As the first major event of Bill's campaign for Mayor, we couldn't ask for better than our "Meet the Candidate" Saturday evening in Ward 2W at Magnolia Manor. The Norley home was packed with old friends, stalwart supporters, those just wanting to meet Bill for the first time. Hosts Lynette McGrath and Jane Norley had gathered nearly 50 of us for good food, great conversation and even some basketball (more on that later).

Guests included State Representative Greg Vitali, West Chester Borough Council members Holly Brown and Cassandra Jones, East Whiteland Township Supervisor Bill Holmes, and other local figures. There were neighborhood association leaders like Marvin and Shirley Porter of the East End Neighborhood Association, Democratic Party officials and business leaders. But mostly, there were the regular folks who care enough about community to spend their time evaluating candidates.

"Community" was surely the evening's theme, when I introduced Bill and which he emphasized in his speech. In fact, it is the theme of Bill's life, which has been devoted to the notion that service to country, family and community is a high ideal.

More down to earth, this feeling of community was expressed Saturday night as plain old fun, as you can easily see from the SLIDESHOW I put together. The festive mood was elevated by the celebration of Linda Scott's birthday, Saturday also.

But, the night's highlight was easily the heartfelt speech young Savannah Norley wrote and delivered from the "Obama Podium" (see blog entry below, Savvy's Speech).

Not wanting the evening to end, we then turned off all non-essential lights to observe Earth Hour. West Chester was officially part of this global event due to a resolution written by Bill Scott, adopted verbatim and unanimously by Borough Council. So, out went most lights at Magnolia Manor leaving the glow of an essential TV tuned to the Villanova-Pitt game, which ended in a splendid win as Earth Hour closed and candles succumbed, once again, to electricity.

What a night!