August 17, 2006 Issue                                       

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life...

Saving a brother’s life with part of her liver
by JENNIFER KATZ

Kate and Josh Hugg can relax now that it’s over. She’s a genuine life-saver.

Kate and Josh Hugg were always close growing up in Dresher as the youngest of the four Hugg children. So it wasn’t a surprise that Kate was the first one to volunteer to be Josh’s liver donor in 2002 when his chronic liver malfunction, primary sclerosis cholangitis (PSC), became critical.

Josh, 36, was diagnosed 10 years ago with the autoimmune deficiency that attacks bile ducts and induces liver cancer.

“The disease causes the biliary ducts to harden so the blood can’t flow,” explained Kate, 34, who lives in Chestnut Hill with her husband, David Greenebaum, and sons Josh, 6, and Jonah, 2. “Eventually, it leads to biliary duct cancer.”

Woodmere visitors’ experiences enhanced by Bonnie
By PAULA M. RILEY

Standing in the Woodmere Art Museum’s Helen Millard Gallery, volunteer docent Bonnie Brown is surrounded by the artwork of fourth graders from Henry E. Houston School in Mt. Airy. They participated with Brown in the program titled “1, 2, Rhythm and Blue,” one of the museum’s many child education programs. (Photo by Paula M. Riley)

This is the 17th in an ongoing series of articles by Paula M. Riley on Chestnut Hill volunteers.
“Art is always open to interpretation,” says Bonnie Brown, Woodmere Art Museum volunteer docent. “I enjoy letting people have their own interpretation of the pieces, though I help them learn the key elements of what to look for.” Working with all age groups, Brown helps visitors appreciate Woodmere’s collection that includes over 600 paintings and sculpture concentrating on the art and artists of the Philadelphia area. Her goal is to enhance the visitors’ experience with the hope they will return to the museum.

Stagecrafters stages open house,seeks volunteers for new season

Lavinia DeCastro of Mount Airy (left) and Pierlisa Chiodo-Steo of Chestnut Hill are seen performing last season in The Cherry Orchard at The Stagecrafters. [Photo by Sara Stewart]

The Stagecrafters theater in Chestnut Hill, a non-profit, volunteer-based organization about to enter its 78th season, will host its annual open house on Wednesday, August 23, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The Stagecrafters is dedicated to making live theatrical productions of the highest quality available to residents of Philadelphia and the surrounding communities. Loyal and committed volunteers provide the foundation for their productions, which encompass a wide range of comedies, dramas, farces, mysteries, recent hits, hard-hitting contemporary fare, classics and revivals. The theater puts on six shows annually in a season running from September to June.

Chestnut Hill’s new Mayors set sights on Cobblestones
by PAT STOKES

Nancy and Joel Mayor are the new owners of Cobblestones at 8433 Germantown Ave., a delightful gift shop in the former home to Manner and Knoll. (Photo by Pat Stokes)

The delightful “table top” gift shop that for the past seven years or so was known to Chestnut Hill shoppers as Manner and Knoll, originally at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Gravers Lane and later on the Avenue at 8433, has been purchased, slightly reinvented and carried forward under the name of Cobblestones at the familiar 8433 address.

A tribute to Joey: all books were his friends
by LEN LEAR

Joey Davenport, who was illiterate until the age of 30, liked to fish almost as much as he liked to read.

Joey Davenport was short, muscular, with stubby hands that could fix almost anything that needed fixing, from an alarm clock to a washing machine to a truculent automobile engine. Almost everyone in the neighborhood where I grew up was crazy about Joey, who always had a broad smile and was relentlessly asking if anything around your house needed fixing.

But more than anything else he did, Joey loved to walk. He would engagingly boast that he had walked from our West Oak Lane neighborhood to almost every other part of Philadelphia. And more than once, he walked from one end of Broad Street to another, a distance of about 13 miles.