The Daily Item from Sunbury, Pennsylvania • 9

The Daily Item Local riders saddling up to compete in Texas ED Devotion to Cuba's patron saint is strong Coming Up SUNDAY FOUR-FOOTED GUESTS Miniature donkeys pay a visit to nursing home residents. JOANNE ARBOGAST, MANAGING EDITOR I (570) 238-3954 I jarbogastdaiJyttem.com EXPEDITION SUSQUEHANNA Church hires new minister ElajpEtsiuIl Into taw Journey documents downstream impact i i mmq By Neil Cody The Daily Item SUNBURY The Daily Item has been following the travels of 12 FFA students from around the state who are participating in Expedition Susquehanna, a 444-mile boat trip from Lake Otsego in Cooperstown, N.Y., to the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Md. The group set off on June 18 to study the river's ecology, stream health, human environmental impact and other issues pertinent to those who live near the river. Because of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Web site www.cbf.org, The Daily Item and its subscribers have been privy to daily updates on their progress, educational materials about wildlife, and timely pictures from the trip. The trip wrapped up on July 18 and Brian Gray, a Selinsgrove student who participated in the adventure, has written a final journal entry to tie up his chronicle of the trip.

E-mail questions and comments to ncodydailyitem.com Brian Gray's Final Journal Entry, Week Five Yesterday, 11 FFA members, including myself along with our mentors, landed 6ur kayaks on the beach of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Merrill Center in Annapolis, Md. The purpose of this trip sponsored by the Pennsylvania FFA Association, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, NOAA, National Geographic Society, and L.L.Bean was to make the connection between communities and creeks. We did this in many different ways, such as conducting town interviews, attending conservation expos and helping in the flood cleanup. Each of us are now to return home and work with our local watershed Daily Items in the Valley VFW WELCOMES HOME 103RD SOLDIERS SELINSGROVE A welcome home party is slated Sunday for the 103rd Battalion National Guard of Lewisburg The party's being thrown by the Selinsgrove VFW post. Quartermaster Harold Aucker said it's important to give these troops a proper welcome.

The event is set for 1 to 5 p.m. at the Selinsgrove VFW along Route 522: The soldiers of the 103rd are settling back into life in the Valley after a deployment to Iraq. The party is being held for them, said Mr. Aucker, but the public is invited to attend and meet these men and women. SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON MIDDLEBURG MIDDLEBURG A Middleburg woman calls it a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and even if you don't know Dolly Smith by name, chances are you've seen her face on TV.

Ms. Smith and her senior volleyball team the Keystone Electric Tan Slammers are featured in a TV ad for Aleve painkillers. She said it all -happened because one of the girls answered a Web ad asking for Aleve users to enter for the chance to be in a commercial. The Aleve people traveled to Harrisburg, met with the team, and liked what they saw. The commercial was actually shot at a YMCA in White Plains, N.Y.

Ms. Smith said she doesn't really know why she was chosen as the spokeswoman of the group. Her best guess is that the Aleve people wanted a down-to-earth, everyday individual to do the speaking. The soon-to-be 57-year-old said she and all of her fellow senior slammers are pleased with the commercial. They compete regularly in Harrisburg, and have recently won a gold medal at the state Senior Games, which are held each year in Shippensburg.

That gold earned them a ticket to the National Senior Games, which are upcoming in Louisville, Ky. LUMBERYARD HAS CLOSED POINT TOWNSHIP A local lumber and building supply store has closed its doors. The Carter Lumber Store, on Route 1 1 between Northumberland and Danville, closed about two weeks ago. The inventory was trucked to other locations and the company isn't saying yet exactly why the store closed. The store, it was reported, has struggled with low sales.

PENN VIEW CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY PENNS CREEK The Penn View Bible Institute 6 Christian Academy will be marking its 40th anniversary on Sunday. Penn View's president. Please see PENN, B7 Photo provided Brian Gray checks water quality in Baltimore Harbor during the last few days of Expedition Susquehanna. The group also did some oyster dredging and fishing in the Chesapeake Bay. By Amanda Keister The Daily Item NORTHUMBERLAND The Trinity United Methodist Church is now under the leadership of a new minister.

The Rev. Michelle Beissel. 29, began work at the church on July 1. She comes to the area from the Shade Valley parish in southern Huntingdon County. According to the Rev.

Beissel, her placement at Trinity by the United Methodist Church is nothing less than divine intervention. With husband Brian, 26, a Lutheran min Michelle Beissel ister, the Beis- sels, who met as chaplains at the Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, in 2003, were hopeful they would be able to find placements in close proximity to each other. Fortunately for the newlywed couple, just married on May 20, Mr. Beissel obtained an internship at Northumberland's Grace Lutheran Church. Soon after came an opening at Trinity, and the couple are now living in the Trinity parsonage.

"(The church) decided that since my gifts and graces matched what they needed, they decided that it was God," she said. Since their move to the area, the Rev. Beissel said her husband, originally from Frackville and a graduate of Please see CHURCH, B7 Moth spray planned SUNBURY The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has determined that populations of Gypsy Moths remain at destructive levels, so a suppression program is planned. The Northumberland County Conservation District is accepting applications from residents in the county who experienced problems with Gypsy Moth'caterpillars this spring. Once applications are received, the conservation district will evaluate the property to see it meets the 2007 suppression program requirements.

These include: there must be a residence on the property; the residence must be within 200 feet of the forest: there is a 25-acre spray block minimum: trees on the property must included species favorable to Gypsy Moth; and the property must have a minimum of 250 healthy egg masses per acre. To meet the 25-acre requirement, an applicant doesn't need to own 25-acres, he or she just needs to recruit neighboring landowners to sign on to the application. The cost per acre has not yet been determined, but the property owner will be responsible for that cost. Applications are due by Aug. 18.

Those inter-Please see MOTH, B7 if i ll 11 Soapbox derby winners honored ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. From small things like limiting fertilizer applications on your yard or being careful about what runs into the storm drains to big projects like cleaning up acid mine drainage and helping farmers reduce run-off by supporting stream bank fencing and riparian buffers. Also frequently stressed to us was the need to vote for candidates willing to support conservation efforts. By all working together, we can "Save the 1 0 ytjy uuiji Brandon Zoch Sheldon Vanatta Mil Havden Jenrey Pope Stanford km Alexis Robb Jessica Foltz which stuns the fish and causes them to rise to the surface. My partner would then collect them with a net.

When we were done gathering the fish we identified, measured, recorded important species information, and released them. From the observations, we could determine the water quality and health of the stream. Throughout the trip, we learned the importance of each person becoming aware of how they can help clean up the Susquehanna River and 3 oky Justin Eroh Andrew Marczyk 11 UM1 Jessica Miller Nicholas Mendler Ryan Kal- Addison cich Klock group to develop a plan to in some small way involve our local community in a project to help return the bay to an unpolluted state. As a group, we discussed our favorite parts of the trip; everyone said they enjoyed the hellbenders, which are 2-foot long salamanders we found at World's End State Park. My personal favorite part of the trip was when I got to use the electro-shocker to catch fish.

The rod sends out an electric current through the water. Brandon Zoch finished in first place, followed by Jessica Miller in second and Ryan Kal-cich in third. And in the 12-year-old category, Jessice L. Foltz finished in first place, followed by Addison Klock in second and Alexis Robb in third. This year, a final race was held among all first-place winners in each age group.

Jessica L. Foltz, 12, won that race and a $25 gift certificate to the Susquehanna Valley Mall. All racers receive a medallion and free T-shirt, sponsored by Sunbury Textile Mills. First-through third-place trophies were awarded in each age group, sponsored by the New Paul Stine Chevrolet Oldsmo-bile, a New Mark Monaghan Dealership. SUNBURY Results of the Sunbury Celebration's fifth annual soap box derby, held July 10 and inrrcn In the 8- Sunbury year-old cat- Celebration egory, Nicho- event las Mendler finished in first place, followed by Sheldon Vanatta in second and Brittany Wise in third.

In the 9-year-old Andrew Marczyk finished in first place followed by Justin Eroh in second and Bryce Bu-cher in third. In the 10-year-old category, Hayden Pope finished in first place followed by Jeffrey L. Stanford in second and Cody Hackenburg in third. In the 11-year-old category..