Bucks County News in Brief

New Year's prayers for peace at Yardley Friends Meeting

The community is invited to pray for peace on New Year's Day at the Yardley Friends Meeting.

The Greater Bucks Peace Circle will host the annual event from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday.

In March, members of the circle will join the Delaware Valley Interfaith Delegation to Israel/Palestine on a "compassionate listening journey" to the Middle East. The delegation will meet with religious leaders, activists, elected officials and local residents.

On its return to the United States, the delegation will share its experiences and urge citizens to become engaged as peacemakers.

At the prayer event in Yardley, a free-will offering will be taken to help defray costs of the trip. Yardley Friends Meeting is at 65 N. Main St. For more information, call 215-547-2656.

Senior Adults for Greater Education awarded grant

The Comcast Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to Senior Adults for Greater Education. The money will go toward funding large-scale intergenerational programs at Bucks County schools and an expansion of services to the Bensalem and Neshaminy school districts.

Founded in 1999 with the support of the Council Rock School District, Senior Adults acknowledges the wisdom of older adults and integrates their contributions into the school community.

For more information, visit

» READ MORE: www.beasage.com

Doylestown woman wins community spirit award

Gina Rubel, president and chief executive officer of Furia Rubel Communications in Doylestown, has won the 2007 DeAnn White Achievement Award for Community Spirit in recognition of her efforts to assist nonprofit groups.

Rubel, of Doylestown, donates time to nonprofit organizations including Greensgrow Farm, an urban organic farm in Philadelphia, and Deep Run Mennonite Church East in Bedminster. Her staff donated more than 300 hours to community and nonprofit organizations in 2006, and expects to top 500 this year.

The achievement award is given each year by the Philadelphia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in memory of DeAnn White, a public relations professional who died in 2000 when Pier 34 collapsed at the Philadelphia waterfront.

Fund-raiser to help send video games to troops

A new nonprofit organization based in Holland aims to help American troops reduce stress through high-tech gaming.

FUN for our TROOPS Inc., founded by former Council Rock High School classmates Stefanie Doctor Shea and Dana Blackman Brady, is raising funds to buy high-tech games for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The games are a pastime that Shea's husband, a soldier in Iraq, says helps troops handle the constant stress. Shea, of Holland, is married to Sgt. Michael Shea, who graduated from Council Rock High School in 2001 with his wife and Brady.

FUN for our TROOPS will host a fund-raiser March 28 at Black Bull Restaurant in Holland. For more information about the organization or to learn how to sign up troops to receive games, call 267-757-0726 or visit

» READ MORE: www.funforourtroops.org

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Peddler's Village will

present dinner theater

Peddler's Village in Lahaska will begin two new productions next month with the start of "Death by Disco" and "An Evening in the Colonial Kitchen."

"Death by Disco" is the village's latest installment of its Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. The interactive show will start Friday, and patrons will help solve a "murder" at the Land of Oz Discoteria.

The show will begin at 7:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights through April 26. Tickets are $44.95 and include dinner, tax and gratuity. The show is in the Peddler's Pub of the Cock 'n Bull Restaurant, in Peddler's Village.

The annual production of "An Evening in the Colonial Kitchen" will debut Jan. 7. The interactive dining event features colonial-era characters, period music, an 18th-century style dinner, and food demonstrations.

The dinner production will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays through March 31. Cost is $17.95 for adults, and $9.95 for children 10 and younger. The show is in the main room of the Cock 'n Bull Restaurant.

For reservations and more information, call 215-794-4000 or visit

» READ MORE: www.peddlersvillage.com

and click on "Special Events." Peddler's Village is at Routes 202 and 263, Lahaska.

Expansion completed

at BCCC in Bristol

The final phase of construction at the new Lower Bucks Campus of Bucks County Community College in Bristol has been completed with a two-story expansion.

The addition provides more space and sets up an expanded listing of course offerings. The building expansion adds nine classrooms, two computer labs and small-group instruction rooms, a cafe, offices and a bookstore.

Programs in dental assisting, pharmacy, nurses aid and phlebotomy are among those that have been added. For registration and more information, call 215-968-8100or 215-968-8409, or visit

» READ MORE: www.bucks.edu

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- Kristin E. Holmes