Veterans Day is this Monday and some events and happenings are taking place in the area this weekend to honor and support local men and women who served in the Armed Forces.

On Saturday, Nov. 9, Veterans Day Commemoration is scheduled in the northern section of Clark Park near the Gettysburg Stone (near 44th and Baltimore Ave.) Everyone is welcome to join the Friends of Clark Park, students of the HMS School for Cerebral Palsy and the Boy Scouts in honoring veterans. The event begins at 11 a.m. If you are a local veteran reading this, you can be honored too. Please call 215-222-2255 and leave your name and phone number.

Also tomorrow, dozens of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Philadelphia will gather to renovate the Veterans Group Home at 3209 Baring Street (in the Powelton Village area). The volunteer work team will build a new gazebo for the home, install a new grill and cooking area and renovate the first-floor bathroom. The work will take place from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and HGTV and DIY Network will be there to film it.

The Veterans Group Home, which has the capacity to house 48 men, is located on a quiet tree lined street and includes two-three story homes that are joined in the rear of the property by a shared kitchen and two dining areas.

A couple of months ago, West Philly Local wrote about the call for short film submissions for the 2013 Sloppy Film Fest. Some of your creative neighbors and friends got busy and put together homemade flicks in a “fast and loose” manner, just like the fest organizers wanted. And now it’s time to check out their work. The Sloppy Film Fest, a free show organized by Project Arts, will take place tonight from 10 – 12 p.m. at Dahlak Paradise (4708 Baltimore Ave). Each film screened at the fest is between 5 and 10 minutes long.

The Sloppy Film Fest has been held on and off for the last 15 years. “The idea is to promote DIY filmmaking,” Project Arts executive director Rich Wexler told West Philly Local back in September. Kids are welcome, at least for the first part of the show, as it will begin with films rated PG and PG-13.

More information is available on the event’s Facebook page. And here’s a teaser:

We love Fall in West Philly! Check out this photo by reader Eva Jacobs.

Photo from wepac.org.

Do you have a couple of hours a week to spend in a neighborhood school library and make a big impact on a kids’ lives?

Budget cuts across the city have left neighborhood schools desperate for help to keep their libraries open. The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) is recruiting volunteers to read to students and help staff libraries in the neighborhoods. An orientation session for new volunteers will be held Friday, Nov. 8 beginning at 2 p.m. at the Powel School at 35th Street and Powelton Avenue.

Many of your neighbors have volunteered with WePAC. You will have to fill out some background check forms and complete the orientation before volunteering at a school. WePAC is looking for volunteers who can commit to at least two to three hours a week.

Call 267-443-3224 for more information.

This map shows the location where the robbery took place and where the robber was chased.

This one didn’t end so well for the robber.

A 25-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint early Thursday morning on the way to her apartment near Florence Ave and St. Bernard St., but thanks to the brave actions of another young woman, who was walking her dog nearby and who chased down the robber, the victim’s belongings were retrieved.

The incident happened around 2 a.m., according to police. The 25-year-old parked her car on the 800 block of St. Bernard and was walking to her apartment and talking on her cell phone when she heard someone behind her say something. She turned and saw a man in his 30’s standing behind her holding a black gun in his hand. The woman dropped her handbag and began screaming loudly. The man picked up her bag and ran south on St. Bernard. The bag contained several textbooks, police said.

A 24-year-old woman was walking her dog in the area of Florence and St. Bernard when she heard loud screams, police said. She ran towards the screaming and saw a male running south with a bag. The woman gave chase, with her dog leading the way, onto Warrington Ave and found the robber attempting to scale a high fence in a rear yard with the gun still in his hand. The man turned and saw the woman and waved the gun in her direction. He then ran past her west on Warrington and south on 50th Street. The woman recovered the stolen bag and returned it to the owner. No injuries were reported.

Some West Philly Local readers who live in that area heard loud screams by a woman and wrote us to report them and police presence shortly afterwords.

A caveat here: While this one ended well for the victim and the chaser, police obviously do not recommend confrontations with armed robbers.

Pitruco’s Salame pizza / Photo from Pitruco Pizza’s tumblr

Chowing down on a slice of pizza while downing gulps of beer—seems like the perfect match for a college bar. At least, that’s the thought behind the Smokey Joe’s and Pitruco Pizza partnership that launched three weeks ago.

A few weeks ago Nathan Winkler-Rhodes and Jonah Fliegelman—the boys behind the sought-after Pitruco Pizza food truck—began running Smokey Joe’s kitchen, serving their signature fare as Enjay’s Pizza (a play on their names, said Smokey Joe’s owner Paul Ryan). With Rhodes and Fliegelman at the helm, Smokey’s, located at 210 S. 40^th Street will now offer a revamped menu with pizza as the star and offered in seven small or large varieties including spicy, sausage and pepper, and tomato—plays (but not direct copies) off their Pitruco menu. Chicken cutlet, meatball and fried cauliflower hoagies are also on the list of options, in addition to salads, Italian vegetable plates, and pub starters like garlic knots and artisan fries.

Ryan was looking to serve pizza and turned to Pitruco after checking out foodie reviews. In turn, he said, the duo was looking to set up a brick-and-mortar shop for their highly rated truck, so they were on board when approached by Ryan. And so far, says the owner, the partnership is “terrific.”

“The reviews of the food have been great,” Ryan told West Philly Local. “I think it’s a great match for a college bar.”

Smokey Joe’s has long sublet its kitchen to budding culinary entrepreneurs looking for a built in audience and good location without the overhead of their own space.

Fliegelman and Winkler-Rhodes will run Smokey Joe’s kitchen from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Currently, takeout is only available.

–Annamarya Scaccia