Man brings together New Kensington area kids and senior citizens to spread cheer, knowledge

Hank Commodore didn't want the members of the Alle-Kiski Valley Center for Active Adults in New Kensington to spend Christmas alone, so he arranged for Santa and dozens of his elves to come down to Third Avenue on Tuesday and spread cheer.

Those elves — nearly 40 students from the New Kensington-Arnold Head Start program — joined about 70 senior citizens at the New Ken senior center Tuesday morning to exchange gifts and sing Christmas carols.

But Commodore said the event was about much more than bringing the kids out during the holidays.

“This is about wisdom,” he said. “This is about the children sharing in the wisdom of these seniors; this is about learning.”

Commodore is an organizer with a program called Get on Board With Love and Stop the Violence, which aims to connect community members with one another to promote peace.

“The idea is to stop violence with wisdom,” Commodore said. “Faith, wisdom and love: that's how you fight violence; that's how we heal our community.”

Commodore said he began working toward a more peaceful community after his brother was shot and killed 22 years ago.

“That's why I do things like this,” he said, “It's about fighting violence with love.”

Students spent time with Santa, each taking their turn to tell him what they hoped to see under the tree this Christmas, and then each student was given a gift purchased by Commodore.

For Commodore, connecting seniors with children is another way to help the community as a whole.

“It's not just good for the kids, it's good for the senior citizens,” he said. “They usually don't have many people to spend the holidays with, so this helps them experience the holiday season and spend time with young people who benefit from their knowledge.”

According to center member Vincent Cirigliano, 89, a retired cobbler from Verona, getting a chance to spend time with the Valley's kids was a special treat.

“What a lovely performance,” he said. “I think it was very nice of them to come out and spend time with us.”

Gale Tyson, 60, of New Kensington and a center member, said watching the kids perform their songs was her favorite part of the day, but that she really hopes Santa was listening when she told him that she wanted scratch-off lottery tickets for Christmas.

“This was very, very nice of them,” Tyson said.

Matthew Medsger is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4675, mmedsger@tribweb.com, or via Twitter @matthew_medsger.