NYE in the City

Celebrate your New Year's Eve in Downtown Harrisburg. The City of Harrisburg in partnership with the Hilton Harrisburg, Crowne Plaza, Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, Harrisburg Young Professionals, abc27 and the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District invite you to spend December 31st downtown.

Enjoy the countdown to noon presented by the Popcorn Hat Players at Whitaker Center. Children of all ages can enjoy a unique show designed to help them ring-in the new year! Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and the show begins at 11:00 a.m. Tickets are only available at the theatre or by calling 238-4111! Tickets are $12 each. Your ticket includes admission to the show, noisemakers, party hats, and a Hawaiian lei! Autographed photos of the Popcorn Hat Players themselves also available at the event!

The Crowne Plaza will host a Teen Party for ages 13 to 18. The Dance entitled "Teen Flash Mob" will jump start the New Year's Eve celebration. The first 150 registrants, teens ages 13 to 18, will be "A-listed" into a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 6pm on New Year's Eve. The Teen Party begins with Flash Mob Dance choreography at 6:30pm while enjoying complimentary food & drink. At 8:30pm, the party moves to Market Square for a spectacular Flash Mob performance at 9pm. Come on out and DANCE this New Year's Eve!

At 9 pm the Urban Guerrilla Orchestra from Philadelphia will begin performing in front of the Hilton at Market Square. Arts and Crafts for children will also be available during this time in the Atrium of the MLK City Government Center right across the street from the Hilton. UGO will conclude around midnight as the Strawberry Drops.

Don't miss out on a great day full of activities and fun for all ages.

Happy New Year!

From the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement Distict: Todd, Gayle & Leigh Ann

It's Almost Parade Day...

Each year thousands of people bundle up and head downtown for the Annual City of Harrisburg Holiday Parade. This year's parade will take place on Saturday, November 19th, kicking off at a new time... Noon. 2011 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Holiday Parade. The theme of the parade is Unwrap the Joy. Local marching bands, military vehicles, giant helium balloons and lots of floats will fill the streets and entertain the community. Don't miss out on this great tradition!

Harrisburg Holiday Parade presented by Direct Energy - 11.19.11 - 12 pm

Downtown Harrisburg

For students the sad end to summer vacation is near

Why does the American school year start in September (for many in late August) and end in June? Educators in the late 1840's believed that packing children in hot classrooms during the summer months spread diseases much easier. Those same "educators" also believed that overloading children with to much information for extended periods of time made them susceptible to hysteria and other mental episodes.

In rural schools in the 1800's farming communities; children went to school from December to March and from mid-May to August. The remaining spring and fall months were dedicated for spring planting and fall harvesting, where both adults and children were expected to pitch in and help, even the younger children were given chores to complete during those times. In large cities and in other urban areas, children of parents who worked in factories, shops, or mills learned English and other subjects during an 11-month school year, with only a short break in between quarters.

Short school years with long vacations are not the norm in Europe, Asia or South America either. Children in most industrialized countries go to school more days and more per day hours than in America. While just sitting in a classroom longer does not necessarily ensure that children will learn more; however, many American teachers say they spend weeks every fall reminding students of what they forgot over the summer.

A happy medium has yet to be struck between educators, parents, students or the employers.

Spend some awe inspiring hours looking UP at that early morning sky!

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are seen raditating the night sky. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, and almost all of them disintegrate and never hit Earth's surface.

The "Perseids Meteor Shower" will peak this week - with the best viewing starting tonight, August 9th. The Perseid meteor shower, is an annual display of shooting stars in the Northern Hemisphere; this shower is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and has been observed for over 2000 years. This meteor shower is one of the best, especially in the absence of moonlight; where it has been recorded as having over 100 or more meteors per hour.

Just before the dawn very late tonight or early Wednesday morning, the Perseids could give the best view. If we are blessed with clear skies, the predawn hour will be that very rare window of opportunity to view the showers with the naked eye because of the dark, moonless skies. August 10th and 11th predawn hour will also be a good opportunity to watch the spectacle of lights!

The Perseids are typically fast, bright and occasionally leave lingering trains. A Perseids fireball would sporadically blaze up brightly to add to the light show in the predawn hour.

Source information and picture obtained from and compliments of EarthSky.com and NASA.com

DID Dining Adventure

Every once and a while, the staff likes to get out for a nice lunch together. During the most recent outing, we stopped at Blue Heaven located right on Restaurant Row (210 N. 2nd St). Blue Heaven is such a great addition as there is no other place quite like it right in downtown. Located in an old school diner, with modern upgrades and amenities, Blue Heaven offers flavorful burgers, fries, salads and shakes. Gayle had the traditional Blue Heaven Burger, Todd had the sundried tomato burger, while I tried the burger with the crumbled blue cheese, yum!! We also tried the fry trio, which came with 3 amazing dipping sauces. It's definitely a great spot! Be sure to check it out!

It is an absolutely gorgeous day in Downtown Harrisburg. It's about 91 degrees outside and a cool 68 degrees in my office. I took a stroll throughout the district this morning to snap some photos and check on the flower pots and hanging baskets. The flowers are looking great and starting to overflow the pots and baskets. Make sure you get out over you lunch hour and enjoy the weather along with the beautiful flowers and artistic banners hung throughout the district.

Downtown Businesses are paying it forward once again!

It's tree planting time at the Capital Area Greenbelt Association (CAGA) www.caga.org. The Greenbelt is approximately a 20-mile loop of greenways around the city of Harrisburg. lt is made up of volunteers dedicated to supporting, maintaining and improving the Capital Area Greenbelt, a Millenium Trail in south-central PA. One of those volunteers is Mr. Norm Lacasse; we call him the "green guru". For the past 4 years the business owners within the HDID territory have donated the 12 to 16 potted Douglas Fir, Norway Spruce or White Pine Christmas Trees that many of you have seen at various downtown businesses over the past several months. Norm heads this project up every year, he picks the location in the greenbelt, organizes and co-ordinates with various youth organizations who assist in and take "ownership" for planting the trees within the designated area. I have to say, this year THE YOUNG LADIES definitely out shined the young men! Way to go girls and THANKS to all of you for making a positive difference!