On April 11th 2013, by order of the Secretary of the Army, Dr. Terry Smith was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the Regiment of the 506th Infantry Regiment (Airborne/Airmobile) of the 101st Airborne Division, at Ft. Campbell, KY.
Michael Senick
Michael Senick: Kindergarten Teacher
I grew up in: Exeter Township. I now live in: Cumru Township. My parents are Heidi and John Senick. I have four siblings: Melissa, Kim, Anthony and Ricky. I also am engaged to my beautiful fiancee, Holly Kowalski.
Education: Exeter High School; associate degree, Reading Area Community College; bachelor’s degree in elementary education, Alvernia University; master’s degree in English as a second language, University of Turabo.
How I spend my free time: Holly likes to point out that during the school year I pretty much live at Millmont. To make up for it, we go to the beach in the summer whenever we can. I am a big Philadelphia Flyers fan and try to watch every game. I am always interested in reading books on evolution, history or behavioral psychology. That being said, by far my favorite way to spend free time is traveling with Holly.
Teacher who inspired me: Mrs. Barbara Voelker, who teaches here at Millmont, was my cooperating teacher when I was student teaching. She taught me all the little things that need to be taken care of so you can be at your best when teaching. She is always thinking about what is best for the kids, not about what is easiest to do. I try to keep that same attitude in my teaching.
Funniest classroom moment: I wanted to set up a math lesson by presenting the kids with a situation they could help me solve through addition. I started the lesson by saying, “Kids, I have a problem.” Right after I said that, one of my students said very seriously, “You work with kids?” It may be the best one-liner I have heard while teaching.
If I weren’t an educator, I’d be: I would definitely be doing something in the sciences. I watch and read everything I can on space and evolution. I also wouldn’t mind playing hockey for a living, if the Flyers are interested.
You might not know: I have gone swimming with sharks twice in my life. I “waded” with sharks, as my dad likes to say, at the Camden, N.J., aquarium. I also swam with sharks in the Dominican Republic. I hope someday to go cage diving with great white sharks.
Exeter Graduate in Step at Inaugural Parade
When graduation day was upon him and the rest of the Exeter Senior High School class of 2011, Christopher Revell knew he was interested in enlisting in the armed services. The only question was, which branch? And the only problem was, he didn’t have an answer. The then-Exeter Township resident tried his hand at heavy construction, working for the first six months after graduation in Philadelphia. But when business went cold that December, Revell found himself out of a job. “Things weren’t going too good,” he said. “And I decided to do something better.”
That decision was to join the family business: following the footsteps of his father, grandfather, aunt and uncle into the military. That “something better” was the 1.5-mile-long path he marched in last week’s Inauguration Day Parade as an airman first class in the Air Force. “I decided to do the military,” he said. “It was the best decision I could have made with my life.”
Revell, who turned 20 Saturday, always had seemed to be following a well-worn path into the armed services. On his high school’s football and lacrosse teams, he learned to overcome adversity, to work as part of a unit toward a common goal. As a volunteer firefighter with the Lower Alsace Fire Company, he was instilled with a sense of duty, a sense that only deepened when he became an Eagle Scout in 2011. But it wasn’t until last year that Revell finally decided the Air Force would be the best fit. His original plan was to go into the Coast Guard. But one day, something inside Revell drove him to the Air Force website.
Between the various locations and emphasis on selflessness, he liked what he saw. And in August, he was on a plane to basic training in San Antonio, where he applied for a position in the Air Force Honor Guard. Four weeks later, he was accepted, and in October, his honor guard training began. “It finally hit me that I was going to be in the Inauguration Parade,” he said. “It got bigger as it got closer. I was bouncing off the walls. I was ecstatic.”
On a blustery Monday, that moment finally came. Walking in a nine-by-nine-person column, he made his way along the parade route to President Barack Obama, turning eyes left and presenting arms. “Seeing and hearing everybody out there was incredible,” he said. “To hear them yell ‘Air Force’ and chant for the Air Force made it even better. There is no feeling like there is when a million people watching you give the president the honors he deserves.”
Exeter’s Famous Houck Twins (1965) in the News Again
Thomas Penn Houck of Spring Township turned 65 just before midnight.
His twin brother, Richard Penn Houck of Stonersville, turned 65 just after midnight.
Born minutes apart and yet in different years, their 15 minutes of fame came about because of when their first minutes of life began.
They were born in Reading in St. Joseph Medical Center as 1947 turned to 1948, which happened to be the city’s bicentennial.
Somebody decided to make them a big deal. They were proclaimed as Reading’s “Bicentennial Twins.”
“Any celebrity who came to town, we had our picture taken with them,” Tom said Monday.
Those celebrities included President Harry S. Truman; comedian, singer and actor Eddie Cantor; and comic duo Abbott and Costello.
Younger readers might be wondering who any of those people are.
Those were celebrities from an age when fame wasn’t achieved by releasing sex tapes but by having talent and working hard … except in the case of the Houck boys, who gained fame just by the happenstance of their birth.
Older readers might be wondering whether Abbott and Costello conducted an impromptu routine for the twins called “Who was born first?”
Older readers are also probably grateful that Abbott and Costello never made a sex tape.
For some unexplained reason, a photo of the “Bicentennial Twins” was on the front page of the Reading Eagle every New Year’s Day for a decade or so.
“Then we got to fifth grade and said, ‘That’s enough,’” Tom said. “We rebelled a little bit.”
Perhaps because the city wanted to make their birth a big deal, their mother, Ellen, named her sons after Thomas and Richard Penn, the brothers who planned Reading and who were the sons of state founder William Penn.
Was Ellen a history buff?
Tom never asked, and she died in 2006.
“Somebody came up with the idea (for our names), but I guess we’ll never find out,” Tom said.
Tom, who had four sons, retired from teaching in the Exeter School District. Richard, who had three sons, retired as an electrical engineer.
They aren’t famous anymore. They chose to allow their acclaim to fade.
They also aren’t on the front page every New Year’s Day anymore, but, hey, they’re on page B1 today, and that’s pretty neat.
Berks Best Community Service Winner: Brian Snelling
Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 9, Brian W. Snelling of Exeter Township has never let the disease get the best of him. In fact, the disease has always challenged the 18-year-old Exeter High School senior to do his best. With aspirations to become an aerospace engineer like his grandfather, Brian has career dreams, like many students. But he already has demonstrated a commitment to community service, with nearly 1,234 hours served during his high school career.
Brian has been selected the winner of the top community service honor, the Taylor Seitzinger Award, in Reading Eagle Company’s annual Berks Best scholarship project. Since 2004, he has been one of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s general ambassadors. Brian also has been an educational speaker, camp counselor and fundraiser for muscular dystrophy. He has been personally responsible for raising $10,000 to fight the disease, and has persuaded family and about 20 friends to join in many of his fundraising efforts. “I became an advocate for the Muscular Dystrophy Association on day one (of his diagnosis), fundraising for the summer camp and organization,” Brian said. He said his advocacy work has trickled over to his involvement with the nonprofit agency program called Spark the Wave.
Brian teaches his peers about leadership and inspires other youths to become involved in their community. He has received the Gold Presidential Service Award twice for his work with Spark the Wave. A singer and musician, both pit percussionist and pianist, Brian is involved in a host of school musical organizations and maintains a grade point average of 4.0. He also is active in mission trips to western Pennsylvania and Kentucky with his church, Community United Church of Christ, St Lawrence, and works as a greeter 20 hours a week at a car dealership. “There are many nights when I am not at home until past 9 p.m., many nights when I feel like I live out of my car,” Brian said. He is tremendously busy, reaching out to touch the lives of others.
“Service isn’t about the hours that I document and turn in to the guidance office,” he said. “It has become an integral part of my life. Service is about making a difference in the world, changing lives through simple acts of kindness and unselfishness.”
Parents or guardians: William and Deanne Snelling
Awards and honors: Two gold presidential service awards; Muscular Dystrophy Association general ambassador; Lions Club and physics student of the month; National Honor Society; marching band (section leader, percussion); district and county chorus.
Activities highlights: Marching band, pit percussion section leader; senior high school musical; junior high school musical pit orchestra; District 10 and Berks County chorus; choral accompanist; honors choir.
Career or life goal: My career goal is to become an engineer in the field of aeronautics just like my grandfather, and become someone who revolutionizes the industry. I want all the usual successes like promotions, but ultimately I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference in some aspect.
Post-high school plans: I plan to major in aerospace engineering at one of four schools; Drexel, Penn State, University of Virginia or Princeton. While in college, I plan to further my work with both Spark the Wave and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, continuing fundraisers and both camps and bringing college friends into both. Upon graduation, I will become employed and then return to graduate school for either a master’s or doctorate degree.
Kathy Hertzog
Kathy A. Hertzog was a student at the former Lausch Elementary School in the Exeter School District when her teacher gave her a lower grade on her math notebook than her classmates. She let her teacher know how unfair she thought that was because she knew she had done just as much work as the others, but in a different way. And so began her career as an activist for people with disabilities. Her disabilities have been diagnosed as cerebral palsy or a spinal cord injury at birth or possibly both. That didn’t matter to her. What did matter was living independently and making sure that other people with disabilities could do the same.
Her family still owns Apollo Pools & Spas in Exeter Township, but she stayed in Erie after graduating cum laude from Edinboro College in 1988 with a degree in communications, Since then, Hertzog has been on the White House lawn for the signing of the federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities and has helped found Voices for Independence in Erie to help people with disabilities live in the community. She’s a past board member of the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living, an agency supporting independent living centers statewide.
Now 48 and still living in Erie, Hertzog operates an Internet-based business, landlordassociation.org.
As she went about her life, she saw laws and regulations improve, and Hertzog eventually got the right type of care she needed to continue living on her own. Then in recent years things began to go downhill, with the state changing the structure of and placing restrictions on the agencies people with disabilities had been using to hire their attendants and relied on for other services, Hertzog said. Now, the agencies are laying off staff, including people with disabilities, she said. “We’re sliding back now,” Hertzog said. “The agencies have all these restrictions. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. “It’s a big pain in the independent butt.”
And so Hertzog’s activism continues, because she’s afraid that people with disabilities are going to end up in nursing homes if service cutbacks continue. The savings the state hoped for won’t happen because nursing home care is more expensive than attendant care, and people with disabilities who were working won’t be paying taxes any more, she said. “We’ve gone to legislators, called them and met with them face to face, and explained how it’s hurting people with disabilities,” Hertzog said. “We’ve had restore-the-cut rallies. We’re coming at it from every possible angle. “These are not policies that have to be kept. These are policies that, if people demand it and the community demands it, can be reversed. It can be put back the way it was.”