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1. Register Online by This Friday, Sept. 20 for Mill Cove’s Second Annual Clays for Kids to Guarantee T-Shirt and Ammunition
2. Step Outdoors Tryathlon & 5K Run/Walk is This Saturday, Sept. 21
3. Hometown Science Festival is This Saturday, Sept. 21
4. Fall 2019 Creek and Canyon Wildlife Tours Begin Monday, Sept. 23
5. Joanne Shenandoah and Daughter Leah to Perform Friday, Sept. 27
6. Cherry Springs State Park Offers Programs are Sept. 27 & 28
7. Passion Play Meeting of Interest is Saturday, Sept. 28
8. Online Registration to End Wednesday, Oct. 2 for 12th Annual Ives Run Trail Challenge
9. Wellsboro Community Concert Association to Open with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band on Oct. 4 & 5

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800

STEP OUTDOORS TRYATHLON & 5K RUN/WALK IS THIS SATURDAY, SEPT. 21

This Saturday, Sept. 21, the 12th Annual Step Outdoors Tryathlon and 5K Trail Walk/Run will be at Hills Creek State Park, 111 Spillway Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901. It is open to all ages. The park is seven miles northeast of Wellsboro in Charleston Township.

There are no competitive categories; every finisher in the Tryathlon and the stand-alone 5K will receive a medallion.

Registration and check-in time this Saturday will be from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the tent between the park’s bathhouse and concession stand. Those who register in person will pay a $25 entry fee to do the 5K Trail Run/Walk only and a $30 entry fee to do the three legs of the Tryathlon solo. For two- or three-person teams the entry fee for the Tryathlon is $65 per team. At registration on race day, any surplus event T-shirts will be available for purchase while supplies last.

The pre-race talk for all entrants, especially those participating for the first time, will be at 9:45 a.m.

The start time for both the Tryathlon and the 5K is 10 a.m. sharp.

Walkers and runners can opt to do the 5K only. Individuals can solo or be on a two- or three-member team to compete in the three legs of the event – the 5K, the 1.75-mile paddle a canoe or kayak on Hills Creek Lake and the 8-mile biking course on dirt and hard top roads around the park.

The focus of the Step Outdoors TRYathlon is on trying rather than winning, on camaraderie rather than competition and on personal challenge rather than place of finish. That is the reason age and gender categories were eliminated in 2015.

For more information about the Tryathlon or 5K, visit www.stepoutdoors.org.

Photo provided
A participant paddles toward the finish line during the second leg of the 2017 Tryathlon on Hills Creek Lake.

HOMETOWN SCIENCE FESTIVAL IS THIS SATURDAY, SEPT. 21 IN WELLSBORO

The third annual Hometown Science Festival will be outdoors on The Green in downtown Wellsboro from noon until 4 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 21, rain or shine. The festival is free and open to the public, children and adults.

This event is a collaboration of community organizations and individuals who are passionate about local science and science education. Their goal is to show how people use and rely on science every day in their homes, backyards and neighborhoods.

Learn how audio speakers work thanks to marvelous magnetism, tour an electrofishing boat, launch water pressure rockets, build unsinkable foil boats and create coffee filter parachutes, find out how humans process sensory information to participate in everyday activities, measure people’s reaction time to different stimuli, use common household materials to take DNA from strawberries, learn about embryology at a 4-H display of eggs and chickens, find out about aquatic insects, monarch butterflies, American eels and freshwater mussels, Hellbender salamanders, honey bees and hydrology, how hemlock trees help fish, the damage invasive insects like the spotted lanternfly and the emerald ash borer do to grapes and fruit and ash trees. about simple machines, how to use telescopes and more.

From 12 to 12:30 p.m. this Saturday on The Green, David Driskell will present “The Science of Sound and Music,” an exploration of the production, amplification, and convection of sound and how this relates to music. Simple homemade instruments will be demonstrated and used in a play along session.

On The Green from 1 to 3 p.m., Van Wagner of Danville, Pa. will give a presentation entitled “Soft Coal, Hard Times…The History of Bituminous Coal Mining in Our Region.” This singer-songwriter, historian, Pennsylvania logger and coal miner, and environmental science teacher will also give a concert of his original songs about the coal and lumbering eras. Wagner is releasing “Wales,” his 25th CD this week. It is about his Welsh ancestry.

At 3:15 p.m. awards will be presented on The Green to the winners of the “Hooked on Science” art contest. The artwork submitted for the contest will be on display from 2 to 5 p.m. this Thursday and Friday, Sept. 19 and 20 and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21 and 22 at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center at 134 Main Street in Wellsboro.

For information, visit https://www.facebook.com/hometownscience/ or email hometownscience@gmail.com.

Photo provided
David Driskell will demonstrate “The Science of Sound and Music” during this Saturday’s Hometown Science Festival.

Photo provided
Van Wagner will present a program on coal mining followed by a concert featuring his original songs about mining coal and logging.

“FALL 2019 CREEK AND CANYON WILDLIFE TOURS” BEGIN MONDAY, SEPT. 23

Rich Hanlon is leading five Creek and Canyon Wildlife Tours to explore the beauty and wonder of the wildlife and wild spaces in the Wellsboro area of North Central Pennsylvania while taking time to reflect on the wisdom of Jesus as well as American nature writers such as Aldo Leopold, John Muir and Rachel Carson. Two of the tours are handicapped accessible.

Hanlon is an outdoor enthusiast, member of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Wellsboro and founder of the BestLife Community blog.

The first tour is the Barbour Rock-West Rim-Bear Run Loop on Monday, Sept. 23. Participants will gather at 7 a.m. at the Barbour Rock Trailhead parking lot and hike about 3.5 miles on easy terrain that includes vistas overlooking Pine Creek and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Among the wildlife that may be seen are hawks, eagles, vultures and migrating warblers.

On Saturday, Oct. 5 participants will gather at 9:30 a.m. at the handicapped accessible Leonard Harrison State Park Overlook to enjoy the autumn leaves and to see eagles, hawks, crows, ravens and vultures cruising over Pine Creek and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19 gather at the Hills Creek State Park office at 111 Spillway Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901 to go on an hour-and-a-half hike on the four-mile Lake Loop Trail and see an assortment of ducks, geese and maybe an eagle and a red-breasted nuthatch.

On Saturday, Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. gather at the handicapped accessible Ives Run Recreation Area parking lot at the big boat launch directly adjacent to the campground to watch ducks, geese and eagles flying and swimming on Hammond Lake.

The last tour will be the Barbour Rock-West Rim-Bear Run Loop on Saturday, Nov. 2. Participants will gather at 9 a.m. at the Barbour Rock Trailhead parking lot and hike about 3.5 miles on easy terrain that includes vistas overlooking Pine Creek and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Wildlife that may be seen include hawks, eagles, vultures and migrating warblers.

To go on one or all of the upcoming tours or for more information, email Hanlon at RHanlon@susumc.org, call (412) 992-6648, or leave him a message at www.bestlife.community

JOANNE SHENANDOAH AND DAUGHTER LEAH TO PERFORM FRIDAY, SEPT. 27

Joanne Shenandoah, Grammy Award-winner and one of the nation’s leading American Indian singer-songwriters and recording artists, draws upon her heritage as a Wolf Clan member of the Iroquois Confederacy – Oneida Nation.

At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, Joannne and her daughter, Leah will sing their original music in the Coolidge Theatre at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

Joanne will sing selections from the 23 albums she has recorded during her 30 years as a professional artist. Among them is her recent single “We Will Rise Up,” which is nominated for a Native American Music Award. In addition to her own releases, she composes music for mainstream film and television projects and is a 2019 Emmy nominee for a PBS special titled “Native America.”

Leah will sing original songs from her debut album “Spectra,” which received a Native American Music Award for “Best Debut Album” and “Best Alternative Album”. Her original compositions have received national and regional recognition.

Joanne has received multiple awards and praise for her work to promote universal peace and understanding. She is a direct descendent of Chief Shenandoah who was given a peace medal by George Washington and helped establish Hamilton-Oneida Academy in Clinton, N.Y.

Since emerging as an artist in 1990, Joanne has fulfilled the promise of her American Indian name, Tekaliwah-kwa, which means “she sings”, by winning a Grammy Award with three nominations and more than 40 music awards, including 14 Native American Music Awards and being a Hall of Fame inductee.
Some critics suggest her popularity is the result of the crossover power of her music. She sings in her native Iroquois language rather than English but her voice and message of peace transcend the language barrier. Joanne plays a medley of instruments, including guitar, piano, flute, cello and clarinet.

She has performed at prestigious venues and events such as St. Peter’s Basilica for the canonization of the first Native American St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, the White House, five Presidential Inaugurations, Kennedy Center, The Parliament of the Worlds Religions (Africa, Spain and Australia) and Woodstock ’94.
On stage Joanne has performed with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Randy Travis and many others. “She weaves you into a trance with her beautiful Iroquois chants and wraps her voice around you like a warm blanket on a cool winter’s night,” said Robbie Robertson, formerly of The Band.

She is a founding board member of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge, a non-profit higher learning educational facility based on Iroquois principles. In 2014 Joanne served as co-chair for the Attorney General’s National Task Force of Children Exposed to Violence for the Department of Justice.

Leah, currently enrolled in her fourth year as an Apparel Design Ph.D. student at Cornell University, is an indigenous scholar, artist, activist and musician. To earn a Master’s of Fine Art from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Metals and Jewelry, Magna Cum Laude. she did her thesis “O’whahsa’ – Protection, Comfort and Healing” as a multimedia experience. It consisted of: five textile, paint and steel sculptures, five sets of jewelry, five outfits and a 45-minute DJ set with 12 original songs, which she wrote and performed.

Admission is $25. for tickets or more information, call the Deane Center at (570) 724-6220 or visit www.deanecenter.com.

Photo by Jane Feldman
Leah (shown, left) and Joanne Shenandoah will perform in Wellsboro.

CHERRY SPRINGS STATE PARK OFFERS PROGRAMS SEPT. 27 & 28

COUDERSPORT — Stargazing programs and a photography workshop are being held on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28 at Cherry Springs State Park at 4639 Cherry Springs Road, Coudersport, Pa. 16915. The park is 12 miles from Route 6 in Galeton via West Branch Road and 15 miles from Coudersport via Route 44.

The programs will be cancelled if it rains or thunders.

Anyone may observe the night sky at Cherry Springs on his or her own without attending a stargazing program. All visitors should arrive before dark. Search for the Clear Sky Chart online for 48-hour forecasts about viewing conditions.

Cherry Springs State Park is one of the top dark sky destinations in the world. It was the first to be designated a Dark Sky Park in the eastern United States. Night sky enthusiasts flock to the park to see its dark skies, which are famous for great views of the Milky Way, planets, hard-to-see astronomical objects and phenomena.

Cherry Springs is an 82-acre state park surrounded by the 262,000-acre Susquehannock State Forest. Because it is remote, the park’s nighttime conditions for stargazing remain the same as before the introduction of electric lighting in the late 19th century.

In 2008, the park was named a Gold Level Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association, the highest designation that can be given to a dark sky site.

Nightscapes Photography Workshop is Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 & 28
The first 10 people who preregister will be accepted for the three-hour Nightscapes Photography Workshop being given by Curt Weinhold from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27 and again on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Cherry Springs State Park. Participants will learn how to photograph the starry night sky, including constellations and the Milky Way, and foreground material using their own DSLR camera and lenses. At http://pbase.com/cwphoto view Weinhold’s work. Fee: $60. Visit http://events.dcnr.pa.gov/cherry_springs_state_park for details.

Gods in the Sky is Friday, Sept. 27
Gods in the Sky, a Native American Night Sky story, will be at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27 for the first who preregister and prepay up to a maximum of 16 people. This small group experience with the North Star Outdoor Guides’ Dark Sky Telescope Tours ensures a more individualized program and telescope time at Cherry Springs State Park, 4639 Cherry Springs Road, Coudersport, PA 16915. Fee: $20. For details, visit http://events.dcnr.pa.gov/cherry_springs_state_park.

Free Night Sky Tour is Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 & 28
From 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28, go on a Night Sky Tour in the park’s Night Sky Viewing Area, experience the splendor of the night sky. Park staff will give a laser-guided tour of the constellations and recount the legends and myths surrounding them. Afterwards, take an up close look at celestial objects through park telescopes. Preregistration is required to attend this free program.

To Preregister for Stargazing Programs
Online preregistration is required for Gods in the Sky, the free Night Sky Tour and the Nightscapes Photography Workshop. Visit http://events.dcnr.pa.gov/cherry_springs_state_park. If there is a problem with registering online or for information about these programs, call (814) 435-1037 or email cherryspringsee@pa.gov.

PASSION PLAY MEETING OF INTEREST IS SATURDAY, SEPT. 28

There will be a meeting of interest on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m. at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

Invited to attend are youth and adults of all ages willing to help with a community presentation in April, 2020 of the passion play “You Are The Christ!” sponsored by Shepherdess Worship Ministries. Needed are people who want to act, dance, build sets, sew costumes, bake, serve refreshments, organize, advertise or be a gofer.

“This play has been on my heart for more than 20 years, since we first came to Wellsboro,” said Rachel Linscott, the founder and leader of Shepherdess Worship Ministries, a Messianic ministry, independent of any particular church or ministerial organization.

“I always knew that this ministry would involve identifying Jesus Christ as having been an authentic Jew in His earthly life, and that my goal would be to present Him as the hoped-for Messiah of the Old Testament. I also knew that it would involve drama,” said Linscott.

“When I first began this ministry, I focused on the emotional needs of women, holding weekend conferences. Over time, I have come to realize that my calling is to everyone and to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, through drama. So, this play is a really big life goal for me,” she said.

“The plan is to present the passion play on stage, with a full cast of characters, inside the Deane Center’s Coolidge Theater, with live acting and Jewish dancing, showing most of Jesus’ earthly ministry and His passion on the cross.”

Shepherdess Worship Ministries presented “The Last Supper Live” in the window of the Deane Center lobby during Holy Week between 2013 and 2018. It depicted the painting of Leonardo Davinci, during the last earthly meal that Jesus Christ had with his 12 apostles, mimed by 13 local men as scripture from the book of John, chapters 12-13, was amplified on the sidewalk in front of the Deane Center.

Refreshments will be provided at the Sept. 28 meeting, which is free and open to all.

For information, contact Rachel Linscott at (570) 439-6515 or shepherdessrl@gmail.com.

ONLINE REGISTRATION TO END ON WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2 FOR 12TH ANNUAL IVES RUN TRAIL CHALLENGE

Online registration for the 12th Annual Ives Run Trail Challenge for male and female walkers and runners ends on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

The Trail Challenge will be on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Ives Run Recreation Area on Hammond Lake at 710 Ives Run Lane in Tioga Township, 12 miles north of Wellsboro via Route 287. This event is for runners and walkers of all ages who want to compete and first-timers whose goal is to finish. The age categories are 12 and under, 13-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70 and over.

Youth and adults, 13 years of age and older, who register online between now and 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2 or on race day, Oct. 5 will pay $27.50 in entry and processing fees. Children, 12 and under who register online between now and Oct. 2 or on race day will enter free. No one will be guaranteed an event T-shirt. Visit www.stepoutdoors.org to download course maps and registration forms or to register online.

Check-in and registration for the four-mile Trail Challenge will be from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Stephenhouse Pavilion on Saturday, Oct. 5.

Those who register will ride a bus provided by Benedict’s Bus Service from the registration area to the Ives Run South Pavilion for the pre-race meeting at 9:45 a.m. The Trail Challenge will start at 10 a.m. The four-mile course includes portions of the Lynn Keller, Stephenhouse and Archery Range trails and has varying terrain. Awards will be presented at 11 a.m.

Hall’s Homes and Lumber, Inc. is providing the T-shirts. Free refreshments for all participants at the end of the run will be provided by the Holliday Alliance Church in Middlebury. Other Trail Challenge sponsors are: the Friends of Tioga, Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Martin’s Garden Center and Landscape Services, Wild Asaph Outfitters, Ward Manufacturing, Penny’s Daycare Center, the Native Bagel and Step Outdoors.

For more information, call (570) 835-5281.

WELLSBORO COMMUNITY CONCERT ASSOCIATION TO OPEN 72ND SEASON WITH SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY BLUEGASS BAND ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, OCT. 4 & 5

The 72nd season of the Wellsboro Community Concert Association will open on Friday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. with a concert presented by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band in the Deane Center’s Coolidge Theatre at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

On Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., the band will present a second concert hosted by the Deane Center. “The Saturday night show is for the general public,” said Kevin Connelly, Deane Center executive director. Season ticket holders who would prefer to attend on Saturday or non-season ticket holders who want to attend on Friday should call the Deane Center at 570-724-6220 to see what arrangements can be made. “We try to be as flexible as we can,” Connelly said.

Bands have been covering Beatles tunes for decades, but none like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band. Imagine the music of the Fab Four shaken up with infusions of bluegrass and jazz and topped off with a classical twist. The result: a satisfying musical cocktail.

Sgt. Pepper’s is a collection of four very different musicians creating a new sound from the greatest music ever written by the greatest band ever… The Beatles. The band’s repertoire features new and innovative takes on songs like “Eleanor Rigby”, “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “Come Together”, “Blackbird” and many more.

“This isn’t your same old Beatles band,” says Dave Walser, founder of the innovative group. A fan of the classic quartet since he first saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Dave was inspired to create Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band after seeing McCartney’s Back in the U.S. tour in 2002. “I thought it would be fun to get some great musicians together and play all acoustic versions of Beatles songs. Each of us adds a little something different to the mix”, he said.

In addition to Walser who plays guitar and sings lead vocals, other Sgt. Pepper’s band members are vocalist Bach Norwood on double bass, vocalist Reginald Rueffer on fiddle and violin; and Gerald Jones on banjo and mandolin.

The Wellsboro Community Concert Association is presenting five other concerts during its 2019-2020 season. Saturday, Nov. 16, American pianist Thomas Pandolfi will play the music of George Gershwin and Marvin Hamlisch with some Scott Joplin thrown in. Saturday, Dec. 14, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque
, one of the top groups on the North American jazz scene, will entrance listeners with a set of Afro-Cuban, booty-shaking world jazz that would have made Dizzy smile. Saturday, Feb. 20, 2020, the award-winning duo Robin Bullock and Sue Richards
 will play both Baroque and traditional Celtic music as they blend the Celtic harp with the resonance of the steel-string guitar, cittern and mandolin. Saturday, March 21, 2020, The Revelers
, a Grammy nominated six-member band, will perform their brand of Louisiana music, a masterful mix of Western, swing, Cajun, Zydeco, Tex-Mex and swamp rock. Saturday, April 4, 2020, The Fitzgeralds – featuring siblings Tom, Kerry and Julie – three-time Canadian Grandmaster Fiddle Champions and Ontario Open Step Dance Champions – will combine high-energy fiddling and mind-blowing step dancing with audience interaction.

All shows will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Coolidge Theatre at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts, 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

For those who attend all six concerts, a season ticket for an adult is $70 ($11.67 per show) representing a $50 saving. For a student, age 13 to 18, a season ticket is $25 ($4.17 per show), a $4.98 saving. Children 12 and under accompanied by a parent or grandparent with a season ticket will be admitted free.

The price at the door is $20 per show for adults and $5 for students and children. To reserve tickets, call 570-724-6220. Or, arrive at the Deane Center 15 minutes before the performance. All ticket sales at the door are on a first-come, first-served, space available basis.

Information, season subscription forms and tickets are available by visiting the association’s website: www.wellsborocca.org, stopping in at the Deane Center at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro or by calling (570) 724-6220.

Photo by English Bob Photography
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band