Gus, the Philadelphia Zoo’s resident male giraffe, knows when it’s snack time.

The minute he spots zookeeper Wendy Lenhart, the gangly giant ambles toward a feeding area overlooking the spacious enclosure he calls home.

Like a kid licking a lollipop, Gus wraps his 18-inch tongue around an acacia tree branch and strips away its luscious leaves.

Soon, Gus is joined by Stella, his mate, and their offspring, 3-year-old Abigail.

Lenhart, 34, a 1997 Exeter High School graduate, is accepted without hesitation by the giraffes.

In the two years she’s been their keeper, she has forged a relationship of trust and confidence that bridges the biological divide separating animals and humans.

In consultation with staff nutritionists and veterinarians, she oversees their feeding and health care. She also trains the giraffes to allow veterinarians to administer medical procedures.

“My job is to make sure they’re comfortable,” Lenhart said. “And to see that they get what they need.”

Fantastic journey

Larry A. and Arlene K. Lenhart wanted their daughter to have a secure future, so they insisted she major in agricultural education at Penn State’s main campus.

Truth be known, Lenhart’s heart was in the outdoor aspect of her minor, wildlife and fishing science.

After student teaching at Twin Valley High School, she realized she was more interested in the subject matter than the teaching.

Ironically, she began her career in the education department of the Philadelphia Zoo in fall 2001. After going to Salt Lake City for an internship in aviculture, the raising and care of birds, and spending a short stint at the San Antonio Zoo, she returned to Philadelphia as a bird keeper in 2002.

For eight years, she would tend the zoo’s macaws, Southern ground hornbill and a pair of storks named Will and Grace.

With Villanova University ornithologist Robert Curry, Lenhart did a field study of chickadees in Nolde Forest state park. Their research found that female chickadees in Nolde Forest preferred the song of Carolina males of the species when choosing a mate.

While birds remain an interest, Lenhart has tended the giraffes and the zoo’s family of 10 kangaroos for the past 2½ years.

“Taking care of these fantastic animals,” she said. “I feel like I’m making a difference.”

Gentle giraffe

Just like people, Lenhart said, giraffes have personalities.

Stella, who’s 12 years old and came to Philadelphia from the Cape May Zoo, is meticulous about clearing hay from her nostrils.

“She manages to get it out with her tongue,” Lenhart said, “or sometimes she just sneezes on you.”

Gus, who’s six years younger than his mate, is sort of laid-back. He came to Philadelphia from the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas.

Abigail, or Abby, who was born in Philadelphia, likes to uproot grass growing along a moat that borders their habitat. She doesn’t eat it, but tosses it about as if it were a toy.

There are nine species of giraffes, and Philadelphia’s are reticulated. That means they have white netting over a brown coat.

“It’s like you threw a white net over a brown giraffe,” Lenhart explained.

While no two markings are the same, Abby’s patterns are similar to her mother’s. Gus’ are lighter in color.

Giraffes have four stomachs and, like cows, have a ruminant digestive system.

They’re main diet is alfalfa hay and a special grain mixture. They snack on acacia, apples and carrots.

Between them, the giraffes consume a 50-pound bail of hay daily. Gus gets eight pounds of grain, and the others get five pounds each.

Competition for food on the African plain, where giraffes originated, accounts for the disproportionate shape of their long necks. While other species evolved as grazers, giraffes are browsers, meaning they eat foliage instead of grass.

“The shape of their mouth, their high neck and long tongue enable them to reach the branches of the acacia trees on the African plain,” Lenhart said.

Giraffes are in decline in the wild, she noted, but are not as endangered as rhinos.

Rescuing rhinos

Tony, the Philadelphia Zoo’s resident rhino, is one of Lenhart’s favorite animals.

Rhinos are an endangered species, mainly because of poaching. In some parts of the world, the rhino horn is considered an aphrodisiac.

“It’s so ridiculous,” she said. “Their horns are made of carotene, the same stuff that’s in your fingernails.”

As a board member of the American Association of Zoo Keepers, Lenhart is involved in efforts to save rhinos.

She coordinates Bowling for Rhino, a project of the association’s Philadelphia chapter. Since the mid-1990s, it has raised $130,000 for association preserves in Kenya, Java and Sumatra.

On May 5, she helped coordinate Cinco de Rhino, a walk/run from the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown to the Philadelphia Zoo to raise money for rhino preservation.

Scores of supporters, wearing imitation rhino horns, paraded between the two zoos.

Berks connections

Lenhart still has connections to Berks County, and cherishes growing up in the Reading area.

Her father, a retired utility worker, still lives in Exeter. Her mother, who had been a teaching aide at Amity Primary Center, died in 2008. A brother, Michael A. Lenhart, lives in Hereford Township.

Her grandfather, the late Elmer Lenhart of Mount Penn, was a well-known Berks County well driller.

“I loved my grandfather,” she said. “He was a real character.”

Lenhart lives in Brewerytown, a section of Philadelphia, and walks to work.

“It’s the job I always wanted,” she said, “and hope to enjoy for a long time to come.”

At 25, Joseph P. McDevitt has a clear vision of the life he hopes to build.

It is not based on wealth or fame or possessions, but on the satisfaction of doing well the craft he loves, and the peace that satisfaction provides.

A graduate of Exeter High School, McDevitt earlier this year acquired Fegley’s Violin Shop in Exeter Township, the former business of James E. Fegley, a well-known violin maker and restorer who died in 2001.

He never met his business predecessor, but McDevitt, who had worked for Fegley’s widow, Margie, before taking over and eventually buying the violin shop, plans to honor his name and his reputation for excellence.

“I’d like to stay exactly where I am and carry on the Fegley name for another 40 or 50 years,” McDevitt said. “And then I’d like to fi nd someone else who could train and carry on the name.”

McDevitt, who studied violin making and repair at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, is trained in the classical fashion. He crafts musical instruments the way they have been made for hundreds of years, and each piece he fi nishes is a source of personal satisfaction and accomplishment.

“It’s all done by hand,” McDevitt said. “What bigger challenge or reward is there to build something beautiful that also sounds wonderful?”

During the intensive threeyear program in Boston, he

A 1990 article in the Reading Eagle chronicled the efforts of Exeter Township resident James E. Fegley, the owner of Fegley’s Violin Shop, to rebuild an old and valuable violin that had been run over by a car in 1989.

Fegley spent years working to repair the instrument, which was reputed to have been built by Pietro Guarnerius, a member of a famous family of violin makers from Cremona, Italy.

He was unable, however, to fi nish the job before his death in 2001.

When 25-year-old Joseph P. McDevitt earlier this year bought Fegley’s Violin Shop from Fegley’s widow, Margie, he inherited the broken violin, along with the rest of the store’s inventory.

As a show of camaraderie and respect for a man he never met but greatly admires, McDevitt decided to continue Fegley’s work to repair the instrument.

“I just kind of felt like I needed to continue the work he’d started,” McDevitt said. “I know I can put it back together, and I’ll work on it when I have the time. But, I think it’s going to take me a long time.”

That’s fi ne with him, as continuing and building on the business that Fegley started is more than a job to McDevitt; it’s a labor of love and his life’s work.

“I’m a strong believer that people are meant to do what they’re meant to do,” McDevitt said. “And this seems just right to me.”

Fegley’s Violin Shop is at 400 W. 37th St. in Exeter Township. It was established in 1979 by James E. Fegley, who ran it until his death in 2001. The business, which had been maintained since Fegley’s death by his widow, Margie, was purchased earlier this year by Joseph P. McDevitt, 25, who had worked in the shop while studying violin making and repair at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. McDevitt restores, repairs and sells violins and other instruments, and has an inventory of instruments for sale. He also buys some instruments that are no longer in use. The shop is run by appointment only. McDevitt can be reached by calling 610-779-0665 or at fegleyviolin@nullgmail.com. The shop also has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fegleyviolin. learned about violin making and repair from the ground up, and was given some unique opportunities for learning the craft.

His first repair project involved a cello that had been played at an inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. Other instruments he worked on also were extremely valuable.

“I got to work on the ‘cheap’ stuff ,” McDevitt said. “I worked on instruments that were valued at between $150,000 and $200,000. People who had more experience did the ones that were worth more than that.”

In addition to learning the art of violin repair and refurbishment, McDevitt crafted six instruments during his three years in Boston, and has made many more instruments since then.

He also learned to play the violin during that time, a skill he had not acquired earlier, despite growing up in a musical household.

“My mom was a music teacher in the house, but I didn’t learn to play an instrument until I was in Boston,” McDevitt said. “I was a wrestler when I was in high school.”

Upon completing the program at North Bennett Street School in 2009, McDevitt was off ered an apprenticeship in Italy. He, however, had other plans.

“I was anxious to come home and get my life started here,” he said.

He had worked part time at the violin shop throughout the Boston years, and was off ered full-time work upon returning to Berks County. The shop, for which operations had been drastically reduced, began to get busier as customers got to know McDevitt and his work.

He and Margie, who discovered they are extremely compatible, worked together to rebuild the business and, eventually, McDevitt approached her about buying it.

Margie, 69, maintains an interest in the business, and she and McDevitt remain in close contact.

“Really, I think Margie and I both are lucky that this worked out the way it did,” McDevitt said. “When I think about it, so many things had to come together to make all of this possible. I’m never sure if this is the life I chose, or the life that chose me.”

In his fourth year of running the violin shop, McDevitt works constantly to continue improving his skills.

“I am my harshest critic,” he said. “But one of the reasons I like this work so much is because I keep learning and learning and getting better at what I do all the time.”

About half of his work time is dedicated to repairs and sales, while the rest is spent building fi ne instruments.

That time of building, the time when he shuts the shop door and loses himself in the old, storied craft of carving and piecing and securing together more than 70 pieces of wood for each instrument he makes, is McDevitt’s retreat; his Shangri-La.

It’s the time in which he fi nds peace, authenticity and the assurance that he is exactly where he is supposed to be.

“Sometimes I get up and I’m surprised to see that it’s dark outside,” he said. “This isn’t a 9-to-5 job for me. I feel like this is my life. It’s who I am. And you can’t take time off from who you are.”

As planning continues for the presidential inauguration in Washington, a Berks County native is working behind the scenes to help prepare for the Jan. 21 event. Christopher Bevins, a 1996 Exeter High School graduate and an Air Force staff sergeant, recently learned he was assigned to work with personnel from other military branches in providing media coverage and sparking extra interest in the event.

“It’s potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Bevins, 34, who is stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. “It’s really an honor to support my country and my commander in chief.” Bevins’ role with the military task force will include putting together broadcast pieces about the event and working with media members assigned to cover the inauguration. “There’s a lot of moving pieces to something of this magnitude,” Bevins said of the inauguration. “It takes support from every area that each service has to offer.”

Bevins has previous experience working with the media. One of his responsibilities with the Air Force is to usher media members to interviews with President Barack Obama. While he gets within about 50 feet of the president on a weekly basis, Bevins said he has not had the opportunity to meet him. “I think it would be a great honor to meet the commander in chief,” he said. “In the meantime, I’ll support in any way I can.”

Bevins moved to Berks County as a teenager and worked various retail jobs at the Berkshire Mall and the Reading outlets before attending Reading Area Community College for a few semesters. He decided to join the Air Force in 2006 for the benefits and travel it offered.
He said the Air Force has taken him to Iraq, Japan and all over the Pacific. He is excited to be a part of history and to work with other military members leading up to Inauguration Day.

“I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” he said.

Terrorists have taken over Washington, D.C., the White House is in ruins, the president has been taken hostage, and it’s all the fault of former Berks residents Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt.  Of course it’s all fiction, but the married screenwriting duo promises that it won’t look that way on screen when their movie “Olympus Has Fallen” opens Friday at theaters across the country, including several in the Reading area. The action-thriller is ripped from the post-9/11 headlines, with a huge helping of imagination and character.

Rothenberger came up with the idea of having the White House taken over by terrorists nine years and nearly two dozen scripts ago.  “I thought I had an interesting character with an agent in his prime,” said Rothenberger, a former Boyertown resident. “And I had been a fan of the ‘Die Hard’ movies.”  “Olympus Has Fallen” tells the story of disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning trying to save the day and his reputation when the White House is destroyed by terrorists and the president is taken hostage. Banning, played by Gerard Butler, who liked the movie so much he’s one of its producers, had been relegated to desk duty after an incident with the first family ended badly. His redemption lies in the struggle to save the White House, the president and the country. And the disasters keep coming.

Benedikt, formerly of Exeter Township (by way of Reykjavik, Iceland) and Rothenberger worked on the script together. The pair met in a screenwriting class in Philadelphia in 2000 and have collaborated since then. While they have come close to selling screenplays, “Olympus Has Fallen,” is their first script to be developed into a full-length feature film.  And while the timeline from sale to screen was pretty quick (the script sold in March, 2012 and the movie comes out Friday), Rothenberger and Benedikt’s overnight success took nearly a decade.  “We both had corporate jobs and would get up early to write,” said Benedikt of her 4 a.m. wake-up time. “You had to find a way to fit it in.”  Success came in fits and starts, though, always giving them hope that this was what they were intended to do.

In 2002 Rothenberger won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for the Korean War epic, “The Chosin,” and that allowed him to quit his corporate job and devote himself full time to writing.  And rewriting.  “Olympus Has Fallen” was rewritten four times between getting an agent to represent it in 2011 and when it sold in 2012.  “And then we rewrote it eight more times,” said Rothenberger, thanks to input from director Antoine Fuqua and key actors and producers. “That’s 12 full rewrites.”

The writers were on site in Shreveport, La., where a partial model of the White House was built (and destroyed) for the film, and they got to mingle with leading man Butler. The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett and Melissa Leo.  Intensive discussions led to notepads full of changes, but it was worth it to be open to those changes, they said, and they are very proud of the film.
“We’ve only seen the rough cut,” Benedikt said, “But it was excellent.”

As with most artists, the couple has relied on family and friends for support during the lean and less hopeful times. Benedikt’s mother, Sigridur “Sigga” Benediktsdottir of Reading, brother Marco Soto and best friend Andrea Funk are planning a family party to celebrate the opening on Friday in Reading that will include Rothenberger’s mom Joyce of New Berlinville.  “Our only wish is that Creighton’s late father, George C. Rothenberger, and my late brother, Stefan Soto, could be here to celebrate with us,” Katrin said.  It’s likely they’ll hear the celebrating wherever they are, though, as the $80 million movie is on track to be a blockbuster.  And it will give Benedikt and Rothernberger the opportunity to continue to work on their next script – a thriller with a supernatural twist.

“We were out here for six years,” Benedikt said of the couple’s move to Newport Beach, Calif., in 2007. “With no money coming in. We were down to our last $5,000 when we sold the script.”