By: TIFFANY WOODALL Review Staff twoodall.eph@lnpnews.com, Staff Writer

Julie Bashore (right), owner of the Sugar Arts Institute, poses with Mayor Ralph E. Mowen, one of the VIP guests invited to attend the Institute's open house Monday evening. The two are pictured alongside a display of cakes designed by an instructor at the institute.

‘Tis the season of sugar plums, so it’s only appropriate that the Sugar Arts Institute is (re)opening the doors of the former Restaurant at Doneckers just days before Christmas.

This international non-profit, brain child of Master Confectioner Julie Bashore, is the only one of its kind in the United States. Since July, locations have opened in Hong Kong and Mexico, with Australia, New Zealand and England on the horizon. Its mission is to serve the community while educating entrepreneurs and hobbyists.

The academic program offers hybrid courses, both online and in-studio, yielding a diploma, certificate, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree and master’s degree sequentially in five years. Each level is comprised of 12 courses, and each course consists of three consecutive, eight-hour intensive classes followed by a period of time for students to complete assignments.

By: ALICE HUMMER Review Correspondent, Staff Writer

Fox Brooke Development, to be located on Route 897 S., was first talked about in 2001-2002. It returned to East Cocalico Supervisors Dec. 5 meeting, with a new Village Overlay concept plan.

A mix of commercial space, townhouses, duplexes and single family homes is proposed. Total residential dwellings in excess of 400 are planned. Also included in the concept plan are alleys with garages in the rear, smaller lot sizes, many front porches, pedestrian walk-ways and benches, a community center with pool, tennis courts and public rest rooms, outdoor socializing areas, street lights and thirty acres of open space.

Developer, John E. Panizza, of the Genterra Corporation, said the facades architecturally will resemble historic areas of downtown Lancaster.

Still in the concept stage, the developer’s team explained many of the waivers sought, including those dealing with reducing setback measurements, placing the planting strip and sidewalk in the front yard with recording of the pedestrian easement, reducing separation distance between the rear of the garage and alley and allowing detached garages to share a common wall. The plan proposes up to six garages in a row at the rear of some properties.

A year ago, Tony DiMatteo took over the Cocalico girls basketball program with a lot of work to do.

Inheriting a team that went 2-19 the season before, DiMatteo first had to restore the pride this program once enjoyed when he was an assistant years ago. Secondly, he needed to instill a winning attitude.

The Lady Eagles showed flashes at times of turning the corner and struggled at other times, especially after starting point guard Lauren Waskowicz went down with a knee injury. Cocalico went on to finish 6-10 in Section Two and 8-14 overall.

Despite the record, a lot of good things happened in Year One. For one, then-sophomore Marissa Gingrich (5-7) enjoyed a breakout season, averaging more than 12 points a game. In addition, several others who will be returning got important varsity experience which should pay serious dividends this year.

Cocalico brings back a solid nucleus of five key varsity contributors from a year ago, including senior forwards Kristen Boyer (5-11, 10 points per game), Taylor Esterly (5-8, 4.5 ppg) and Rebecca Grube (5-6), 5-2 sophomore point guard Natalie Sukanick, and Gingrich.

By: TODD RUTH Review Sports Editor truth.eph@lnpnews.com, Staff Writer

Ephrata has a long, storied wrestling history, filled with great success and outstanding achievements.

And this past Saturday, the Mounts reached yet another program milestone in the season-opening Ephrata Duals. In their fourth match of the day, the Mounts earned their 400th career program victory with a 45-36 triumph over Daniel Boone.

With Ephrata leading 39-36 with one bout to go, Cameron Eisenhower’s first-period pin at 220 sealed the 400th win for the Mounts, who went on to add one more team victory to go 3-2 on the day and finish in a tie for fifth place in the team standings.

"I am glad that we hit the 400 career victories mark," Ephrata Coach Josh Clair said. "We had hoped to hit that last year, but came up just short. Now that we are at 401 we start our ascent to 500. Even when we win matches and do great things on the mat we are never satisfied and always have room for improvement."

By: TODD RUTH Review Sports Editor truth.eph@lnpnews.com, Staff Writer

Cocalico's Kristen Boyer (back) and Rebecca Grube (33) deny Manheim Central's Olivia Novak on her drive to the basket. (Photo by Stan Hall)

There was an opportunity there for both teams.

With Cocalico’s Marissa Gingrich, arguably the Lady Eagles’ best player, fouled out with four minutes and change to go Monday night in Denver, visiting Manheim Central couldn’t have asked for a better scenario heading down the stretch.

Cocalico, on the other hand, had a chance to grow and take a giant step forward if it could hold onto the lead with its top scorer sitting on the pine.

As it turned out, both teams did what they had to do but it was the Lady Eagles who took control and went on to post a 52-35 victory in the first game played in their new gym. Behind a 9-for-13 performance from the foul line in the final four minutes, Cocalico closed out the game on a 19-5 run to salt this one away.

"We cut it to three, but they are a good basketball team. It was in their gym and they found a way to answer," first-year Manheim Central Coach Dan Cotchen said.

For the second straight season, a promising Ephrata girls basketball team was dealt a huge blow from the outset.

Last year, the Lady Mounts expected to challenge in Section Two before sensational sophomore forward Sarah Shearer transferred to West York.

And while they still turned in a respectable season, finishing 8-8 in section play (9-12 overall), Shearer’s presence might have been enough to turn a good season into a great one.

This year, Ephrata figured to be in the hunt again, and the Lady Mounts still may be with the emergence last year of then freshman guard Kelly Liebl and then junior forward Sarah Haddon, who averaged 8.7 and 10 points respectively.

However, it will be a lot tougher after seeing not one but two key players go down for the year with ACL injuries in the off season.

Starting senior point guard Joelisa Harvest (8.0 points per game) and key senior reserve Hannah Raezer both were lost this summer and now the Lady Mounts must pick up the pieces again.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Review Staff bmorgan.eph@lnpnews.com, Staff Writer

Ephrata's Evan Radcliffe posts up against Manheim Central Monday night. (Photo by Preston Whitcraft)

The Ephrata boys needed to find a way to just calm themselves down playing in their first game of the season on Monday night.

Manheim Central, taking the court for the third time in four days, was trying to hang on for dear life after grabbing a big first-half lead.

In the end, the Mountaineers did relax a bit and put together an inspired rally to turn a 23-point first-half deficit into a nine-point game in the fourth quarter. But Central, paced by Evan Stauffer’s team-high 16 points, managed to escape with a 54-43 non-league victory in Manheim.

Although the Barons improved to 3-0 on the young season, including a championship in last weekend’s Hamburg Tip-Off Tournament, coach Chris Sherwood acknowledged that they were fortunate to survive the Mounts. Seniors Jacoby Brumbach and Colby Gatchell also scored in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively, but Central’s head coach said that as a team, they need to do a better job of concentrating for a full 32 minutes.

By: MICHAEL C. UPTON Review Correspondent, Staff Writer

Photo by Preston WhitcraftFreshburst participants begin the walking portion of last Saturday's annual race, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, on West Lincoln Avenue. More than 300 people made it to the finish line. Turn to this week's sports section for more details.

In his own words, Christmas came early for Ephrata Performing Arts Center’s Ed Fernandez. As artistic director, Fernandez knows exactly how expensive it is to put on a professional repertory theater schedule of shows. On Friday, Nov. 30, as part of The Extraordinary Give event, donors helped lighten the monetary load by contributing $11,400 to the non-profit theater group.

"We didn’t see this coming," admitted Fernandez. "We were wonderfully shocked. We thought we would walk out with maybe a couple thousand (dollars) and when we saw how many people gave we were just amazed and grateful."

The Extraordinary Give, an online giving event organized by the Lancaster County Community Foundation, took place last Friday and raised more than $1.6 million for local non-profits. Finishing seventeenth out of more than 190 non-profits, EPAC had 128 donors go online and donate. Fernandez was inspired and amazed by the amount of people showing their support. In the category of performing arts, only the Fulton Theatre had more donors. Fernandez said the money did not come without a lot of social networking from the EPAC community and its board of directors.