Mover & Shaker of the Month Joanne Wall Ingomar Resident Book Author – The House with Five Walls Click here for article

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Rep. Mike Turzai (R-28th) presented the Town of McCandless Peebles District Volunteer Fire Company with a grant check for $5,000 on Apr. 3.

Allegheny County chief executive Dan Onorato was awarded the Art Rooney Award at the Catholic Youth Association’s 34th Annual Award Dinner & Auction.  Mel Blount, Patrice King Brown and Sister Coleman Conroy were also honored at the dinner.

After 13 years with Providence Connections Inc., nine while serving as executive director, Sister Maria Fest is stepping down to assume a position on the Sisters of Divine Providence Provincial Leadership Team.  She will be succeeded by Sister Carolyn Winshcel.   Sister Carolyn served five years as assistant to the provincial on the Provincial Leadership Team.  She was also vice president for mission at La Roche College.

The National Association of Broadcasters announced that two Butler radio stations WBUT-AM and WISR-AM are finalists in the 2007 Crystal Radio Awards competition.

The Butler Health Systems Foundation held its most successful Crystal Ball since the event’s creation, raising $101,500 during the “Viva Las Vegas” event.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial Real Estate Svcs. has been voted one of the “Best Places to Work” in real estate in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by The New Jersey Pennsylvania Real Estate Journal.

Two local women were honored by the Girls Scouts during their Trillium Council’s 2007 Women & Girls of Distinction Awards reception sponsored by the Elsie H. Hillman Foundation.  The award recipients were: Barbara J. Smith of Marshall Township and Debra Elizabeth King of Etna.

Shelana Gibbs-McElvy, MD	Linda Honeywill	Peter J. Kern CPA

Shelana Gibbs-McElvy, MD, a physician at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, was among 14 area women and girls to be honored during Girls Scouts – Trillium Council’s 2007 Women & Girls of Distinction Awards Reception.

Linda Honeywill of Prudential Preferred Realty was awarded the Chairman’s Circle-Diamond Award and the 15 Year Legend Award at Prudential’s awards banquet.

CPA Peter J. Kern has been promoted to partner with Malin, Bergquist and Company, LLP, a Pittsburgh “Top 10” accounting firm headquartered in Ross Township.

Dance Alloy Theatre is pleased to announce that Deborah Knox is its new managing director.

Cranberry Township’s colorful, thrice-yearly Parks & Recreation Program Guide was honored with an award for excellence by the Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society at the organization’s annual banquet.

Deneen Zehr, Judi Wisniewski, Natalie Brazen, Susan Miller, Doris Cush, Sue Carr and Sydney Schwartz-Hardiman were honored during the Women’s Business Network’s Spring Networking Event. See photo left.

Kenwyn J. Belkot, CFP, CSA, was named to Linsco/Private Ledger’s (LPL Financial Services) prestigious Patriot’s Club.

Choice Chiropractic & Wellness Center has welcomed Dr. Brie Kemp as the new clinic director of the Wexford office.  For info, call (724) 940-3900.

George Mistovich. Jr., DMD, left, has been hired as the new director of Dental Medicine at St. Barnabas Medical Center.

St. Barnabas Health System announced its Employees of the Month for March: Dorothy Coroian, William Crowe, Sarah Jackson and Stephanie Wearing.

The board of trustees has been re-elected for St. Barnabas Nursing Home Inc.  Serving as trustees are: Walter DeForest, Karen Tabacchi, Kellie Kelly and Kathryn Turnbull.  New board members for The Village at St. Barnabas Inc. are:  Kathleen M. Seaton, Douglas W. Day, Michael Antonelli and Richard Kaminsky.  Additionally, re-elected board members for The Washington Place at St. Barnabas Inc., are: Susan Mussman, Douglas W. Day, Robert Bergdahl and Helen Barlett.

Events Made Easy is now “Events Made Easier.”  Please contact EME by calling (724) 933-3339.

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Mover & Shaker of the Month Joanne Wall Ingomar Resident Book Author – The House with Five Walls

Joanne Wall is an active mother and grandmother who moved into her Ingomar neighborhood in 1956.  Four years later in 1960, she moved down the street to a house that she still resides in today. Wall, along with her husband, Jim, raised five children together, and during that time, they built many beautiful memories.  In 2005, she self-published a book about her life entitled The House with Five Walls.  It is currently available at local Borders book stores. “My book is a true story of life in the 1950s, and it is also a love story.  It focuses on women’s lib, football and North Allegheny,” Wall said. The reason why North Allegheny is predominant in Wall’s book is because it was a major chapter in her life.  Her husband was employed by the NA School District for 31 years. “Jim held many different positions at North Allegheny.  He was an English teacher, then a guidance counselor and an administrator.  He was also vice principal at Carson Middle School and principal at Ingomar.  Finally from 1979 to1985 he was the principal at North Allegheny Intermediate School.  He held that position until his untimely death in 1985.  “He suffered a heart attack and died while we were driving home from North Park,” Wall said. Over the past 22 years, this widow has managed to occupy her time by writing and volunteering.  In 1994, Wall wrote a story called The Christmas Ornaments – Mrs. Christmas.  A friend of hers convinced her that the story would make a great play.  So she adapted it into a play, and it was performed at St. John Neumann in Franklin Park. Wall is currently working on another novel Anna of Allegheny.  The book is based on her mother’s story, how she was born on Troy Hill and raised on the North Side during World War I. During the Christmas holiday, Wall plays Mrs. Santa Claus for Allegheny General’s Auxiliary.  She has been doing this for the past twenty years.  Last year, more than 1,000 visitors dropped in on Mrs. Claus. On Thursday mornings, Wall volunteers in the trauma unit at Allegheny General Hospital.  She has a nursing degree that she earned from Slippery Rock University.  Previously, Wall worked as a school nurse at Sewickley Academy. On Tuesday mornings, Wall volunteers in the library at Ingomar Elementary.  When she is not busy helping out in the community, Wall enjoys spending time with her five children: Mary, Jim, John, Joe and Jerry and her 12 grandchildren. Northern Connection magazine extends Happy Mother’s Day wishes to Joanne Wall  and all those special moms in our community. Back to top

Spotlight on Schools

Community College of Allegheny County-North Campus’ intercollegiate Bowling Team members Chad Kachinko and Jason Biertempfel recently competed at the National Junior College Athletic Association National Bowling Championship in Buffalo, NY.

Local attorney Rita C. Murillo, C.S.J. Esq. of the Juvenile Division of the Office of the Public Defender of Allegheny County will be the keynote speaker for the 40th annual commencement for the Community College of Allegheny County, May 12, at the David Lawrence Convention Center, downtown.

The following local middle school and high school students were named 1st place winners at the 68th Pittsburgh Regional Science & Engineering Fair Awards:  Margaret Gunn & Richard Gayler (Ingomar Middle); Amanda Rogus (Carson Middle); Danielle Kumpf (Providence Alpha); Cliff Kim (North Allegheny); and Eva Gillis-Buck (The Ellis School).

Ruth Butler, left, of McCandless Township, a teacher at Eden Christian Academy, has been named an Outstanding American Teacher by the National Honor Roll.

The following North Allegheny School District middle high school students were selected for the Allegheny Valley Junior Honors Band: Liyan Fan, Mark Freithaler, Julie Wu, Helen McHugh, Steven Bergman, Meredith Gumash, Chris Rudzinskas, Michael Porcelli, Evan Swihart, Sean Kurtz, Dante Denillo, Sarah Sharpnack, Jessica Oh, Adam Ries, Lauren Eisenreich, Rona Sun, McKenzie Thorpe, Zachary Shaw, Thomas Helgerman, Cedar Nye, Julia Campbell and Caleb Goncz.

Stephen Heckmann, a teacher at Marshall Middle School, has been recognized in Strathmore’s Who’s Who Registry.

North Allegheny teachers, Sharon Kroll, Lori McNeely and Diana Cooper have been recognized in 2006/2007 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women Teachers in Education Honors Edition.

A team of Carson Middle School students placed 2nd in the state and 6th internationally at the 36th Fifth and Sixth Grade Knowledge Master Open.  Team members were: Connor Phillips, Ryan Sanguigni, Dillion Naylor, Matt Caswell, Victor Sapp, Billy Gingrich, Chloe Ghirardi and Jessica Podlogar.

Joey Zou, a 7th grade student at Carson Middle School, is one of the finalists eligible to compete in the 2007 Pennsylvania Geographic Bee.

The following North Allegheny students were winners at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Region VII competition: Nick Feraco, Richard Gayler, Stephen Guo, Cliff Kim, Jonathan Lin, Katherine Luo, Shivani Mehta, Jennifer Rumble, Jay Sehgal, Shivam Verma, Edward Wu, Dorothy Curran, Eric Doll, Cameron Flayer, Maria Munsch, Katherine Owsiany, Nimish Telang and Byron Doll.

A team of North Allegheny Intermediate High School ninth grade students placed 3rd in the state at the Fall 2006 Knowledge Master Open Junior High Competition: Alexandra Blumer, Sophia Ciocca, Kimberly Corbett, Christy Cotter, Lauren Gabriel, Adrianna Jensen, Joshua Kalib, Aidan MacDonagh, Sean Radermacher, Dasun Wang, and Hannah Webber.

North Allegheny students Allison Cohen, Cherith Elliott, Marie Howison, Ben Fuchs, Nick Bradley, Victoria Sullivan and Julie Stas were honored at the DECA (An Association of Marketing Students) State Conference competition.

Seven North Allegheny High School students have been accepted into the Andrew’s Leap summer enrichment program run by the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science.  They are: Liang Deng, Chris Kang, Reed Abraham, Dakota McCoy, Al Wang, Dasun Wang and Michael Noh.

A Fox Chapel Area School District publication Commitment to Excellence received a state award in the 2006 Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association “Excellence in Education” Communications Contest. 

A team of Fox Chapel Area High School seniors won fourth place in the Southwestern Pennsylvania BattleBots IQ Regional Tournament.  Team members were: Alan Fregoso, Daniel Kotovsky, Lucas Lubatti, Matthew Madden, Ethan Minogue, Spencer Niman, James Prizer, Paul Swarner and Gregory Wilson.

Thomas Hu, a senior at Fox Chapel Area High School, was selected as concertmaster of the 2007 MENC All-Eastern Honors Orchestra.

Five Fox Chapel Area High School students won awards at the Michigan State University Model United Nations Conference.  Winners included: Samuel Bakkila, Yong-Gyun Choi, Sheri Wang, Samuel Bernstein and Reid Goldberg.

Fox Chapel Area High School senior Elise Liu won first place and was named the 2007 state champion at the Pennsylvania High School Speech League State Championship Tournament.  Additionally, senior Jason Vartikar-McCullough took home third place honors.

The following Fox Chapel Area High School students tied for a ranking of second place in Pennsylvania in its division in the Jets (Junior Engineering Technical Society) engineering competition: Kevin Boyd, Daniel Kotovsky, Andrew Krieger, Ethan Minogue, Michael Tracht and Mathew Swisher.

Seven Fox Chapel Area High School District students won awards at the 68th Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair.  Winners were: Ankur Goyal, Liann Sun, Molly Joyce, Yanbo Chang, Praveen Tummalapalli, Manu Goyal and Bharat Iyer.

A team of Perrysville second grade students was awarded first place in the regional Explora Vision competition.  The team, comprised of Luke Belanger, Jared Lubbert, Noah Mass and Damian Yenzi, will advance to the national level and will compete against five other teams from throughout the United States and Canada.

The North Hills Marching Band performed at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.  The band performed a concert at the Veteran’s Retirement Home and at the Jefferson Memorial, Tidal Basin Stage.

Pittsburgh Penguin mascot “Iceberg” (photo left) made a special guest appearance to a first grade class at Richland Elementary during a book reading about how the Pittsburgh Penguin made his home in Pittsburgh.

A dozen Pine-Richland Middle School students were recognized for their artwork at the PA Middle School Association State Conference held in Harrisburg in March.  The display included art from: Kayleigh Jackson, Courtney Jones, Pat Kline, Christine Lamendola, William Lazar, Austin Lent, Lucas Lyerly, Noel Martin, Ashley Profozich, Carla Steppan, Robert Stephens and Lauren Sundo.

William Lazar, a sixth grader at Pine-Richland Middle School, will compete at the National History Day State Competition at Penn State University on May 16-17.

Pine-Richland Middle School will be honored on May 29 by Pennsylvania Education secretary Dr. Gerald L. Zahorchak as one of the “Schools to Watch.”  This recognition program was developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

Students at Hance Elementary (photo left) participated in a high-energy, interactive multimedia show “The Great Color Caper.”  The show featured a super-hero, comic-book-style theme to teach students about light, energy, reflection, pigments and color perception.

Maggie Burns, a sixth grader at Pine-Richland Middle School, has been nominated to compete in the 2007 Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, which will be held in October 2007.

Six Pine-Richland Middle School students competed at the Odyssey of the Mind State Finals in Altoona: Matthew Ceurvorst, Michael Clouse, Isaac Egyed, Michael Matty, Marcella McGuire and Ian Strawser.

Wexford Elementary students experienced “Pioneer Living” as the interactive, traveling museum “Journey Back in Time” visited the school Mar. 27 and 28. See photo at right.

Pine-Richland Middle School student William Lazer earned second place in the Junior Individual Website category at the National History Day Competition.

Pine-Richland Middle School students Katie Georgiadis and Michael Feldman were honored with writing awards by national humor magazine The Funny Paper.

Five Pine-Richland students participated in the PMEA District 1 Elementary Sing Fest West: Brianna Cerny, Sarah Prins, Cassy Rosemeyer, Marlys Bridgham and Mariah Kutchko.

Ramon Riley, art teacher at Pine-Richland High School, is one of only 14 teachers from the country to be recognized by the Maryland Institute of College Art as a “Distinguished High School Art Teacher.”

A Welcome Break Childcare Ministry (AWB), in Bellevue is expanding their program to include preschool classes for three and four-year olds.  Classes will begin in the Fall of 2007 and will be held Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For details visit www.awelcomebreak.org.

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Business Spotlight: American Porch Company

By Janice Lane Palko

Andrew Jackson Downing, noted 19th century landscape architect, is credited with popularizing the front porch.  He viewed the porch as the link from the house to nature and believed interacting with the outdoors had a healing effect on people.

But many of today’s homes now lack a front porch – an entranceway that enhances a home’s curb appeal, keeps guests out of inclement weather and offers protection for the front door.

Until now, the cost of constructing a porch made it prohibitive and the work required tied up the front entrance of the home for days. 

But that’s changed since the American Porch Company arrived on the scene.  Robert Viviano, owner of American Porch Company, says the company’s patent-pending process for designing, fabricating and constructing porches, has made adding an entranceway to your home affordable and simple. 

Before (right) and After Photos of an American Porch Company Project

“The American Porch Company is really defining this niche in the market,” said Viviano, who has owned a high-end deck company called Deck the Yards for nearly 20 years. ”More and more, my customers inquired about installing a front porch. They kept telling me they needed a little something out front.”

To satisfy this growing trend, Viviano spent 18 months perfecting a system that allowed for the construction of original front porch designs that could be mass-produced. “Our twelve original porch designs really fit the style of virtually any home,” Viviano said. 

Using computer-aided design equipment, the American Porch Company can design the porch specifically to a home’s specifications, and then advanced machinery cuts out the custom-made materials. 

“Our design process really makes the porch affordable and delivers a great return on investment for the homeowner,” Viviano said. American Porch Company original porches range in price from $1,500 to $6,000, with the average being around $3,500.

The outlay of funds for installing a porch is offset when considering how much it enhances a home’s value, increases curb appeal and protects the front door.  “Many homes have front doors that cost thousands of dollars.  A porch protects that investment,” Viviano said.

The company’s porches are constructed from high-quality, low-maintenance materials that will not rot and are impervious to insects. Designers meet with the homeowner to advise which style of porch works best with the home, and they also help the homeowner choose from all the available options, such as a copper or flat roof, column shape, trim and drip edges.  According to Viviano, installation of the front porch can usually take place within one day.

The American Porch Company can give your home an affordable facelift that increases your home’s value, protects it and makes it more inviting.  For more information, visit American Porch Company’s Website at:  www.americanporchco.com or call 412-778-4198.

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