thanks to a unique partnership with a local veterans group, students at several Lancaster County high schools can get a firsthand account of the Vietnam War. A panel of veterans, organized by Vietnam Veterans of America ( V VA) C hapter 1008, provides students with an immersive experience, offering insights that go beyond what
they read in history books. The panel, which has been visiting local schools for nearly a decade, includes veterans from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, each of whom shares a unique perspective. Education chair John Hoober, who organizes the visits, explained that the veterans’ goal is not to teach a traditional history lesson but to engage students with personal stories.
See Welcome to the Battle pg 3
See Veterans pg 4
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Trafficking Task Force and ZOE International East Coast; Meg McCallum, Berks County supervising attorney; Kevin Quinter, detective sergeant of the Wyomissing Police Depar tment; Celeste Hutchinson, NSI’s clinical director; and Jen Sensenig, NSI’s founder. The event, which is being presented as part of the United States Department of State’s National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, is free to attend, and registration at www.north star initiative.org/events is encouraged. Light refreshments will be served, and a number of local human trafficking fighting agencies, including Lancaster YWCA , Sparrow Place, Hope Inspire Love, Greenlight Operation, ZOE International and She’s Somebody’s Daughter, will be there providing information on their services.
Through their natural connection, humans and dogs possess an ability to communicate. Dogs hear and listen to humans. It is that premise, that assertion, upon which the Lititz P u b l i c L i b ra r y ( L P L ) Pa w s 2 Read program is based. Kids hone and enhance their Ping listens to a Paws 2 Read participant read. reading skills by slowing down also nonjudgmental. They don’t and directing their words and care if the child is stumbling sentences to dogs. over the words. Most of the time “The dogs are nonthreaten- (the interaction) is one-on-one. ing,” said Karen Payonk, who’s Kids learn to take their time. been the library’s youth services The dogs help calm the kids. But director and assistant director you wouldn’t believe how much for 24 years. “We want the kids their reading improves. This is a to be comfortable. The dogs are win-win for everyone.”