Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site.

Team USA recently selected Marietta resident Jake  Sitler to compete in the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

Team USA recently selected Marietta resident Jake  Sitler to compete in the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

THE ISSUE: It’s Friday, the day we take a few moments to highlight the good news in Lancaster County and the surrounding region. Some of these items are welcome developments on the economic front or for area neighborhoods. Others are local stories of achievement, perseverance, compassion and creativity that represent welcome points of light during the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and with other worrisome developments enveloping our nation and world. All of this uplifting news deserves a brighter spotlight.

A collaborative effort between the School District of Lancaster, Menchey Music and Music for Everyone ensured that the school year began on a pitch-perfect note with no broken musical instruments in city school classrooms.

Michael Slecta, who has worked in the district’s music department since 1991, told LNP | LancasterOnline’s Kevin Stairiker that this is the first year he can remember that being the case.

“For years and years, one of our biggest challenges has been providing instruments to students who want to play instruments,” Slecta said. “As a district with a lot of families experiencing poverty and such, many of the families do not have the financial ability to buy or rent a quality instrument.”

Deb Rohrer, Music for Everyone’s director of development, told Stairiker that 272 School District of Lancaster musical instruments were repaired by Menchey Music or replaced at a cost of $36,613, which came from donor funds.

The collaborative repairing of school instruments began as a pilot program in the Columbia Borough School District in 2017. It’s an efficient program, because once instruments are professionally repaired they rarely have subsequent problems.

“The first time we did Columbia, we were sent 80-something instruments. The subsequent times, it’s been five or so instruments,” Brendan Stengle, Music for Everyone’s assistant executive director, said. “Once you get through that initial overhaul, it’s more manageable. We’re fixing a problem that has existed for decades, in more or less one fell swoop.”

It takes many musicians and instruments to make a marching band or orchestra. And it takes a coordinated effort from multiple community organizations to keep school music programs in perfect harmony. We’re fortunate to have this kind of coordinated effort — a symphony of sorts — in Lancaster County.

— A round of applause for Marietta 33-year-old Jake Sitler, who was recently selected by Team USA to compete in the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

As LNP | LancasterOnline’s John Walk noted in his recent article, the selection completes a courageous comeback for Sitler.

In the summer of 2018, he spent nearly a month bedridden due to injuries suffered when his bicycle was hit by a car.

“I had a burst L-2 vertebrae,” Sitler told Walk. “Usually you get paralysis if it bursts into your spinal column. Thankfully, I had the complete opposite. It burst outward from my spinal column.”

After those physical injuries healed, Sitler had to tackle the mental challenge of returning to bicycle riding.

He overcame that hurdle, too. Now he’s headed to the world championships, which are slated for Sept. 17-18 in Denmark.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Sitler said. “I do feel proud of myself because I was able to come back through what I came back through and keep my head up to eventually have this opportunity.”

We wish him the best in Denmark, and congratulate him on his perseverance in returning to the sport he loves after such a harrowing accident.

— There’s more wonderful news for those who love the outdoors and want to see opportunities to enjoy it preserved and enhanced.

“Local governments and organizations in Lancaster County will receive nearly $3.1 million in grants from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to fund conservation projects in a dozen municipalities,” LNP | LancasterOnline’s Colin Evans reported.

The list of projects receiving grants is wide-ranging. It includes play equipment and other improvements in both Adamstown Community Park and Columbia’s Janson Park; development of the Little Conestoga Blue-Green Corridor Trail in East Hempfield Township; creating a development plan for a 23-acre community park in Elizabethtown; development of the Lloyd Clark Universal Access Trail in Martic Township; and, in one of the biggest items, development of the Enola Low Grade Trail in Sadsbury Township to include 3.13 miles of trail from Quaker Church Road to the Chester County line.

That trail, as we noted in June, is great for both local outdoor enthusiasts and for drawing tourists, and their dollars, to Lancaster County.

— Finally, it was great to see that Hospice & Community Care broke its fundraising record at this year’s Labor Day auction. The hospice provider raised more than $950,000 at the Solanco Fairgrounds in Quarryville, surpassing its record of $880,000 last year.

“Proceeds from the Labor Day Auction help Hospice & Community Care patients and families receive services while coping with a serious illness, facing end of life or loss,” LNP | LancasterOnline noted.

The auction, which has been held for nearly four decades, is an absolute labor of love. Each year, volunteers, donors, bidders and sponsors outdo themselves to make it a huge success.

We commend all those who contribute to that success. As we wrote in a 2018 editorial, “you’re the reason Hospice & Community Care can offer dignity and comfort to thousands of families every year as they say that final, emotional goodbye.” 

Success! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup.

Error! There was an error processing your request.

THE ISSUE: It’s Friday, the day we take a few moments to highlight the good news in Lancaste…

Support local journalism. Click here to learn more about the role the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund plays in Lancaster County and to make a tax-deductible donation.