Harry Funk stories, Page 18

While many artists tend to stick with a certain medium or two, Debbie Walker’s originals run the gamut. Her work in fabric, acrylic, pencil, charcoal and various printing techniques is on display in the Gallery Space at Monroeville Public Library, demonstrating her versatility. “I was born to be an artist,...

Imagine the logistics of providing one of America’s favorite foods to more than 3,000 people gathered in the same place at the same time. “It was definitely months of planning, and then it took a whole week of executing,” Nick Bogacz, owner of Caliente Pizza and Draft House, said. When...

Gateway School District officials have discussed the possibility of implementing a pre-kindergarten program for 2023-24. The program, free for children to attend, would be separate from the high school’s preschool class, which is part of the family and consumer science curriculum. Instead, the new offering would take place under the...

You know what they say about the world’s two certainties, and Dan Marston is doing his part to help mitigate one of them: “We all have enough of a tax burden.” And he is looking for Monroeville residents who may want to help his cause while learning more about the...

First came the goats, eating their way toward clearing out unwanted vegetation in Oakmont. “That was very popular,” assistant borough manager Phyllis Anderson said. “They brought the community together. I had no idea that was going to happen.” During the summer, quite a few local residents visited the banks of...

Barbie may be ready to turn 65 in 2024, but dolls have been a staple of children’s playthings since the days of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. As such, miniature versions of people already had been around for the millennia by the time of the United States’ founding in the...

To help launch the Year of the Rabbit, Rich Fitzgerald provided a reminder of an applicable demographic trend. “For the first time in 60 years,” he said, “Allegheny County grew again in population. And the reason is an 80% increase in our Chinese-American population.” Fitzgerald, the county’s executive, addressed the...

Members of Hampton Township School Board are in favor of adding a guidance counselor for the district’s elementary schools. The question now is how to fit the new hiring into the district’s 2023-24 budget. During the board’s January work session, Jay Thornton, district psychologist and director of student services, gave...

Part of Bethel Presbyterian Church is eminently familiar to Jay Wells. “When I joined the club, we met right in this same room,” he said. The group he referenced is the Bethel Park Lions Club, which is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its establishment. The club was organized on Dec....

Each year, the Bridgeville nonprofit One Music Fest Inc. presents an Unsung Community Service Award. The 2023 recipient is Tim Anderson, director of the Bridgeville Community Food Bank, who received his honor during One Music Fest’s fifth annual Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., held Jan. 16 at Bethany Presbyterian...

For more than half a century, students in most American classrooms have learned at least a little something about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They may have memorized it as occurring in 1963 before a quarter of a million people in the nation’s capital, and that...

Some students of the former Washington Elementary School in Bridgeville will admit to sneak over to the candy store across the street. Today, the senior living community Halcyon of Bridgeville occupies the erstwhile academic building. And the candy store is no more, having been supplanted by Country Style Pizza. But...

Like Indiana Jones, you may not be especially fond of snakes. But as Qihan Liu demonstrated, they can have a musical purpose. He was among the musicians giving demonstrations of traditional Chinese instruments during Sunday’s 26th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Show and Fair at the Carnegie Museum of Art...

Business teacher Christopher Meyer has a vision for Chartiers Valley High School. “Imagine walking in,” he said. “There’s a fully functional coffee shop going on, where students of all ability levels are working hand in hand toward making a really good cup of coffee, while also learning real-world skills that...

Addressing a stage full of young musicians, Greg Byers was all about encouragement. “You sound great,” he told students gathered in the Bethel Park High School auditorium. “We’ve got to look great, too. Bring the energy.” The ensemble of mostly stringed instruments was rehearsing the afternoon of Jan. 6 for...

Winter weather can tend to be on the dreary side, but not necessarily for visitors to Monroeville Public Library. The Creative Quilters group has an exhibit through Jan. 25 in the library’s Gallery Space, featuring a variety of fascinating fabrics that are based on a assortment of themes. “We meet...

Hampton Township School Board plans to vote Jan. 16 on a resolution not to exceed a 4.1% real estate tax increase for 2023-24. The percentage represents the base index established for the next fiscal year under the provisions of the state’s Special Session Act 1 of 2006, which basically puts...

Visiting his best friend is pretty much a straight shot for Shad Spencer and his family. Fellow fourth-grader Cooper Harrington lives close to the Hampton exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, with an Allison Park address in West Deer. The boys are in the same class and like to get together...

A surefire way to raise money in Western Pennsylvania is to auction off anything related to the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s what young Hampton resident Rylan Lennex had in mind when he attended a “Final Farewell to Pittsburgh” event in June for JuJu Smith-Schuster, who was leaving the Steelers for Kansas...

Monroeville Council plans to vote Jan. 10 on an ordinance that prohibits the feeding of wild animals and provides penalties for violations. “This was something that came about for a couple of reasons, but what was really the genesis of it was that we had a coyote attack a pet,...

As the time neared 12 o’clock, the countdown started, wrapping up with a resounding: “Happy New Year!” And then the folks who attended the Dec. 31 celebration at Monroeville Mall headed out into the daylight. Monroeville Public Library’s annual Noon Ball Drop had a new venue this year, with plenty...

Considering that the Beatles disbanded more than half a century ago, today’s teenagers couldn’t be blamed for considering their music to be ancient history. Yet the George Harrison composition “Here Comes the Sun” is one of the songs in the repertoire for the upcoming Electrify Your Symphony performance at Bethel...

An estimated 6.5 million Americans ages 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease. “It’s awful. And in the next 25 years, that number will double,” Bethel Park resident Dayna Brown said. “So if you don’t know someone or haven’t personally experienced the effects of Alzheimer’s or another form of...

Everyone involved with Plum Borough School District’s 22nd annual Make-A-Wish Telethon figured the 2021 event would be a tough act to follow. After a year’s hiatus, the 2021 telethon returned to an enthusiastic response that took its cumulative fundraising total over the $1 million mark. Donors’ generosity continued in 2022,...

This year’s Hanukkah celebration has a special significance for Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum and, by extension, Jewish communities throughout the world. In leading the annual South Hills Lights festival on Dec. 19, Rosenblum told a story related to him by a fellow rabbi, Eliezer Chitrik of Nuremberg, Germany. In 1938, the...