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In Focus

The first LeTort Festival coincides with the annual clean-up of the stream organized by the LeTort Regional Authority.

Volunteers wishing to help clean up the stream and its banks should meet at 9 a.m. at the large pavilion in LeTort Park, says Chris Houston, chairman of authority board of directors.

Depending on how many show, volunteers will be organized into groups for the clean-up, which starts in LeTort Park and may include sections of the stream in Biddle Mission Park and behind Lamberton Middle School, Houston says.

He suggests volunteers bring work gloves, rakes and waders to reach litter and debris in the stream. The clean-up is scheduled to conclude around 11 a.m.

During the festival, Historic Carlisle Inc. plans to dedicate a LeTort wayside marker celebrating the history of LeTort Spring Run.

Saturday also marks the annual United Way Day of Caring.

By Joseph Cress, Sentinel Reporter, April 29, 2008

Last updated: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:09 AM EDT

Julie Vastine wants to put a fresh sparkle on a community jewel.

“I really hope people realize what a great treasure we have in LeTort Spring Run,” says Vastine, director of Dickinson College’s Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring -- ALLARM.

“This is a world-renowned trout stream,” she adds. “I would like to see it around for future generations.”

As an organizer of the first LeTort Festival, ALLARM hopes the event this Saturday promotes awareness of the stream as a valuable natural resource worthy of conservation.

Free and open to the public, the event will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at LeTort Park in Carlisle. It will feature children’s activities, entertainment and food.

State Sen. Pat Vance, R-31, is scheduled to open the festival with an announcement of a $10,000 grant she secured for the LeTort Regional Authority from the Community Revitalization Program administered by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The money will be used for improvements to the authority’s nature trail.

Activities planned for the festival include walks along the stream, fly fishing demonstrations, presentation of an ALLARM documentary on the LeTort and entertainment by a Carlisle High School blue grass band, YMCA’s REACH dance team and Dickinson College dance teams.

Children can participate in face painting, arts and crafts and environmental book reading. About 20 organizations are scheduled to attend the festival organized through ALLARM’s new Carlisle-based Stormwater Education Program.

Provides assistance

Founded in 1986 as a project of the Environmental Studies Department, ALLARM provides technical and scientific assistance to community organizations interested in watershed assessment, protection and restoration.

ALLARM is working with Carlisle to launch the five-year education program to raise awareness of stormwater contamination problems in the borough and promote alternative behaviors that reduce pollution into the stream.

To kick-start this effort, the borough and ALLARM received a $4,000 grant from the League of Women Voters’ Resource Education Network for the first year of the campaign and are working with the authority and Cumberland Valley Trout Unlimited.

“We are concerned about the health of the LeTort,” says Vastine, adding the campaign also includes the development of the documentary, education posters and TV advertisements.

Chris Houston is chairman of the authority board of directors. “We want to make aware how activities within the watershed can impact the stream,” he says. “The festival will build awareness of what a wonderful resource we have in people’s back yards.”

For more information, contact ALLARM at 245-1565, allarm@dickson.edu or visit www.dickinson.edu/allarm.