Westmoreland students craft metal selfie frames at parks to mark county's 250th

Visitors to five of Westmoreland’s parks can celebrate the county’s 250th anniversary with student-created selfie photo frames that are being installed by Memorial Day.

Eleven juniors at Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center worked on the project for about two weeks. The metal frames are about 4 feet by 4 feet. It was a perfect community project, said instructor Keith Tuk.

“We try to instill in them to give back to the community in which you live,” Tuk said. “They’re very proud of what they did.”

A company that has remained anonymous donated the metal sheets. Jessica Petrovich, director of Discover Westmoreland, said the partnership with the students started after a committee planning celebrations for the county’s 250th anniversary thought it would be a good way to engage the school and park visitors. Westmoreland County was founded in 1773 and celebrations are planned throughout the area this year.

One frame was installed last week at Twin Lakes Park in Hempfield and Unity. The remaining will be set up over the next few weeks at Northmoreland in Allegheny Township, Cedar Creek in Rostraver, Mammoth in Mt. Pleasant Township and Hannastown in Hempfield. Each frame is etched with #Westmoreland250, the school name and discoverwestmoreland.com.

“The point is to take a picture with it and post it on social media,” Petrovich said.

The students had help with the etching as the school doesn’t have the equipment needed to do it. Tuk and his crew were enthusiastic about the project from the start and Petrovich said they should be proud of the final products. A sixth frame will remain at the school, she said.

“I’m just really appreciative of the students doing them,” she said.