Chester County Briefs are concise reports on what’s happening around the County. This Morning:

West Chester University Foundation Joins the AmazonSmile System

West Chester University Foundation, the nonprofit organization that helps raise funding for the university, has joined the AmazonSmile system in an effort to raise funds for its Student Emergency Fund.

The Student Emergency Fund, which has distributed over $17,000 to students over the past two years, was established to help students coping with an unexpected financial crisis that can be anything from emergency funds for housing and food, to textbooks and tuition, according to Amanda Lauzon, the WCU Foundation’s Marketing Director.

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for a shopper to support their favorite charity without any additional cost to them.

“If you, as a buyer on Amazon, sign up through AmazonSmile and pick West Chester University Foundation as your charity, one half of one percent of everything you buy is given to us as a contribution,” said WCU Foundation Executive Director, Richard Przywara.

MainLine Today Interviews CASA’s Anne Shenberger

Anne Shenberger has devoted the majority of her life to helping kids. This is reflected in her current position as the Philadelphia Executive Director of the Court Appointed Special Advocates, the organization that supports area kids as they find their way through the foster-care system, helps them handle mandated court appearances and frequently meets with them.

In an interview with MainLineToday, Shenberger, who earned her master’s degree in social services from Bryn Mawr College, talks about the reasons she dedicated her life to helping kids, her role at CASA, as well as other more general topics including areas such as her favorite events and local attractions.

When asked about the area’s best secret in the interview, Shenberger replied “Downtown West Chester has that little shopping-restaurant-boutique feeling to it. That’s one of my favorite things to do, to seek out small shops with clothing, crafts or interesting items.”

Aclaris Therapeutics Starts Testing on a New Common Warts Therapy

Biopharmaceutical Company, Aclaris Therapeutics, has announced that it has begun mid-stage testing on a potential new therapy for common warts, a disorder that affects close to 1.9 million people across the nation every year.

The Malvern based company plans to enroll 108 patients for participation in testing during the phase-II clinical trial for its new drug candidate A-101, a topical treatment which could be a potential cure for seborrheic keratosis, the virally induced skin disorder that is characterized by distinctive but benign and painless skin lesions.

“Studying A-101 in a second dermatological condition is an important milestone as we continue to expand our development pipeline,” said Aclaris President and CEO, Dr. Neal Walker.

Vanguard’s Bogleheads Offer Investing Lessons

Diehard fans of Vanguard’s John Bogle and the principles put forward by him, often referred to collectively as Bogleheads, began in 1998 on Morningstar’s Web site with a forum to discuss Vanguard and its index funds.

It did not take long for the Vanguard Bogleheads to become one of the most active and popular areas on Morningstar, with over 627,000 posts since the forum first began. This popularity has now encouraged the group to start its own website, Bogleheads.org, which averages 70,000 daily visits from its 47,000 members, with up to 4 million hits a day. This makes it one of the most active online investing communities and a vocal constituency that cannot be ignored, even by Vanguard itself.

The popular site offers advice to its members and other visitors on all types of financial matters, as well as tips to help interested parties on everything from retirement planning to how to pay for college.

Balfour Beatty Communities Adds Four Properties to its Florida Multifamily Management Portfolio

Malvern based Balfour Beatty Communities, a leading provider of property management, development and related real estate services for the multifamily, military, and student housing markets, has been chosen to manage four properties in the Florida multifamily market.

The new management contracts are Arbor Club and Ashley Club in Pensacola as well as Westminster Chase and Willow Brooke in Tampa, which between them will add over 850 conventional units to the company’s multifamily management portfolio. The management services provided to the community by Balfour Beatty Communities will include marketing, leasing, operations and maintenance.

“We are very pleased to continue to grow our multifamily management portfolio in Florida,” remarked Terri Edelman, Executive Vice President of Balfour Beatty Communities. “We look forward to bringing our proven resources and expertise to further enhance these communities and deliver the world-class customer service residents have come to expect from a Balfour Beatty Communities-managed property.”