West Manheim Township Recreation Park Opening
Saturday’s Grand Opening event will have activities for all ages including baseball games, music, food vendors and various sports tournaments.   The festivities will take place at the park, 225 St. Bartholomew Road, Hanover, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to the public. Free.

Chalk It Up Hanover
Help the Chamber of Commerce paint – er, chalk up – the town during the Chalk It Up Hanover event Saturday. Artists of all ages are invited to participate, starting at 10 a.m. And as an added bonus this year, the world-renowned street painter who recently wowed Hanover students, Michael William Kirby, will be downtown at 8 a.m. to create his own masterpiece for the community. Free.
*THE CHALK IT UP HANOVER EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO MAY 18 BECAUSE OF INCLEMENT WEATHER.

Third-Annual HACC Dash
The HACC York Campus 5K Walk/Run for Scholarships event will be held rain or shine Sunday and registration starts at 8 a.m. There is a $25 race-day registration fee. For more information, contact jkmitzel@hacc.edu or 717-801-3210.

Mother’s Day Nature Walk
Treat Mom to a guided hike through the Preserve at Strawberry Hill Nature Center, 1537 Mount Hope Road, Fairfield. The nature walk will take place Sunday from 1 to 2:30 p.m.  and will be led by a local horticulture enthusiast. Tickets are $5 for members and $8 for non-members.

Village Brass Mother’s Day Extravaganza
The Village Brass will present its third annual extravaganza – with a Civil War theme – along with two dozen other musicians Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The period pieces will include a medley of Stephen Foster songs and a rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by the 30-member brass ensemble. The event will take place in the Nicarry Meeting House at Cross Keys Village Brethren Home Community, at U.S. 30 and Pa. 94. Free.

Mother’s Day Street Fair
The 38th annual Olde York Street Fair will take place in downtown York on Sunday from 12:30 to 6 p.m. More than 100 arts and craft vendors will feature handmade gift items for sale, and food vendors will sell traditional American festival food as well as original creations. A Kid’s Fun Block will feature six bounce houses, a climbing wall, games, face painting and other entertainment. Entomologist Ryan Bridge, also known as the bug man, will have his vast collection on display for kids of all ages to see. Free.

This free concert will begin at 2 p.m. and is open to the public. Led by Kelli Silvestri, a 2011 Gettysburg College graduate, the 35-member choir will perform a selection of traditional hymns, popular songs and a medley from the Broadway musical, “Les Misérables.”

Patrice Smith will accompany the group on piano.

The hour-long concert will also feature Gettysburg College students Rei Phillippi, Scott Kaliszak, Eva Lorentz and Veronika Stare.

They have combined their love of competitive racing with competitive baking to create the school’s first-ever 5caKe event to benefit the class of 2016.

Participants can run or walk the 5k race or enter a homemade cake in the taste competition May 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the high school, 161 N. Main St., Biglerville.

Runners and walkers will have the opportunity to taste cake samples as they make their way through the course at the high school. Bakers can also peruse the course for no additional fee.

Registration to run, walk or bake a cake is $10 before may 18 and $15 on the morning of the race. Participants who wish to purchase an event shirt can add $10 to the registration fee.

For more information, email Nicole_starner@uasd.k12.pa.us or Hannah_meeson@uasd.k12.pa.us.

Send The Evening Sun your prom pictures for a chance to have the photo featured in the paper.

Whether you’re getting your hair done, in the middle of dancing to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” or being crowed prom king/queen, snap a picture and tweet it to #esprom for a chance to win – newspaper immortality.

Or, if you’re not on Twitter, send it our way via email at eveningsunpinterest@gmail.com.

The best photos will run as part of a special prom package at the end of May and the runners-up will be displayed in a slideshow on The Evening Sun website.

Winners will be announced here after May 24.

Here’s all the local prom info you need:

Bermudian Springs

• Date: Saturday, May 11
• Place: Wyndham Hotel, 95 Presidential Circle, Gettysburg.
• Time: 5-10:30 p.m.
• Theme: “Come Sail Away”
• Additional Information: DJ John Ziegler of Ziegler’s Mobile Entertainment

Biglerville

• Date: Saturday, April 27
• Place: Whispering Pines Banquet Hall, 1538 McClures Gap Rd., Carlisle.
• Theme: “Last Night’s Dream, Tomorrow’s Memory”
• Additional Information: DJ John Ziegler of Ziegler’s Mobile Entertainment

Fairfield

• Date: Thursday, May 16
• Place: Boulder Ridge at Ski Liberty, 78 Country Club Trail, Fairfield.
• Time: 6-10 p.m.
• Theme: “A Knight in the Enchanted Forest”
• Additional Information: DJ Donnie Entertainment

Gettysburg

• Date: Friday, May 10.
• Place: Wyndham Hotel, 95 Presidential Circle, Gettysburg.
• Time: 7:30-10:30 p.m.
• Theme: “A Night with the Stars”
• Additional notes: ProForm DJs

Hanover

• Date: Friday, May 17
• Place: Hanover Country Club,200 Water St., Abbottstown.
• Time: 6-11 p.m.
• Theme: To be announced.
• Additional information: Complete Music DJ

Littlestown

• Date: Saturday, May 11
• Place: Gettysburg College, Gettysburg.
• Time: 7-10 p.m.
• Theme: “An Evening in Paris”
• Additional Information: DJ Wes Morgan of Morcom Productions

New Oxford

• Date: Friday, May 24
• Place: Wyndham Hotel, 95 Presidential Circle, Gettysburg.
• Theme: “CandyLand”
• Additional Information: DJ John Ziegler of Ziegler’s Mobile Entertainment

South Western

• Date: Saturday, May 11
• Place: Old Main Building, York Fairgrounds, 334 Carlisle Ave., York.
• Time: 5:30-10:30 p.m.
• Theme: “Sakura”
• Additional information: N-Tune Productions

Spring Grove

• Date: Friday, May 17
• Place: Valencia Ballroom, 142 N. George St., York.
• Time: 6 p.m.
• Theme: “Puttin’ on the Ritz!”
• Additional Information: DJ Legit

As someone who would like to work in the film industry one day – as a writer, producer, actor, etc. – I should be more familiar than I am with the movies many consider to be the most influential.

I’m 24 years old and I have never watched “Psycho,” “Schindler’s list,” “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Raging Bull.” The closest I’ve ever come to “2001: A Space Odyssey” is situating my Volkswagon in the space next to a 2001 Honda Odyssey in the parking lot.

It’s not that I have anything against these films, but when I’m in the mood to watch a movie, I usually stick with what I know (here’s lookin’ at you ‘10 Things I Hate About You’). When I am up for something new, however, I prefer to visit the ‘New Release’ section of my Netflix account instead of the ‘Classics.’

I’ve successfully managed to excuse myself every time a friend suggests we spend the next 238 minutes watching “Gone with the Wind” and have been careful to avoid TVs around Christmas for fear of being forced by my family to watch reruns of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Check it out here and let me know which your favorites are. And as I write about my reactions, feel free to comment or recommend new titles for me to watch.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Gettysburg Community Theatre is bringing Nickelodeon’s favorite explorer to Adams County this weekend.

The theater has scheduled four performances of “Dora’s Pirate Adventure, ” staring Dora the Explorer and her friend Boots, the monkey.

The show is directed and choreographed by two Gettysburg Area High School graduates: Kyliegh Grim, class of 2008, and Bridgid Wills, class of 2002.

When:  April 26 at 7 p.m.; April 27 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; April 28 at 2 p.m.
Where: Gettysburg Community Theatre, 49 York St.
Tickets: Tickets are $11 and reserved seating is available online at www.gettsyburgcommunitytheatre.org or by calling 717-334-2692.

Also this weekend

• The Hanover Carnival is back in town and will be open April 25 to May 5. Families can enjoy the festivities on the lot next to South Hanover Walmart on Baltimore Pike. The D and K Amusements carnival will benefit the High Ridge Farm 4-H Club.
• YMCA of Hanover, 500 George St., Hanover, will host Healthy Kids Day, an event that encourages kids in the community to get moving and live healthy lives, on April 27.
• Free family Sundays at the Baltimore Museum of Art from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. This week’s activity, an animal hunt family tour, starts at 2 p.m.

But it works out. And then four days of music melts the stress away.

Today was our last day of coverage for the festival. We sell a special newspaper there with stories about the people, the activities and of course, the music, of the festival.

Ben Brewer, a musician from Chambersburg, plays his guitar in this Brett Berwager photo taken at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival.

In between jotting down notes and walking lots of laps around the Granite Hill Camping Resort in search of stories, I’ve heard some great music from bands like Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out, Darin and Brooke Aldridge and Dry Branch Fire Squad.

I wish I could have seen some of the bands I talked to before the festival, like NewFound Road, Circa Blue, and Sierra Hull and Highway 111, but hey, I had work to do.

Once again,  I met a lot of friendly people in my travels down every road of the campground. There was a woman perfectly named Patsy Kline, who went from being a jam class student to a jam class teacher. There was a band from Sweden, Yellow’n Bluegrass, who kept me laughing as they recounted through their five-week bluegrass pilgrimage in the states. And there a group of kids learning to sing louder and play better at the festival’s Academy for Kids – a good group of pickers, if you ask me.

And best of all – the best part every year – I get to reunite with the first people I met at my first festival in 2008. They sit in the same spot under a white tent with a full view of the stage – a group of strangers who became friends through their trips to Gettysburg every May and August. That’s how it is here, they told me when I interviewed them back in the day. You see the same people every year, you come to look forward to talking with them, and you miss them if they’re not here. They were part of my first story, and are still my first stop when I get to Granite Hill.

Though one of the friends has passed away and another couldn’t make it to this festival, I was happy I got to talk with the others again, to tell them what I was working on each day, to see what acts they were looking forward to, and to take pictures with them before I left today. So to Louise and Al, and everyone at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, thanks for another great year.

That night the show finally lived up to my hope for it, which was nice.

If you’re not familiar, The Newsroom premiered earlier this summer and four episodes have now aired. The show centers on a fictional cable news channel, though it weaves in real-life news from recent years.

It’s written by Aaron Sorkin, of West Wing fame, so there was some attention when it began.

But for whatever reason — maybe the loss in translation for me to a TV newsroom, maybe the requisite pseudo-drama of television shows these days — after three episodes it fell a little short of my expectations. Then again, I had pretty high expectations.

I’ve confessed often here I am not a TV or movie guy, at least not in the sense of watching enough to be anything close to an expert on such things. But I like a good story.

And I’ve long said life in a newsroom, if packaged properly, would make compelling TV.

Last Sunday on The Newsroom, it did.

Unfortunately for me, the week got away and I never did get to that long meaningful blog post. So you’re stuck with this one — and a few Hanover-area news stories that kept me tied up this week.

But as I think about it this morning, that might be for the best.

While the below clip involves a bit of action the uninitiated would need more back story to fully get, it stands on its own, too, as a nice seven-minute introduction to the series. And why listen to me talk about it, when you can watch it yourself?

Check it out (note there is some rough language) and see what you think. If you like it, maybe you’ll be on the couch watching the next full episode tonight, too.

The Newsroom, episode 4 clip.

I was a big fan of Dominic Santini. And Stringfellow Hawke.

And what 6-year-old boy wouldn’t love a super-duper-tricked-out black attack-helicopter?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I can put it much more simply.

Ernest Borgnine.

The award-winning actor died Sunday. He was 95.

Ernest Borgnine and other cast members from Airwolf pose with that still-awesome helicopter.

And while the above references are to the brief-running 80′s action show Airwolf, where Borgnine played pilot Dominic Santini, the unique thing about Borgnine it seems was his longevity, an on-screen appeal that spanned generations.

Maybe you don’t share my 30-something’s memories of Jan-Michael Vincent and Borgnine chasing bad guys in that stolen government helicopter. (I’m humming the theme song now — again.)

But if you’re of an older generation I’ll bet you remember him in McHale’s Navy. Or The Flight of the Phoenix. Or The Wild Bunch.

Or maybe The Dirty Dozen, a flick even someone as lukewarm on old movies as me has seen a dozen times.

Borgnine was remembered in a flood of obituary stories as the kind of actor never content with past parts. Never one to rest.

“I keep telling myself, ‘Damn it, you gotta go to work,’” Borgnine said in a 2007 interview, according to the AP.

That drive made him relevant — and funny — to a whole other, younger generation.

When the news came across the wire Sunday, I mentioned it to our 20-something police reporter, and got only a blank look in return. I had to think for a second, then it came to me.

“Mermaid Man,” I said.

“Oh no,” she replied.

And soon she was posting on social media as well, about the loss of the voice actor with a recurring part on SpongeBob SquarePants.

I have a feeling editor Marc Charisse — a long-time lover of all things SpongeBob — felt that loss as well.

And the news of Borgnine’s passing seemed to me particularly poignant, coming as it did on the heels of a Charisse column about how the newspaper deals with celebrity deaths.

In that piece, “Deserving the Don Knotts treatment,” Marc talks about how a mix-up years ago allowed the death of that well-known character actor to get a large space in the paper. Questions from locals followed.

And it led to a re-evaluation of how — and why — we put such things in print.

The recent death of Andy Griffith brought all that to the surface again.

“And I understood then what obituary stories are really all about,” Marc writes. “They’re not just for remembering the deceased, but for reflecting on what they meant to us personally.”

That was certainly the case for me this weekend.

Airwolf was one of my favorite shows growing up, and I can still recall sitting on the shaggy brown carpet of my grandmother’s family room, planted and holding my breath as that helicopter raced across the two-ton console TV.

I hated when the show was canceled a few years later.

Yet here I sit typing a story about it, nearly 30 years later. Humming the theme song.

That tells me Ernest Borgnine did something right. And so I’m glad to take a moment, in fond, respectful remembrance.

From that old brown carpet and from this grown-up newsroom, Mr. Santini, Thank you.