Red Cross Deploys Volunteer from Moon to Assist With Flood Relief Efforts in Illinois

Mary White of Moon Township will assist in staff services in Peoria.

Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania has deployed Mary White of Moon Township to Peoria, IL to relief as floodwaters continue to affect people in the Midwest. In her role, White will recruit and place Red Cross workers and equip them with the tools they need for their positions. She will also track their assignments and make their lodging arrangements, among other tasks. The American Red Cross may have to continue its national relief efforts as residents in Minnesota and North Dakota are preparing for the Red River to overflow its banks sometime next week. White joins several other volunteers who have been deployed from the Western Pennsylvania Region. The Red Cross has shelters in three Midwestern states for people who cannot return …

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Zandy Dudiak

10:36 am on Saturday, April 27, 2013

A comment has been removed for inappropriate language.   more ›

Growing Coraopolis: Volunteers Plan Community Garden

Members of a local nonprofit plan to start a community garden for residents of the 15108 zip code.

Randon Willard plans on a garden brimming with tomato plants, peppers, and strawberries.  Willard, a member of the nonprofit Coraopolis Community Development Foundation, said the group's volunteers are working to transform a Coraopolis borough home and yard into a community garden and education center.  Renovations have already begun at the home, located at 411 Broadway Avenue. The project will open to the community in the coming months.  "It's a community farm model," Willard said. "The produce from the garden will go to the (Coraopolis) food pantry, and split between people who help out at the garden."  When completed, the group envisions the property will house a first-floor classroom area for garden volunteers as well as courses geared…

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RMU Students Lend Helping Hand at Special Olympics Event

Dozens of RMU students volunteer to assist in the event.

More than 100 students at Robert Morris University will volunteer today at a Special Olympics bowling event. RMU student Joel Gray said fellow students played an active role in organizing the competition, working on a committee to bring the event to fruition.  Students today will be bused to the event, where they will lend a helping hand to athletes, pass out awards, and take part in a welcome rally for participants.  "You would think college kids would want to go and have fun during the weekend," said Gray, a junior sports management major. "But we've been going around to get volunteers, and everyone says 'Please sign me up for this weekend.'" More than 500 Special Olympics athletes are expected to take part in today's event. Opening …

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Christmas Comes Early: West Hills Food Pantry Hosts Christmas Shop

More than 100 local families attended the annual event, which is made possible through community donations.

Moon residents Nita Neugebauer and Jan Wertz got the idea one Christmas season, as volunteers for the West Hills Food Pantry. "It was probably 22 years ago now," Neugebauer said. "Some students from Carnegie Mellon brought over a box with some books and toys, just small used toys. And, boy, has it grown since then." The West Hills Food Pantry on Tuesday held its annual Christmas shop at Sharon Community Presbyterian Church. The event, spearheaded by pantry volunteers, served more than 140 families from the Moon and Coraopolis area.  Families trickled in throughout the morning, sifting through tables of board games, housewares and gently used clothing.  The pantry offers the gifts for free to eligible families in need in the community every…

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Slice of Life

RMU Students Lend Helping Hand at Mooncrest Community Center

Director Sister Rene Procopio says student volunteers from the Moon Township university are an integral part of the Mooncrest Center.

It's game time on a Tuesday evening at the Mooncrest Community Center.  Students huddle around tables—homework assignments are polished up and put away for the day, traded in for board games and puzzles.  Josh Blum, a student at Robert Morris University, mulls his next move in a chess game.  "We come in and we'll help them with math and English stuff," said Blum, who has been assisting at the Mooncrest Center for several semesters of his tenure at RMU. "And then we hang out with them."  More than 50 students attend the after-school program each week at the Mooncrest Community Center, a neighborhood outreach program in Moon spearheaded by the Felician Sisterhood.  Center Director Sister Rene Procopio said student volunteers from the Moon …

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Amanda Gillooly

10:52 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012

What a great story. As someone who grew up in Mooncrest, it makes me happy to see these positive initiatives to help the kids there!   more ›

Diane Cleaners Wraps Up Annual Coat Drive Efforts

The long-time Moon Township business has cleaned more than 10,000 coats for charity during the past decade.

It's become something of a tradition each year when the weather gets chilly, Charlie Budavich said.  For the past decade, Budavich's business, the longtime Moon Township laundry service Diane Cleaners, has cleaned and prepared used coats for donation through the West Hills Food Pantry.  The Carnot Road pantry will deliver the jackets, offered up by members of the Moon Township community, to families and individuals in need.  "It's an annual event and every year in early November, the pantry comes and picks them up," Budavich said. "And they have a huge job ahead of them, in distributing the coats."  The pantry on Nov. 5 picked up this year's batch of donated coats—more than 700 of them collected over the course of the year, Budavich said…

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Allegheny County Seeks Poll Workers to Help at Voting Sites

Allegheny County elections official said polling locations in Moon and Robinson are expected to be fully staffed.

With exactly two weeks until Election Day, the Allegheny County Division of Elections is looking for more poll workers to assist on what’s expected to be larger-than-usual voter turnout day. Edward Barnard, Allegheny County elections office coordinator, said there are locations scattered across Allegheny County that could use the additional help, including a couple of positions in nearby McCandless, Ross and Richland townships. Barnard said voting precincts in Robinson and Moon are set for volunteers.  “Those places are so big, they encompass so many districts,” Barnard said. “We always are looking for volunteers in those areas.”   Poll workers are paid $105 for the day, plus $20 for taking a two-hour training class. Experience is not …

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Volunteers Gather 'Mile of Cans' at West Hills Food Pantry

The Moon Township-based pantry holds its annual Mile of Cans fundraiser and food drive.

More than 100 volunteers gathered at the West Hills Food Pantry on Carnot Road for its annual Mile of Cans drive.  The event, now in its 18th year, serves as the largest yearly fundraiser and can drive for the pantry, which provides for families in Moon, Crescent, Coraopolis, and Neville Island.  Volunteers worked to collect more than 15,000 cans—enough to stretch a mile when lined end-to-end.  Click through the gallery above and upload your own photos from the event. 

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Get Involved

'Mile of Cans' Set for Saturday at West Hills Food Pantry

The annual event serves as the largest fundraiser for the Carnot Road organization.

Sandy Hershberger, director of the West Hills Food Pantry, said 23 families applied for the first time to receive food through the pantry in September.  "That's some kind of record," Hershberger said. "It's an unusually high number for just one month."  Hershberger said as the pantry prepares to host its annual Mile of Cans fundraiser and can drive, monetary donations as the Carnot Road organization are on the decline while the number of clientele seeking services has increased.  "We see so many people who are working and just can't make it," Hershberger said.  Mile of Cans, now in its 18th year, serves as the pantry's largest collection event. Volunteers hope to gather more than 15,840 canned goods—enough to stretch a mile when lined end-…

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Whiz Kids

Whiz Kid: Robinson Teen to Attend Haitian Mission

A local teenager volunteers time in Haiti.

A Robinson Township teen will attend a Haitian mission later this month.  Nehemiah Norris, an 18-year-old senior at the Sewickley Academy, will travel to Haiti Oct. 3 through Oct. 10 with the Functional Literacy Ministry, a Pittsburgh-based organization founded in 1983 that works to provide basic education and meals to Haitian children.  Norris is the son of Rev. Urie and Denise Norris. 

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