Lancaster County now has its first two Pennsylvania Dutch medical interpreters. They are Amish-raised Crist Beiler, an RN at Lancaster General Hospital, and Lydia Nolt, a medical liaison and member of an Old Order Mennonite church. Both were recently certified by their institutions. A big part of their work is reducing anxiety, especially in children (Amish children below school age typically have varying degrees of English…
It seems like every year around this time we get a video of Amish out having some winter fun. We’ve previously seen Amish people skiing in Knox County, Ohio, and in Lowville, New York. There was also a clip of a buggy doing parking lot snow donuts. This short video, shot by Tara Hayward after Christmas dinner, shows an Amishman in Morley, Michigan, getting ski-towed down…
Diane Bell’s story sounds like something from a novel or a Hallmark holiday film. Diane was left on an Amish porch as a 3-month-old, over 40 years ago. Her story was told in an article featured in Lancaster Online which we looked at here last year. From the original article: Forty years ago, a widowed Amish woman and her daughter watched from their window late one night as…
We’ve previously seen video footage from within a Lancaster Amish home, as well as photos from inside homes of the very plain Swartzentruber Amish. But this is the first video I’ve come across showing the interior of a Swartzentruber home. In the video below, LaVonne DeBois of Heartland Tours gives us a look inside the home of a family she is obviously well-acquainted with. It’s not common…
Amish children in the newly-formed Whitefield, Maine community have been provided reflective armbands by state transportation officials. This community was covered here earlier this year, and is maybe a year old, with just a few households. From centralmaine.com: At Wednesday’s meeting, which Marple said lasted about 90 minutes, the Amish received reflective armbands from the state transportation department that their children could wear when walking on…
Amish in Montana’s West Kootenai community suffered heavy losses last week when the fast-moving Caribou Fire destroyed dozens of buildings in the span of a few hours. The Missoulian interviewed 34-year-old Amish resident Andy Yoder on the fire and what he expects when his family returns to the site of their former home: Someday soon — before anyone has a chance to begin cleaning up…
There’s been a discussion recently over whether Amish in Pennsylvania should have their buggies registered and carry license plates, just like motor vehicles. Young Center Senior Scholar Steven Nolt recently appeared on WITF’s Smart Talk to discuss the issue. Here’s the back story: Drive behind a Amish horse and buggy in Pennsylvania and you’ll see a fluorescent orange, triangular placard attached to the gray and…
Terri Roberts was the mother of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the man responsible for the Nickel Mines Amish school shootings in 2006. Terri passed away this weekend following a 13-year battle with cancer. I met Terri briefly on one occasion, at the Forgiveness conference at Elizabethtown College in 2011. She seemed full of life and a lot more energy than you’d expect despite the disease…
Don Curtis was one of our oldest readers and, writing here well into his 90s, pehaps our oldest active commenter. I just got word from Al in KY that Don passed away July 30th, at the ripe old age of 94. Al learned the news from the latest edition of the Budget newspaper. Here’s the information from the paper’s Bellefontaine, OH scribe: “Bellefontaine, Ohio Aug. 3 — Don,…
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a nice photo post. Today reader Frank Trestka shares a set of shots from visits to Holmes County, Ohio. So enjoy some beautiful summer views of one of my favorite Amish communities. These were taken in June. I’ve added my own comments along with a couple of anecdotes from Frank. This might be my favorite shot of the bunch (well…