Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: We’re in the home stretch of the Herald-Standard’s annual Give-A-Christmas campaign to support the Salvation Army service centers in Fayette County. It’s not too late to contribute to help us meet our $10,000 goal. All donations remain in the local area to help fund the organization’s many valuable community programs. Contributions can be mailed to Give-A-Christmas, c/o Herald-Standard, 8 E. Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401. Checks should be made payable to Give-A-Christmas. Donations also may be dropped off at the newspaper office Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Dec. 23. The final total raised will be published in the Christmas Eve edition. Donors are welcome to include notes honoring or memorializing loved ones, as well as holiday messages. “By giving, you help to support your community,” said Sparkle the Christmas Star, the campaign’s longtime mascot.
Cheers: Kudos to Warren Hlafcsak, who for the past four years has opened his Waynesburg home to the public to view the miniature train display housed in his basement. A bustling tableau of chugging train engines, rolling hills, cotton clouds and tiny workers dotting the landscape await visitors, who are in awe of the display that features something new each year. “A lot of people don’t know what they’re going to see when they open that door,” Huffman told the newspaper’s Garrett Neese. “I’ve had a lot of people’s jaws just drop.” The display is free to the public, though donations are encouraged. Hlafcsak splits the funds between the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh (his wife is a two-time breast cancer survivor) and the Greene County Humane Society. His sponsors donate items for a raffle, which also goes to benefit the charities. Last year, visitors chipped in $800. The display is open at Hlafcsak’s home at 137 Huffman St. from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and Monday until Dec. 22. For more information, call 724-802-3613.
Cheers: Seventy-one students from 10 Washington County high schools finished their training this week to become certified Teen Mental Health First Aid Responders. The students – from Avella, Bentworth, Burgettstown, California Area, Canon-McMillan, Charleroi, Chartiers-Houston, Trinity, Ringgold, and Washington – received their certificates at an event held at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. They now will serve as ambassadors for mental health in their school districts. The program is part of UPMC Washington Teen Outreach’s education program, the Road to Mental Health Education, which aims to reduce teen suicide by meeting the mental health needs of teens. The program is needed as rates of teen anxiety, depression, and suicide climb across the country. “These young people are being certified in Teen Mental Health First Aid Response, which means they are using a five-step action plan that helps them look for signs, how to ask if someone’s having a crisis, how to get them help, and how to be a supportive friend,” said Amy Podgurski Gough, Teen Outreach COO and community coordinator.