Elizabeth Ann “Beth “ Baker
courtesy of Beth
apartment in process- chair still needing repair/leg
Beth in dining area

Sweet Home Pennsylvania
by Cate Murway

Making a statement: with a charming sense and feel that this place matters!

"Deserving Décor" makes it so much more. 


Homelessness, "the precariously housed or unhoused population", continues to be a growing problem in America.
Even though Bucks County is an affluent county, behind the façade of spacious homes and sprawling lawns, lies a deep-rooted problem: the hidden homeless. Homelessness, poverty and hunger are very real issues for many of our neighbors. Each is unique.

It is a matter of simple human dignity to have an acceptable clean, comfortable and safe place to call home, food to eat and hope for the future.
Elizabeth Ann “Beth “ Baker, formerly of Beth Baker Interiors, partners with the Bucks County Housing Group to provide places to call home and so much more!
She is the founder and executive director of Deserving Décor, a generous woman of action, who is not content to sit on the sidelines, with a visible determination to help shape the world around her. 
“The BCHG Supportive Housing Program provides temporary apartment housing and the Bridge/Transitional Program provides long term subsidized apartment housing for families receiving education and employment training. The programs provide housing that bridges the gap between a traditional homeless shelter and a rental property.”
The Bucks County Housing Group owns and operates 80 supportive rental units scattered throughout Bucks County in Bensalem (a partnership with St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne providing Continuum of Care Internet to help find jobs), Doylestown, Milford Square, (formerly the EQPP shelter), Morrisville and Penndel, all designated low-income housing.  

Beth and her incredible totally unpaid, dedicated, imaginative and caring volunteers improve upon the traditional functional “nothing fancy” model by providing a warm, welcoming more home-like atmosphere with donated additions, including furnishings, cleaning and decorating services. With a little bit of eclecticism, using refinished and repaired furniture, lamps and lighting, decorative artwork coordinated with the space, stylish window treatments, comfortable bed linens and other donated furnishings/house wares, they revamp lackluster apartments that appear cold into inspired, appealing living spaces for homeless families in Bucks County. Their combined efforts to magically transform, even when resources are extremely limited, never go unnoticed or unappreciated.
The gratitude the clients express over something that may appear as ordinary to us as a supply of books or magazines is by far one of the most rewarding parts of Beth’s experiences.
She and the Deserving Décor volunteers contribute time, talent, passion and their own money to make a difference in the lives of the families. They unselfishly serve.

“I’ve met some amazing, caring, giving people and made some close friends.”
Their first male volunteer was a foster child who grew up in group homes and state care facilities. Jesse Adam Raphial has worked for Habitat for Humanity, built them a retail store to sell items and Goodwill, helping their stores become more profitable. As an entrepreneur, he bought smaller businesses and made them lucrative with his “Two Thumbs Up!” until 2004. He “caught the charity bug” working at the Benjamin H. Wilson Senior Community Center in Warminster and the Briarleaf Nursing and Convalescent Care in Doylestown. Jesse also volunteers his help monitoring the Freecycle.org site, the nonprofit movement of people giving and getting stuff for free.
“I want to actually be out there touching people in a grassroots mission helping the people in our own backyards”.
He attentively fundraises and handles Deserving Décor donation transportation/ delivery in his F150 pickup with a trailer.
 “No political views or limitations. Go to bed knowing we’ve done something!”

Amy Elizabeth Manning, Arcadia ’03, is an accomplished Channel 6 helicopter camera operator. She learned of Deserving Décor from her mom who had read an article in the newspaper. Since Amy has a friend who was in a similar loss of home situation she shared “I am very honored that Beth allows me to be part of this venture. This is very near and dear to my heart.”
Amy refurbishes the oftentimes sturdy, but not very attractive, furniture. One of her toughest assignments was an intricately carved side table with layers upon layers of paint. Amy provides this service with her own “out of pocket” monies.
It would be great to have additional volunteers to assist with this.

How about Beth?
“I don’t get paid. It started with a little snowball and became a giant mound of rolling snow that keeps rolling. More and more people were hearing about it and asked to volunteer.”
This is totally philanthropic.
“My life partner, Andrew Joseph Schwartzberg is my catalyst to allow me to do this. I couldn’t do what I do without him!”
She and Andy, the Vice President of Global Administration Services for Dow Jones & Company, Inc. met at a computer meeting almost 20 years ago.

She had additional help from her son Specialist Jared Henry Baker who has suffered a head injury when the U.S. Army helicopter he was riding in was shot down over Fallujah. He was on board a Chinook helicopter November 2, 2003 when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile. Nineteen people on board survived the attack; 16 were killed. Jared woke up six days later at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., with almost no memory of what happened. His progress has been excellent.

Beth is a member of Martha Stewart’s “Dreamers into Doers” a group of women who have turned their passion into their profession, including some nonprofits.
On January 19th and 20th she will be in the group of 40 women traveling from all over the country to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in NYC as one of 6 speakers at the event.
She is also involved in the Bucks County women’s networking group “Network Now” that gives back to the community by raising awareness and funds for its local nonprofit partners. 

Beth shares her birthday with Charles Monroe Schulz (1922 - 2000), creator of the enormously popular fictional characters and the "Peanuts" comic strip.
She is a pioneering, original person initiating action with a creative approach to problem solving. 
“In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.”  protagonist Charlie Brown quote.

She originally launched this non-profit, charitable organization in March 2008 of interior decorators, home stagers and volunteers with the help of Beth Allen, Laura Olejniczak, and Sharon McConnell. They mainly had stored decorative items, but really had no furniture.
“In my naive mind, I thought I was just going to go in and decorate.”

They go to work when one family moves out and the first step is that the apartment is cleaned. They needed to “clean, clean, clean” the transitional sheltered apartments.
The furniture donated from thrift stores or individuals is arranged, artwork is placed, curtains are hung and then they add "all the soft furnishings that make it more homey," she said. Beth and her volunteers decorate according to the needs of the incoming tenants and color coordinate bedding, bathroom and kitchen accessories for the family who will typically reside there for six months before relocating to more permanent housing. 
At the start, they diligently worked on one residence every couple of months, now they are committed to one every couple of weeks.
Recently, the administration from the American Red Cross Homeless Shelter in Levittown called and asked Beth and her volunteer group to help with the families going into their own subsidized housing.
“I like doing it. It’s a way for me to express myself creatively. You have to be very frugal and think of ways to do things that you ordinarily wouldn’t do it.  We repurpose things.”

Extra donations, not designated for “use only” are toted in her Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup truck for sale at the cooperative indoor flea market in Pipersville.
Yesterdays Treasures (formerly Bux-Mont Garden Center)
Saturdays 9:00 a.m.-3 p.m. 
6719 Easton Road
Pipersville, PA 18947-9750  
The money is put right back to buy what they need to make everything work!

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”  Mother Teresa

Deserving Décor is a green organization. They recycle furnishings, linens, and home decor items when they makeover transitional apartment housing. Nothing more green than that!
They are looking for lamps with shades, décor, pictures/paintings for the walls, window valances and treatments, bed linens and a box truck to transport these donations.
“A 14’ box truck would be great!” 
Monetary donations and donations of gas cards are truly appreciated!

Beth remains dedicated to finding any means of invoking public awareness for the organization and its needs.
Community members are welcomed and encouraged to participate.
The organization is always looking for volunteers, particularly males to help move the furniture. They do need more men. “It's very difficult to move couches and things that are very heavy. We lug a lot of stuff around." 

Beth has been quoted as saying, "We need a few good men!"


Deserving Décor
P.O. Box 1055 
Doylestown, PA 18901 
215.550.5674 



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Craig L. Shotwell
June 22, 1948 - December 24, 2018


Craig L. Shotwell Craig L. Shotwell, 70, of Northumberland, passed away on Dec. 24, 2018, 
after an extended illness. 
Craig was born in Berwick on June 22, 1948, and graduated from Berwick High School in 1966. He graduated from Bloomsburg University with a bachelors degree in education and a masters degree in Exceptionalities. 

 He is survived by his mother, Lois Shotwell of Berwick; his life partner, Sharon Cashman of Northumberland; his sister, Beth Baker and her partner, Andy Schwartzberg of Doylestown; his brother, Olin Shotwell and his wife, Kate of Bloomsburg; a niece, Gretchen Shotwell of New Orleans, La.; and nephews, Jared Baker of Doylestown, Fred Shotwell of Berwick and many lifelong friends. 
 His father, Henry Shotwell and grandparents, Walter and Zuletta Rood and Gertrude and Olin Shotwell preceded him in death. 

 Following graduation from BU, Craig began a career in education at the Shikellamy School District and started Shikellamy's first Alternative Education Program. Later he moved into teaching Special Education and helped to establish basketball as a Special Olympic event in Pennsylvania. He coached one of the first PA Special Olympic Basketball Teams, meeting other first teams from New York and New Jersey at Cabrini College outside Philadelphia in the first regional event for the fledgling Special Olympic Basketball Program. Many years after those first tournaments, the Special Olympic World Summer Games now includes basketball among their team sports. 

 Back at Shik, Craig began coaching field events for the track program. He coached throughout his career until his retirement in 2005. But he just couldn't stay away and began working the track meets, timing events and encouraging young competitors. 

 Athletic competition has been important throughout Craig's life. During high school, he was an outstanding competitor in football, basketball and track and was inducted into The Berwick High School Sports Hall of Fame. In his 40's he began participating in competitive cycling, winning awards in the senior division in local and regional events. He spent summer vacations touring Europe and following the Tour de France on his prized Pinarello bicycle. He earned a coveted certificate for cycling up Alpe D' Huez, one of the highest points in the French Alps. Craig cycled throughout the French, Swiss and Italian Alps, riding the same roads and mountains as the premier cyclists of the world...admittedly at a slower pace. His personal log of daily local rides records a distance that exceeds the circumference of the earth twice over. His favorite route was one he named his "Tour de Ville": Danville, Washingtonville, Turbotville and Montoursville. 

 Craig was a person of deep and diverse abilities and interests. He was highly respected as an educator by his peers and loved by his students. An avid sports fan, he traveled to games in support of Notre Dame and the New York Yankees. He loved music and had an encyclopedic knowledge of genres from opera to jazz and rock. He was an avid reader, consuming volumes of mysteries, biographies, history, science and nature. He was an amateur photographer who captured the beauty of nature on his many bicycle rides. 

 Craig was active in his school and community. He was a member of National Education Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association and served as a building representative and negotiator for the Shikellamy Education Association. He served on the district assessment and strategic planning committees. He was a member of the Northumberland Fire Company No. 1. He served as a Board Member of the Kauffman and Degenstein Libraries, Sunbury, PA and the fundraising committee for the new Degenstein Community Library. He instructed educational summer programs on bicycle safety for children at the Priestley - Forsyth Library, Northumberland, PA and participated in long distance bicycle fundraising rides for charities. Craig Shotwell had a life well lived! 

 All are welcome to join Craig's family for his visitation 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2, at the Kelchner-McMichael-Baker Funeral Home, 119-121 E. Third St., Berwick. A graveside service will follow at 11:30 a.m. in Pine Grove Cemetery, Walnut Street, Berwick. 

 In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Shikellamy College Aid Fund/ Craig L Shotwell Scholarship, Shikellamy High School, 600 Walnut St., Sunbury, PA 17801. 
Published on December 27, 2018

Olin, Beth and Craig at the cabin
Beth Shotwell Baker
December 9, 2018 at 1:51 PM · .

It is with a sad heart, and much soul searching, that after 10 years and 7 months of my life, I will be closing Deserving Decor at the end of the year. I need to spend as much time as possible with my mother, who has Alzheimer's, and make sure she is getting the proper care and seeing me on a regular basis. It's difficult due to the fact she is two hours away, but I will find away. I must!
However, I will still be fundraising to provide new beds for children without them in Bucks County, just not under the Deserving Decor name. I will also be involved in other non-profit ventures as time permits.
I want to thank all the many, many volunteers, supporters and donors over the past 10+ years. It has been an incredible journey and eye opening experience, literally life changing. I thank each and every one of you for your incredible giving spirit from the bottom of my heart! 
Here's to another new chapter in my life!