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Wyoming Valley Art League holds annual fund-raiser

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2015 letter belies pope’s claim of ignorance of sexual abuse

<p>PHILADELPHIA &#8212; Fresh off their first Super Bowl title, the Philadelphia Eagles arrived home to a hero&#8217;s welcome Monday afternoon, hours after overjoyed fans mobbed the streets in a sometimes unruly victory celebration nearly 60 years in the making.</p><p>Hundreds of fans greeted the team&#8217;s plane at Philadelphia International Airport, cheering wildly and singing &#8220;Fly Eagles Fly&#8221; as Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie emerged with the Lombardi Trophy.</p><p>After getting off the plane, Lurie, Coach Doug Pederson and stars like tight end Zach Ertz and running back LeGarrette Blount approached the chain-link fence separating the team from the fans, smiling, pumping their arms and shooting video with their phones. Fans stood on cars and news trucks to catch a glimpse.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a long journey to redemption,&#8221; said John Hall, 49, who works at Philadelphia&#8217;s public transit agency. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have to hear the negative anymore, that we don&#8217;t have a ring. It&#8217;s official now.&#8221;</p><p>Dan Mazzoli, 53, a disabled construction worker and die-hard fan from New Jersey, shared the moment with his 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been waiting for this all our lives,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, the unassuming backup quarterback who took over for injured star Carson Wentz and played brilliantly throughout the playoffs, wasn&#8217;t on the team plane. Foles headed &#8212; where else? &#8212; to Disney World, riding a float at the Orlando resort and fist-bumping Mickey Mouse amid a shower of green confetti.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all right to yell,&#8221; he told the cheering crowd. &#8220;We&#8217;re world champs! We did it! We did it!&#8221;</p><p>The underdog Eagles won their first NFL championship since 1960 on Sunday night with a surprise 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots, ending a drought that had long tormented the city&#8217;s football-crazed fans. Philly was the only team in the Northeast Corridor to have never won a Super Bowl.</p><p>The city scheduled a victory parade for Thursday along a 5-mile route that will stretch from the Eagles stadium complex to the steps of the Philadelphia art museum, whose steps Sylvester Stallone ran up during &#8220;Rocky.&#8221; It&#8217;s a fitting ending point for a team that Stallone had cheered on throughout the playoffs.</p><p>Revelers along the parade route will be able to indulge in free Bud Light at two dozen bars, thanks to a promise the beer maker made to Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson before the season.</p><p>Philly had some cleaning up to do Monday after pockets of Eagles fans turned unruly overnight, with rowdies smashing department store windows, looting a gas station convenience store and toppling a number of the city&#8217;s famously greased light poles. The police commissioner said he and other officers were hit with bottles.</p><p>The vast majority of revelers celebrated peacefully, and police made only three arrests, said Ajeenah Amir, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney.</p><p>&#8220;Tens of thousands came out and celebrated this amazing victory, and but for a handful of bad actors, the celebration was peaceful and jubilant,&#8221; Amir said. She lauded police for &#8220;their assistance in getting the crowds dispersed and people home safely.&#8221;</p><p>Just as Foles and the Eagles clinched victory in Minneapolis, the scene more than 1,000 miles away in Philly was one of jubilation and pandemonium.</p><p>Revelers shot off fireworks, drivers beeped their horns and Philadelphians young and old descended on Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that last hosted a major championship parade in 2008 for the Phillies&#8217; World Series win.</p><p>&#8220;The city deserved it,&#8221; said 66-year-old Lou Potel, who threw a party at his home just off Broad before joining a much bigger party outside. &#8220;It&#8217;s a great city, and now we have a Super Bowl to go along with it.&#8221;</p><p>Fans clambered atop the awning at the swanky Ritz Carlton Hotel near City Hall, jumping off into the crowd in what one Twitter post called &#8220;Ritz Carlton Skydiving.&#8221; The awning later collapsed with a large group of people on top of it. It wasn&#8217;t clear if anyone was injured.</p><p>Nearby, windows were smashed at a Macy&#8217;s department store and at an Old Navy clothing store.</p><p>And apparently no amount of grease in the world can keep some drunken Eagles fans from climbing poles in celebration. A few managed to shimmy up traffic lights and street sign poles.</p><p>Amir said there were reports of some injuries from falls near light poles but precise numbers weren&#8217;t available.</p><p>Vandals were seen having an apparent food fight inside a gas station&#8217;s convenience store, yelling &#8220;Everything is free!&#8221; and overturning a car outside a hotel. After 1 a.m., the only people allowed inside the 24-hour Wawa convenience store near City Hall were police officers.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Eagles fans take to the streets of downtown Philadelphia on Sunday night to celebrate the team&#8217;s victory in the Super Bowl. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_AP18036200354390.jpg</photo0><caption0>Eagles fans take to the streets of downtown Philadelphia on Sunday night to celebrate the team&#8217;s victory in the Super Bowl. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Rourke | AP Photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>PARADE DETAILS</strong></p><p>When: 11 a.m. Thursday</p><p>Where: Parade will begin at Broad and Pattison in South Philadelphia and head north to the Art Museum. More details will be released 9 a.m. Tuesday.</p></factboxMeta></div>

Eagles arrive home to heroes’ welcome