Village of Buckingham Springs

Newsletter COVID 19 Edition

June - July 2020 Volume 31 Number 4

community and tells him about a free senior activity center that changes his life. !

Service to others abounds. We would not have social activities if it weren’t for the ideas and hard work of people in our community. At a time when ! individualism is rampant, it’s awesome to live in This issue of the newsletter is devoted to Covid such a caring neighborhood. 19. Not the fear, or the boredom, the anxiety or horror. It’s an issue of hope, stories of a legion of I believe I’ve listed everyone who participated in women – and some men – who responded to a the making of masks on page 19. If I missed quiet call for help with a torrent of activity. anyone, please let me know. I also couldn’t focus on all the volunteers. I chose six women to It started in March when Betts Slim learned a highlight in this issue and will continue to tell the nearby window-treatment company was making stories of others. masks with drapery material. It occurred to her that the people in Buckingham Springs could This issue also contains some social events on make masks too. She expected a few would pages 20 and 21. Watermelon Wednesdays respond to her call. More than 50 people did. began last week, thanks to its underwriter, The McKee Group. The pot party is underway, the In a socially-distanced assembly-line style they HOA is sponsoring a food truck and the pool is churned out nearly 1,000 masks. Uniformly open! individuals protested theirs was not a monumental effort. And perhaps it wasn’t. But altogether it A final note: This newsletter was prepared while was magnificent. social distancing. There may be fewer pictures, or some have appeared in past newsletters. At This is a community filled with people who believe times, we have pictures of pictures, which means in service to others. We see it all around us: The the images might be somewhat fuzzy. woman who cooks extra meals for her neighbor undergoing cancer treatments. Another woman Despite that, I hope you enjoy reading this special who happens to meet someone walking in the edition just as I enjoyed creating it. Gail Purpura

! ! In Memoriam Joann Hutchison !

Joann Hutchison was once the face of Buckingham Springs, the model sitting poolside in an advertisement for the new 55+ community. Vivacious and exuberant, she was the first social director, setting the standard for the job, planning trips nearby and around the world for 17 years.

She brought in seminars, a senior expo and town hall meetings. She conceived of social events like the annual Christmas party, barbecues, dances and the many clubs that have become such an integral part of life in Buckingham Springs. She was the first editor of the village newsletter.

She introduced the ‘Buckingham Wave’ to the brand-new community. “There weren’t that many people then, so I thought one way we could get to know each other, and like each other, was to wave to each other,” she said in an interview in December, 2019. It soon caught on and people still today offer the Buckingham Wave to express their friendship.

Joann died on May 14 when she was just 76, leaving a life rich with enthusiasm and vitality although it ended with her being house bound, her mobility compromised by osteoarthritis and degenerative spinal disks that had to be removed. She endured a knee replacement, three meniscus operations and the loss of a vocal cord, the pain often so intense that she had a medical pump implanted to send medication directly to her spine.

Despite that, Joann remained positive. “If you don’t laugh,” she said in an interview nearly a year ago, “you’ll make your life miserable. We’ve had a good life. Things balance out. We can’t complain.”

The other part of “we” was her husband, Randy, unshakeable in his support and encouragement. They met at a New Hope country music event on Valentine’s Day in 1982, a love-at-first-sight moment that lasted a lifetime.

Joann had an active life even before she met Randy. She and her first husband traveled the world and had apartments in Paris and Geneva. She started her own business, a job-placement service for the computer industry. She was president of St. Mary Medical Center’s first designer home project, lending her boldly unique style and passion to make the venture successful.

In addition to Randy, Joann leaves behind three daughters, six grandchildren, five step grandchildren and one step great grandchild. Her family requests instead of flowers, donations be made to the SPCA.

2 !

! ! From The Management Office

Pool opening, No Date Yet for Clubhouse

I hope this edition of our pool water at one time. The other 12 people can community newsletter finds be seated around the pool 6 feet apart from everyone well and staying others not living in your household. Please be safe! There have been so cognizant of the amount of time you are in the many acts of kindness, pool water, so everyone has a chance to cool off. stories of sharing, helping one •! There will be a daily sign-up sheet in the pool another, donating food, masks and materials, and breezeway where residents can register to use the many other kind gestures seen and heard throughout pool in 2-hour increments. Please be considerate our community. It makes me smile to hear all that you to your neighbors so everyone has a chance to are doing for one another. This issue of the use the pool. newsletter highlights many of these kind gestures. It •! All furniture must be disinfected before and after shows our strong sense of community and that we will each use. We will provide disinfecting spray and get through this together. paper towels, but residents are responsible for wiping down the furniture. I’d like to give a special thank you all the volunteers •! We highly recommend that you wear a mask, but who have contributed to the newsletter, providing it is not mandatory. Please bring one with you in information and distributing it in a safe manner. Your case you find it necessary to put one on. Masks hard work is greatly appreciated not only be me, but may not be worn in the water as this is a also by our entire community who can’t wait to get swimming hazard. their hands on the new edition! •! Pool use is for residents only. No guests will be permitted until we can increase the number of As you may or may not know, Bucks County moved people in the pool area. last Friday to the “yellow phase” of re-opening. We •! Noodles and other floats are not permitted. are working hard to get our pool open during this •! You may be required to sign a waiver. phase. Fox Pool Management has been working with the Governor’s office, the CDC, and local officials such As of now, we do not have a re-opening date for the as the Bucks County Department of Health, to help us management office or the clubhouse. Our procedures plan for opening. Things won’t look the same and will be different once we do open, but those changes we’ll have new procedures in place. Please keep in have not been determined. Please continue to mind that things are changing daily so what is posted contact us by phone and email and we will get back to below may change by the time you receive this you. The office will be closed on July 3rd. newsletter. We will continue to communicate any updates and/or changes. Thank you for being kind and patient with us and your neighbors as we are all managing to get through this •! Pool hours will remain the same: Monday, together. Wednesday, and Friday 12:00 – 8:00 pm; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00am – 7:00 Be well and stay safe, pm. •! We are allowed a maximum of 25 people in the Amy Grzywinski pool area at one time. 13 people may be in the Community Manager

3

Make It Happen: A Community Movement

Betts Slim was once described as a natural community leader, a catalyst who makes positive things happen for others. Someone who enhances others’ quality of life through her support. “There is something about her that is totally good,” a friend said at the time.

So it was not surprising that when the well-being and even lives of health-care and front-line workers were being threatened by an another unnamed, and virulent virus, Betts found a way to help. She learned employees of a window treatment company were making masks from drapery material and they agreed to provide masks to Betts so she could share them with others. She made three trips to pick up the face coverings. One day it occurred to her she could make something similar happen in Buckingham Springs, taking a positive step to combat the COVID-19 virus.

Betts turned to friends and former bridge students Kathi Sadowski and Pat Salmon to help organize the effort and find volunteers. Kathi was a master seamstress whose expertise was critical to the developing plan. Pat, whose public relations skills were honed over years as a marketing communication specialist, also saw an opportunity to tap the interests of neighbors isolated in a community that had been designed with socialization at its core. But the movement needed a name. How about, Pat offered, Make It Happen?

And so it began. Betts put out a call and many answered.

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As the movement grew to seven seamstresses, Betts expected they might be able to make 100 masks. Instead, more than 50 people stepped up to make many more. (Continued on next page) &

4

Make It Happen: A Community Movement

Betts thinks the response was so strong because many of us have lived through a time when we were expected to contribute to others. “A lot of us watched our parents make sacrifices during the Second World War. I remember as a 10 year- old knitting scarves for soldiers.

Pat realized they would be more effective if they could fashion an assembly-line of sorts, taking advantage of those who wanted to help but couldn’t sew. Some could cut material. Others could wash, fold press and place the final product in plastic bags. Some wanted to offer supplies. “Whatever skill they had, we’d invite them to do,” Betts said recently. But an assembly line without a conveyor belt was useless.

They needed a courier. That became Pat Salmon. Her regular walks with Lucy, her pugg and Boston terrior mix, morphed into a delivery service. She picked up cut materials and dropped them off to voluneers ready to fashion them into masks. She gathered completed masks and took them to others who carefully washed, pressed and placed the final product into plastic bags. She returned, retrieved the bags and delivered them to Betts.

Although Pat was a dedicated courier, she did have an ulterior motive. Remodelers had ripped out her kitchen cabinets right before the pandemic started and hadn’t been able to return. Pat’s house was a mess and she needed to get out.

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&8&'&2"6&1"(3%&2& (0#'!%6+& & By the end of March, the Buckingham Springs volunteers were in full tilt. The first group of face masks for health-care workers had been completed, washed, ironed and ready to go. Twenty-four ready-made masks also were washed, pressed and ready.

As work continued, the items were fine-tuned. “The interesting thing is that each person would think of ways improve the masks,” Betts said. Sue Hoeffner enhanced the original design by adding two things: a tuck for under the chin and an adjustable element so recipients could customize their masks. (Continued on next page)

5

Make It Happen: A Community Movement

Liz Gibson was at her daughter’s home in Washington, D.C. when she received a call from Betts asking if she could find any elastic in the nation’s capital. By then volunteers had produced plenty of masks but couldn’t finish them without elastic, which was in short supply throughout the country. More was ordered, but it was taking weeks to come in. Liz couldn’t find any either, but she had cultivated world-wide contacts during years of working in international sales. One of them was able to get her 300 masks from Hong Kong.

Maria Luna joined the group in the first week of April. “Right away I thought, this is good,” Maria said recently. “I have a sewing machine and I can sew! I loved being part of the project,” she added. “It gave me the opportunity to help others, especially the first responders, and also keep myself busy during the pandemic.”

Pat Helm describes herself as a “behind the scenes masker.” A quilter, she rarely just passes by a quilting shop. She also inherited fabric from her sister. But Pat was recouperating from back surgery and sitting at a sewing machine for hours wasn’t a pleasing thought. Instead, she cut. The need for masks continued and as Pat was able to sit for longer periods of time, she began to sew. Her speciality was children’s masks and she made more than 100 of them.

Ninety-five-year-old Fran Calkins hand-sewed delicate hems. Lisa Biddle cut fabric. More than 50 people in all participated. And there was mask “stuff” all over Betts’ home. “If anyone came into my house, they’d think I was a hoarder,” she said.

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As the mask drive continued, others in the community wanted to pitch in. The VBS Veterans donated $100 and said there was more if it was needed. But donations were coming in from all over Buckingham Springs and by then the group had received $500, enough to fund the rest of the operation.

Louise Hartman made a financial contribution but felt she could also help in some other way. She became what Betts said was “the washer of all washers” using gloves and a mask while she worked, immediately putting the finished products into plastic bags so the masks remained untainted. (Continued on next page)

6

Make It Happen: A Community Movement

As Louise worked, she developed a sense of pride. “I felt the end result of was that masks would be going to people in the personal care and medical systems where they were needed and appreciated,” she said.!

“I am not as old as the “Greatest Generation,” where Rosie The Riveter got her notoriety for her work as a civilian helping the war effort,” Louise added. “But I began to feel really good as a woman who was helping in some small way to fight the war against the COVID monster. I am glad that I was.”

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During March and April, work on the Make It Happen project continued to change. Nose pieces were now being sewed into the masks to help them fit more snugly. New materials kept coming in. Betts was processing masks in the hundreds.

Meanwhile, Dale Cagenello also contributed to the effort. But she wanted to make sure people in the village were protected. She made 250 masks for the village and gave some to a Veterans’ hospital as well. & ,-.&'+)&*+*+&&&0&7E3&@114(4&7D&C0A@CE0)&"&90H&A@D4E4G0& $D"&(&D0D)&'C492492&E30&E@E&7&(&D0D&49&F(6D&@F9EP&E@& 8@C0&E3&9&')$%%&&@H0G0C)&9@90&@1&E30&90H&(&D0D&H&D&E30&C0DF7E&@1&(@88F94EP&DAC0&)&&&0&7E3&@114(4&7D&D&4)&E30P&H0C0&DFC0& E34D&H@F7)&9@E&'0&E30&(&D0&0G0CP&)&P)&'FE&4EQD&&&2@@)&D429&@1&&9&@G0C&77&A@D4E4G0&EC09)&&&

In early May Betts sent Pat and Kathi an e-mail. “I have a proposal,” she said, “and I wonder what your thinking is. Add to it. Change it. Toss it out. Somebody had to start the ball rolling, so I chose to do it.” Her proposal was to start closing up shop. They could offer the cut and folded fabric still on hand to others ready to take over the mission. Extra masks should be offered to organizations who had donated money for their masks.

“This has been very rewarding,” Betts wrote. “And I have made many new friends. We need to find a way to celebrate what we have done as a volunteer group.” In other words, she added, “I would like to pack up the items not yet processed and move on to gardens, income taxes, etc.” She signed it, “Love, Betts.”

The movement that began with an idea, ended with more than 1,000 masks made or processed. As Betts’ favorite quote from author Nicholas Sparks, says, “The most ordinary things are made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people.”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"#$%&'()'("%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

7 ! ! VBS Heroes Kathi Sadowski !

Kathi Sadowski was a shy girl, an only child whose father’s frequent transfers resulted in a traumatic series of moves. But each new home forced her to mold peers into friends, strengthening her self-confidence and giving her the courage to eventually leave her parents six hours behind to attend Case Western Reserve University’s distinguished speech-pathology program.

She had enough spunk at age 12 to embrace the “cute” spelling of Kathi from nearby Kathi’s Kandi Store and flourished in her child-development seminar under the famed Dr. Benjamin Spock. As a bride she picked up her second “i-ending” when she married Wayne Sadowski, a Cleveland Browns football player. They came to Pennsylvania when Wayne joined the Philadelphia Bulldogs and his team went on to win the Continental Football League’s division title.

Settling into a speech therapist’s position with the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, one of Pennsylvania’s 29 county-based special-education providers, Kathi soon became pregnant with their first child. It would be several years and two more children later when she resumed her career, becoming a first-grade special- education teacher in the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit’s unique speech- and-language support class.

Today Kathi Sadowski is one of Buckingham Springs’ heroes. When the coronavirus forced us all into our homes, Kathi, thankful to have a mission, helped organize the community effort to churn out masks for nurses, hospital support people, police, families and friends. She also resurrected her own sewing machine.

The road to Buckingham Springs was a wet one. Eight years ago, the Sadowskis packed belongings into already overloaded cars and confronted the winds, rain and storm-surge flooding from two back-to-back hurricanes as they left their Horsham home and traveled just 13 miles north to Buckingham Springs. But the roads were unfamiliar, Route 413 was flooded, and repeated detours forced the Sadowskis up and down Buckingham Mountain until they acknowledged they were lost.

Today the Wawa is our go-to neighborhood store for odds and ends or just to tap the no-fee ATM. On September 11, 2011 it was where the Sadowskis found their savior, a clerk who directed them to the community that had caught Kathi’s eye when she was scouting nursing homes for her then-ailing mother.

As a newbie, Kathi drew on the resilience she had built over years of moving from place to place, now finding it easier to engage strangers who would become friends. “I think of myself as a very positive person,” Kathi says. !

8 ! VBS Heroes Kathi Sadowski

As a child she dreaded every new move, but now credits her nomadic past for helping her learn “if you greet everyone with a smile and present yourself in a friendly way, others will reciprocate.” That belief has helped Kathi cultivate friendships with people she met while traveling, one of her most cherished pastimes. Whether it was a leisurely European river cruise, visits to US spots like Hawaii, Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, dozens of national parks, or a black-tie wedding in London, each adventure gave this once-shy little girl an opportunity to make friends.

Charisma is a positive attribute for any educator. It’s essential when you’re teaching first graders with special needs. Kathi found creative ways to capture and maintain their attention and enhance their learning: Making masks and acting out the movements of rainforest wildlife, singing songs to learn facts. Kathi speculates she’s made hundreds of little lives better, helping her students conquer language difficulties and providing structure and support so those with autism could express their thoughts and ideas. She still tracks some of them, learning just recently that one of her former students now has twins.

When she retired, Kathi volunteered at Warrington’s Special Equestrians, a therapeutic riding center for children with disabilities, pairing her love of horses with her devotion to teaching children in need. As a working mom, “there were two things I missed doing,” Kathi says, “taking piano lessons and horseback riding. Between raising kids and working, there wasn’t time.” Retirement gave her that chance and she spent a decade learning to ride and resuming her music training.

Always needing to be busy, she did other things as well. She delivered Meals on Wheels and still knits prayer shawls for her church. She sings in the church and Buckingham Springs choirs. She trained a therapy dog who comforted Central Bucks elementary school children while Kathi read to them as part the Roxy Reading Program.

If you ask Kathi about her lifetime achievements, she points to her family, including three children and six grandchildren. Most of them live nearby, but her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter live in New York and periodically Kathi visits, boarding the Trans-Bridge bus to the Port Authority and taking a jitney to Long Island.

Kathi meets lifetime obstacles head on, striving to keep her joints flexible to fight arthritis that’s already taken both knees and hips. But that doesn’t keep her down. If another wave of Covid 19 appears, Kathi is ready to drag out her sewing machine again and craft more masks. Gail Purpura

9 ! ! VBS Heroes Pat Salmon

When Pat Salmon moved into Buckingham Springs five years ago, she had no furniture and contractors filled her home, ripping up wall-to-wall carpeting and laying hardwood floors. They gutted her bathrooms and brightened the house with fresh coats of paint. Each day they arrived a little after daybreak, just as Pat was shimmying out of the sleeping bag she’d spread on the bedroom floor. They were gone as day settled into evening, leaving the echo of their clatter still resonating.

It was April in 2015, and outside the commotion, tulips popped, and the essence of hyacinths signaled spring. This was not what Pat had planned, but the quiet serenity of Bucks County drew her from her Ramsey, NJ home. Pat and her husband, Roger, had expected to retire to their home in Mt. Airy, a quaint North Carolina town that was Andy Griffith’s childhood home and the inspiration for Mayberry. But after Roger died of a massive heart attack, and Pat was toying with retiring to another North Carolina city, her friends urged her to move closer. She was browsing the internet one day and discovered Buckingham Springs.

She loved Bucks County and was charmed by the setting of the village, surrounded by horse farms and acres of organic vegetable gardens. And she would have to travel only two hours, not 10, to visit friends.

When she arrived here, she quickly introduced her new neighbors to unique social events; a “Howloween” parade for pets and a trick or treat event for adults. She helped breathe life into the singles’ club and sparked interest in a “Friendsgiving” event. She’s organizing the village ‘Pot Party.’ She became a trustee on the homeowners’ board. And during the coronavirus seclusion, she was the intermediary – collecting thread, elastic and fabric to a squad of seamstresses who made some 700 masks for front-line workers, friends and family. But despite all her involvement, Pat describes herself as shy and quiet.

It didn’t seem that way when as a sophomore at Rider College in nearby Lawrenceville, NJ, she was goaded into leading a nighttime walkout by her roommate and other woman protesting dormitory curfews. “I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want my picture in the college newspaper. I didn’t want my parents to find out. But they kept chanting, ‘do it, do it,’ and so I did. It was refreshing and my first pro-women demonstration! Even for a small campus like Rider, there was a lot going on. And my parents never found out.”

She graduated with a degree in marketing, one of only a few women in the School of Business. After completing a work-study program at the popular Pomeroy’s Department Store in Levittown, she defied naysayers who told her she’d never break into the male-dominated footwear business. But there she was, working in the Levittown Shop-A-Rama, recognized for ‘one brief shining moment’ as the finest and most modern shopping mall east of the Mississippi River, living on her own, and 10 ! ! ! VBS Heroes Pat Salmon

acquiring experience that placed her in demand.

At that time Kmart was one of the leading retail companies with sales pulling past number two JCPenney and threatening frontrunner Sears. And they were looking to bring women into their successful footwear purchasing department. Pat was one of them. She left Pomeroy’s and worked her way up to Kmart’s corporate buyer which she was for more than a decade. But there was more money to be made on the importing side, so she moved to importing, design and sales at another firm located in New York City. Pat moved to Manhattan and spent the “next zillion years” designing and importing footwear for Walmart, Kmart and Kids R’ Us.

As an importer she spent months traveling the world, mostly Asia. On her first trip to China she took a jitney from Hong Kong to a factory about three hours away. But the road had washed out in a storm the week previous and they were at a standstill. Peasants appeared from a nearby hillcrest, ran to the bus talking excitedly among them and tapping on the windows. Pat tapped back with red-painted fingernails. The bus driver told her they had never seen a western woman with light hair and light eyes or one whose fingers appeared to be bleeding.

“My take-away from traveling the world is that wherever you go, people are the same. They have the same wants, needs and desires. They love their children, just like we do and want them to do well,” Pat says.

Although Pat loved Asia, the people, their cultures and their serenity, she left the company on September 11, 2001. She had just gotten into her Manhattan office when her boss told everyone they were going downstairs for a “meeting.” As they headed to the first level of the Empire State Building, they learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center. It took Pat eight hours to get home. “I left that day and said, ‘that’s it.’ Even though I could have worked from home, I quit.” She decided to do something local and became an administrative assistant for the Ramsey chief of police.

Then in less than a year’s time Pat was battered by the death of her husband, her mother and her best friend. “I believe God doesn’t give you more than you can bear, but there are times when he dumps a lot on your plate. I looked out the window one day and said, ‘you never know when your time is up.’“ She retired at age 62.

When we talked, Pat was struggling to maintain her tranquility because once again she was in the throes of remodeling. A kitchen renovation had started in early March – and come to a screeching halt several days later. It’s reminiscent of her early days in Buckingham Springs. Gail Purpura

11 !

!

VBS Heroes Fran Calkins

Fran Calkins was going to be an artist and set the world on fire. She’d earned a degree in 1943 from Averett Junior College and was sure her remarkable talent would easily earn her a job in New York.

Instead, after an intense two-week search, she landed in the employment office of AT&T’s Western Electric Corp., where a compassionate recruiter engaged her in a discussion of her lack of art knowledge, then offered her a job with the manufacturing giant.

“By that time, I was ready to take anything,” Fran says. She became a file clerk working on one of the company’s government contracts.

Born in Brooklyn 95 years ago, she grew up in North Jersey, graduating from high school in 1941, while the world grappled with World War II. And as the US marched closer to combat, Fran was fortunate to be going to college.

When the war ended, Fran switched from Western Electric to New York Bell Telephone Company. As the telephone became a necessity rather than a luxury, Fran was kept busy processing thousands of applications from customers who now wanted the instrument in their own homes.

When she wasn’t working, Fran enjoyed her parties. When one of her beaus was ready to ship out for a bombing mission over France, they had a series of send-off parties, expecting to get a “go” at any time. Finally, it came, but the men were shot down. Somehow, they made their way to Switzerland and came home safely.

As boys came home from war, Fran had blind date after blind date. One weekend a group of friends gathered at a lake-side home in North Jersey. Her blind date was Bill Calkins, who had just returned from a tour in Germany. “I figured I’d never see him again,” Fran recalls now. “But he called me, and we started having dinners once a week, then it was two and three.”

It was always at a little restaurant called Rex, where the food was good, and you could get a meal for $1.50. A short walk away was Central Park, where the big bands played, and you could lie on the grass and enjoy the world.

! When Betts Slim put out a call for volunteers to make masks, Fran ! wanted to participate. But she didn’t have a sewing machine. That didn’t stop her. Fran lovingly hand-stitched hems on masks while ! sitting watching television or just to fill in time. !

12 !

VBS Heroes Fran Calkins

They dated for a year. Fran was visiting with friends at their seaside Connecticut home and Bill called saying he was coming up for the weekend. They had dinner and walked to the beach, climbing the rocks, then sitting and talking until dusk. Soon, Bill sang The September Song to her, with its refrain, ‘these precious days I’ll spend with you,’!turned and asked Fran to live with him forever. Of course, she said yes.

They got married and moved to Philadelphia, where Bill was able to take advantage of the GI Bill and return to Drexel University. For a while they lived in a $50 a month, one-room apartment, slept in a murphy bed and socialized with Bill’s fraternity brothers and their wives who also lived in the building.

Then Fran got pregnant. “We didn’t have the controls we have today,” she says. They found a two-bedroom apartment in a newly-built complex overlooking a park in Camden NJ, lovely and perfect for raising the children Fran loves passionately. When Fran became pregnant again they, like so many other veterans, purchased a single-family home in Levittown. They were one of the first of more than 17,000 families who would eventually live there.

Bill, who died in 2000, commuted by train to the Philadelphia Corn Exchange Bank in Philadelphia, where he prepared for management by rotating to each department. Fran stayed home and raised their daughters – each born three years apart. When the children entered school, Fran took on secretarial jobs. Her last job was assistant to the librarian at a local middle school.

By that time the family was living in Newtown, in an old clapboard home with foot- thick plaster walls, built in the seventeenth century, it was the servant’s quarters to a much larger home nearby. “Whenever I put plants in the back yard, I’d dig up an old coin or a horseshoe,” Fran recalls. In fact, stories abound about George Washington living “down the street” and sending an aide to pick up ale at the local Inn on Eagle Road.

As we neared the end of our interview, I asked Fran if we’d forgotten anything. She adds her son-in-law owns the Pinewood Tavern and her grandson works for NASA’s new moon space-station project. And she forgot to talk about the many dogs she’s rescued and loved. And that Bill lived in Hawaii when in high school and they’d return there for reunions. And that he left home to come stateside just three months before Pearl Harbor, and that …..

But, all of that is for another time. Gail Purpura

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13 !

! VBS Heroes Joanne Brown

Joanne Brown was used to sewing. Curtains for her shore house, other items for her home. She’d never sewn a facemask before, though. Hadn’t even thought about sewing a facemask. However, when Betts Slim sent out a request for volunteers to give first responders a hand, Joanne was right there.

“I don’t know Betts, still haven’t met her,” Joanne said recently. But of course, she knows of her and she’s thankful that Betts gave her something to do to help others. Typically she and Wayne would be taking advantage of the daily activities in the village. Without them, there wasn’t much to do. "#$%%&!$%'!($)%&*+!,-!"! Making masks was a welcome reprieve. $%%./&0+$0)1! Joanne doesn’t know how many masks she made – probably about 10 a day – but her sewing machine has been out on her kitchen island since early April and it’s still there waiting for another upswing if need be.

Joanne and Wayne moved into Buckingham Springs two and a half years ago from Richboro, where they had lived for 40 years. Joanne’s girlhood friend, Janet Lisher, with husband Bob, already lived here and spoke highly of the neighborhood. Joanne and Wayne liked it too. They decided to downsize and began looking at homes. About a year later, they found the perfect one.

“Everything happened fast,” Joanne recalls. “We sold our home in two days to a wonderful young couple who bought most of our furniture as well,” allowing Joanne to find new furniture that better fit their new home.

Joanne and Wayne remember each other from high school. But they didn’t meet until years later when a friend organized a party for a buddy about to ship out to Vietnam. The sendoff was sizeable, with the host encouraging everyone to bring other friends, particularly young women. Joanne was one of them. She and Wayne dated for seven months before Wayne too went to Vietnam. When he returned 13 months later, they planned their wedding.

Joanne has not faced considerable adversity in her lifetime, but the few instances have been significant. The loss of her mother brought unspeakable grief, which overcomes her still.

Joanne and her mother.

14 ! VBS Heroes Joanne Brown

“She was my rock,” Joanne says. “I remember lying on the sofa and watching TV, my head on her hip, her stroking my hair. She made me feel so safe.”

Joanne and Wayne also experienced infertility, with waves of disappointment month by month for four years. Finally, they turned to adoption and Colombia, where the waiting period was significantly less than in the United States. They quickly learned of a newborn in need of a family and they traveled to the South American country to pick up their son, Joey.

Joanne spent two months in Colombia while the paperwork was meticulously reviewed, and the adoption process completed. Wayne came down for the first and last two-weeks. The journey to pick up Joey was not without mishaps. They were supposed to fly directly to Medellin, Colombia’s second largest city, but the plane was late and couldn’t navigate around the mountains in the dark. So, they landed in the capital city of Bogota, spent the night at one of the city’s beautiful hotels (all on the airline) and resumed their journey the following day.

Then, when they submitted their paperwork, there was an error in the home-study report completed in the United States and required to adopt children. It took days to correct.

Subsequently, Joanne and Wayne adopted all three of their children. Joey and sister Janine were born in Colombia, their middle child, Frankie in the United States. On their second trip to Colombia, to pick up Janine, they stayed only 10 days. But while touring an orphanage in Medellin, Frankie toppled off a tricycle, hitting his head on the tile floor, which resulted in a concussion.

Then they all came down with Montezuma's revenge: Diarrhea experienced by tourists after drinking water or eating fruit, as a result of a bacteria strain to which native Colombians are immune. Their strong-willed baby daughter was sick as well, poisoned by tainted formula from the United States, which had killed 15 babies and sickened many more. It was a struggle, she lost weight, but she survived and has been a fighter ever since.

Joanne’s had various jobs and when school is opened, still does, working for Buckingham Elementary’s after school program.

But her most enjoyable pastime is cooking Sunday dinners for her family. She hopes they can resume soon, and that she can put her sewing machine away. Gail Purpura

15 !

! VBS Heroes Maria Luna

Maria Luna isn’t actually a seamstress, but she does like to sew. Her creations flattered her children and granddaughters as they grew. Her granddaughters had the best-dressed dolls in the neighborhood and periodically Maria would conjure up a craft for herself or her family. So, in early April, when she saw a Facebook post seeking volunteers to make protective masks for front-line workers, she readily pulled out her sewing machine and got to work.

Every few days, Pat Salmon dropped off carefully cut fabric and Maria fashioned the pieces into face coverings, 310 in all from April until late May. It was a satisfying reprieve from boredom for the diligent Maria who becomes restless with nothing to do. It was too early for gardening, YouTube exercises paled against those in the clubhouse and there’s just so much walking one can do. Covid 19 torpedoed interesting diversions like dressing up the clubhouse with seasonal decorations. And Maria missed the often-weekly visits from her daughter and two of five granddaughters.

Maria and her late husband Raul were some of the originals here, able to pick their home from among a dozen samples and choosing a lot that suited their desires. “My husband was involved in a lot of things, and I was always behind him,” she says now. Memorial Days at Peace Valley Park, Halloween parties, bocce, horseshoes and winter covered-dish picnics in the clubhouse.

They met in Argentina when Maria was 14 years old. Raul moved into the neighborhood and Maria was drawn to him at first sight. Although they were young, Maria fell in love with him on the first day and continued to love him through the next seven years, when they got married and until he passed away in 2017. Actually, she still does love him.

Raul was Maria’s rock. He could do anything, and Maria knew she could Maria and Raul in 1969 always depend on him. He had been a professional soccer player in Argentina but the US beckoned and in 1964 he snapped up an offer from the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals, the premier professional soccer franchise in the United States. Seven months after his arrival, Maria and their oldest child, Marta, who is known by her middle name, Cristina, came.

Raul soon realized he needed to make more money than he could earn playing soccer, so he found a few construction jobs then decided they should open their own business.

16 ! VBS Heroes Maria Luna

“It was scary,” Maria recalls, “but my husband believed in himself and could do anything he put his mind into.” They created the Marida Construction Company. The name combined the first letters of each child’s name, MA from Marta, RI from Richard and DA from Daniel.

“I used to tell people I was a housewife who helped her husband with the paperwork.” But her daughter questioned her description. “You went to work, you just worked from home.” Indeed, Maria ran the office, completing the payroll, handling phone calls and tending to the thousands of little matters that arose.

The business thrived and in 1994 Maria was in Feasterville, bowling with a friend who chatted eagerly about a beautiful 55+ community in Buckingham Township where she planned to move. She spread out enticing brochures and Maria took some home. Raul was interested as well and about three months later they were picking out their new home in the country.

“I feel blessed to be here in the United States,” Maria says. She and Raul thought they’d be here for just a few years. But the weak Argentinian economy continued to topple. When Raul returned to see his ailing mother, things were worse. The Lunas decided the United States was their permanent home. “We love this country and appreciate our life here,” Maria now says. They became citizens in 1981. “It was a very important day for us. We were very proud.”

Maria still has sisters and nephews in Argentina, and she turns to technology to keep them close. “Thank God for the internet.” She stays connected through Messenger, Facebook and Zoom. “The first time I saw my sisters, it was so exciting.”

In fact, Maria zooms with her whole family once a week, answering her granddaughter’s questions on gardening and chatting about their new, secluded lives. She had a visit on Mother’s Day, “but it was hard because I couldn’t hug or kiss them. I’m a hugger and kisser.”

Although there are no embraces, Maria is comforted by her friends and neighbors. “Now that I’m alone, there’s no better place to be than Buckingham Springs,” said Maria, particularly when we’re under stay-at-home orders. “Never in my life did I think that something like this could happen.”

As the mask-making efforts wound down, Maria packed away her sewing machine. “I loved being part of this project,” she said. “It gave me the opportunity to help others and also to keep myself busy.”

Gail Purpura

17 ! ! VBS Heroes Liz Gibson ! Liz Gibson was already a successful international sales manager when she had to take a short leave to have surgery. She remembers her boss at the time was a powerful man who never appreciated the work women did. So, when an infection delayed her return to work, and he demanded her presence nonetheless, she quit and started her own company.

“He was not a nice person, but he did me a favor. Because of him, I had my own business.” She still does and continues to work happily from home – wherever that may be. At first it was in Long Branch, a Long Island beach community and now it’s in Buckingham Springs.

Starting a business is tough work requiring determination and guts. Liz, a single mother, had both. A Polish immigrant with no English skills, Liz was 11 years old when she arrived here and suddenly found herself in her first year of junior high school in a strange country, knowing no one. It’s a passage that typically terrifies tweens afraid of being different or not finding friends in the scary new environment. For Liz it was enlightening. Liz and her parents Liz had always been stubbornly tenacious and had developed from her parents a deep respect for hard work and financial independence. Her father came first to the US and scraped together enough money from working three jobs to buy a little house in Queens for his wife and two kids. And her mother, who believed her fundamental duty was to her family, kept a spotless home filled with love and sustenance.!

“I could have resented them. I was very happy in my little world in Poland where I had friends. Here, none of us spoke English and it was hard,” Liz says now. Instead of animosity she became resilient, though, and learned compassion for others. “I have empathy for people who struggle. Because I struggled.”

Perhaps that’s why, when Betts Slim texted her in mid-March, asking if she could find materials to make masks, she wanted to help. Materials were scarce but Liz had world-wide contacts carefully cultivated over years of working in international sales and one of them was able to get her 300 masks from Hong Kong.

! Liz in a school play in Warsaw

18 ! VBS Heroes Liz Gibson

Today, Liz’s firm, American Consultative Logistics, is a fast-moving business. When a partner or agent needs something shipped internationally, Liz gets it done, drawing on and organizing hundreds of contacts to complete the process down to the tiniest detail.

Before she built her company, she worked for others which repeatedly merged with or were taken over by larger corporations. “I was working for these big international chains and they were always merging,” Liz says. At one point she resigned from a job with a US company, accepting an offer as sales manager for a Swiss company – a job she loved, with people she respected. She recalls, “I worked there five months, tops, and then they bought the US company I’d worked for and I literally landed in the same office I’d been working in before. I was not a happy person.”

Liz moved from one job to another, always increasing her mobility, flexibility and ensuring she had financial stability. Married at 19, divorced at 44, she needed to make sure her children, William and Alexandra (Lexi) had the right foundation to be successful.

Liz moved into the village in June 2015, two years after she purchased her home and started renovations. At the same time, she was contending with her Long Beach house that flooded four times. After Hurricane Sandy it was unsaleable – at least by someone who didn’t understand all the mechanical fixes she’d made to the home, the sophisticated flood gate she constructed and how it kept water from the house. Always the independent woman, Liz got her realtor’s license and sold the home herself.

“I created a binder of all the amenities they needed to know and gave them a class on how to operate the flood gate. They must have called me three or four times with questions, and I’d refer them back to the binder!”

Despite the coronavirus, Liz is still working. So is her daughter who, like Liz, has her own business, an international communications firm. With technology that enables them to work anywhere, Lexi has temporarily moved into Buckingham Springs, putting a little less distancing during these isolating times. Liz behind the wheel of one of her favorite things Gail Purpura – a fast car.

19 ! ! They Made It Happen

The following people participated in the Make It Happen movement in Buckingham Springs. Some donated materials or money. Others cut the fabric. Some sewed. Others washed or pressed the final product. More than 50 volunteers in Buckingham Springs made it happen. They are our heroes.

Masks. The following people helped to make masks. They cut fabric, sewed, washed or pressed masks. Lisa Biddle, Joanne Brown, Dale Cagenello, Frances Calkins, Liz Gibson (who also donated masks to the effort,) Linda Guernon, Louise Hartman, Linda Heinzman, Pat Helm, Suzanne Hoeffner, Eileen Jeffries, Barbara Jones, Ann King, Maria Luna, Joan McCrossen, Suze Messimer, Maryellen Paget, Gail Novak, Joe Patcella, Alice Peterson, Neoma Rigby, Kathi Sadowski, Pat Salmon, Liz Shea, Betts Slim, Joanne Spatola, Barbara Steele, Inge Zielke.

Donors: The following people donated fabric, elastic, thread or money to help the effort. Patrick Arnone, Linda Bowers, Raymond and Helen Brettle, Ruth Hauler, Janet Cimino, Shirley Coryell, Joan Doyle, Carol and Bernie Dressler, Pat Eagle, Esther Fox, David and Mary Hatfield, Theodore and Diane Herstein, Sue Hill, Anne Lee, Carol Lingerfield, Linda and Jim Morris, Lorraine and Andy Staroscik, Linda Suchora, Peggy Tomlinson, Renee Tomlinson, VBS Veteran’s Association, Sue and Bill Wark.

Also: John Duggan, Gina Worstmann, Carol Buchholz, Carol Goral and Patsy Sly, who said she wasn’t able to do any of the other jobs, but she could pray. So, Patsy was designated “Prayer in chief.”

Carol Goral designed thank-you cards for all the volunteers. (Right) Around the boarder she wrote “Thank You” in 24 different languages and included symbols of hope in the center.

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20 ! ! Socializing From Afar !

In Buckingham Springs, where friendly gatherings form the community’s foundation, isolation has been challenging. Dale Cagenello offered one escape: Puzzles.

With the clubhouse closed, no one could access the more than 30 puzzles locked inside. Dale is a puzzle person and knows plenty of others here who are as well. Community manager Amy Grzywinski retrieved the puzzles, Dale set them up in her garage and offered to loan them to anyone interested.

She has some rules: If the garage door at 223 Thrush Circle is open, come in, take a maximum of two puzzles at a time and sign the lender sheet. Puzzlers could also take a mask, one of 250 that Dale made for people in the community. # # #

Watermelon Wednesdays are bound to be a new craze! The McKee Group is supplying the fruit and community members are invited to “Grab ‘n Go.” The first Watermelon Wednesday was a hit and plans are to continue the event throughout the summer.

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The VBS Homeowners Association is donating $500 to the Bethanna social services organization to honor health-care workers on the front line during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Don’t miss the June 12 deadline to order your backyard barbeque! The Homeowners’ Association is sponsoring Dan’s Backyard BBQ Truck, which will be in the clubhouse parking lot on June 16 from 4 to 5:30 and you can grab and go your pulled pork or BBQ chicken dinners. (Please remember to wear your mask.) But you have to order ahead of time and the deadline is June 12, this Friday. Order online at http://www.dansbackyard.com/order, a site specifically designed for this Buckingham Springs event. Or, call Carol at Dans BBQ, 908-507-2479.

Dinner choices include BBQ chicken thighs or pulled pork. Two sides and a roll are included. Four sides are available: BBQ baked beans, coleslaw, red potato salad, or macaroni and cheese. The cost is $16 plus tax for each dinner.

Ordering online is easy, but there is information you need to know. When you click on the link you will be asked to log in. Follow the login prompts. Then click on your selected items. Go to the cart and click on

21 ! ! Socializing From Afar

PayPal. Once you click that, you will receive an option to use PayPal, a debit or credit card.

# # # ! New resident Joe Bayman would like to start fantasy football in the village and is encouraging anyone interested to give him a call at 727-518-4975. There are spots available for nine to 11 players. Joe just moved here from Florida to be near his daughters. Ironically, he was attracted to VBS for the social activities.

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Don’t forget to participate in the villages’ pot party. Create an outdoor summer planter and compete for a $25 gift card that will be awarded in August. You could win in any of four categories: most creative, highest potted sunflower, the “happiest bloomin’ pot,” and the “crackpot award.” Start planting by June 15. Questions? Call Pat Salmon at 201-669-3421, or email her at [email protected].