A story to remind you of the good in the world. One recent day, I headed out to Van Sant Airport to document Freedom’s Wings International’s inspiring work. It was a feature photo gallery and video package for the Bucks County Herald Newspaper. The group gifted free glider rides to several Pennsylvanians with mobility impairments at Van Sant Airport in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Gil Frost, president of Freedom’s Wings International, and several volunteers welcomed members of “I AM,”
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As market booms, affordable housing in Bucks County is in short supply. Marion Callahan Bucks County Courier Times/ USA Today Pennsylvania A cactus rests by the windowsill, perched above eight large plastic bins packed with most of Karen McDonald’s belongings. The plant, McDonald said, brings her peace as she moves through a revolving door of homes. It’s a symbol of survival in the transient and often unforgiving world of navigating homelessness in the Philadelphia suburbs. In February, hope for a more
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By Marion Callahan Published in USA Today, The Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. Ernie Gross learned to find hope and humor in the darkest of places. It was not an easy task for Gross, who from a very young age was known as “the boy who never laughed.” When he did laugh as a child, banging pots and pans with his older brother David, his mother would scold him. “How can you laugh
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During a recent training with Sony professionals, I created this video featuring professional Boxer J.D. Rivera. Another team-produced video is featured below. Playlist 1 Videos Sample Video 0:16
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Covering elections means getting local and national in scope. That year, I captured presidential visits through photos and video, covered the polls, and wrote breaking-news stories.
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Foster kids: ‘They are the forgotten children’ Marion Callahan Published in The Bucks County Courier Times & Intelligencer Andrew Smith knows how to file a tax return. He knows how to cook a steak, and at 18, he knows the cheapest place to buy one. But he doesn’t know why he was pulled from his home and separated from his four brothers at age 9. He doesn’t know why the family that fostered him for
Read MoreMy first introduction into the world of play dates was a shocker. Several years ago, I visited my friend with my first child, who was then 7 months old. It was exciting to bring our children together for the first time. I had been living overseas and wasn’t around to witness the parenting part of my friend. About 30 minutes into our visit, her little girl belted my baby with a toy. My friend offered
Read MoreThere are some obvious rip-offs we surrender to in suburban life — $5 sodas at the movies, $4 two-minute pony rides at community fairs and the inevitable trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s. Make no mistake, I am among you, dropping a chunk of my paycheck on tokens for games to get tickets to earn prizes like spider rings that will be inhaled by my vacuum or rolls of Smarties I’ll find crushed under a couch
Read MoreThere I was at Manhattan Bagel frantically tearing up bite-size pieces of my bagel so my then 9-month-old would stop trying to arch his way out of the high chair. Meanwhile, my 2-year-old stood wobbling on his own chair, licking butter off his toast while testing my patience. Then she walked in — all professional in a pinstriped suit and the kind of heels I see only on mannequins. I sat in my elastic-waist pants
Read MoreWarwick Township Baseball little league game, coached by Phillies legends Charlie Manual and Larry Bowa, honored Stephen Plum Jr., who died suddenly in May at 38. Plum’s sons play baseball for the club and Plum Jr. once coached there. Warwick coach Jeff Becarris won the little league coaching opportunity in a charity event and shared it with his local baseball club. The Plum family threw the first pitch. The Bucks County Courier Times sent me
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By Marion Callahan, USA Today Network, Pa. The words were not hers, but she delivered them as if they were. Doylestown Hospital ICU nurse Shumi Mazzacano had two daughters on a FaceTime call, eager to hear what they knew would be the last words from their mother, in the hospital stricken with COVID-19. Despite the agony of forced separation, one of the pandemic’s cruelest sentences, Mazzacano said the daughters made a choice “out of love”
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