Since it opened in 1968, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion has stood as a deliberate statement of state pride—and a beacon of resilience. “It was the first one that was actually built to be a governor’s residence,” explains David Morrison of the Historic Harrisburg Association. Prior to its construction, gubernatorial families lived in purchased townhouses on Harrisburg’s Front Street, retrofitted to serve their needs. When the Commonwealth decided it needed a purpose-built home—complete with security features, public meeting rooms, and private living quarters—it commissioned architect George Ewing to evoke early American manor houses like William Penn’s Pennsbury Manor and Virginia’s colonial estates.

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Nashville‐based singer‐songwriter Maya de Vitry returns to her hometown this week for two special homecoming events at Zoetropolis. On Tuesday, April 29, she’ll lead an interactive workshop titled “Find Your Voice, Unblock Your Creativity, and Gain the Courage to Share Your Songs,” designed to help participants mine their personal stories and sharpen their craft. Then, on Wednesday, April 30, Maya will perform with her trio—Joel Timmons on guitar and Rhees Williams on bass—showcasing material from her latest releases and her celebrated 2024 album The Only Moment.

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“Stress is really the body’s response to some type of a challenge,” explains Dr. Patrick DeLone, a clinical psychologist, “whether it’s a physical challenge, an emotional challenge, or a combination of both.” At its core, stress triggers the familiar “fight or flight” cascade: cortisol and adrenaline spikes that sharpen focus, speed up your heart, and prime your muscles. “In fifth grade you learned about fight and flight…your metabolism goes up, you can see better, you focus better”—all reasons why short‐term stress can actually enhance performance.

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Since 2016, the Partnership for Better Health’s Match Madness campaign has raised over $5 million to bolster small and mid-sized nonprofits across the region. “We saw that our local nonprofits didn’t necessarily have the staff to do the fundraising they needed,” explains Carol Thornton, the Partnership’s Executive Director. “We spotted an opportunity to leverage our capacity…to bring in flexible funding into their organizations to meet their needs.”

The very first Match Madness matched $50,000 in partnership funds and galvanized 15 organizations to raise $116,790—more than doubling the match. Thornton recalls, “That first year showed that this was something that definitely was wanted and needed, and there was opportunity for growth.” Today, the campaign matches the first $1,500 of each nonprofit’s donations dollar-for-dollar, then allocates an additional $150,000 pool proportionally up to $30,000 per organization.

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On this week's edition of The Spark Weekly.

The Most Reverend Timothy Senior, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, joins us from Rome to reflect on the life and legacy of Pope Francis, who died the day after Easter. Religious and political leaders, along with the Catholic faithful, are gathering in Rome for the Pope’s funeral, which took place on Saturday.

Also on the program...

Johannes Kelpius was a German Pietist, mystic, musician, and writer. He was also interested in the occult, botany, and astronomy. He came to believe with his followers – called the "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness" – that the end of the world would occur in 1694.

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Our Journalist Roundtable for April 25 included Ivy DeJesus from PennLive and David Payne, The Spark producer and former Radio Pennsylvania Reporter. In this episode, DeJesus reported the life and legacy of Pope Francis including his reaction to the clergy sex abuse scandal in PA. Payne discussed his report at the 2015 World Meeting of Families and offers firsthand perspective on Francis’s impact in Philadelphia and beyond.

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Last week, The Most Reverend Timothy Senior, Bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, found himself originally traveling to Rome as part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year 2025, Bishop Senior joined forty faithful from his diocese to “walk in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare” before making arrangements to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday. As Bishop Senior explains, the Jubilee theme is “hope”—a reminder that “we are pilgrims of hope…trying to share that hope and encourage others…in the midst of so many challenging and difficult times, we all need hope.”

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Over the past two weeks, Central Pennsylvania has traded April showers for an almost unbelievable stretch of spring sunshine. As ABC27 Meteorologist Dan Tomaso put it, “It’s kind of phenomenal that this time of year…we’ve had lots of sunshine, very little active weather,” making it “the perfect recipe” for spring sports and outdoor plans. After a damp start to April and a few chilly weekends, the region has seen more days in the 70s—and even flirted with the 80s in the extended forecast—than the cooler 50s and 60s typical of early spring.

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In an era when family vloggers and “kidfluencers” can earn upwards of six figures, the rights—and privacy—of the children at the center of that content often go unprotected. Quit Clicking Kids, a grassroots initiative founded by Chris McCarty, is on a mission to change that by pushing for legislation that treats these minors as the revenue-generating contributors they are.

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Nearly 27 years ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation launched a pilot effort to curb the rising number of highway work-zone accidents. “They put together an awareness campaign and then after a year said, ‘You know, we need to take this national,’ ” recalls Stacey Taschner, President and CEO of the American Traffic Safety Services Association, which now spearheads National Work Zone Awareness Week in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and AASHTO.

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