Joe Battista

  • A Gift that Keeps on Giving: A Digital Heirloom 

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    Joe Battista

    Years ago, my mother had all of our family movies dubbed down to VHS video tapes. I remember seeing the movies of my childhood and special events that took place in the history of our family. My parents wedding, my aunt’s wedding, baptisms, first communions, our family trip to Disneyland and our trip to Fort…

  • Battista: We’ve Come a Long Way

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    Joe Battista

    My wife and I (and our part-time author dog Barkley) trekked up to Pittsburgh recently to meet up with our youngest son Ryan (in town from Minneapolis for work) and to visit my parents While we were in Da’Burgh we had the opportunity to take a few strolls down memory lane. Wow, we’ve really come…

  • Battista: Who to Believe?

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    Joe Battista

    Halloween 2025 has come and gone but it reminded me of one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on a naïve audience. On Oct. 30, 1938, just over 87 years ago, a then 23-year-old Orson Welles used a relatively new technology (for the masses) to put fear into the entire nation with his CBS radio broadcast of…

  • A Memorable Celebration of Life for a True Servant Leader

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    Joe Battista

    It was the perfect fall weekend to travel into Happy Valley to get together with friends and family, including my two oldest children, as it was “Family Weekend” at Penn State. The leaves were changing colors, the sun was shining brightly, only a few wispy clouds were in the sky and a cool breeze was…

  • Battista: Make It Happen

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    Joe Battista

    Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the importance of taking time to go on family adventures, just after we spent nine days out west with our three adult children.  Previous to that, I wrote about my great friend and hockey teammate Tim Holdcroft, who passed away unexpectedly at just 62, too young an…

  • Battista: Family Adventures Are Priceless

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    Joe Battista

    If I could do it all over again, the advice I would give my younger self as a parent would have been to stretch our family budget, just a little more, and find a way to take the family on a few more adventures.  Having just returned from an amazing nine-day trip out west to…

  • Battista: God Just Doesn’t Make Them Any Better Than Our Friend Tim

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    Joe Battista

    The State College community lost one of its best residents last week, someone who many of you probably didn’t even know.  His name was Tim Holdcroft, and he was the epitome of an unsung hero in life, with family, at work, in his church and in the community. His untimely death has devastated family and…

  • Battista: Campus Memories

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    Joe Battista

    Almost everyone has some fond memories of campus experiences, whether you’ve graduated from high school, trade school, college or military boot camp (well, maybe not fond memories of boot camp). If you’re a Penn State Alumni Association member and receive the Penn Stater Magazine, you have undoubtedly enjoyed the periodic articles about campus memories.  Most…

  • Battista: Service to Others Is a Mindset, and a Gift

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    Joe Battista

    We just completed our eighth year of Overspeed Hockey camps in Sun Valley, Idaho. That’s 16 weeks of service to over 700 kids predominantly from Idaho but with some coming from Washington, Oregon, Montana, California, Utah, Wyoming and even as far away as Florida, It’s a great camp in a gorgeous area of the country. …

  • Destinations: Dreams and Realities

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    Joe Battista

    I recently became one of the newest members of the Medicare Club. My 87-year-old mother called to wish me happy birthday and said, “My baby is 65!”  No way am I 65, I thought. Old people are 65! I feel like I’m living my best life right now and suddenly it dawned on me that…