The Spark

The war in Ukraine is in the news every day in this country. Today’s stories usually focus on what destruction has been caused by the latest Russian missile attacks in Ukraine or when and where a Ukrainian counteroffensive might be launched.

It’s different than when Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Then, it was common to hear stories of millions of Ukrainians fleeing the country to safety. Today, we don’t hear much about the refugees, even though some six million are spread throughout Europe. The most are in Poland with about a million at this point.

Agata Czopek is a native of Poland and currently works as the Interim Executive Director of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art. She’s been raising money and traveled to Poland to help the Ukrainian refugees since the war started.

On The Spark Monday, Czopek told heartbreaking stories of women and children losing their husbands and fathers who are required to stay in Ukraine,"Just last week we had one of our mothers, her husband stepped on the mine and was killed. So, a mother with a two-year- old needs to go an 18 hour train ride. We needed to put her on to go to her husband's funeral. She's now back about her mother in law. We have a college student in one of the universities in Lublin. Her father was hit by a rocket. He's gone. It's constant. The elderly population of Ukraine doesn't want to go anywhere. They would rather die on their soil. They won't be immigrants at this point."

Czopek started a gofundme page initially to help one family she knew escape from Ukraine. It morphed into helping hundreds of refugees with essentials like food, but she told the story of a need that surprised her,"I went to the village that I was born in first. And at that point, those 76 refugees, mothers and kids, and they were put in a little dormitory school that has not been functioning for some time. But they had a good facilities in there. They didn't need food. But when I went over there and said, what is your needs? Well, it was a big school building with open huge windows of moms and kids needing some privacy. So they said to me, we could use some blinds in the windows. I said, okay, well, let's get blinds. So, another person in the village make blinds. And they said, okay, let's get blinds."

When asked why the refugees aren't getting much attention, Czopek talked about what went through her mind,"I had to forget about Putin. I had to forget about planes and everything else. And I need to concentrate on what was positive for me to function and be able to help. I need to think of a human aspect of this war, and I certainly hope that everybody can close their eyes for a minute and just picture themselves in the Ukrainian mothers and kids shoes and be reminded that they all need help."

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Last fall, state and federal leaders admitted that the Chesapeake Bay region will not meet its most fundamental 2025 cleanup goal, aimed at reducing nutrient pollution in the Bay and the rivers that feed it. For 40 years, the region has struggled to meet its goal largely because of an inability to sufficiently reduce nutrient pollution from farms in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

That’s taken from a series of articles in the Bay Journal that dives extensively into the Chesapeake Bay restoration, including its history and where the health of the Bay is today.

The Bay Journal’s Editor-at-Large Karl Blankenship authored the series and was with us on The Spark Monday and said that while nutrients from wasterwater treatment plants and air pollution (nutrients) have largely been controlled, agriculture is a different story,"Agriculture has been difficult for a number of reasons. For one thing. It's not as easily regulated as other sources. And there's ongoing pressure. It's a nutrient intensive activity. You don't grow food without nutrients."

Blankenship wrote that success to reduce nutrient runoff from farms relied on Best management Practices such as planting nutrient-absorbing cover crops in the fall, installing forest buffers along streams, and reducing soil tillage. But at the same time, farmers were under pressure to produce more food for a hungry world. Blankenship quoted Zach Easton, a Viginia Tech agriculture professor who said, "We can't have cheap food and a pristine Bay."

Blankenship says the Environmental Protection Agency tells farmers they need to reduce nutrients but at the same time, grow more corn for ethanol,", EPA for the last like 15 years has been through its reformulated fuel policy, has been incentivizing the production of more corn and corn happens to be a particularly key nitrogen crop. It loses more possibly than anything else. And since around 2007, 2008, thereabouts because of EPA policies it's been estimated that the price of corn is about a third higher than it would be. And something like around a third to 40% of the nation's corn production goes for ethanol. And and so EPA is like basically incentivizing the system that tells everyone, oh, you should grow more of this really nitrogen leaky crop, even as we're telling you to reduce pollution."

What has seemed to work to reduce nutrient runoff is when farmers are focused on a local waterway rather than the entire Bay as Blankenship described," A lot of the Bay reduction goals were established by computer models, model estimates of what needs to happen. Telling farmers to do something that doesn't make economic sense, to clean up a model is a tough sell. But uniformly, when you talk to farmers and you talk to people who work on the ground with farmers, when you can tie actions to an improved stream where you can show an impact on a stream, that's a much different conversation and it's a lot easier to sell. That's not the way these programs have been solved historically."

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Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States. About 42,000 women and 500 men in the U.S. die each year from breast cancer. Black women die from breast cancer at a higher rate than White women, even though great progress has been made in the treatment of breast cancer. The 6th annual Fun Pink Pageant looks to continue its advocacy and awareness work, through its annual pageant for people 40 years and older.

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The Penguin Project is a stage production that performs a modified version of a well-known Broadway musical.  These productions are unique, however, because all the roles are filled by young artists with developmental disabilities, including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities visual impairment, hearing impairment, and other neurological disorders. 

They are joined on stage by a dedicated group of “peer mentors” – children the same age without disabilities who have volunteered to work side-by-side with the performers.

The Penguin Project is bringing it’s production Annie Jr. to the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts and Theatre in Harrisburg in partnership with Theatre Harrisburg, August 26th and 27th.

With us today are Matt Spencer, with Theatre Harrisburg and director of Annie Jr., and Jen Paul, director of production and events, at the Whitaker Center.

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Basketball superstar LeBron James’ 18-year-old son Bronny suffered a cardiac arrest last week. Bronny James is a highly recruited basketball player himself and was preparing for his first season at the University of Southern California. NFL player Damar Hamlin returned to practice for the Buffalo Bills last week – eight months after cardiac arrest almost killed him on the field during a game. High school athletes in our area and across the country are beginning practice for fall sports and although most appear healthy, there is more attention being paid to their heart health.

The Peyton Walker Foundation's mission is “to increase awareness and survival rates for Sudden Cardiac Arrest." That includes educating, providing CPR training and AED units throughout the region.

On July 22, a 72-year-old man who suffered cardiac arrest at the Jigger Shop in Mt. Gretna was saved by an AED supplied  by the Foundation.

Julie Walker is the founder of the Peyton Walker Foundation, was with us on The Spark Wednesday, "We're currently aware of four recorded saves. And in fact, today I have in the studio with me an AED or defibrillator that was used in February to save a ten-year-old little girl. And this one is really special to me, just knowing that we saved a child. And now she has the chance to live a full, active, healthy life because of this aid."

Walker described what Sudden Cardiac Arrest is and how it's different than a heart attack, "Sudden cardiac arrest is an unexpected stop or irregular heart rhythm so your heart can either stop beating altogether or it just beats so erratically that it can't pump and circulate blood in your body. So, it's basically like a power failure. Lights out, boom, an immediate collapse. With a heart attack, people are typically conscious, they're having the chest pain and they might be sweaty and nauseous. So they're typically awake."

Sudden cardiac Arrest often occurs when there is a heart condition to begin with so Walker recommends getting kids checked by their family doctor,"I'm advocating that every parent, regardless if the kid is an athlete or non athlete, takes their child to their doctor or a visit to their primary care physician, pediatrician, whoever, and ask for a baseline electrocardiogram, We get calls all the time, how do I get an EKG? What do I need to do? Who do I need to ask? So we we tell them have the conversation with your primary care doctor. Ask for the baseline electrocardiogram just to make sure your kiddos are okay."

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A state budget that appeared all set for final approval at the beginning of the fiscal year July 1st has reached the impasse stage and a month into that impasse, payments to public schools and other county-administered services – some that are essential for thousands of Pennsylvanians -- haven't been made.

Both the House and Senate have passed the main $45.5 billion budget bill, but it lacks a needed signature from the Senate.

The hold up is over Governor Josh Shapiro saying he will line-veto a $100 million private school voucher program that Republicans said he promised.

Spotlight PA’s Katie Meyer has been reporting on the budget impasse and joined us on The Spark Tuesday.

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The fire that destroyed one building at the Broad Street Market in Midtown Harrisburg earlier this month was a shock to the community and the region. But it also brought the community together.

Besides re-building, one of the main areas of focus is finding ways to help vendors at the market continue to sell their products. Plans are in the works now for a large, steel girded tent to be erected on a vacant lot across the street.

The lot is owned by Josh Kesler, who owns Millworks Restaurant and Art Gallery and two other restaurants and was on the board of the Broad Street Market.

The lot for the tent is just one example of Kesler giving back to the community. Josh Kesler is with us.

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As of Monday morning, nearly five thousand wildfires have burned 30.4 million acres in Canada since the beginning of 2023.

Smoke from those wildfires has drifted to the eastern United States, including here in Central Pennsylvania and resulted in poor and unhealthy air quality days in June and July.

In fact, researchers at Rutgers University found the smoke was at levels not seen since smoking was banned indoors 15 years ago.

José Guillermo (Memo) Cedeño Laurent, Assistant Professor, Rutgers School of Public Health, Director| Rutgers CARE Lab, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. Memo Cedeño Laurent, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health who is working on the study, is with us on The Spark today.

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A beat from the islands can be heard this weekend at Moon Dancer Vineyard and Winery near Wrightsville in York County. It's the Moon Dancer Winery Reggae Festival.

Eight bands, a DJ, wine, beer and food will all be available during the two-day event.

On The Spark Friday, DJ and emcee Lance O described the event,"The vibe in the flow is, it's definitely an easygoing vibe, relaxed, kind of chill. But then at times it's definitely going to get you up and you want to move and you want to shake the hips and the energy is always positive, The lyrics are positive. It's either about the upliftment of the downtrodden or it's the biggest and most popular theme in any music is usually love. And there's lots of love there. There's just lots of war and love and peace and love. And and it's always a good time.

What sets reggae apart from other genres of music,"it's definitely the drum and bass, The syncopation of the drum and bass, coupled with the kind of the skank sound of either the guitar or the keyboards coupled with, they like to use brass a lot. Music creates all kinds of moods."

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Lititz in Lancaster County is truly one of the most charming places in Central Pennsylvania. Besides the shops and restaurants, Lititz always holds great events.

One of the best is The Lititz Outdoor Fine Arts Show that will be held Saturday at Lititz Springs Park.

Carolann Van Wyen is with the Lititz Art Association, is an artist herself and appeared on The Spark Friday, where she talked about what makes the Lititz show special,"We're talking about an elevated piece of work that is going to be a standalone piece in your home that when someone comes in, you're going to talk about that piece of art."

Van Wyen described the types of art in the Lititz show,"We have oils and acrylics, watercolors, ceramics, mixed media pastels and sculpture. And these are artists who are some are professionally trained, studied and in college and are degreed. Others are self-taught and studied in other ways. But these are artists that work at their art, work with a passion and intensity that allows them to then create this high level artwork that they're excited to present to the public."

The Lititz Outdoor Fine Art Show is open free-of-charge 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

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