Kennett Square is a great town because of the people

Four years ago, Joan Holliday and I wrote the book, “The Story of Kennett, Shaping Our Future One Child at a Time.” In the book we applied a stress test presented by James Fallows. We found Kennett to be a town that passed the test in flying colors.

Since then, Kennett Square has continued to prosper.There is the new Library and Food Cupboard coming, as well as more housing developments being built. Let’s not kid ourselves, Kennett Square is a happening place.

The real-estate guides have Kennett in the top communities surrounding Philadelphia (the 11th best city in the country) along with Chesterbrook and New Hope. They talk about the median cost of a house and level of education and a “cool” downtown.

We get shout-outs on the HBO series “Mare of Eastown” as the place to go if you want to take a girl to a nice restaurant and it is a good community in which to live. One of our schools is recognized as the Pennsylvania ‘School of the Decade” for how well the kids do on standardized tests.

But are those the reasons Kennett is great? At the Kennett High School Graduation,I saw to my delight that the third generation of the Augustine family, DJ Augustine has signed up to be a teacher to help make Kennett great one child at a time teaching Social Studies.

I came across the Augustines for the first time when I moved back to Kennett 43 years ago with my family. My daughter Susan was in 1st grade at Mary D Lang and the Principal was AJA, Andy Augustine; a force of nature. One of the people who knew him was an educator, Karla Sansbury, whose daughter Jennifer was about Susan’s age.I asked her what she remembers of Andy.

“He used to give out the ‘Hooray’ with AJA pencils to kids who did well on a test, helped out a friend, or some other good deed. He would call the student to the office and present the pencil. The kids loved it. Jennifer has kept hers all these years.

He was the best Principal and would always listen to any parent issue and treat concerns with respect. When Gale Moser and I proposed a Halloween Carnival as a fundraiser the first year, he was a bit skeptical and had not heard of the traditional Southern cakewalk…but he was willing to try it and was an enthusiastic supporter!”

We moved away a few years later and came back to Kennett in ’90.Our son Stephen had been playing basketball with some success in New Jersey and in Kennett he found a rich tradition of basketball. There was O’Neal, Amos, Rigler, Pusey, and Corrados, all having potential, but it was Mike King, the JV coach, and Danny Augustine, the Varsity coach that made them into a team.

They won the League and then the District and made a go at “States”. The energy of those years was very much like this year’s Kennett Lacrosse team. They set the tone for the teams that came after and eventually won“States.”

I asked the Principal of Kennett Middle School, Dr. Lorenzo DeAngelis about Andy’s son Daniel and he said, “Danny Augustine and his family are embedded in the Kennett Consolidated School District history. Teaching is in his blood. He has a passion to make others around him better whether it be in his classroom or gymnasium.”

For the third generation, Danny’s son, DJ, got a head start in life as both his parents are teachers. DJ understands what an essential service education is to the community, as his family lives and breathes it every day.It also helps that DJ’s foundation has been set by his grandfather and father to help guide and instruct his path.

In asking, “Where is the goodness in Kennett?” I will whole-heartedly say, “It lies in the commitment of three generations devoting their lives to educating our young and shaping our future one child at a time.”

The Story of Kennett may be purchased on Amazon and at the Mushroom Cap or Resale Book Shoppe in Kennett. You can contact Bob at Georgert@gmail.com,