Unionville is in a festive mood this week.

Saturday, the borough will burst out of its dog days torpor with its Summer Fest in the Park.

“There’s going to be the typical gamut — music, food, kids’ activities, a farmers market, merchants, pony rides,” said Mayor Mimi Wutz.

Also at Unionville Park, at the end of Race Street, will be a Penn State entomology department representative with bees to show off and nets for visitors to use to catch their own insect specimens.

Milesburg firefighters will bring one of their trucks, joining Bald Eagle Watershed Association volunteers and 15 food and craft vendors at the festival. Music acts will include Dan and Galla, a high-energy, husband and wife duo; a jam session led by musicians Cliff Turner and John Phelps; and the Bald Eagle Area High School marching band, expected to play at 10:30 a.m.

Raffles with State College Spikes tickets and memorabilia, as well as a possible pickup soccer game, add other attractions.

“It is fun,” Wutz said of the free festival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “It’s a lot of fun getting people out, and getting them to Unionville is neat.”

On the same page

For this story’s happy ending, all it took were a few extra characters.

Howard Elementary School’s summer reading enrichment program at the school’s library looked like it might not happen for financial reasons— until substitute teacher Rhonda Tenerent and other Howard United Methodist Church members stepped in.

Debbie Simoncek, of Howard, was one of the volunteers assisting the three-week program, which recently finished. Two groups of about 10 children each met twice a week for three hours at a time.

Simoncek said classes featured different themes and hands-on activities. For example, children planted fruit and vegetable seeds and documented the growth in their own books — all to build literacy while having a bit of summer fun.

“The kids who went seemed to enjoy it,” said Simoncek, whose two young children attended the sessions with her. “It was school, but it was in a very informal setting.”

She credited Tenerent for spearheading the program this year.

“She did this to keep the kids caught up,” Simoncek said.

Chris Rosenblum writes a weekly column about the Bald Eagle area.Contact him at crosenbl@centredaily.com or 231- 4620.