The Spark

Our Journalist roundtable for Feburary 14 included WVIA agriculture reporter Isabela Weiss and LNP's Jaxson White. Isabela discussed the budget address and its effect in agriculture in western Pa. Jaxson discussed an overview of the budget address and a look ahead to the legislative budget hearings in Harrisburg.

Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation. 

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For our weekly weather segment, ABC 27 Meteorologist Dan Tomaso shared an update about Valentines Day weekend weather, an overview of next weeks weather, and how soon until we can spot spring weather.

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Couples are invited to renew their commitment to one another and celebrate the Valentine’s season in what’s been called the most romantic small town in Pennsylvania. Mary Grace Kauffman, Media Relations Manager with Destination Gettysburg, joined the spark to share more about the event. 

Gettysburg Loves Love will return to historic Gettysburg on Saturday, Feb. 15 from 2 to 4 p.m. inside the Hotel Gettysburg (1 Lincoln Square). Gettysburg Mayor Rita C. Frealing will lead married couples through a vow renewal ceremony at 3 p.m., which will be live streamed by Community Media of South Central PA. The free outdoor event, presented by Destination Gettysburg, Community Media and Main Street Gettysburg, is open to all.

At the firstGettysburg Loves Love event in 2024, more than 120 couples from nine states registered to attend, ranging from newlyweds to a couple who celebrated 70 years of marriage.

“Gettysburg Loves Love is a celebration of the love we have for each other and for the Gettysburg community. Our town has such a romantic atmosphere this time of year and this event really shines a light on that,” Destination Gettysburg Director of Partnership Amy Welsh said. “In the first year of the event, we hoped for at least 50 couples. We were impressed by the response and can’t wait to see how many lovebirds flock to Gettysburg this year.”

In recent years, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania has been recognized as a top romantic destination. In 2023, New York Travel Guides crowned Gettysburg as the most romantic small town in Pennsylvania, and in 2024 the U.S. News & World Report claimed Gettysburg as one of the Top 20 most romantic getaways in the Keystone State.

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Hershey Gardens opened in 1937 with Milton Hershey’s request to “create a nice garden of roses.” More than 85 years later, the small rose garden has blossomed into 23 acres of botanical beauty providing visitors with unique experiences and enriching opportunities.

We spoke with Amy Zeigler, Senior Director with the M.S. Hershey Foundation about Hershey’s Gardens history, the butterfly atrium, how the gardens are maintained, renovations taking place, and how you can get involved.

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Job scams have been on the rise in recent years. Scammers have been using artificial intelligence, also known as AI, to create fake job listings and steal personal and financial information from job seekers. Julie Shore, President and owner of Career Development Advisors, was a guest on The Spark Feb 13 and shared some tips to protect ourselves from scammers.

Shore says with the rise in technology, there’s been more than 20,000 jobs a year that have been reported as scams since 2020.

“Especially with the rising age of technology, people are receiving texts, email, some common industries I've seen are for, especially work from home jobs, sales related, potentially tutoring. I've heard in the technology industry as well.”

As a job seeker, Shore shared a few red flags to look out for when applying for positions online.

“As a job seeker, you should never, ever, ever be paying money for anything unless, for instance, you want, you know, premium access to, like, LinkedIn for job search purposes. But you should not be paying in for a job, number one. Number two, you should never feel pressured into making a decision. Number three, if something's too good to be true, it probably is. And number four, sharing any personal information such as social security number, date of birth, none of that is legally permissible in most cases on a pre-hire basis.”

Listen to the podcast to hear more tips from Julie Shore.

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The 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show is themed “Gardens of Tomorrow.” Seth Pearsoll, President and Creative Director of the flower show says they wanted the event to be timeless. The event is set to take place from March 1-9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

“We like all of the different people who create something with us There's thousands of them. We want them to have something they can get excited about and do their thing at the show And then we also want the show to be kind of slightly referencing something that's happening in the world in this case We wanted to remind people that If you're a gardener if you're a plant lover if you like botanicals You're kind of in a field that's helping to make the world a better place to give you something to look forward to So gardens of tomorrow.”

The Entrance Garden, “Futura Florentia” sets the tone for visitors. It’s divided more into three giant beds and each has a custom water feature inside of it.

“We modified the rain bars from car washes Because we were looking for a really specific Like sound and pattern so we have these really cool kind of Custom rain bars in each of the garden and then on the inside of these Custom water elements this insane floral display. So you've got you know, these incredible flowers You've got the sound that gentle kind of dripping of water. You've got kind of that crystalline rivulet, you know of water falling And then we've also got 24 cherry trees up above up high So whole thing is surrounded by beautiful blossoming trees. We also custom -made 12 of these concrete printed Kind of vases these giant containers and then our floral partner will Do a really modern kind of horizontal floral arrangement over the top of that? And then of course every garden has incredible horticulture and incredible garden beds So you've got custom lighting elements. You've got these kind of really nice sonic element with the water You've got flowers everywhere got trees overhead.”

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February may not seem like peak gardening season, however some gardeners are probably itching to get outside in their gardens. Horticulturalist Erica Jo Shaffer was on The Spark, and talked about seed starting tips for this time of year, how to improve soil quality, common mistakes gardeners make this time of year and how they can be avoided, plus good projects for beginner gardeners to start in February.

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The Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC are gearing up for the Harrisburg Regional Economic Forecast February 13. The Harrisburg Regional Economic Forecast offers local business leaders and finance professionals a must- attend luncheon featuring a keynote from a leading economist on local, national, and global financial trends.

Ryan Unger, President and CEO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC says the capital region has a strong and vibrant economy.

“Our unemployment typically mirrors because of the industrial mix that we have, and it remains low, some of the lowest since I've been doing this over 20 years, right? It's a little bit higher than it was last year, but again, that mirrors a lot of trends and the result of a bunch of different policy choices, I think the curve inflation to get us to where we're at, but we've seen growth in our employment and our population and a lot of positive trends here in the Harrisburg capital region, “said Unger.

Central Pennsylvania also had the largest increase in remote work due to the business and professional services in our area.

“I think certainly the continued impact of remote work we've seen impact us significantly. We have a project we're gonna talk about at our economic forecast luncheon upcoming, and we benchmark ourselves against other peer metros with similar economies and population, “said Unger.

Ryotaro Tashiro, Outreach Economist and Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, says the economy looks fairly healthy and the job market has been experiencing some growth.

“You know, professional services, eds and meds are really big in the area. The one thing I would add is that, you know, leisure and hospitality has always been, you know, fairly a big part of the labor market in the area, right, so we know that that sector of the economy lost a ton of jobs during the first couple of years of the pandemic. That particular sector has been rebounding fairly steadily and significantly. So, I would say those three sectors all happen to be service providing sectors, by the way, you know, have been the most important parts of the growth in the local labor market. And I don't see any reason why this will change in the future, “said Tashrio.

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People of African descent lived in medieval Europe, and Europeans were aware of the power of contemporary kingdoms in Africa. This shaped the way that people from African were depicted in the art and literature of medieval Europe in different ways. Dr. Chrissie Senecal, Associate Professor at Shippensburg University, shared about their presence during that era.

“it's really an erroneous idea that people of color actually of African descent were not present in Western Europe. Just a big example is that obviously Spain is in Western Europe. Spain had been conquered in the early medieval period by people from North Africa that were Muslim and had set up an incredibly vibrant culture, like the biggest city of medieval Europe was Cordoba. So that's a whole bunch of people. There were also constant exchanges with people in the Mediterranean. So, for example, the Kingdom of Ethiopia was known to be Christian, and they had an embassy in Rome. Moreover, there's a lot of contact with the Eastern Mediterranean through the Crusades. And that was a kind of melting pot in some ways of different cultures. The island of Sicily is also a place where many, many people of African descent existed.”

Figures like Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men, were depicted with African features in medieval art. According to Dr. Senecal, Balthazar is a really fascinating character in medieval art.

“So, in the new test, obviously, we know medieval Europe, predominantly Christian, although there's many, many Muslims in Spain and there's a large Jewish population as well. But most people identified as Christian outside of Spain. And in the medieval period, there began to be legends attached to the Gospel of Matthew about the three wise men that went to visit Jesus. So that gospel actually doesn't say there were three. It becomes thought of as three wise men representing a king, sort of mage from Europe, from Asia, from Africa. And so Balthazar is considered to be from Africa. But here's where we get into, like, you know, descendant of Africa versus black, because in the first renditions of Balthazar in medieval art, like in the 11th century, Balthazar is depicted as with white skin. And it isn't until the 1400s that he's shown with black skin, even though he was considered to be from Africa. And some of the most beautiful paintings of the wise men come from the 1400s. And you see images of Balthazar wearing this incredibly beautiful clothing, sumptuous fabric. And, you know, he carries myrrh along with the other wise men carrying the other gifts. And it's really incredible. There's a kind of middle transition period. Like in the 1300s, we have an image of Balthazar and he has white skin, but he has a servant accompanying him. And that servant has black skin. So it's a pretty fascinating trajectory.”

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As we celebrate Black History Month, we turned to Wesley Union A.M.E Zion Church. Wesley Union A.M.E Zion Church is the oldest black church with deep roots in the fight for justice and equality.

According to Joyce Scott Parker, church historian, Wesley Union was the first African American church in Harrisburg and played a role in the Underground Railroad.

Our second church is the church that housed people who were trying to get of the life that they were living and get to a new life, and we had several members of our church who helped them do what they needed to do go higher in the world or to go even further north than Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, “said Parker.

The church is still playing a huge role in the community. David T. Miller, Pastor of Wesley Union Zion A.M.E Church.

“Pennsylvania is a Commonwealth state, and it was a free state as well the state of Pennsylvania. So, individuals came here whether they wanted to go further up north to New York or they plant their roots here in Harrisburg. Well, the upside to it is Wesley Union Zion Church clings on to that rich history because we have individuals who are coming through to better themselves and some people stop off in Harrisburg stop by Wesley and say I like this place. This is where I want to live. This is where I want to reside and our model for our church is to make an impact in our community which we have done on a consistent basis, “said Miller.

Located inside the church is a history room. One of the items inside are books, certificates, old photos, and more.

“We have the shovel which we kept the shovel for the groundbreaking when we built our current edifice. When Sister Parker speaks of the ashes, what is typical in the black church when you purchase a building or build a building, you get a loan from the bank or whatnot and once the edifice is paid off, you have what is called a mortgage burning. This is a big thing in the black church. You got together and burned a mortgage, “said Miller.

The church burned every mortgage into ashes that are now kept in jars in the history rooms.

“The significance of that is at any point in time someone could dig their hand in the jar and they could look about whatever they went through, whatever trial they had and they could say, oh wow, look where God has brought us from. So, we have the significance part of that being that mason jar, “said Miller.

The Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg is an extension of Wesley Union AME Zion Church. The cemetery also holds historical figures like William Howard Day and black civil war veterans. The first church was built in 1816, and in 1817 the church decided to build there own cemetery.

“It's not big, but it's big enough to hold Civil War veterans, distinguished people in Harrisburg who, of course they're dead now, but anyway, distinguished people, many. Reverend Miller already said that we have distinguished people there, “said Parker.

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