Leechburg Area Hall of Fame honors inductees
GILPIN: Finding the honorees seems to be easy. Keeping their selection a secret would be impossible.
The civic-minded citizens of Leechburg happily proclaim their hometown is close-knit and supportive. So the four new members of the Leechburg Area Hall of Fame inducted Sunday all knew well in advance that they would be honored for their contributions to the region.
Nancy Hebrank, of the Leechburg Area Community Association that created the hall three years ago, said the event is a nice way to thank the life-long volunteers who help Leechburg-area causes.
"Everybody knows everybody," Hebrank said. "It's like a big family."
Unlike other halls that honor athletes or musicians, Leechburg's honorees are everyday citizens. Long-time service to the community they all love is the prerequisite for selection.
The community association created the hall of fame as part of Leechburg's Sesquicentennial celebration in 2000. Since then, they have inducted four new members a year, immortalized with a plaque in the Leechburg Historical Society Museum.
Sunday's banquet was filled with proud family members, previous inductees and likely future honorees. The group enjoyed music from an accordion duo and browsed a series of table top displays for each of the latest inductees.
Each year, Leechburg Area School District residents who have contributed their efforts to local charities, youth sports, civic groups and community projects are nominated by their neighbors and selected by the association.
Inductee Mary Antoniono, honored for her long devotion to the Kiski Valley Crisis Center, proudly showed off her display, which was covered with the photos of children whose mothers Antoniono had helped through turbulent pregnancies.
"My husband and I have become like grandparents to these children," she said.
She cheerfully seized on the opportunity to promote the crisis center.
"My dream before this is over is to have a home in Vandergrift," she said.
Fellow honoree Carol Shick mingled through the crowd before dinner, greeting all the other Leechburg residents who devote many hours to civic causes. She took Sunday's honor in stride.
"My husband and I have been volunteers for years," she shrugged.
It's second nature to Shick, who began community service when as a 15-year-old when she volunteered at the Chuck Wagon hoagie stand.
Evelyn Cline, a 2002 inductee, said everyone in Leechburg knows Shick and her sisters can get things done.
"She's a Doyle girl and everyone knows if you want anything done, you ask the Doyle girls," she said.
"There's not place like Leechburg," said Cline, who grew up in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. "We retired and we could have lived anywhere. We chose to live here."
Inductee Carol Meyer said she and her husband believe Leechburg's appeal is the small-town familiarity that inspires people to give their time to charitable causes.
"It's what small towns are about," Meyer said.
| 2003 inductees |
2003 inductees into the Leechburg Area Hall of Fame:
