Crosskeys renames building in honor of Fred Lebder
Crosskeys Human Services Inc., which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary with a dinner, has a new name on its headquarters building on Shaffner Avenue in Brownsville. It is now the Lebder Community Center. Sister James Ann Germuska said the building has been renamed in honor for former Fayette County Commissioner Fred L. Lebder, who she said has been extremely supportive of the social service program since its inception. Lebder was the honoree at the dinner.
“I told him at one time he would lose the election if he kept supporting us,” Germuska said. “He said he didn’t care. If he lost, he lost.”
That was in the early 1980s as Crosskeys was expanding its services from senior citizens programs to mental health programs, including community residential services. Germuska said there was considerable opposition in Brownsville when the residential locations were first announced, but Lebder continued to back the service.
The agency started with the vision of the Rev. Edward F. Higgins at the Historic Church of St. Peter to serve the elderly in the Brownsville area.
Even before the agency was formed, the name Crosskeys was in place. According to Germuska, Higgins held an anointing service and dinner in June 1974 for the elderly members of his parish. At that dinner, Higgins said he wanted to start an agency called Crosskeys, representing the keys held in the hand of St. Peter to the kingdom of heaven. Higgins envisioned the new agency as unlocking the doors of service to needy people, with a broad definition of need.
“That was even before I was involved,” Germuska said.
At the time she was a teacher in Millvale with the Sisters of St. Francis.
“I loved my students. I loved teaching,” Germuska said. “I was told I’d only be in Brownsville a year, to get it started.”
That was 35 years ago and Germuska is the only executive director the agency has known. Crosskeys started with an activity club in March 1975 that provided socializing through arts and crafts projects. At that same time, Catholic Charities conducted a visitor/companion program in which volunteers called or visited elderly residents in the area.
The building at 302 Shaffner Ave. became available to Crosskeys when the Sisters of St. Francis, who had taught at St. Peter School, dwindled and the building was left vacant. The building needed to be brought into compliance with Department of Labor and Industry regulations to be used for Crosskeys activities.
“I had a lot of reservations. Then I met Commissioner Lebder and he was so supportive,” Germuska said.
Germuska said Lebder furnished the supplies and labor needed to bring the building into compliance. A ribbon-cutting was held that June.
By September 1975, Crosskeys was under contract with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Agency on Aging to operate a senior center at the Shaffner Avenue location. A new, larger dining room was constructed in 1978 to meet the demand. The agency has continued to grow since then.
“We started with four staff members; now we have 42,” Germuska said.
Crosskeys moved into providing mental health services in 1982 after identifying needs in Fayette County for social rehabilitation and community residential rehabilitation. Crosskeys now operates several senior centers in Brownsville and Republic, community residential rehabilitation, social rehabilitation and a drop-in center. In 2004, Crosskeys started a psychiatric rehabilitation program in Uniontown.
The agency also offers supportive housing services and a nurse to help clients manage their medications, doctors’ appointments and nutrition. There are nearly 100 clients in the various programs, plus those served by the supportive housing and nursing services.
“We never think of numbers, we just know they’re all there,” Germuska said.