May 2025 News

Looking for fun lovers, volunteers, and crafty folks to join us this June 28th because if it is Carlisle Summerfair time, then you know it is time for the Charles Bruce Foundation to bring you the #memorialblanket blanket-in-a-day and Pennsylvania's largest paint-by-numbers fun!

Last year, you put your needles together or hooked your way to create squares that were later assembled into a blanket made to wrap an unhoused person in hand-made love. If you enjoyed spending time with others while crafting yarn into art, we welcome you back. It you couldn't join in the fun, this is a new opportunity you won't want to miss. 

If you're more into painting…you might want to join us for Pennsylvania’s largest paint-by-numbers. A few years ago we did this, bringing to life a 4 x 8 foot WAM! the Spaceman on the moon. That community painting is now on display at Molly Pitcher Brewing Co. for a limited time. If you don't often get into their brewery, what are you waiting for? Best homemade tater tots on the planet (or the moon for that matter). And if you live far from Carlisle, please check out the painting in a past Charles Bruce Foundation newsletter. 

This year, we’re celebrating a young girl who bravely left her home in Trenton, New Jersey in search of work. She ended up a servant in the home of a revolutionary war doctor living on the front lines in Carlisle. Thanks to our own Chad Bruce for bringing this enormous Molly Pitcher tribute to life. Many thanks to Phil George for sharing his artistic interpretation, as well as the Carlisle Arts Learning Center and Devera Lang for providing us with lots of paints and brushes. Lastly, special thanks to the Carlisle Tool Library and Create-a-Palooza for the massive 8 foot by 4 foot easel on which the painting will rest.

If you want to be the most important element in a successful Charles Bruce Foundation presence at Carlisle Summerfair, please volunteer!

To join us at Summerfair on Dickinson College campus, click the button below.

For many years, our Charles Bruce Foundation artists, authors, and the occasional musician have given their time to Supportive Partnerships for Youth (SPY). Each year, we're thrilled to spend time with young people sharing story readings or instruction on journaling, writing, rhyming, illustrating, singing and other forms of storytelling.

And, each year, the kids make blanket squares that they illustrate by hand. They made drawings of their stories, their families, their favorite pets, hobbies, imaginary creatures, inspirational comments—literally whatever struck their fancy. 

Our friends at SPY faced some program-threatening budget cuts this year when the DOGE team in Washington took an axe to their grants. You can read a Carlisle Sentinel article covering the story by clicking the button below. We want to share it, so that you can see what we see. SPY is so worth the investment!

For more general information about SPY, click their partner link at the bottom of this newsletter.

Water pie. What? Never heard of it? How about vinegar pie? What kind of recipes are these?

They are some of the concoctions po' folk have cooked up over the years to feed themselves and their families when times were tough.

If you read Humble Pie, Pat LaMarche's latest book on food insecurity, you might even have tried one of these and other delicious, cost-efficient dishes. Better yet, if you stopped by to visit her (along with master-chef Jason Turner) at the Farmers on the Square April 30, you might have been one of the 100 people who got to sample one of those amazing pies. Some folks weren't interested in tasting water pie (seriously, who turns down free pie?) but that's okay. They still received a free copy of the book just for dropping by the booth. Many thanks to the Partnership for Better Health for helping us distribute this important book about food insecurity and our neighbors. No matter where you live in the USA—you've got hungry neighbors. Learn about this issue in Humble Pie.

If you didn't have an opportunity to visit the market on April 30 to pick up your free copy of the book, you can make a donation for a copy of Humble Pie by clicking the button below. All proceeds help folks in need.

While not financially assisted by the Charles Bruce Foundation, the Sacred Legions podcast could not exist without its support. Its official logo is an original creation by CBF founder, Chad Bruce. The podcast hosts are two of the board members: Max Goller and Pat LaMarche. The producer responsible for booking most of our outstanding stable of guests is, again, Pat LaMarche pulling out the stop with all of her unbelievable (but actually really believable) journalism and broadcasting connections.

We bring this up in the current newsletter because their latest podcast episode, released May 12, features an interview with Кушнір Юрій Вікторович (Yurii Kushnir) and Світлана Блінова (Svitlana Blionova), two secular saints (people living decently in indecent times) on the front lines of the war in Ukraine. Thanks to Melissa Crick, a survivor of the 2018 Paradise, California wildfires who met the pair during a Sister Cities International visit, for alerting her favorite journalist to these important interview subjects.

To hear this and other podcast episodes, use the button below to visit Sacred Legions.