Harry Funk stories, Page 13
‘You have to start fast’: Volunteers help freshmen learn all about Gateway High School
Think back to your first day of high school, wondering how you were going to find your way through those long hallways to get to all of your classes on time. Gateway has a remedy for that. A couple of weeks in advance of the Aug. 24 start date, incoming...
Bethel Park resident leads ghost-hunting events
Whether it’s “Ghost Hunters,” “Kindred Spirits” or “Destination Fear,” TV shows featuring searches for unusual occurrences typically pack plenty of close-encounter action into tidy hourlong episodes. Real-life explorations aren’t quite as predictably productive. “We can’t make activity happen,” Bethel Park resident Patty Henderson said. “That’s what we try to make...
Public support essential for Tri-Community South EMS in Bethel Park
Housed in the garage of Tri-Community South Emergency Medical Services are six ambulances and two sport-utility vehicles, which should qualify as reassuring numbers for residents of its coverage area in Bethel Park, Upper St. Clair and South Park Township. For further peace of mind, everything is updated frequently. “We replace...
Get ‘Mesmerized’ with Monroeville art exhibit
Many of the world’s most enduring works of art capture aspects of the human form. But it took North Versailles artist Norma Rowley a while to proceed in that direction. “I was always intimidated to draw or paint people. I don’t know why,” she said, although it may have had...
End of Summer Bash: Kids enjoy Bethel Park event before school resumes
The timing of an End of Summer Bash in mid-August may seem a bit interesting, but it fits right in with how youngsters and their parents view the season. “It’s our last big kids’ event before they go back to school,” Lindsey Sibert, Bethel Park Recreation special events coordinator, said....
Gateway principals go on Come Join Our Gator Family tour in Monroeville, Pitcairn
For their Come Join Our Gator Family tour, Gateway’s elementary principals made sure to bring the beloved school district mascot. And this Gator was a true Friend. “I volunteered,” Ramsey Elementary Principal Katie Friend said during a break from wearing the mascot costume’s head. “I’m having a lot of fun...
Young entrepreneurs featured at Plum’s Monday Market
Talk about a gift that keeps on giving, and teaches a life lesson, to boot. “I wanted a bike last year, and instead, my dad bought me a log splitter,” 11-year-old Wyatt Sheaffer said. “And to buy my bike, I just split a lot of wood and make some money.”...
‘True to the spirit of the times’: Plum native set to release 3rd historical novel
If it ever comes up during Trivia Night, the 58th doge of Venice died on July 18, 1365. OK. So, what’s a doge? And who cares? The first answer is the ceremonial leader of the canal-laden city-state in what now is Italy. The second is Kevin Butler. For his soon-to-be-published...
Support doubles for third annual Miles for Smiles
The third time was a charm for the nonprofit Always B Smiling’s primary fundraiser. “This is amazing. This is almost a doubling of what we did last year,” South Fayette resident Dean Huibregtse said regarding attendance at Miles for Smiles, held July 23 along the Montour Trail in Peters Township....
South Fayette couple serve ‘Indian cuisine with a twist’
The tantalizing aroma lets customers know they are in for a treat. It’s just a matter of what to choose from a menu loaded with selections that may not be familiar to the average Western Pennsylvania diner. “You can see initially, he’s not sure what he wants,” South Fayette resident...
Youngsters learn first aid in Hampton Little Medical School program
You don’t have to be a Boy Scout to, as the motto goes, be prepared. “Let’s say you’re in the school lunchroom, and somebody is eating a grape,” Dr. Kim Roth told youngsters attending day camp at the Hampton Community Center. “And they start coughing and holding their throat a...
Gateway theater camp builds on ‘Mamma Mia’ momentum
If sports teams can build on momentum, performing arts programs can do so, too. On the heels of a hugely successful spring musical at Gateway High School, supporters from the school district teamed with Monroeville’s Parks and Recreation Department to offer a weeklong summer theater camp for aspiring actors, singers...
Lady Mustangs lead Plum soccer camp
They may be knee-high to the proverbial grasshopper, but they know how to shoot and score. And they’re learning how to get better. Girls as young as kindergarten, 56 strong, signed up for a soccer camp conducted by members of the Plum High School Lady Mustangs, perennial participants in the...
Rock Talks: Plum enthusiast presents on Led Zeppelin, myriad other topics
In an unprecedented violation of marketing orthodoxy, the British band Led Zeppelin released its fourth album in 1971 with nothing on the front cover but a painting of an old man carrying a bundle of sticks. A turn of the gatefold jacket reveals a similarly wizened, wizardlike figure standing atop...
Western Pa. produces next Rotary International president
This time next year, she’ll be leading a million-plus-member worldwide organization. Yet to her friends — and folks she’s just met, for that matter — Stephanie Urchick represents the veritable definition of down to earth. Ask Al DeLucia of Bethel Park, who’s known her for three decades. “She’s Stephanie from...
Bean Bootmobile makes Plum appearance
You’ve heard of the Batmobile. Now picture a 13-foot-high, 20-foot-long, road-ready replica of a famous brand of footwear. That’s the Bootmobile, created for the venerable outdoor-oriented company L.L.Bean, and the shoe-shaped vehicle made a recent stop at the Sampson Family YMCA in Plum. “We are out on the road to...
Cruises for causes: Car shows in Monroeville provide opportunities for philanthropy
The start of a recent Sunday looked as if it might interfere with Bob Guiliani’s plans. “When I came down here this morning at 9 o’clock, I had my wipers on,” he said. “It was raining.” But precipitation eventually gave way to sunshine, meaning that the day’s car cruise at...
Getting your goat: Oakmont event celebrates everyone’s favorite ruminant
If anyone can get your goat, she’s Monica Shields. She can get you a goat — or for better effect, at least half a dozen — from her Beaver County farm to take care of unwanted vegetation. And she can get your goat knowledge up to a point where you’ll...
Acts sought for Bethel Park Battle of the Bands
Musicians, get those demos ready. As part of its Park and Play series, Bethel Park Recreation will host a Battle of the Bands on Sept. 2, with five acts to be selected for a set on the stage. “We’re looking for bands that are going to be family-friendly and appeal...
Everyone learns at Bethel Park’s Camp Invention
Teachers still are learners. “I never knew who invented the Bose speaker,” Melinda Romito said. “I never thought about it.” She discovered the answer while serving as an instructor for, appropriately enough, Camp Invention. An educational program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the camp took place in Bethel...
All-Chevy Show scheduled for Bridgeville
The Batmobile of 1960s TV fame may have been a Ford product, but Scott resident Perry Minnis does a good job of evoking its appearance with a Chevrolet. Given his family history, that’s appropriate. “My dad was a general manager for Ford, and I always wanted a Corvette,” he said...
Bridgeville business, John B. Conomos Inc., marks 125 years
New arrivals to the immigrant processing station at Ellis Island often received new names, thanks to various languages and alphabets being lost in translation. Such was the case in 1890, when a teenager from Greece attempted to introduce himself as John Theodore Megalokonomos. As far as the U.S. government was...
Upper St. Clair Scout joins ranks of female Eagles
Girls can be Eagles, too. Molly Walsh, 16, joined the growing number of females earning the highest rank attainable in Scouts BSA, previously known as Boy Scouts. “She knows what she likes. She pursues it,” her father, Bethel Park School District Superintendent James Walsh, said. “And we just sort of...
‘Spartans at Thermopylae’: Centennial marks Carnegie residents repelling KKK throng
As the sun set on a summer Saturday a century ago, a dentist named Hiram Wesley Evans arrived at a Scott Township farm where as thousands of men already were gathered. In between pulling teeth, Evans (1881-1966) served as imperial wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and...
Library StoryWalk planned for Verona
Books don’t have to be, well, books. Along a fence in an Oakmont Carnegie Library garden is a StoryWalk, a series of laminated poster-sized pages from a selected children’s volume set up sequentially so youngsters can enjoy an educational stroll. And the concept looks to be coming to Verona. During...
