Indiana Township resident is self-professed 'doer'
Heather Starr Fiedler knows how to make things happen.
The Indiana Township resident created The Happy Hour Book Club, Play It Forward Pittsburgh Toy Drive and the Hartwood Elementary Running Club.
“I’m a starter and I say ‘no complaints without proposals,’ and if it doesn’t exist and I want it to exist, I see if I can make it exist,” Fiedler said.
The Buffalo-area native grew up in tiny Lyndon in western New York, which has a population of about 800.
A visit to Pittsburgh when she was a graduate student exposed Fiedler to all Pittsburgh had to offer.
“I fell in love with it. This is a cool city and I never left,” she said.
Fiedler, 52, married Mike Fiedler of Baldwin. The couple has been married for 20 years and has two college-age sons.
They’ve resided in Indiana Township for more than 20 years.
“The people and this whole region are so welcoming … it’s understated. I love when people come to visit Pittsburgh and they talk about how awesome it is,” Fiedler said.
She works full time as an assistant vice president for community engagement at Point Park University.
Fiedler graduated with a dual undergraduate degree in broadcasting and business from Buffalo State University, earned a master’s in organizational communication from the University of Albany and received her doctorate in educational technology from Nova Southeastern University.
Running, reading and reaching out
In 2014, Fiedler was a busy working mother of two boys attending Hartwood Elementary School.
She founded the Hartwood Elementary Running Club and didn’t have high expectations on how the club would be received.
“I pitched the idea and 100 kids signed up,” Fiedler said.
The running club, sponsored by the Hartwood Parent Teacher Organization, is a five-week program offered to students in grades K-5.
“It feels amazing to see them still doing it, and I’m thrilled that I moved on and it continued,” Fiedler said.
A toy clean-up day led to a charity idea for Fiedler in 2011.
“I was cleaning out my kids’ playroom, and I didn’t want to donate them. I just wanted to give them to people that just needed them,” Fiedler said.
She partnered with Point Park University colleague Amy Kier Reinhart to create the Play It Forward Pittsburgh Toy Drive.
The event is held for a week every December at the Pittsburgh Convention Center and gives away almost 6,000 toys to anyone in need.
There are no qualifications or requirements to receive toys.
“There’s a huge need. Our goal is that everything we take in, we give out,” Fiedler said of the toy drive that grew thanks to a large group of volunteers spreading the word on social media.
Aspinwall Presbyterian Church is one of the toy dropoffs that accepts donated items beginning in October.
Fiedler is a bookworm and said she’s drawn to books that stay with her and make her think.
She originally formed a mom/kid book club in 2015 and the club met over summer break.
When the kids got a little older and didn’t want to join in with the “moms” anymore, the club was rebranded as the Happy Hour Book Club.
The female group votes on which book to read each month and meets for happy hour and book discussion at various locales that have included Hartwood Wine Cave and Narcissi Winery.
Two standout books that impressed the club were “The Measure” by Nikki Erlick and “Midnight Library” by Matt Haig.
The club currently is reading “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi.
The members hail from different communities, including Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon, Cranberry and Shaler.
“I am an absolute believer in the more the merrier. Community is everything to me, so when I can be the person who helps to convene people in a community-based way, it feeds my soul,” Fiedler said.
Teresa Gregory of Mt. Lebanon joined the Happy Hour Book Club eight years ago.
“This is a fun book club and it’s a good mixture between talking about books and it pushes me to read books I might not normally pick up,” said Gregory, a professor of community engagement at Point Park University. “Heather tires me out and I do a lot. She’s very creative in coming up with ideas on how to serve the community and she’s very compassionate.”
At work, Fiedler runs and maintains the Pioneer Pantry Corner Store at Point Park University.
“Over 30% of college students face food insecurity while in school,” Fiedler said.
Former PPU graduate student Veronika Panagiotou started the pantry in 2017.
The free pantry is located on the first floor of Thayer Hall and offers two ways for students to obtain free food and supplies — online or by shopping in person.
Fiedler is an avid runner and completed her first marathon in 2014.
She likes to run in North Park and on the Three Rivers Trail.
Her other hobbies include kayaking and traveling, most recently visiting the Bavarian region in Germany.
Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
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