July 2025 News

SPY has been at the pinnacle of creative summer fun for Carlisle youth for quite some time. We've lost track of how many years the Charles Bruce Foundation has joined in the fun at camp. It's wonderful to watch SPY grow from a summer program to a year-round haven for kids with working parents. We look forward to participating this November during Thanksgiving break, so stay tuned! 

In the meanwhile, we've all been quite busy. Earlier this month, the I SPY older kids got comic book drawing lessons from the prolific master, Jason Seaux. Each and every kid in this 5th and 6th grade program got copies of Major Tom and the Spiders from Mars as well as Micah Davis Culbertson's Losers Weepers.

A few weeks later, the I SPY cooking club whipped up some recipes with Chef Jason Turner from Pat LaMarche's book, Humble Pie in the kitchen, and each received a copy of that book. For SPY and at the Charles Bruce Foundation, literacy is a primary goal.

The third and fourth graders had a chance to create more hand-drawn squares for this year's #MemorialBlanket quilt. Last year, this age group read Kursid Kids: For the Love of Pearl, the first book in the Kursid Kids series, out loud together. This year, they received Kursid Kids: Winter Turns, book two in the saga.

Before the season ends, Pat will drop by one more time and hang out with the smallest SPY campers for more blanket making fun AND to share Bob Bradshaw's charming book, Ronnie the Raincloud Takes His First Trip.

If you're one of the many Charles Bruce Foundation donors, thank you, and please know that it is your generosity that makes all these joint literacy programs possible.

Excavated from a previously untapped vein in the Book Mine in the Fortress of Solitude of Whistlestop Bookshop comes a thriller of a fundraiser for Charles Bruce Foundation!

When 23 boxes packed with excellent books from the library of a dear friend and customer of Whistlestop Bookshop, long gone and still missed, were unearthed, they knew she would approve of an event to raise funds for the Charles Bruce Foundation.

Tapping into the kindness of another dear friend, Molly Pitcher Brewing Company, the Beers & Books event was born. 75% of all book sales, all priced at $1, came to us with over $1000 raised. Members of a supportive Carlisle community browsed great books and glimpsed into the diverse mind of a wonderful and intelligent friend who passed on. Performance artist Laurie Anderson once observed that the death of a loved one was like an entire library burning down. Fortunately, Beers & Books rescued some of those memories through the books that remained.

Speaking of good, clean summer fun, the annual Carlisle Summerfair saw visitors help Charles Bruce Foundation complete a brand new addition to Pennsylvania's largest paint by number series. As is the tradition, the painting will travel to our good friends at Molly Pitcher Brewing Company to enhance the experience of their imbibing patrons.

Not to be left out, #MemorialBlanket benefited from the efforts of several talented crocheting and knitting artisans who participated in the blanket-in-a-day event.

With just over five months remaining, we'll be having many more blanket-in-a-day events, including TWO celebrating Ukrainian independence on August 24th and 31st upstairs at Molly Pitcher Brewing Company from noon until 4 pm.

All of this year's blankets will wind their way west to be displayed a mile high in Denver, Colorado. See memorialblanket.org for more details. Of course, it goes without saying that following the display, those same blankets will be wrapped lovingly around the shoulders of folks in need.