Playing catch-up

TIME TO SHAKE off my end-of-summer blahs and focus on some folks who allowed me tell their stories over the past year.

First up is the irrepressible Courtney Simmons, a freshman nursing student at St. Joseph's University. She's thrilled with her classes. Her professors are fantastic. Her classmates and dorm buddies, the best.

"This sounds weird," she says, "but I even love my homework."

This time last year, Courtney was battling cancer - the same disease that took her mother in 2011 and her sister in 2007. All of them had inherited a gene for Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that increases cancer risk. Courtney was determined to survive the tumor that had invaded her knee, because "If I died, Reggie" - her little brother, who did not inherit the gene - "would have no one."

Her health today, she grins, is "awesome - I feel great!"

Last spring, Courtney, then a senior at Constitution High School, was floored to learn that she'd won a full scholarship to St. Joe's, awarded by Eagles Fly for Leukemia, and that she was named a patient ambassador at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she received her treatment.

Next weekend, she'll help lead CHOP's Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk, which benefits childhood cancer research at the hospital, where Courtney wants to work as an oncology nurse.

"I've never felt happier!" she says, before dashing off to class.

***

You know who else is smiling? John Hamilton, who tried for two years to collect $18,234 that he was owed for the sale of his house, which the Sheriff's Office had seized in 2005 for unpaid taxes.

When I wrote about Hamilton, he'd received only $3,758, thanks to a screwup with the state Bureau of Unclaimed Property (which was in charge of sending Hamilton his money).

After making Hamilton jump through hoops, re-file forms he'd already filed and giving grief to Joe O'Hara, a real-estate guy helping Hamilton, the Sheriff's Office was silent. The situation looked hopeless.

Then, on Aug. 15, the FBI raided the office in an investigation centered on its real-estate functions. And on Aug. 20, the sheriff finally cut Hamilton a check for what he was owed.

"Was it a coincidence?" asks O'Hara, who is pretty much detested in the office. "Who the hell knows? All I know is that John finally got paid. He never should've had to wait that long."

***

While we're giving Hamilton a high-five, let's hear a cheer for youth-program developer Wendy Palmer and Penn prof Nancy Peter. They're the founders of the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative (PYSC), which uses sports to help underprivileged kids learn patience, commitment, discipline, teamwork and accountability.

Last year, Palmer and Peter teamed up with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Philadelphia Juvenile Probation Department and the Department of Human Services to help rehabilitate juveniles on deferred adjudication. (That means the kids are given a heavily supervised probation period to turn their lives around.)

The resulting program, Sports for Juvenile Justice, uses PYSC's sports programs, as well as homework help and adult mentoring, to reduce recidivism rates, promote positive development and help kids develop healthy relationships with adults and peers.

I wrote about Sports for Juvenile Justice last autumn and how it was helping an 11-year-old boy - who'd broken into a school - get his young life back on track. I found the outside-the-box program, the only one of its kind in the country, to be impressive.

So I'm delighted to report that it has just nabbed a coveted "Best New Project" award from Beyond Sport (a highfalutin global group that promotes, develops and supports the use of sports to create positive social change in the world).

"It's really, really cool," says Peter. "We were up against unbelievable competitors from around the world - we just couldn't believe the judges chose us."

The award includes a cash prize of $10,000 and, more importantly, access to Beyond Sport's huge network of business experts, who'll help the fledgling group grow legs and run as fast as the kids it helps.

Score!

***

I couldn't end this roundup without sharing a subversive email I just received from a reader I'll call "Wally." He'd read my column last week about Leah Kauffman, who was hit with four tickets for parking her motorized scooter on the sidewalk - even though she'd been told by the Philadelphia Parking Authority that it was OK to do so.

Wally says he's found a way to avoid PPA tickets altogether.

"I have been riding a scooter for three years," he wrote. "I park everywhere. I take off my license plate. PPA sees they can't write a ticket, scratches their head and walks on. They won't call for a tow."

Legal? Doubtful. Brilliant? Without a doubt - in that only-in-Philly way.