(uptempo music) (frame whooshing) - Next on "You Oughta Know."

This age-old sport continues to bring people together, thanks to this South Philly Bocce Club.

(frame whooshing) Plus, visual and live artists put their work on display at this new town exhibition.

We'll take you there.

(frame whooshing) And see how Kensington High School is getting their award-winning students job ready.

(uptempo music continues) (frame whooshing) Welcome to "You Oughta Know."

I'm Shirley Min.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Kensington High School's award-winning SkillsUSA students are on their way to bright futures.

As you'll see, the students learn job skills they can use immediately after graduation.

(retro uptempo music) - Welcome to our career and technical education programs.

- At Kensington High School.

(retro uptempo music continues) There's amazing students here.

Students that want to learn, they want to do something, and they do that through our programs and through competing in SkillsUSA.

The main goals are workforce development skills.

So we have our CTE programs, We have our Computer System Repair program with Ms. Lockhart.

- Okay, boys and girls, remember that the objective is for you to create a industry cable, working, of course, and it should be by the B-standards.

Today's instruction involved the students making networking cables, which is basically your Wi-Fi, but being plugged up.

So they were learning the color combination, how to actually use the tools effectively, and just get the RJ-45 on the cable.

Cut, strip, crimp.

And they did amazing.

- For my engineering program, I teach them mostly design work, so they learn how to do technical drawing.

They get into electronics and robotics, some drone technology, a heavy focus on 3D modeling and 3D printing.

(retro uptempo music continues) What I have in my hands is the circuit that we're gonna construct.

In terms of the soft skills, getting to work on time, making sure you're following safety regulations, and being a good team player.

This is the tricky part.

- We teach them communication, basic interviewing, learning how to speak, how to present themselves, just everything they need to know to be ready for the workforce.

- The skills that I learned in Ms. Lockhart's class will follow up with me in life.

Teamwork and leadership.

- [Eric] And the students create presentations and do a community project where they take their skills and apply it in a positive way in the community.

- [Shanelle] We would go to the Boys & Girls Club three days a week and we train these young people how to do ethernet cords, take computers completely apart, put 'em back together.

- [Eric] So our SkillsUSA program here at Kensington High School inspires our students to be tech-centric and motivated to getting their skills developed.

(class speaking indistinctly) - Do you see the vision?

- I see the vision.

- Okay.

- Y'all did really good today.

(hands clap) - Alright, run with that.

I think that's a winner, All the CTE programs offer certifications.

Students that graduate with certifications go straight to the workforce.

- It's fun, it's entertaining, and it's technical.

It's hands on.

It's something different, it's not a book.

It's physically getting in and learning a skill that they can take with them outside of here.

(smooth uptempo music) - SkillsUSA is the number one workforce development organization in the country.

Our first year of competing in SkillsUSA, it was the first time any school district of Philadelphia school won.

(smooth uptempo music continues) We won gold at States.

(smooth uptempo music continues) And then this past summer, winning the silver medal was the first time any school district of Philadelphia School won any recognition for SkillsUSA nationally.

(smooth uptempo music continues) It's a great feeling to say it, like, "We're national champs."

(smooth uptempo music continues) Teaching here has been a dream.

I love it, the students are amazing, and I have had (laughs) a lot of fun with SkillsUSA.

And anyone interested in a STEM subject, computers or engineering, just pursue it.

(smooth uptempo music continues) - The latest craze among tweens, kids ages six through 12, is skincare.

This obsession is not only expensive, it's also raising concerns among parents, including myself.

Here to help flush this all out is Dr. Christina Lee Chung, a dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group.

Dr. Chung, thank you so much for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- My 9-year-old is begging me for a particular skincare line.

It has a multi-step regimen.

The whole thing costs upwards of $100.

I know you have a daughter, or daughters, who are, like, begging you for similar skincare products.

What is going on here?

(laughs) And I'm just wondering, do all these steps make a difference in skin of these young kids whose skin is already perfect, in my mind?

(laughs) - I think the simple answer to that is no.

(both laugh) No child under, almost no human being in the world really needs a 12-step regimen, I'll tell you that much.

But certainly not the kids who are between the ages of six and 12.

Their skin is still growing.

Their skin is still developing.

Their skin still has so many different stages to go through in the lifespan of their skin that a 12-step regimen really is not necessary.

And I think that what we really need to be careful about is, especially in this day and age of social media influencing and the reach that this has, and the youth to which they can speak to, is that there's a really big difference between beauty and the health of skin.

- Right, so you mentioned all these kids are being influenced online by social media, you know, these skin-fluencers are pushing all these products.

Some of them have these ingredients like hyaluronic acid and retinol, which, I will admit, I use products with those ingredients in them, but my skin is way more mature.

Can these ingredients be harmful to tweens skin?

- Yes, absolutely.

I think in the vast majority of cases, it might not.

It might be neutral.

But there are definitely instances, probably way too many of them, where it can actually be extremely harmful.

Let's take those two ingredients you just mentioned.

Hyaluronic acid, huge molecule.

It sits on top of your skin.

People use it because it gives you that beautiful, shiny glassy look, right?

But it's a huge molecule.

So you have children whose skin, whose pores, whose follicles are just being primed to enter their teenage years.

They're just about to create more oil or sebum.

They're about to start getting pimply.

You've got these hormonal factors, right?

And you put something like this, that's a big molecule, and occlude that hair follicle or occlude that pore, and you could take a child who may have a little bit of acne in the future and just (fingers snap) tip them right into it.

Retinol, great product for the aging face.

I think there's a mass hysteria around it.

I think every adult has FOMO about whether or not they're using it.

But we have to remember, there are huge flocks of the population that cannot tolerate it, 'cause it's very, very irritating, right?

And irritation can be very, very dangerous for a child's skin.

One, because irritation tips people into eczema.

Two, because irritated skin is a barrier that is compromised.

So your skin cannot function the way it's supposed to, right.

And three, if you're not about to have acne, right, all you're really doing is putting something that could make you burn more easily, right?

And compromise your skin barrier on your face, especially if you are, you know, less than maybe 10 or 11.

- And I do worry about these skin-fluencers, because as you pointed out, there is that line between beauty and health of your skin.

- Yes.

- And that is very important, because their skin is already so healthy, right?

(laughs) What do you suggest then for tweens to do as something very basic skincare?

- So basic skincare for all tweens should be a very gentle cleanser, a very mild, light lotion, and 100% it should be sunscreen.

Now, that being said, all these beauty lines, if you wanna make yourself feel great, there are a ton of beauty lines to choose from.

But really 10 steps, no.

Basic gentle cleanser, basic light lotion, whatever sunscreen you like.

- And you don't need to get those high-end skincare lines necessarily.

I mean, you can if you want to, but you could go to the drugstore and find these products.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, Dr. Chung, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate your expertise.

- Thanks for having me.

(frame whooshing) - Okay, well, local, national, and international artists are going to converge this weekend in Newtown, Pennsylvania for Art at Kings Oaks.

Producer, Karen Smyles, shows us how this event came to be.

(light music) - [Alex] Art at Kings Oaks started in 2012 when myself and several other local artist friends found ourselves in need of an exhibition space.

We spent the summer excavating and cleaning up the space here, creating a pretty Spartan show, but one that revealed the potential for the barn as an exhibition space.

- The barn provides a very special opportunity to show a number of different artists, because each architectural aspect of the space provides a different area to feature an artist.

These barn buildings have great historic value and innate architectural beauty and history.

The barn we're in right now was built in 1839.

We're sitting on the top of the ramp that the farm equipment would've come up.

And on the other side there's a drop off where you could toss down hay or other crops.

- It was owned by George Chapman who ran the mill in Worthington Mill, and that mill financed the construction of this barn.

The chapel was a cow barn in the late 1700s.

And during the last pandemic in the 19 teens, a minister fled from Philadelphia, (bell ringing) and with the help of an architect from Princeton, converted the barn into a chapel.

(bell ringing) My mom's parents moved here in the '60s.

My grandfather had a heating oil delivery business and was also a pilot, and was looking for a farm where he could put a airstrip through the field.

And we still maintain that strip as meadow.

(light music continues) - [Clara] We live in a carriage house on the property next door to Alex's parents.

- [Alex] My mother is a painter, and through my childhood and high school, we shared a studio together.

And I subsequently went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

I'm thinking of myself more as a process painter these days.

My subject matter comes out of the process of painting.

It is figurative and imagistic, but kind of comes out of just the abstraction of the painting process.

- And then I also wanna look at, now that we have Peter's pieces from Copenhagen, we can look at how they fit on that wall.

- [Alex] Just thinking about the show from a painter's perspective that we are working very intuitively, as one might do in a painting, and having a strong sense of the feeling of what the subject wants.

- The space, I mean, it's beautiful here, actually adds to the art rather than taking away from it or trying to strip it of its value.

It kind of becomes this experience that you become a part of.

- [Artist] I would say that the culture that we've created around the exhibition is one of connection and intimacy.

- I met Clara and Alex, and I just loved their spirit, and the way they talked about painting and the way they talked about this place.

I came here and painted.

Set my easel up out in one of the fields and did some painting.

- [Alex] We do spend a good deal of our time in the garden.

- [Clara] You wanna just pull a few beets or something, darling?

- Yeah.

- And we have also opened that space up when we have events as well for receptions and gatherings and meals.

And it's created a really warm and active energy in that space, which is also naturally really lively with wildlife and growing things.

This year's exhibition will be our ninth, and we're presenting artwork from artists from 10 different countries.

- The work that's gonna be featured in this show is pretty multimedia.

I tend to kind of go between different modes of working, but in this show I'll have some tapestry weavings, some ceramics, and some woodblock prints.

- The sculptures that I'm showing here were made as models, or maquettes, for paintings.

They caught Alex's eye and his interest, and he kind of plucked them outta my studio to include me in the show, which I'm surprised and delighted.

- We share the work with others out of our own love for it, and that's been a real dream come true for us.

(light music concludes) - Art at King's Oaks takes place October 4th through the 20th.

For more information, head over to their website.

(light uptempo music) Just off the Italian market in South Philadelphia, the community comes together with a bit of competition playing one of the world's oldest games.

(bright lively music) - The game is called bocce.

It's not called bocce ball.

Bocce ball is the equipment that you have.

- Anybody can play.

It's a ton of fun with a little bit of competition.

- Everybody really gets into it, and I think we all feel really fortunate to have something like this in the park and in our community.

(bright lively music continues) - The sport is about 3,000 years old.

The French have a sport, which is very similar to it, called boules.

They use smaller balls, where the Italians use a much bigger one, sort of like a grapefruit size.

In other areas throughout the city, they play bocce, but they play it on grass.

We actually play it on a court.

The object of the game is really simple.

You have a little ball, it's called a pallino, and then you have bigger balls, what are called bocce balls.

We try to get either the red bocce balls or the green bocce balls as close to the pallino as possible.

And that's how you score points.

(bright lively music continues) - There are two people on a team.

One team has red, one team has green.

You flip the coin to see who gets to throw the pallino.

There's some advantage to throwing this ball first, as you might imagine, because some teams like to have a short game and some teams like to have a longer game.

So one team throws the ball down there, and then you start.

The idea, and you have to stand behind this line here, is to try to get this ball as close as you can to the pallino.

And the team that is not the closest throws the ball until they are the closest.

At the end of when everyone's thrown their ball, which is called the round, you go down and count the color that's closest and how many of them there are.

We play to ten, two outta three games.

That's what a match is.

(uptempo music) The park was built in 1979, and the bocce court was built when the park was built.

In 1990, about, we formed a Friends of the Park group.

I'm one of the original members, and we used the bocce court as a means to fundraise to make improvements in the park.

- Back in 1995, I started a league.

At that time, we had ten 2-person teams.

About two years ago I asked Joe if he was interested in doing it, and he said yes right away.

- My wife and I moved to the neighborhood about two years ago, and we joined the league.

And then during the playoff tournament, Chris said he wanted to take a step back and asked if anybody else wanted to step up and take it over.

So I raised my hand and took it over.

We've now got about 40 teams, so we've expanded to five days a week every night at 6:00, Sunday through Thursday, with another match on Sundays at 4:00.

We don't ever have matches on Friday or Saturday, 'cause we do want the court open to the public.

This is a public park, so we want the public to have the ability to come play.

But we're out here a lot.

You know, we're out here most (laughs) nights of the week playing.

- I thought it was really the most important thing that anybody could play.

People just really like to play the game.

- In my opinion, there's no better marriage for a small park like this than a bocce court.

- The skill level and the intensity level can vary from team to team.

- I'm playing pretty good this summer, so I'm hoping that when we do our championships that me and my partner will be there in the Finals.

- This is the trophy that the league winner wins.

I've never won this, but, you know, hope springs eternal, I'll get it this year maybe.

- This week's closer look at the farmers and producers that supplies some of our favorite local restaurants takes us to Port Richmond.

Producer, Gianna Kelliher, introduces us to the owner behind KP's Fine Meats.

- My name is Kevin Penney, and I am the owner and head butcher of KP's Fine Meats.

(light uptempo music) We got started in 2020.

I was working out of a rented kitchen space in Old City, and I was primarily doing just like a lot of commodity product, chickens, you know, chicken breast, thighs, things like that.

And then cut steaks, a lot of boneless cuts, 'cause I didn't have a band saw.

And then in 2021, we actually got a lease on this space and we were able to kind of come in and completely remodel.

It was a butcher shop.

It's been a butcher shop since, I think, 1920.

So the whole neighborhood kind of had a familiarity with Jim's Meat Market.

That's what it was before.

And then the doors had been closed for a little while.

So when we came back in, people were really, really excited to, like, finally see, you know, a neighborhood butcher pop back up, 'cause there's not many of us left.

(light uptempo music continues) So it goes back to my dad who used to bring me into our family's butcher shop, I kind of neighborhood butchered growing up, and he passed away in 2011 and I was a sophomore in high school.

And when I got out of high school trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I think that a lot of my fondest memories came from, like, going with my dad into the butcher shop and spending time with him there, and kind of centered around, you know, a nice family meal.

We always got our roasts or nice steaks from Arnie's, and that was a really sweet memory growing up.

So I was there for eight years, always happy to, you know, go in and do some work on my days off, or take deliveries and all that.

So when COVID started in 2020, I was working in Fairmount at a meat and seafood spot, and I eventually got laid off and had a healthy amount of customers that I think found a comfort or trust with me kind of selling the meat when I was there.

And then when I was laid off, I kind of still had all their contact information, (laughs) so I was able to kind of reach out to them and see if there was anything that I can do just with my place as, you know, being able to bring in product and break it down and get it delivered to them.

Of course, it's a lot more difficult, I think, than anybody wants it to be in like a neighborhood setting.

It's really, really tough to kind of lean on local farmers, not because of anything to do with their product.

It's just it's a lot to bring in a pig or a cow or a whole animal and have it broken down completely and be able to turn a profit.

I think that the idea of sustainable farming needs to include kind of accessibility on a neighborhood end for people that would benefit from the product to be able to afford it.

I mean, meat gets crazy expensive, especially when it's local.

So I've really done my best to, you know, every animal that I've brought in from a local farmer, be it Smith poultry or Plowshare Farm, I've always done my best to keep it moving, keep it accessible, keep the product coming in.

And even if I have to take a hit on margins, I think that that's kind of what I'm here for, is to serve my neighborhood and my community.

And that's been really nice.

A lot of restaurants have been word-of-mouth.

I've been able to kind of stand behind my name at this point, which is really, really awesome.

We're on menus, Middle Child Clubhouse, Middle Child Center City, Tabachoy.

We're in Korea Taqueria and PaperMill.

We just got over to Kensington Quarters, Angie's Vietnamese Cuisine.

We're in there.

Zig Zag Barbecue, working on something with Martha.

We got like a really cool spread of awesome restaurants.

And I think also a lot of it is trying to use my knowledge of cutting meat to improve their workflow as well.

I think that it's one way to do it would be just, "Here, you know, take the portion cut, and that's what you get on a weekly basis."

But a few times over, I've had the privilege of going into a kitchen and saying, "This is a whole piece of meat.

We're gonna break it down together.

I'm gonna show you kind of how to, you know, use every bit of this product, that way, none of it goes to waste.

But also, you know, you're saving money on your plate cost and your, you know, staff learns a skill that they, you know, might not know."

A lot of our wholesale accounts end up kind of blending into what we sell in store.

So we do a burger blend for Middle Child, we do a longanisa for Tabachoy, all of our loose sausages for like Circles and Squares.

And all the pizza shops that we sell to, we also sell that in store.

So there's a really cool, like, overlap, and I think it leans back into kind of the community or the Philly scene, or the food scene in Philly of everyone stoked about, like, food, and everyone's excited.

(light music) - Speaking of the food scene, season four of "Check, Please!

Philly" with host, Kae Lani Palmisano, airs Thursdays at 7:30 PM right here on WHYY-TV 12, and online@whyy.org.

In this week's Flicks, Patrick Stoner talks to the children of the late actor, Christopher Reeve, about their parents' legacy and the release of "Super/Man."

(uptempo heroic music) - [Christopher] Everybody's looking for a hero.

(wind whooshing) I am not a hero.

That was a part.

I played the part, I'm not that man.

(uptempo heroic music) - [Patrick] "Super/Man" is about the actor who played Superman, Christopher Reeves, but it's also about the Superman who dealt with his paralysis from then on after an accident.

In theaters everywhere this fall.

I talked with his three children, who are heading the foundation, and I asked them about Robin Williams.

- Robin was an incredible friend to our dad.

And one of the things that this film captures so well is what it is to show up for people.

I think sometimes when a family goes through a tragedy or a friend experiences a hard time, you almost want to take a step back and retreat and not bother them.

Robin and his wife, Marsha, did the exact opposite.

They leaned in and they showed up, and that is true to this day.

I will tell you, I literally just got a text message from Marsha Williams two minutes before - We each did, yeah.

(both laugh) - This interview with you.

And they showed up in such beautiful ways, you know, bringing laughter to a hospital room, calling, and even doing things like buying the van that allowed our dad to go out into the world and regain his independence and mobility.

- [Patrick] It's a powerful documentary, but talk to me about what you're doing now to help others who are going through it.

- Hopefully this documentary, in its own right, will help other people, whether it's folks in the disability community or people suffering a loss or anyone looking for a little bit of inspiration in their own lives.

I think this film has every human emotion and experience packed into about an hour and 40 minutes.

I think audiences of any kind of anywhere around the world will be able to take meaning from it and apply it to their own lives.

So hopefully we, in our small way, can help in that regard.

But then also we are on the board of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Hopefully we can make some sort of impact and carry on the legacy of Christopher and Dana Reeve, because that is a key piece of it is what they have done for untold millions of people in that regard.

- [Patrick] To what extent do you feel that this has now become something that is more understandable for people who haven't gone through it themselves?

- I think that the film does an excellent job of showing that dynamic, and I think people will take something away from it.

One of my favorite lines that my dad says in the film is from an interview he gave shortly after the accident where he says, you know, "You play the cards you're dealt if you think the game's worthwhile."

He thought the game was very worthwhile.

- I have to thank all of you.

Thank you so much for just being in to talk.

- [All] Thank you.

(uptempo music) - Well, that is our show.

Hope you are now in the know.

Goodnight, everyone.

(uptempo music continues)