Jan 11, 2018 4 min read

Punxsutawney Phil, apparently, did not see his shadow Thursday, and he made no predictions. But on a day on which it seemed there would be only six more hours of winter, he was on tour in Washington County.

“We can call him our friend because he’s with us now, Punxsutawney Phil,” principal Marella McConnell shouted in introducing the world’s most popular rodent to 300 students plus teachers and staff at Borland Manor Elementary. The kids roared their approval inside the multipurpose room at the North Strabane Township school, the afternoon stop, Phil’s third in about six hours.

It was showtime for Bill Deeley and A.J. Dereume, members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club who have Washington County ties. And for the small, furry fellow they supervise and handle at school assemblies and events. The trio made the 100-mile commute from Jefferson County, stopping first at St. Patrick School in Canonsburg, to entertain about 200 students, then KinderCare preschool in Peters Township, with a young audience of 50.

The appearance at Borland Manor, part of the Canon-McMillan district, was semi-raucous, partly because it was an end-of-day assembly but mostly due to the students’ enthusiasm. Phil is famous. He not only outdistances Gus as Pennsylvania’s No. 1 groundhog, but is the global standard-bearer, the one who in three weeks will be pulled out of his Punxsy burrow and, according to legend, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

That would be Feb. 2, Groundhog Day.

Donning their trademark top hats, Dereume and Deeley kicked off the program with Dereume – the handler – opening the clear receptacle where Phil lay, pulling him out carefully with gloved hands, and Deeley speaking breezily to a rapt audience.

“He sleeps all winter because he loses his food source,” said Deeley, the club president and former handler, whose daughter and her family live in North Strabane.

“His body temperature is so cold when he’s hibernating, if you’d pet him you’d think he was dead,” said Dereume, whose niece and nephew are St. Patrick students.

“When he was born, he was about the size of my thumb,” Deeley said, holding up his right thumb.

“He’s fully grown within a year,” Dereume added.

The two opened the floor to questions from the kids on the floor, who had a number of interesting queries. Among the responses were that groundhogs typically are 20 to 25 inches long and weigh 9 to 12 pounds; have two top teeth and two on the bottom; have claws for digging; and sleep a lot.

“Besides eating, they sleep,” Dereume said. “They would be excellent college students.”

Both men joked that Phil is 132 years old, because 1886 was when he became known. (Groundhogs actually live four to seven years.) They also said they give the rodent a special elixir that enables him to live seven years for every gulp he takes.

This was Phil’s second stop in three years at Borland Manor. Janielle Plavi, president of the school’s Parent-Faculty Organization, organized the visit well in advance. “I contacted them last summer.”

One audience member, Amy Davis, a paraeducator, is quite familiar with the beast featured at the front of the room. She is a Punxsutawney native.

“I grew up with this. We thought it was our claim to fame,” she said, smiling.

Davis buys stuffed groundhogs at a Punxsutawney shop that she places in every classroom in which she works. They are prevalent around Borland Manor.

Deeley and Dereume are leaders among the 15 members of their club, all of whom serve as volunteers. The D & D guys will be front and center Feb. 2, when Phil is in the klieg lights and on camera during the annual Groundhog Day ceremony, giving his verdict on winter. They enjoy that day, the tours and virtually everything related to their rodent.

“We do this for only the smile on our faces when we go home,” Deeley said.