Parkland Press

September is not only the time when many children return to school, it is also National Preparedness Month.

National Preparedness Month is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's efforts to encourage Americans to prepare for any emergency or natural disaster.

Residents in the Lehigh Valley experienced first hand in 2011 how disasters can strike at anytime.

Many residents and workers in the Valley were sent out into yards and parking lots at 1:50 p.m. Aug. 23, 2011, when tremors from a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Va. shook homes and office buildings.

To The Editor:

I am writing in response to the controversy over the Kempton Fair queen.

In a previous letter to the editor (The Press, Aug. 29) there were some details that need to be clarified.

The first issue I would like to address is it states "One of the contestants was unhappy with the results and allegedly started a campaign to discredit the winner." This is so untrue.

It was never to discredit the winner. The issue was two of the contestants' people's choice ticket containers were broken into and tickets were stolen.

Recently, the popularity of P-Y-O family outings has increased.

It is no wonder. We can enjoy not only the fruits and vegetables we may harvest, but we also get to experience some time on a real farm.

We are fortunate each month brings the availability of a different fruit or vegetable.

What is available for us to pick varies on location, varieties planted and weather conditions, so always call the farm so you don't miss the products you are after or the times they are available to pick.

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to present a long overdue medal to a combat veteran from World War II.

Pvt. Bernard Winzer should have been recognized decades ago for heroic actions he took during Black Devil's Assault on Dec. 3, 1943.

Unfortunately, due to an oversight, his valor would go unnoticed by officials until last spring.

At that time, a staffer from U.S. Sen.Pat Toomey's office discovered Winzer was owed a Bronze Star.

After much hard work, Toomey secured the Bronze Star Award for the now 90-year-old man.

Aug. 28 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech at that great rally is rightly honored as one of the greatest speeches in American history.

All Americans recognize the soaring rhetoric of the final portion of the speech, where King speaks of a dream of an America without legal discrimination or racial prejudice.

But the first part of that speech, wherein King speaks of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, is not as well-known but deserves to be.

·America on Wheels, Allentown, has several volunteer needs.

Contact Liz Hahn at 610-432-4200 ext. 10 or fund_development@americaonwheels. org.

·Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage corridor, Easton, is looking for volunteers to help make apple butter at Historic Lock 44 in Freemansburg during the last week of September and first week of October.

Contact Dennis Scholl at 610-923-3548 ext. 225 or dennis@delawareandlehigh.org.

CBS News special correspondent James Brown re-cently interviewed 76-year-old former University of Iowa basketball coach George Raveling on an episode of CBS Sunday Morning.

In the interview, Raveling said he was visiting his best friend Warren Wilson and family 50 years ago in Wilmington, Del.

Raveling said at Wilson's father's urging, they made plans to attend the March in Washington for Jobs and Freedom Aug. 28, 1963.

They arrived the night before and were recruited as volunteers.

To the Editor

I have recently learned of a very unsettling situation involving the recent crowning of Miss Kempton Fair.

I know the fair "queen" is supposed to encourage the promotion of agricultural fairs and create better relationships between the young and old in rural and urban settings.

I was shocked to learn that after crowning a "queen" one of the contestants was unhappy with the results and allegedly started a campaign to discredit the winner.

As a result of those efforts, Kempton is now choosing to have two "queens."

Ah yes, here we are at summer's end

Do all you can to make it extend

The beach, the shore,

the mountains, the lake

Let us all of these partake

Until we've had our fill

Then wake...

To find we're back at school or work

Ah yes, we are the fortunate

To have these time consuming goals

For there are those who have no work

Or whose purpose is yet to be known

So enjoy these days

Be grateful, too

That you have much

And you are you

D.J. Hausman-Hill

Lititz

If you've ever seen the "Red Green Show," then you will have a true understanding of my story.

If you're not familiar with Red Green, you've probably heard of the TV show "Hoarders."

If neither show is familiar to you, just look up the lyrics to Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" and pay particular attention to his descriptions of the garbage.

That's kind of how it was when we bought our cabin in Maine.