Readshaw's raiders

for immediate release

sweet news from Erie students for Gettysburg Monuments Project

CONTACT: Jay Purdy (717) 787-7895
HARRISBURG, April 9 - For the second time this week, students have rallied to the cause of preserving the 138 Pennsylvania monuments and markers on the historic Gettysburg battlefield.

Thursday, at a ceremony in Erie, the seventh-grade history class of teacher Anna Marie Amendola at Westlake Middle School presented state Rep. Harry Readshaw, D-Allegheny, organizer of the movement to preserve the Pennsylvania monuments, with a check for $1,095 to aid the effort. The students raised the money through candy sales.

Last year, Amendola's previous class sent a check for more than $100 to help Readshaw's campaign, which now has raised better than $150,000 - which is approximately one-fifth of the funds needed to repair and clean the monuments and endow them for future maintenance.

"It is especially gratifying to see young people so enthusiastic about saving a piece of their state and national history," said Readshaw. "Whenever they visit Gettysburg during their lifetime and look upon a monument honoring a Pennsylvania regiment or individual, they'll have the satisfaction of knowing that they personally played an important role in keeping those monuments standing."

One day earlier, a fifth-grade class from East Pennsboro Middle School in Cumberland County presented Readshaw with a check for $1,420 to complete funding for the restoration and endowment of the monument to the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the Wheatfield portion of the Adams County battlefield.

back to media page spacer Readshaw and the Pennsylvania Gettysburg Monuments Project may be contacted by e-mail at gettysburg@pahouse.net or by phone, 717-783-0411.

Updated: October 25, 2000
Copyright: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
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