UPPER DARBY — The Upper Darby High School Marching Royals recently took first place in the USBands A Class National Championships, held at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown.
The Royals won the top honors out of the 34 bands in total: 1A, 1AA, 4A and 5A bands performed.
Some of the Upper Darby Royals Band members strike a pose after winning first place in the USBands A Class National Championships, recently held in Allentown. (COURTESY OF UPPER DARBY HIGH SCHOOL)
The Upper Darby Marching Band’s field show was titled “Cleopatra: Reign and Ruin,” with music by Randall Standridge and field drill by Ed Otto. Percussion design was by Patrick Horan and Hasan Haque. The show followed the rise and fall of Egypt’s famous last pharoah, Cleopatra.
The band earned a 92.0 score, winning the 5A National Championship, and earned the Best Overall Effect and High Percussion Caption Awards.
The band is under the direction of C. Douglas Ballard, Upper Darby director of bands, and Mia Yocco, assistant director.
Guest of honor Barrett Brooks at the 2025 Help Hope Live gala at Drexelbrook Events Center with Help Hope Live’s 2025 Live Award recipient Patrice Jetter, the Help Hope Live client and star of the Emmy-winning documentary “Patrice: The Movie.” (COURTESY OF HELP HOPE LIVE)
Help Hope Live raises $190,000 at gala to fight medical debt
Radnor-based medical fundraising nonprofit Help Hope Live recently raised over $190,000 at its 13th annual Live it Up! Gala on Oct. 23 at Drexelbrook Events Center.
According to the organization, the funds raised will make a life-changing impact on the thousands of families across the country who have been forced to fundraise with Help Hope Live due to overwhelming out-of-pocket medical expenses. Support for the nonprofit enables families to access trusted, one-on-one medical fundraising help for a lifetime of need.
Guests of honor at the 2025 Live It Up! gala included emcee WHYY’s Cherri Gregg; former Eagles player Barrett Brooks; Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation staff; world-renowned transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Montgomery; and Patrice Jetter, star of Emmy-winning documentary “Patrice: The Movie.”
Guest of honor Barrett Brooks shared that he faced a transplant need unexpectedly in 2025, and faced $17,000 in out-of-pocket transplant costs, even with “good insurance.”
“That’s why Help Hope Live matters,” he said. “Lifesaving treatment shouldn’t depend on financial wealth.”
The organization’s 2025 Help Award was awarded to Alan Brown, director of New Partner Engagement for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
Brown became paralyzed in a diving accident at age 20 and has dedicated his life to helping others in the paralysis community.
He has raised tens of millions of dollars to support care and hope for the paralysis community, as well as serving as a personal mentor, partner, advocate, and friend to countless individuals with paralysis.
Brown refers families facing paralysis with out-of-pocket costs to Help Hope Live for trusted medical fundraising.
Help Hope Live’s 2025 Hope Award was received by Montgomery, a world renowned transplant who grew up in Philadelphia and was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025.
Montgomery pioneered laparoscopic kidney procurement and xenotransplantation using pig hearts and kidneys to save human lives. He has performed more than 1,000 kidney transplants. He has received his own heart transplant and accepted a hepatitis C-positive organ.
He also performed the kidney transplant that saved the life of the mother of Help Hope Live’s Executive Director Kelly Green.
Help Hope Live Executive Director Kelly Green at the Drexelbrook Events Center during the recent Live it Up! fundraiser gala. (COURTESY OF HELP HOPE LIVE)
Help Hope Live’s 2025 Live Award was received by Jetter.
The 2024 Hulu documentary about Jetter showcases her fight for marriage equality for the disability community, when she was unable to marry her 35-year partner, Garry Wickham, due to disability benefits “marriage penalty” and its financial impact.
Jetter has been a beloved crossing guard for 30-plus years in Hamilton, N.J., while living with diplegic cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities. She is an athlete, ice skating instructor, and artist in her free time.
The 2025 Rainey Award for Volunteer of the Year was received by Ron Siggs, former Help Hope Live board chair and Jefferson Moss-Magee’s senior vice president of development.
One of Help Hope Live’s longest-serving board members, donors and volunteers, Siggs became connected to the mission 20 years ago as part of Help Hope Live’s first-ever “catastrophic injury” campaign. It was to help a local woman with paralysis and then began serving as an ally and mentor, including to families facing life-changing medical crises or injuries who seek rehabilitation at Magee.
Since 1983, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Help Hope Live has supported community-based fundraising for people with unmet medical expenses and related costs due to cell and organ transplants or catastrophic injuries and illnesses.
Founded by a Philadelphia heart transplant surgeon and his wife, a nurse, the organization was created to help patients fund lifesaving transplants.
Today, its mission spans a diverse patient community in all 50 states and Puerto Rico that includes people living with diagnoses ranging from COVID-19 and cancer to traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and chronic illnesses.
Funds raised through donations and community events not only sustain Help Hope Live’s program and services but also enable special initiatives that impact local families, from emergency needs grants to adaptive bike giveaways for children in the tristate area living with disabilities.
For more information, go to http://helphopelive.org.
Main Line singles dinner club opens to new members
Catholic single men and women, ages 52 to 69, are invited to join The Main Line Singles Dinner Club to share common interests and to dine together, usually two times a month or once every three weeks.
The next scheduled event is Post Thanksgiving House Party at a member’s home in Havertown at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30. For more information, call Barbara at 610-896-6542.
Café opens once each month for those with memory loss
Delaware County is now home to a Memory Café that meets from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month at Ridley Township Public Library, 100 E. McDade Boulevard, Folsom.
The next session will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6.
A Memory Café is a place that people with memory loss can go with their care partner to socialize in a judgement-free zone, enjoy activities and light refreshments. The social meeting group is for people with memory loss and their care partners.
The hope is to create a community that promotes new friendships among people who are living with memory loss.
Participants will attend with their care takers, so there is a component of this that could feel supportive to family members. However, Memory Café is not a support group and there will not be speakers educating about dementia. The group offers casual socialization, fun and light refreshments.
There is no fee to attend, and people experiencing any stage of memory loss are welcome to participate.
Registration is preferred, but not required. Drop-ins are welcome. To RSVP: https://delcolibraries.libcal.com/event/15394418.
For more information about Memory Café, visit www.delcomemorycafe.org.
Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic recognized for promotion of healthy eating
Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic announced this week that St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby and Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia have been recognized by Good Food, Healthy Hospitals, a statewide initiative administered by The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania aimed at improving the health of communities through better nutrition.
Hospitals are recognized for implementing innovative practices that promote healthy food and beverage options.
This fall, 68 hospitals across 31 counties in Pennsylvania are being recognized for their annual achievements. GFHH celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year, marking a decade of impact.
GFHH program participants target food served throughout the hospital, including patient meals, cafeteria offerings, catering menus and vending machine options. GFHH supports achievement by providing purchasing standards, implementation assistance and marketing materials to educate patients, staff and the community.
“Our commitment to the well-being of our patients and community extends well beyond the exam room,” says Tom Boyd, regional director of Trinity Health hospitality services. “By serving fresh and nutritious meals in our hospital and promoting healthy food choices, we’re supporting our patients’ overall health while setting an example for healthy living in our community.”
Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby signed the GFHH pledge in 2018. Mercy Fitzgerald’s participant level of recognition for 2025 represents achievement in implementing one GFHH standard: Food and Beverages Served in Patient Meals.
Learn more about the GFHH program at https://www.haponline.org/Public-Health/Nurturing-Health-Communities/Good-Food-Healthy-Hospitals%C2%A0and%C2%A0foodfitphilly.org/homepage/food-justice/gfhh.
Film spotlights local champion of peaceful protest
Neumann University in Aston Township will host a free screening of “Citizen George,” a documentary about the life and work of 88-year-old Quaker activist George Lakey.
The screening is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20 in the Meagher Theatre.
Lakey, a recently retired Swarthmore College professor, is a nonviolent revolutionary who has worked his entire life for justice and peace, guided by his ideal of societal transformation.
The film highlights events, many with a local flavor, that span 60 years of American activism, including opposition to the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, as well as support for civil rights, LGBTQ rights and climate justice.
Lakey has led more than 1,500 social justice workshops on five continents and is the author of 11 books.
After the film, director Glenn Holsten will participate in a panel discussion, moderated by Neumann faculty members, and take questions from the audience.
Holsten has directed nearly two dozen full-length documentaries that have been screened at film festivals, broadcast on public television and cable television, and now are featured on a multitude of streaming platforms. His work centers around issues of social justice, mental health, and the arts.
The film is the second of three bonus screenings planned by the Neumann Inspires Film Festival. To learn more about the film festival, visit www.neumann.edu/filmfest.
Readers can send community news and photos to Peg DeGrassa at pdegrassa@21st-centurymedia.com.