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SpecialtoTWY. GAMECOCK | Jim Casale, above, and his brother-in-law run the Knit Whit shop in Chestnut Hill, Pa. Casale inherited the shop from his mother. KniTTlDG • COminUED fRfldl 8 across from her and watching. I knit backwards because I copied her, mirror image.” Marge Casale was an expert knitter who was taught by her grandmother. In the store, she led knitting classes, designed her own patterns, and even developed a syllabus in knitting for the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences (now Philadelphia . University). * The Casale family lived above the store, which is located on the ground level of the historic Detweiler House at 8226 Germantown Ave. And because the Knit With was literally part of his home, Jim, now 50, found himself working there, too. But he was never supposed to be the one to take over the business. He graduated from Penn State Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle and then moved back to Philadelphia to work at a firm in Center City. He | would stop by the store on weekends to lend a hand — getting a mailing list together, going over the books. Jim Casale said he learned to knit from his little sister when he was in the store one weekend and a customer asked him for help. “I could read patterns. I could pick yarn, but I didn’t know how to knit,” he recalled. “So my sister taught me, in the storeroom, in something like 10 minutes.” In 1978, Marge and her husband, Michael Casale, divorced, and suddenly the shop became her primary source of income. “When my mom was having a hard time keeping the business going after the divorce, my brother gave up everything and moved back home to help us out,” Dawn Giampa recalls. Dawn Giampa finished college and eventually found a job as a banker. In 2002, Marge Casale, then 72, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “When she was too weak to come into the shop, she’d ask me who came in and what they were working on,” Jim said. “She kept up with everything; she even kept in touch with the knitting trends.” After Marge Casale died in July 2004, more than 400 people attended her funeral at Our Mother of Consolation Church in Chestnut Hill. At least half, Jim said, were customers. Sweepstakes pros clean up Serious “sweepers”say investment of time yields entertainment, prizes Kristen 0. Graham KRT CAMPUS PHILADELPHIA — Jane Abo of Cherry Hill, N.J., blasts through, at least 10,000 index cards a year. Nicole Maurer of Bensalem, Pa., has parlayed a fun stay-at-home-mom pastime into a serious side job. Abo and Maurer are part of a national network of people who take entering contests and sweepstakes very seriously. Between the two, they’ve racked up big checks, luxerious trips, pricey jewelry, even a car. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful hobby,” said Abo, 52, who’s been a “sweeper” for 30 years. “You can win anything.” Well, maybe it’s not just a hobby. First, Abo earned a degree in theater. Then she went on a game show, the now-defunct “Musical Chairs.” That experience made her hungry for more wins, so she bought a book about sweepstaking, and never looked back. That was 1975. When her sons, now 24 and 21, were young, Abo would get a baby-sitter and leave the house with her husband to sit in his accounting office for a few hours, writing out envelopes, forms and notecards and making meticulous marks in her various sweepstakes notebooks. Abo works as a teachers aide at Cherry Hill High School East, but she usually manages to get in a few hours’ worth of sweepstaking per day. She enters a few contests, which involve skill, but she mostly sticks to sweepstakes, which are purely games of chance. In her living room, just past the tiny decorative grand piano — a sweepstakes prize — is an entire wall unit jammed with notebooks, folders, win letters, and other supplies. Sure, it’s not uncommon for her to fill out hundreds of envelopes in a single day. And yes, Abo is drinking a lot of Dr Pepper just now because son Benjamin, 24, wants a Mini Cooper and she’s got to get tons of game pieces so she can score one for him. But the wins? They make it all worth it, she says. There was the inflatable boat big enough for four. The sapphire-and-diamond ring. The $3,000 treadmill, the iPod, the new screen door, the two-foot plush Scooby-Doo doll, the trip to the Napa Valley with personal chefs included. I ve shot basketball at Madison Square Garden. I won tickets to the Super Bowl, sold the tickets to the game, and went shopping in Atlanta with my sister,” Abo said. And yes, she does pay taxes on her winnings — her husband the accountant makes sure of that. She donates a fair amount of her winnings, such as the customized soccer uniforms, and gives many away as presents to her family. Of course, she has had some just plain strange victories. Take the Morris the Cat episode. On a lark, Abo entered a contest that guaranteed the winner and the winner’s cat a catered meal. Her name was drawn in that sweepstakes, but she found herself confronted with a problem: She had no cat. So she borrowed a neighbors feline, put up a “We Love Morris!” sign, and welcomed a tuxedoed butler to the house. Years later, Abo still laughs hard at those photographs. “Recently, I won a three-lap high-speed chase on a NASCAR track,” Abo said. “I haven’t called to arrange that yet. I’m not sure if I want to.” And even after 30 years sweeping, she still has unfulfilled goals. “I want to win a car,” she said. “And I’ve always wanted to win a walk-on part in a movie.” Special to TI|E GAM ECOCK “Sweeper” Jane Abo shows off some of the prizes she’s won in her 30 years of entering sweepstakes. higher test scores guaranteed or your money back LSAT GMAT GRE MCAT DAT OAT Attend all required classes or make-up sessions, complete all scheduled tests, and do your homework, if your score doesn’t improve on test day from your Kaplan diagnostic or a prior official test score, you can choose to repeat our program for free or get a full refund of your tuition?* It’s that simple. •Test names are instated trademartis of their respective owners. ••Conations and restrictions apply. For complete guarantee eHglWfity repuirements. vis# kaptest-com/hsg. Die Hgter Seme Guarantee only applies to Kaplan courses taken and completed within the united States and Canada. 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