Chamber to honor three
Carol Ashton of Uniontown said when she read the list of names of the previous winners of the Fayette Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Award, she was overwhelmed to be in their company. The executive director of Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers of Fayette for the last nine years, Ashton was selected as the winner of this year’s Citizen of the Year Award, which the chamber has presented each year since 1968 to an individual who has contributed extensively and consistently over time for the betterment of the community, voluntarily and without compensation.
Ashton will receive her award at the chamber’s annual banquet Oct. 21 at Nemacolin Woodlands Spa & Resort in Farmington. The chamber also will present the Herman M. Buck Award to Philip Michael of Goodwill Industries of Fayette County, and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Joseph A. Hardy III.
The list of previous Citizen of the Year Award winners includes the late Hugh M. Barclay, who Ashton described as her mentor.
She said Barclay led the effort that created Interfaith from a pilot project that started in Trinity United Presbyterian Church in 1991.
“He was my mentor. This project was his heart and soul. He would be very pleased today. I feel I’m among great people who received this award. It was quite overwhelming, I tell you,” Ashton said. “I feel quite honored to be listed with the people who won before me.”
She runs Interfaith and its team of more than 200 volunteers. They help senior citizens who don’t have family or anyone else to turn to with things they can no longer do by themselves, like driving them to medical appointments or taking them grocery shopping.
“Volunteers change lives and lives are changed by volunteering,” Ashton said.
But she will be honored at Thursday’s banquet for the time she dedicates to a number of organizations.
Ashton serves on the board of directors of the chamber, Habitat for Humanity, Transportation Coalition, Soroptimist International, Fayette County Crime Stoppers, American Association of University Women and the Uniontown Rotary Club.
She is vice president of the Rotary Club and a member of the Westmoreland United Way Impact Council.
She is a member and elder/trustee of Trinity United Presbyterian Church and a member of the National Federation of Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers Human Service Council.
She has a bachelor of science is social work and gerontology certificate from California University of Pennsylvania.
She and her husband, Donald R. Ashton, have been married for 42 years. They have three children – Donald R. Ashton Jr., Randy Ashton and Terri Sharp – and four grandchildren.
Philip Michael said he loves working in education and sees it as a way to serve Fayette County.
The Buck award is presented to an individual under the age of 45 who has given his or her time and energy to community service without remuneration.
The award is given in recognition of young community leadership as exemplified by the late Herman M. Buck, for whom the award was named.
Michael has been the director of Workforce Development at Goodwill Industries of Fayette County since May 1999.
Before that, he was Goodwill’s coordinator of employment and education services and has worked for Goodwill since 1996.
In his current position, he supervises a staff of more than 30 people and develops education and training programs.
“I always wanted to be a school teacher, but I got a job here. I liked it and stayed,” Michael said. “I use my time to try to help education as much as I can. I love Fayette County. This is a great place to live and work and I want to make it better.”
Michael does that at Goodwill and by serving numerous organizations.
He is a vice president and a board member of Chestnut Ridge Counseling Services, a Team Pennsylvania Careerlink Operator, a member of the Westmoreland/Fayette Workforce Investment Board and Youth Council, former vice president of the Business Education Partnership, Goodwill Leadership and Advisory Team member, Fayette County School to Work program member and a Central Fayette Chamber of Commerce Education Council member.
He is also on the St. George Maronite Church Council.
Michael has a 5-year-old son, Noah Michael.
He said he was honored to win the chamber award.
“It makes me extremely proud. It’s an honor to be nominated for something this prestigious,” Michael said. “I was honored to be nominated and very honored to receive it. I really was surprised. There are a lot of good people that deserve this.”
He said he is looking forward to accepting the award at the banquet and “saying a few words.”
Joseph A. Hardy III said he will be honored to accept an award from the Fayette Chamber of Commerce recognizing his lifetime achievements and he hopes the award encourages others to achieve.
“I’m certainly thrilled. I’m certainly honored. I’m certainly humbled,” Hardy said. “I feel good about it. I hope me getting the award stimulates other people to get going.”
While Hardy’s achievements – founding 84 Lumber, building and regularly adding on to the resort, attracting a PGA Tour and getting elected to the county board of commissioners – are well known, his latest endeavor remains a work in progress.
Hardy personally financed storefront renovations in downtown Uniontown, bought the streetscape amenities and signs that have livened up the streets and purchased a number of buildings with plans to lease them to businesses to revive the downtown economy.
“This is my work. I want to cause some action here, you know – jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.
Enticing retailers to move into Uniontown and holding festivals and events in town to make it an exciting place is his goal, Hardy said.
His cleaning, painting and decorating in Uniontown has already had an effect on residents.
“I see a significant change of attitude. People are looking up instead of down. I’m very encouraged. I fell I’m pretty popular and I hope others get in on the act,” Hardy said.
He said investments from the private sector are needed to spark the economy in Uniontown and other areas of the county.
The PGA’s 84 Lumber Classic held at the resort last month attracted 160,000 people and gave the county national exposure in the media, he said.
His goal for next year is 200,000 tour visitors and he already started planning improvements to the course for next year’s event.
The tournament bears the name of the company Hardy founded in 1956. It started out as Green Hills Lumber in 1952, but quickly grew.
There are now more than 430 stores operating in 34 states. He named his daughter, Maggie Hardy Magerko, as president in 1992.
The company recorded more than $2 billion is sales in 2002.
He bought an old hunting lodge in Farmington in a bankruptcy sale in 1987 and turned it into Nemacolin Woodlands, which is the only four-star resort in Pennsylvania.
Hardy won a seat as a county commissioner last year.