Help This Delco Mom Give Her Daughter the Best Birthday Ever

Cayla Lynch, whose birthday is on Wednesday, with her mom Amanda Lynch, both of Delco (photo courtesy Amanda Lynch)

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Help This Delco Mom Give Her Daughter the Best Birthday Ever

It’s Monday. There’s plenty of bad news in the city to go around. But I’m going to start things off this week by giving you the chance to do something good for somebody else.

That somebody else is Cayla Lynch, whose birthday is this Wednesday. She’s turning 19. Cayla, a student at Elwyn, lives in Delco with her mom, Amanda, and two siblings. Cayla has autism. She also has brain damage, which occurred in the womb, the result of a condition known as polymicrogyria. Cayla experiences seizures regularly.

“She’s been completely non-verbal since she was two years old,” explains Amanda, a medial assistant currently on leave so she can care for Cayla full-time while Elwyn is on summer break. “She doesn’t have any friends. She’s never had a real birthday party, at least nothing like what other kids have. So every year is kind of a little sad.”

Last year, Amanda took to her local Buy Nothing group on Facebook, since Buy Nothing groups are very neighborhood-specific, asking neighbors if they might be willing to send birthday cards to Cayla.

“People were really happy to do that,” Amanda says. “So I decided to do it again this year. Cayla is such a good kid, and it’s just heartbreaking as a parent when there’s nobody to invite to her birthday. So the cards really help. They show her — and us — that there are people out there who care.”

So how about we get a little birthday card-writing campaign going? Cayla enjoys Disney princesses, SpongeBob, Finding Nemo, and, in case you’re the kind of person who stocks up on Christmas cards when the post-Christmas clearance sales hit the stores, Christmas.

“She loves everything about Christmas and Christmas music,” notes Amanda. “All throughout the year. We listen to so much Christmas music.”

And though Amanda isn’t asking for gifts for Cayla, if you did want to send something along, she enjoys any kind of art projects.

Since we’re not going to give out Cayla’s home address, Fourno Pizza, the family’s favorite local pizza place, has agreed to collect birthday cards for Cayla, even if they’re a little belated. Just send your card to Cayla c/o Fourno Pizza, 4306 Woodland Avenue, Drexel Hill, PA 19026.

When’s This Shitty Weather Going to End?

Stifling humidity. Massive storms. (Or at least massive for Philly.) Lots of flooded basements. It looks like we’re getting a break starting on Wednesday, with lower temperatures, lower humidity, and very little (if any) rain expected the latter half of the week.

Carson Wentz Killed a Bear

“Ugh, glad we jettisoned him!” my colleague wrote when she sent me the former Eagles quarterback’s Instagram post.

Carson Wentz and the bear that he killed (photo via Carson Wentz/Instagram)

The comments section is quite the lesson in America 2023: The Culture Wars.

By the Numbers

200 to 300: Estimated number of teens who gathered at Belmont Plateau as Saturday turned into Sunday before two people were injured in a shooting there. According to police, a dark-colored sedan pulled up and somebody inside the vehicle told the group to clear the area before opening fire into the crowd.

$218 million: Price Philly’s own Rob McElhenney (of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame) and some other investors just paid to own a Formula One team.

671,000: Estimated number of Philadelphia-area residents expected to travel 50 miles or more during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

$37.7 million: Final price tag for Philly’s mayoral primary.

$25,988: Average out-of-network cost of giving birth vaginally in Pennsylvania, making us among the more expensive states. A C-section will cost you more than $35,000.

And from the Holy S–t Sports Desk …

In Friday night’s Phillies game, the big question again was the state of the skies, with Taijuan Walker starting for the Phils and Kodai Senga for the Mets. Our guys got off to a swift start with two runs in the first, on a Brandon Nimmo error, a wild pitch, two walks and a single. Nice! Nimmo made up for it with a solo homer in the third, but there was nothing more. Walker was still going strong through the sixth.

In the bottom of that inning, with one out, Bryson Stott singled and then stole second. Alec Bohm got him to third with a single, and another Walker pitcher, rookie Josh, came in for Senga. Marsh popped it up, but there was some inexplicable confusion in the field, the ball dropped, and Stott scored. And the rains began; damn, it really poured for about 10 minutes, with Kyle Schwarber at bat. He walked, and Jeff Brigham was brought in to pitch. Bases loaded for Trea Turner! His single scored two more: 5-1!

Our Walker came out in the seventh for Gregory Soto, who struck out the side. Lefthander Brooks Raley took the mound for New York and faced Bryce Harper, who got ejected — unfairly — for bitching about a third-strike call. J.T. walked, but Jeff McNeil worked a pretty double play on Stott. José Alvarado came in and walked Mark Canha with one out, on a call José clearly didn’t agree with but didn’t argue since the ump was being so tetchy. No damage, though. Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth and allowed a walk, committed a balk, then finished with a strikeout. Go team!

Timely, yet accurate https://t.co/iwpayfw1cX

— JD Seiders (@GabachoMejor) June 24, 2023

On Saturday afternoon, the Mets mimicked the Phils’ strong Friday start by scoring a Starling Marte homer in the first. Max Scherzer was pitching for New York, with Cristopher Sánchez for the Phils. In the third, a Luis Guillorme triple and a Nimmo single brought another one home; in the fourth, a monster Castellanos solo (of course) homer made it 2-1 Mets.

CASTY BOMB#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/iLYGoclfOk

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 24, 2023

Marsh doubled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, and Turner singled him in for the tie. Circle the horses! Yunior Marte, he of the five-run 10th inning last time out, came in for the sixth with Nimmo on first, and Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor both promptly singled, loading the bases with no outs. A grounder and a single brought in two more. Hey, I warned ya! That’s where it stayed, too, despite a few sparks of Phillies life in the final frames: 4-2. Boo!

And a Truly Wild One!

On Sunday, it was Zack Wheeler on the mound for us and Carlos Carrasco for New York. Trea Turner got things started with a (all together now) solo homer in the first. In the third, Wheels loaded the bases with two singles and a hit batter, and a Pete Alonso single scored two. Edmundo Sosa answered with a triple in the bottom half, Schwarbs walked, and a Turner single evened the score. The Mets went up one again in the fourth on a walk and a couple of singles, then up another in the fifth on a solo homer by Lindor. In the bottom half, Turner walked, stole two bases, then came home on an error: magical run! But the Phils weren’t done.

Strahm came in in the sixth after Wheels gave up a walk and a couple of long flies, and Alvarado relieved him in the seventh, promptly handing a homer to Alonso: 6-3. With Josh Walker on the mound, the Phils loaded the bases in the eighth and got one more on a crazy-ass error, leaving the bases still loaded for Marsh with no outs. Was this game actually going to get interesting? You betcha!

I cannot imagine being a Mets fan watching this pic.twitter.com/b978JrVXsg

— Conor Daly (@conordaly23) June 25, 2023

Phils win, 7-6! See, that was fun after all. They’re off now till Tuesday, in Chicago.

Meanwhile, in Doop News …

The Union played on Saturday night against a Lionel Messi-free Inter Miami, and we got on the board first, on a lovely header by Jakob Glesnes just 14 minutes in. Miami’s pink uniforms look dumb, if you ask me, and I like pink. I mean, it doesn’t exactly read aggression, you know? Julián Carranza made it 2-0 at 39:00, delighting the home crowd. And then came a Leon Flach goal in the five minutes of first-half overage: 3-0. It was only his all-time second MLS goal.

Alas, Miami got one back in the 49th minute that deflected off Glesnes, just barely — but still counted as an own goal. Carranza got that back with an own goal of his, um, own: 4-1. Flach poked another in at 78:00, but it was whistled back for offsides. Let’s check the video! Yup, call confirmed. And a 4-1 final for their eighth win in the past 11 games. Doop!

In good news/bad news news, Damion Lowe, who missed the Union game because he’s playing with the Jamaican national team (along with Union teammate Andre Blake), scored the first goal in the U.S. national team’s 1-1 tie with Jamaica, on an absolutely gorgeous header past Matt Turner.

https://twitter.com/FOXSoccer/status/1672792482172616705

All Philly Today Sports Desk coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.