Candidate for
State Representative; Pennsylvania State House of Representatives; District 199; Democratic Party

I have lived in Cumberland County for my entire life, growing up in a rural area near Cumberland Valley High School, which was built when I was in third grade. So my first three years of school were in a one room country school house, with a pot-bellied stove and an outhouse, that had grades one to eight.

Growing up, I was a member of the 4-H Baby Lamb Club and 4-H Horse and Pony Club, and I took ballet lessons from Marcia Dale Weary when she was just beginning to teach in Carlisle in the 1950s. When I was a high school student, CVHS was nicknamed "Cow Valley" because many of us were from farm families. In addition to farming, my parents began several small businesses, including a successful restaurant business in New Kingston called The Country House.

After college I taught at Cumberland Valley High School for five years, then married Jim Bartoli and moved to the "big city" of Carlisle, where we raised our five children, three of whom have made their home in Cumberland County. My four sons and daughter spent their elementary years at St. Patrick School, then attended Carlisle High School, followed by Elizabethtown College where I taught for 20 years. Our sons, David and Stephen, each have four children, making me the proud grandmother of eight.

My university education began in 1963 at Penn State with a scholarship from the Capital Area Science Fair, continued in 1977 with a master's in reading from Shippensburg University, and ended in 1986 with a doctorate from University of Pennsylvania in language arts and family literacy.

After 17 years of motherhood, raising my five children, I began teaching at Elizabethtown College in 1990. I taught reading and language arts, diversity issues, and urban education for 20 years, along with developing service learning programs for social work and education majors.

Marion Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund said it best: "Service is the rent we pay for living." The desire to serve my community as a State Representative, and to better understand and give voice to their values and concerns, is at the heart of my campaign.