August 31, 2006 Issue

Quick Links

September 1, 2006
Karl-Erik Strandberg, the former advertising manager for the Local, passed away. We have linked to the Philadelphia Inquirer report on his death.

August 28, 2006
The Philadelphia Daily News provides its take on the Chestnut Hill problem known as the Commerce Bank building site

August 18, 2006
Susie Madrak of Mt. Airy has a posting about a Mt. Airy renovation site on her web site. It's a neighbor's perspective on "historical preservation and updating to a condo building."

August 18, 2006
The Philadelphia Daily News has an interesting piece on the plants decorating the street poles of Chestnut Hill. Check it out here.

Ongoing
Local staff member Jimmy J. Pack Jr. has updated his on-line magazine with material from his Chicago trip.

Special Kids Section

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Police nab burglar found by Wyndmoor homeowner
by JENNIFER KATZ

Officers at the corner of Gravers Lane and Prospect Avenue during a manhunt for two would-be Wyndmoor burglars. (Photo by Scott Alloway)

Police nabbed a burglar in Chestnut Hill after a multi-unit chase from Springfield Township just after noon on August 24. A second suspect was able to escape capture.

Springfield Township police arrested David Williams, 23, for burglary in the 400 block of East Gravers Lane in Chestnut Hill. According to Police Chief Randall Hummel, they caught Williams, of Olney, hiding behind a house after fleeing the scene of the burglary in Wyndmoor.

“He was attempting to hide in the back of the homes on Gravers Lane,” said Hummel. “But he was spotted and taken into custody.”

The second suspect was not apprehended although several units from the township and several more from the 14th police district responded to the call and helped pursue the suspects.

“We had several cars and a canine from Plymouth out there,” said Hummel, who was disappointed that the second suspect was not apprehended. “We lost him near the Septa tracks.” Hummel said Williams has not divulged the name of his cohort thus far.

A double dancing dose of ‘Mt. Airy Amber’ for 76ers
by JENNIFER KATZ

Amber Rawls, 26, of Mt. Airy, is one of the 17 dancers who are part of the Philadelphia 76ers’ entertainment package.

If you visited the Philadelphia 76ers’ Web site last week and looked up entertainment for the coming season, you would already be familiar with Mt. Airy’s Amber Rawls. As one of the Sixers Dancers, Rawls, 26, along with fellow Mt. Airy resident, Amber-Joi Watkins, 21, and 15 other dancers are part of the NBA franchise’s entertainment package. (What are the odds that both Mt. Airy members would be named Amber — a million to one?)

Featured alongside team mascot Hip-Hop; the gymnast group, Hare Raisers; the Broad Street Beefcakes, a super-sized male dance team; and the Junior Dancers (ages 9-12); the Sixers Dancers are more than cheerleaders, as Rawls and Watkins tell it, both on and off the court.

Rawls still lives in the East Mount Airy house she grew up in as the daughter of restaurant manager and single mom, Yvette Rawls-Gypton (now remarried to retired police officer Harold Gypton). She and her son, Cion, 5, often bike around the neighborhood where she and her older sisters, Tammy, 32, and Brandy, 30, spent their youth. Her parents live just three blocks away.

Not a diehard basketball fan by nature, Rawls laughed as she talked about going to her first Sixers game just two years ago.

“It’s funny,” she said. “I had never gone to a game, and I never even knew they had cheerleaders.”

New leadership for Springside’s fall teams
by TOM UTESCHER

Springside’s new head tennis coach Margot Pollans (center) is flanked by seniors, Emily Winant, right, and Emma McClafferty.

Springside soccer mentor Gary Stephenson took charge of the Lions booters just a year ago, but he’s already been at his post longer than the varsity head coaches for the school’s other three fall sports teams.

Springside’s field hockey and tennis squads are both under new management, and there is now a cross country team, a new undertaking altogether for the Lions.

A year ago, Susie Macciocca joined the Springside faculty as a math teacher, and she was an assistant coach for both the varsity hockey and lacrosse teams. Now she’s stepping up into the top spot in field hockey, a post held for two decades by Betty Ann Fish, who will continue to be the school’s Director of Physical Education.

Macciocca brings a knowledge of the Girls Inter-Ac League that stems from her days as a student-athlete at Episcopal Academy. She went on to play right back in college as a member of the high-powered squad at Wake Forest University, where she graduated in 2001.

She was an assistant coach at her alma mater, Episcopal, and at another Girls Inter-Ac League school, Shipley, prior to coming to Springside. Her husband, Matthew Macciocca, is the men’s basketball coach at Cabrini College in Radnor.