War dogs rule!

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent

Posted on December 4, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

With the financial backing of their community, 21 boys ages 15 and under recently packed their bags and headed to Florida to bask in a national spotlight that may have seemed inconceivable to them just a year or two ago.

Wardogs Unlimited of the North Eastern Suburban Athletic Conference, based in Philadelphia, earned their way to the United Youth Football League National Championships in Tampa by recently beating the Moss Eagles from the Wissinoming section of Philadelphia in a lopsided 19-0 victory.

The conference consists of eight teams — three in Northeast Philadelphia and four in Delaware; the Wardogs are the only suburban Philadelphia team.

The success of the Wardogs is an outgrowth of the Bristol Township School District’s 2011 decision to drop ninth-grade football to save tax dollars. That’s when the Wardogs organization stepped in by opening up new opportunities for the public school players.

“Taxpayers don’t need the extra burden of paying for football in middle school,” said Bill Smith, vice president of the Bristol Wardogs. “Rec programs need to step in and help, like us.”

Smith said one of the league’s goals is to strengthen high school football programs by molding excellent football players at the middle school level. The coaches work together to keep the kids on the field and off the streets and out of trouble, Smith added.

The program is self-funded and needed donations for the boys’ Dec. 1 trip to Florida. The cost was about $12,500.

The organization has held coin toss events at Eagles games and lined up corporate sponsors whose banners will be displayed during the trip. When they return, the banners will go up at the Wardogs home field at the Bristol Township Municipal Complex on Bath Road.

To read more go to:http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/bensalem/wardogs-rule/article_c6a6d5e6-f09d-5473-ac11-34e91fa709f2.html

"It's not like work . . . because I love what I am doing"

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent 

Posted on November 26, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

While driving past Silver Lake one day in 1978, Fred Cicconi set his eyes on a red brick building across the street from Lower Bucks Hospital. The building was surrounded by woods. Into that scene he could envision his own barber shop — and he made it happen.

Recently Cicconi celebrated his 30th anniversary at Fred’s Silver Lake Barber/Styling Shop at 500 Bath Road in Bristol Township.

Cicconi’s career as a barber stretches over 45 years. For 15 years prior to opening his own business, he worked for other barber shops from Morrisville to Bristol.

Before he knew it, Cicconi was the proud owner of his own business. He was the sole barber for the first six months before hiring his first employee. As the ‘90s arrived the shop grew into a three-man business. Then came the economic downturn, and business dwindled back to a one-man operation.

Since 2009 Cicconi has been the sole barber at the shop.

Looking back, he’s very proud of what he’s accomplished.

“I want to thank everyone for making my dream of being a barber come true,” said Cicconi.

To read more go to : http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/bensalem/it-s-not-like-work-because-i-love-what-i/article_3faf2e13-ec27-59eb-91d4-05c1aed0b19d.html

Army vet to light Christmas tree

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent | 0 comments

Posted on November 22, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

It has been a tradition for many years in Bristol to gather in the borough the night after Thanksgiving to light the holiday tree.

The Bristol Borough Business Association will host this year’s event at 6:30 p.m. — with a special twist.

Carlos Rivera, 49, of Bristol, who just returned from Afghanistan, will have the honor of lighting the Christmas tree in his hometown.

Rivera, an Army reservist, said he was thrilled to be asked.

He’s the acting sergeant of the Bristol Borough Police Department, where he has served for 15 years, and a member of the Army since 1993.

Rivera was chosen as a “thank you” for his service in Southwest Asia for the past 10 months.

His wife, Ivonne, is also excited about him being asked to light the tree and thinks it was really nice of the association to ask him, he said.

His children — Nathan, 22, Zachary, 18, and Larissa, 15 — will be there by his side to share in the moment.

“I am happy to be back,” said Rivera.

As an Army veteran, he’s been away from home on many occasions. Among them, he did service in Iraq between 2004 and 2005. He recently returned from a 10-month tour of duty in Afghanistan where he was a sergeant assigned to detainee operations.

“I am thankful for my friends and family and Bristol Borough,” he said.

Diane Davies-Dixon is a freelance

writer and can be reached at news@phillyburbs.com

Octogenarian's mission: Feed the homeless on Thanksgiving

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent 

Posted on November 21, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

Money is of no concern for a woman of faith with a compassionate heart when she's on a mission.

May Bennett, 83, of Middletown, has made a tradition the past six years of feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving. With determination, she makes sure she cooks enough so no one goes hungry.

Spotlight Deliverance Temple, at 119 Walnut St. in Bristol, allows her to set up in the church and feed the hungry. Over the last few years, some members of the church have stepped up to help serve the hot meals.

Her job is to "feed the people," as she recently put it.

She begins preparing for the great task by setting aside money from her fixed income and shopping one item at a time throughout the year. Bennett does all the cooking in the compact kitchen in her Foxwood Manor apartment.

Her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews help her succeed in her task of feeding the homeless in the area. They drive around to areas the homeless are known to frequent and bring them to the church for Bennett’s feast of turkey, ham, roast beef, collards, macaroni and cheese and other home-cooked foods and desserts. At times, the family has delivered food on disposable platters to people in local parks.

After serving all those who come to the church between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the Bennett family gathers up the leftovers and takes them home to enjoy.

Her son Lawrence Bennett of Bristol said the area's homeless now anticipate the feast and ask about it. “Homeless people on the streets ask, ‘Is your mom having Thanksgiving dinner,’ ” he explained. “My mom is a good humanitarian.”

May Bennett said her mother influenced her.

“Mom used to see people traveling and we lived near the railroad,” she said. “She said if you see someone with nothing, share what you have with them.”

After her husband passed away in 2003,  Bennett prayed for a mission.

“Lord give me a job. And He said, ‘Feed the people,’ ” she explained.

Before her husband died, she and her daughter would cook a big feast and her husband would go out in search of people on the streets.

According to her family, Bennett has always felt very compassionate about those who are homeless with nowhere to go. She was blessed with a big heart and cooking skills, which she gladly shares with those less fortunate than herself. She doesn’t like to see anyone go hungry, she said.

“I never counted how many people come because I am too busy serving,” she said.

She also said she doesn’t care how much she has spent doing this because it is not about the money. She keeps no record of it. It's all about her compassion for others.

Spreading Christmas Spirit

Falls TownshipSpirit of Christmas year 'round

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Men of Harmony's holiday calendar

Nov. 24 - 2:30 p.m., Resurrection Lutheran Church, 1700 Makefield Road, Lower Makefield. Proceeds benefit the homeless.

Dec. 12 - 7 p.m., Bucks County Technical High School, 610 Wistar Road, Fairless Hills. "The Best Toy", a Christmas musical performed by the Men Of Harmony.

Dec. 6-7 - 7:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Holly Night at Pennsbury Manor

Dec. 9 - 3 p.m., Fairless Hills United Methodist Church, 840 Trenton Road, Fairless Hills

Dec. 17, 18, 20 & 21 - Annual Christmas tour of local schools, senior centers and hospitals; program consists of a 20-minute a cappella Christmas Carol set at each stop.

Dec. 22 - 7 p.m., St Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pine Grove & Big Oak roads, Lower Makefield

Information e-mail:menofharmony@hotmail.com

Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 5:00 am | Updated: 6:44 am, Wed Oct 24, 2012.

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent | 0 comments

Posted on October 24, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

Keeping the true spirit of Christmas alive is what keeps the Men of Harmony going year after year.

Amid the commercialization of Christmas, the singers remind people of the true spirit of Christmas. They sing in four-part harmony much of the year sporting tuxedos. For the Christmas holiday season however, they break out the Dickens’ attire — waistcoats, trousers, stovepipe hats and all.

“People hardly realize what Christmas is about,” said Barry Vannauker, 76, of Falls, the director of the chorus. Without saying a word, they send the message by singing songs like “Oh, Holy Night,” he said.

“People have to understand what you are talking about in the song,” said Vannauker. “Choral music is poetry.”

Vannauker has been directing the Men of Harmony for 39 years.

In the beginning, only U.S. Steel millworkers at the company’s Fairless Works in Falls were allowed to participate in the chorus founded in 1951. Vannauker and another man were the only nonsteelworkers in the group, then known as the U.S. Steel Chorus.

Like similar groups at other U.S. Steel facilities, the chorus enjoyed the sponsorship of the corporation. It came into being during the fall of 1951 when employees from out of the area toiled at building the mammoth mill far from their families. The chorus would sing Christmas carols for the employees who worked every day for three weeks straight, never making it home for Christmas that year.

With the decline of the mill in the 1980s, U.S. Steel would no longer sponsor the singers. Chorus members, with Vannauker’s encouragement, decided to keep going under a new name, the Men of Harmony, and invited men from throughout the area to join.

To read more go to: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/spirit-of-christmas-year-round/article_ec6de490-cac2-5b50-a462-c0913ffdf5dd.html

Historic Bristol day

By Diane 
Davies-Dixon Correspondent 

Posted on October 21, 2012

• 
  by Dan Golden

More than 300 years of history were celebrated in Bristol on Saturday.

On Saturday, the borough celebrated the borough’s 36th annual Historic Bristol Day. Trolleys and buses loaded with visitors traveled throughout the Harriman section with verbal guided tours providing a brief lesson in history. The tour began at the King George Inn, built in 1681.

The Harriman District of Bristol marks the 90th anniversary of its annexation into the borough this year. It was the site of the Merchant Shipyard in 1917-1921.

Trudy Shand of Huntingdon Valley frequents Lions Park every Sunday for the free concerts put on by the Lions Club. She was there Saturday to tour the historic homes throughout the borough.

“I loved the homes in Fairmount Park and wanted to see these,” said Shand.

Shand and friend Pat Mitchell of Philadelphia took the guided bus tour, learning the history of the town and those who built it. They found the tour interesting, they said.

Visitors were able to rest with a hot cup of tea and some dessert at the home of Ron and Ronnie Walker, who reside on Radcliffe Street in a home that overlooks the Delaware River.

Ronnie Walker, a member of the Bristol Historic Society, has been a participant in the Traditional Tea portion of the day for about 12 years. The event used to take place in the library underground but now takes place in the backyard of her home.

To read more go to: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/bristol-marks-its-historic-roots/article_ea03f505-4c01-5060-af59-f4d3fb5cc925.html

BucksMont squires of song

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent | 0 comments

Posted on October 16, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

“Work those muscles,” Ron Knickerbocker commanded to a group of singers gathered before him at a recent rehearsal at a church in Langhorne.

“You want a sound with character and body. Put energy into the sound.”

As coach of the BucksMont Squires of Song, he used his own voice to demonstrate the sound and tone he was looking for. He was rewarded by the singers responding in kind.

“When they know the notes and music, they sing pretty decently,” he later said.

Using human voices as their musical instruments in four-part a cappella harmony, the men of BucksMont sing from the depths of their souls in the way Knickerbocker teaches them.

He should know. Knickerbocker coached a quartet that won “Best in the World” at the International competition in Kansas City in 1974. His accomplishment has enabled him to travel as far as Germany to teach barbershop singing, he said.

A resident of Downingtown and an International Quartet Champion on the barbershop harmony circuit, he’s taken an active role in coaching the BucksMont Squires of Song. The ensemble has about 20 active members ranging in ages from 18 to 95.

The BucksMont Squires of Song make up the Abington-Levittown chapter of the national Barbershop Harmony Society founded in 1938 in Tulsa, Okla.

More than 800 chapters exist across North America and Canada with more than 30,000 members and affiliates in 10 foreign countries, according to the Barbershop Harmony website. The society is the largest fraternal organization in the world focusing on a cappella music.

Tom Hankin, BucksMont assistant director, has been a part of the chorus for eight years. He joined after looking for a place to sing and being referred to the group by his family doctor, who was a member of the chapter.

“Barbershop chorus generally sings tin pan ‘20s and ‘30s songs and pop songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s,” said Hankin, who lives in Bristol Township. “That is the classic barbershop fare. Show tunes are a staple of singing.”

Rick Edelman, of Oakford in Lower Southampton, got his most recent start five years ago after singing in a woman’s ear all night at a Knights of Columbus dance for Parents Without Partners. It turned out she was friends with members of the Levittown barbershop chapter and introduced Edelman to them.

To read more go to : http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/heavy-hitter-working-with-bucksmont-squires-of-song/article_d5990374-e0d2-53fe-b0ac-cb0007ef24ef.html

Papal honors

By Diane Davies-Dixon Correspondent | 0 comments

Posted on October 21, 2012

• 
  by Carl LaVO

Jim and Cheryl Manfredonia of the Fairless Hills section of Bristol Township have been spreading orthodox Catholicism over the radio airwaves since 2003.

Their work in reaching out to audiences in Bucks County and New Jersey via their Trenton-based radio stations has earned the attention of Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

The couple was awarded the Benemerenti Medal, which was instituted in 1832 by Pope Gregory XVI to honor those with long-term and exceptional service to the Catholic Church, their families and the community.

The honor was presented to them Oct. 14 by Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton at the closing Mass of the diocese’s Eucharistic Congress.

“We are very humbled by the honor,” said Jim Manfredonia. “It is our calling and that is why we do it.”

The Manfredonias spread the word of the Gospel to as many people as radio waves will allow them.

The Manfredonias founded Domestic Church Media in 2003, which owns and operates two radio stations, WFJS 1260-AM in Trenton and WFJS 89.3-FM in Freehold, N.J.

The stations air orthodox Catholicism and are the only two full-time Catholic radio stations in the state, according to Manfredonia.

WFJS is picked up in parts of Bucks County and the station recently received FCC permission to expand its reach to parts of Northeast Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks counties as an affiliate of The Global Catholic Network, EWTN.

Jim Manfredonia, who never previously worked in radio, has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.

To read more go to: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/papal-honors-for-fairless-hills-couple/article_80bc8d6a-af35-5782-a96c-952d160fe71b.html?mode=story