Published April 24. 2026 11:08AM<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Dutch class graduation was held April 9 at Jordan Lutheran Church, 5103 Snowdrift Road, Orefield.<\/p>\n
The celebration began with a potluck dinner 6:30 p.m., hosted by instructors Jean and Dave Adam.<\/p>\n
A total of 46 students graduated from the program, which focuses on preserving and teaching the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.<\/p>\n
The evening featured a mix of Pennsylvania Dutch songs, personal anecdotes from students and organizational updates.<\/p>\n
Certificates were distributed to graduates, and several upcoming events were announced, including a gathering at the Kempton Hotel June 18 and potential future events at the Evergreen Club.<\/p>\n
Adding a lighthearted moment to the evening, student Michelle Wagaman wore a T-shirt from the Point Phillips Hotel: Tavern and Smokehouse which read, \u201cYou ain\u2019t Dutch, if you ain\u2019t much,\u201d a popular phrase expressing Pennsylvania Dutch pride.<\/p>\n
A fellow attendee jokingly suggested ordering dozens of the shirts for the next graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n
The program concluded with student Ila Dietrich presenting a gift to longtime instructors Jean and Dave Adam in appreciation of their dedication.<\/p>\n
The Adams announced plans to offer another 13-week session beginning Sept. 10.<\/p>\n
They also noted they are developing a 58-page supplemental guide with additional grammar materials to support dialect learning.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HIRSCHCraig Siegfried with guitar and Dave Adam begin the meeting with sing along \u201cAmerica\u201d in PA Dutch.<\/p>\n
Pictured are Karen Loar, Lee Burkhart, Dr. William Donner, Nadine Sevrain, Nate Berk and Kevin Berk.<\/p>\n
Stan Hamm, with is wife June, proudly shows his PA Dutch certificate. He said he grew up on a farm in Leather Corner Post.<\/p>\n
Glenn Gressley sings two humorous songs in PA Dutch. He asked Dave Adam, \u201cHow did you land this trophy wife? He sang a tribute to Jean and Dave in honor of their 65th wedding anniversary April 15.<\/p>\n
Dave and Jean Adam receive a gift for teaching the class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published April 24. 2026 11:08AM The Pennsylvania Dutch class graduation was held April 9 at Jordan Lutheran Church,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-174979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}