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Twenty-five years after 9/11, a Lehigh Valley bike ride later this month is making sure we never forget.
Also in today’s newsletter…
🎨 Art that transcends time
❎ Green Party candidate booted from the PA-7 race
🤝 Celebrating the good neighbors among us
The Never Forget Ride started with two guys and a mountain. It is bigger now.
Frank Lupin was approaching 60 when a Tunnel to Towers commercial got to him. Those first responders ran into the buildings; the least he could do was ride a bike over Blue Mountain. So he did, on 9/11 that year, with a friend.
Several years and a few more friends later, the ride has a goal to raise $60,000 this year, every dollar to first responders and veterans.
The Never Forget Ride takes place Sept. 20, out of Woodstone Country Club, which has a sculpture made from World Trade Center steel on the grounds.
Brittany Sweeney sits down with Frank on Living in the Lehigh Valley.
Then and now, in a Nazareth senior’s own hand
Two self-portraits, one at 3 and one at 17, drawn in charcoal by Anesa Salihu, a Nazareth Area senior who is our artist of the month for September. She calls it Growing Wishes. Soft charcoal for the nostalgia, hard charcoal for the details, and yes, she worked from actual childhood photos.
Brittany Sweeney sat down with her, and with the mom who handed her crayons at age 3.
Green Party candidate booted from the PA-7 race
The Lehigh Valley’s congressional race is back to two names. A Commonwealth Court judge tossed would-be Green Party candidate Andrew Tupone from the ballot Friday, siding with the Green Party of Pennsylvania, which did not want him. His party registration went Republican in February, Democrat in March, Green in April, and he never talked to party officials. Democrats have called him a spoiler. He says he is appealing.
Why it matters: past third-party candidates here pulled about 3% of the vote. In a district decided by razor-thin margins since 2020, that is enough to swing it.
🎥
Come meet the neighbors
Thursday night we premiere Good Neighbors Live Here, a ten-episode series about the people doing the work in the Lehigh Valley: educators, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, advocates. Made with Greenleaf Productions.
The premiere is Sept. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the Univest Public Media Center. Stories, music, refreshments. Free, but seats are limited and you need to register.
Can’t make it? The series airs Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. on PBS39, and streams on PBS Passport as it airs.
More From LVPM
🌸 Closer than you think: Bloom CEO Carol Andersen tells Megan Frank on Common Threads what it takes to help women rebuild after sex trafficking.
🤖 Labor meets AI: Tom Shortell and Chris Borick talk through what AI is doing to the political conversation on Political Pulse.
⚾️ IronPigs, check: Our new VP of Content, Emma Patti, took in her first IronPigs game. Watch the recap, then send her your next Lehigh Valley must-do.
🍷 A toast to Gloria: Elaine Pivinski, Pennsylvania’s first female winery founder, told Megan Frank on Common Threads what Steinem meant to women of her generation. After news of Steinem’s death at 92, we’re revisiting that conversation.
From Around the ValleyPennsylvania may ban cellphones in schools this year. Here is where each Lehigh Valley district stands. (lehighvalleylive.com)Fall farm season is here. Instagram account 610girlies rounded up eight local spots for pumpkins, apples and corn mazes in and around the Lehigh Valley. (@610girlies on Instagram)This year’s Allentown Fair Iron Chef champ, Paul Rojrattana of La Kang, is opening Bell Thai Kitchen in Moore Township in the next few weeks. Thai comfort food, his mom’s recipes, BYOB. (WFMZ)Superheroes are cleaning up at the box office, and eight independent comic shops across the Lehigh Valley are riding it. One in Quakertown reopened last week after a flood wiped out its inventory, restocked by other collectors. (The Morning Call)Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is one of 18 elected officials speaking at the Republican convention in Dallas this week, the first midterm-year convention in modern memory. Bob Brooks says he will be home in the Lehigh Valley instead. (Armchair Lehigh Valley)
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