While most Elizabethtown College students attend the college for only four years, one four-legged friend just passed the 10 year mark. His name is heard frequently across campus: Truman.
During the summer of 2014, Director of Student Media Andy Williams and his wife took in an eight-week-old multi-generational labradoodle. They intended to raise him to be a service dog as they had done with their previous six dogs.
As a part of his training process, it was important to have Truman socialize with different groups, so Williams would bring him along to campus.
“It allowed him to be around different sights, sounds and smells, and not be afraid of them,” Williams said.
Williams and his wife quickly discovered in Truman’s service dog training that because of his breed, he had a high prey drive causing him to react to quick motions like those of children or squirrels.
Truman couldn’t seem to shake the urge to react. Williams and his wife couldn’t confidently say that Truman wouldn’t make a mistake in the real world. They made the decision to shift Truman’s training from a service dog to a therapy dog.
“Because of all of his service dog training, the therapy dog program was a piece of cake for him,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of basic obedience stuff that your dog has to go through to become a therapy dog, and he was overtrained for it.”
After roughly a year and a half of training, Truman became certified. During his training process the campus community began to recognize Williams, but not by his official name.
“That's the person with the dog,” Williams would hear across campus.
For the first several years Truman came to campus, he wasn’t widely known until the school bookstore posted a photo of Truman to their Instagram page.
“When my daughter was going to school here she had bought a knit hat, put it on Truman and we took a picture of it,” Williams said. “We sent it to the bookstore manager because we thought it was kind of funny, and they put it on their socials [where] it did really well.”
This success led Truman to become a frequent model for the school store’s newest merch items and led him to create his own Instagram page in 2017, @trumanthetherapydooddle.
Truman also became the face of many new school store items including a calendar, t-shirts, stickers and plushies made to look like him.
Now, even after 10 years, Truman still makes his way to campus at least once a week. Students that want to find Truman just look for Williams, and Truman is tagging along a few steps behind.
A typical day for Truman starts by making his rounds around the Steinman Center, where Williams’ office is, and then squeezing in a nap in Williams’ office as he works.
Williams is often in and out of classrooms and the Student Media Center, leading to a special bond between communications students and Truman.
“Truman is our own personal communications dog,” fourth-year digital media production major Jessica Piergallini said. “Getting to see him so often is a perk of the program.”
Truman makes rounds on campus for other students to get some pets in as well. At noon, he and Williams make their way over to the Blue Bean to do just that.
“I love giving him pup-cups and seeing his smiling face around campus,” third-year education major Julia Yudichak said. “Whenever I am having a stressful day or just need a little pick-me-up, Truman is always there to cheer me up.”
In addition to weekday visits, Truman has also attended admissions weekend events since he was a pup. For prospective students who may have a dog or pet at home, seeing that the campus has its own therapy dog can help provide a sense of comfort.
The comfort Truman provides goes beyond just students past and present, but to their families as well.
“He sat at commencement with a family whose dad has terrible PTSD and didn’t think he could watch his daughter graduate. Because Truman sat with him the whole time and he was able to pet Truman the whole time, he watched his daughter graduate,” Williams said.
Beyond the campus, Truman is part of the Keystone Pet Enhanced Therapy Service whose mission is to “promote well-being by sharing the power of human/animal interaction.” The program allows organizations to request therapy animals to come to them to provide their pet therapy services.
“It amazes me that sometimes it's just 10 seconds and you see the difference [animal therapy] makes for somebody,” Williams said. “It [surprises] me to see what he does for other people.”
With Truman ending a decade at Etown, the question stands: will he ever earn his dog-torate?

At just 13 years old, Madison Link, of Erie County, took home the first-place ribbon in the Homemade Chocolate Cake Contest held on Saturday evening.

Link shared that she grew up watching her mom bake, which inspired her to try her hand at it.
She entered her first chocolate cake contest in 2022, where she placed fourth in the Waterford Community Fair. With a top finish in her community fair in 2023, she was eligible to compete in the PA Farm Show.
Link was in shock to hear her number called in the top 15, let alone to then hear it be named overall winner.

“I burst into joy when they called my number for the top 15, and then again when they called it for first place,” said Link.

Link explained that she kept her recipe simple, nothing much different then, what you would see in your average chocolate cake, with one exception. Link uses heavy cream in her frosting in place of milk.

You can see Madison’s cake, along with the top five winners of the Homemade Chocolate Cake Contest on display in the Main Hall at the #PAFarmShow.

Hundreds of trick or treaters filled the streets of downtown Elizabethtown last Wednesday. LIV_Etown hosted its third annual Trunk or Treat Candy Crawl event.
When the event started three years ago, it was a small group of local organizations who decorated the trunks of their cars to give out candy and treats to community members. But since then, the event has grown each year, as attendance also grows.
New this year, all attendees who came in a costume were eligible to enter into win a pumpkin pail full of gift cards. One pumpkin pail for those 17 and under, and another for those 18 and over. This was just another way for attendees to get a piece of downtown, as the gift cards were all from local businesses.
One of these business being The Spot, Hometown Deli, which is a relatively new face to downtown Etown, opening in the spring earlier this year. This was the businesses first year participating in the Trunk or Treat Candy Crawl.
“Its great to see the whole community together like this,” said General Manager Ed Cunningham. “The mission of The Spot is to be connected to and involved in the community.”
The Spot also participates in each 2nd Friday event.
But with such a large event, involving a number of organizations, who helps to get everything organized? The event is sponsored through the event group LIV_Etown, which stands for local, interactive, vitality in Etown. This group works to put on community based events including Merry Grinchmas E-town, Oktoberfest Pirates Plunder, and downtown 2nd Friday events.
Clint and Tony Gibble not only own the Tatted Toy Guys Emporium but are the organizers of LIV_E-town. The two have always had a love for growing community connections and thus work to host events like the Trunk or Treat Candy Crawl.
“It came about as a desire by the LIV_E-town team to provide a fun interactive experience,” said Gibble. “ [It provides] an alternative to the standard Trick-or-Treat, while serving as a give back to the community for their loving support of our Downtown area.”
This year in addition to handing out treats the two hosted a clown house walkthrough which allowed attendees to walk through a maze-like tunnel with jumpscare surprises along the way.
Plans have already begun to make next years Trunk or Treat Candy Crawl even bigger. Gibble explained they hope to expand their clown house walkthrough, in addition to getting even more businesses involved.
To stay up to date with all of LIV_E-town’s events you can find them on Facebook at LIV_E-town.