This article was originally published in the Tribune-Review

by SHIRLEY MCMARLIN  | Monday, July 12, 2021 12:01 p.m.

Children will have a chance to make up for fun time lost during the pandemic at a Sunday Fundae event planned for noon-3 p.m. Sunday at Lynch Field, off New Alexandria Road in Greensburg.

Hosted by Wesley Family Services and the ParentWISE Program, along with City of Greensburg Recreation Department and Lynch Field Dairy Queen, the free event is being held in lieu of the annual Ice Cream Blast.

“In the interest of keeping our friends, families and guests safe, we felt strongly that we could not host an event that brought over 800 people together in the Kirk S. Nevin Arena,” said Julie Cawoski, Director of Family and Community Support Programs. “This is a reminder that we will be back.”

Sunday Fundae activities will be organized around a calendar theme, Cawoski said.

“The theme is, if we could redo 2020 again and let children experience each month as it should have been,” she said. “Each craft, activity or game will have to do with a holiday or event that takes place during that month.”

For example, she said, “Catholic Charities will have a fishing pool. Their month is April, and that’s when fishing season opens.”

Children will receive a card to check off each monthly activity. Completed cards will be entered into a drawing for a kids’ goodie basket.

Activities will be geared toward children ages 3-10.

Adults can enter a raffle for 12 other baskets, each with a monthly theme. There also will be a chance to win an Apple Watch donated by Sam’s Club.

Ice cream won’t be served on site, but each child will receive a coupon for a free DQ Sundae from Lynch Field Dairy Queen. Coupons will be redeemable through the end of September. Sam’s Club and Shop ‘N Save Route 66 will provide snacks, cookies and bottled water.

In addition to Catholic Charities, table sponsors include Wesley Family Services, Greensburg Hempfield Area Library, Early Learning Resource Center, Westmoreland County Arts & Heritage Festival, Westmoreland County Drug and Alcohol Commission and accessAbilities.

Lead Safe Westmoreland will be on-site to collect nonperishable food items for the Westmoreland County Food Bank.

The event will be held rain or shine, Cawoski said, unless heavy rain causes the low-lying field to flood.

For information, contact Cawoski at 724-217-8304 or julie.cawoski@wfspa.org, or visit wfspa.org.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter.

Personality Profile of Josh Taylor originally posted on KDKA, June 2021

When the call came to fulfill a childhood dream, he just couldn’t say no.

Josh Taylor joined the KDKA Sports team in 2015 as an anchor, reporter, and producer, after spending more than two years as the weekend sports anchor at KHBS-KHOG in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

During his time there, Josh received two Associated Press awards for his work with the station’s coverage of Arkansas Razorback football.

Born in Pittsburgh and having grown up in the Hill District, in the shadow of the Civic Arena, Josh first fell in love with sports during his childhood years, having seen his first Penguins game at seven years old.

After graduating from Schenley High School, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Multimedia from Duquesne University.

Getting his first experience as a student journalist, Josh was an anchor, reporter, and producer for a DUQ-TV News special that won a Telly Award in 2008.

Josh has taken great pride in being a “Jack of all trades,” working on-air in television and radio and having been a co-author for six books – each of them about Pittsburgh sports.

In 2017, he began to carve out a small niche for himself as the host of the “Sunday Morning Grind” on KDKA-FM, 93.7 “The Fan”. He has also added announcing local sports to his repertoire, doing play-by-play and color commentary for Duquesne men’s and women’s basketball games and high school football.

In 2017, Josh was added to the Duquesne Journalism and Multimedia Department’s “Wall of Fame,” and was also honored as one of the New Pittsburgh Courier’s “Men of Excellence.”

He also began to find his bearings as a public speaker and emcee, co-hosting the Courier’s Vann Media Awards Banquet with KDKA’s own Mikey Hood and presenting at the City League Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2018.

In his spare time, Josh has become increasingly involved in community outreach and volunteer work, hosting and speaking at events for various organizations. He has been a member of the Young Professionals Board for Wesley Family Services since 2018, and has also worked closely with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. In 2019, Josh hosted WPSD’s “An Evening in Edgewood,” helping them raise funds for their on-campus Children’s Center. He has also participated in “Dancing With the Pittsburgh Superstars” as both a dancer and emcee and also hosts the annual “Dancing With the Dukes” event at Duquesne to support his brothers of Gamma Phi Fraternity.

Josh and his wife, Priscilla, reside in Pittsburgh with their son, Nathan. In his spare time, Josh may be found on the diamond playing either 38-and-over baseball or softball, watching one of his favorite pastimes, professional wrestling – whether live in person or on TV, or loaded up with his family in their SUV on the road somewhere.

VITALS
Joined KDKA: April 2015
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa., The Hill District
Alma Mater: Duquesne University

FAVORITES
Music: That’s a wide range, anything from Motown classics, 70s soul and classical to 90s and 2000s hip hop (the golden age of the genre, no exceptions!) and R&B!

Movie: ” It’s hard to pick just one. To name a few: “Fences”, “The Ten Commandments”, “Tombstone”, and anything from “Star Wars” or the Marvel cinematic universe.

TV Show: I’m probably one of the biggest fans of “The Wire” and “Supernatural” you’ll ever find, but you’ll most likely find me watching “Law and Order: SVU”, “Queen of the South” or any live pro wrestling show (WWE, NXT, AEW, Impact).

Book: “Moneyball”, “Feeding the Monster”, and almost anything written by John Grisham, James Patterson and Christopher Moore.

Hobbies: Yoga, kickboxing, writing, and my all-time favorite… sleeping

Sports Team: Many Pittsburgh team, Duquesne Dukes, Los Angeles Lakers, and my adopted Arkansas Razorbacks – “Woo Pig Sooie!”

Food: I eat almost anything, but prefer authentic barbecue, sushi, wings or a good burger. I can also make a pretty impressive skillet of cheese eggs with pancakes.

Local Restaurant: Sushi Tomo, Thai Foon, Doce Taqueria, Piper’s Pub, and I’ll always have room for wings from Bigham Tavern.

Hidden PA Gem: Conneaut Lake. Easily the most underrated place to spend a weekend.

Sport/Exercise: Baseball, softball, and recently picked up golf.

Quote: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams; live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

Vacation Spot: Punta Cana, Jamaica

Guilty Pleasure: Peanut M&M’s

THIS OR THAT
Facebook or Twitter? Twitter
Cats or Dogs? Dogs, especially pitbulls
Beatles or Rolling Stones? Neither, Earth Wind & Fire
Comedy or Tearjerker? Comedy
Phone Call or Text Message? Text message
Mac or PC? PC
Coffee or Tea? Coffee, specifically Café Bustelo
Paper or Plastic? Paper
Morning Person or Night Person? Always been a night owl
East Coast or West Coast? East Coast

Follow Josh Taylor on Twitter.

This article was originally published in the Tribune-Review

by PATRICK VARINE  |  Thursday, May 27, 2021

Theresa Gutierrez has a lot of love to give.

After losing her husband nearly a decade ago, Gutierrez raised her eldest daughter, now in her mid-20s, and her son Brandon, who is now 16.

Just about a year ago, Theresa and Brandon welcomed 10-year-old Phillip into their home, and as of Feb. 25, he is officially a member of the family. Phillip was adopted through Wesley Family Services.

“My daughter was getting older and getting ready to leave the house,” Gutierrez said. “So two years ago, I went through training with Wesley.”

Phillip, now 11, is getting ready to finish fifth grade. He and older brother Brandon already have developed a typical sibling rivalry, ribbing each another and joking.

One-hundred-seventy years ago on May 24, 1851, the nation’s first codified adoptions laws went into effect in Massachusetts, and Annette Gross, director of placement services for Wesley Family Services, said she wished more people knew about the different types of adoption that are available.

Wesley, which has locations throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania, focuses on adoptions of children from the welfare system.

“Pennsylvania has always been a big hub for adoptions,” Gross said. “But most of those have been international and domestic private adoptions. One of the trends we’ve seen is trying to focus attention and highlight adoptions from the public child welfare system.”

Gross said when a family adopts through Wesley, they have access to a wealth of information.

“A family gets to understand who they are, where they come from, their birth parents, some of those characteristics that children sometimes want to search for as they get older,” Gross said. “And you don’t always get that with international adoptions.”

Phillip was in the foster care system for four years before his adoption by Gutierrez.

“We’ve lost so much,” she said. “And I think that loss led us to be motivated to build another little family.”

Phillip’s older brother agreed.

“There was some sort of intangible thing that we both felt,” Brandon said.

The family is gearing up for a summer on the road, after being cooped up the past year during the pandemic.

“It feels good to do good for someone,” Gutierrez said. “And we’re going to California this summer, we’re going to Mexico. I can’t wait.

“The feeling of giving to a child is just phenomenal.”

Phillip said he loves his new family.

“I have a family, a roof over my head, they feed me and they love me,” he said.

Gross said she’s glad there are “wonderful families out there who open their homes to these kids.”

Gutierrez said she couldn’t be happier to have done so.

“Phillip has had some problems, but I really love him,” she said. “When he smiles at me, when he comes home from school and he’s had a good day, it’s the best.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the nation’s foster-care system served 673,000 children in 2019, the most recent year for statistics.

Of that number, only 66,000 had been adopted. An additional 122,200 were awaiting adoption.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter.

Central Outreach doesn’t hit target numbers of shots at Aliquippa COVID-19 vaccine clinic

ALIQUIPPA — Area residents had a shot at getting the COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic held at Central Outreach Wellness Center on Wednesday, but not many took it.

The clinic, which was organized in response to low vaccination rates in Beaver County, made 300 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine available to anyone eligible under Phase 1A and 1B of the vaccine rollout, and aimed to immunize the most marginalized area residents. However, those residents may not have been looking to get immunized.

From 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m., when workers at Central Outreach were distributing first doses, only 69 people came in to get a shot.

“I wish I could answer why there wasn’t a greater turnout,” said Alex Tatangelo, a certified nurse practitioner at the center who helped organize the clinic.

“Because it’s approved for emergency use (and) because it’s new,” he said, “there’s a lot of resistance to the vaccine.”

Jaron Taylor, a medical assistant at Central Outreach, thought awareness might have been the issue.

“The hardest part is getting the word out there,” he said.

Still, the center wasn’t anticipating so few people to show up.

With so many Beaver County residents struggling to find appointments and an even larger number of residents from disenfranchised county communities being seemingly left behind, leaders at the center increased their original clinic dose allotment from 200 to 300 and brought in additional volunteers so that those most neglected could get a shot.

According to state data, 33,885 Beaver County residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday, meaning about 20% of the population is partially or fully protected against the virus.

Most of those vaccines (76%) have gone to white residents, while less than 3% have gone to Black residents. Though more than 90% of Beaver County is white, its most impoverished areas have larger numbers of Black residents who don’t seem to be getting vaccinated.

That’s the trend statewide.

While 45% of the state population has now been vaccinated, more than 45% of that vaccinated population is white. Only 2% of the vaccinated population is Black, despite Black residents making up 12% of the total state population (though more than 5% of the state’s black population lives in Philadelphia County, which is not participating in the state vaccine program).

“This is something I really looked forward to because we were really the first people in our area to really initiate testing (for COVID-19),”  Tatangelo said.

Central Outreach in Aliquippa started offering drive-thru COVID-19 testing last March to any locals who were exhibiting symptoms, whether they had a referral and insurance or not. While UPMC also offered testing at the time, the organization required physician referrals.

Hoping to bring the process full circle, leaders at Central Outreach organized the clinic, which was no small effort.

Because their Aliquippa location doesn’t have the capacity to store vaccines, clinic organizers had to bring in the vaccines from their Pittsburgh/North Shore location.

“The North Shore pulls vaccines, thaws them, then brings them up here,” said Tatangelo, who noted that miniature clinics to vaccinate staff at local organizations including Wesley Family Services and Gateway Rehabilitation Center have been successful.

As the vaccines from Wednesday’s clinic have already been thawed, those unused from it will return to the North Shore location and be distributed to individuals in the Pittsburgh area over the next five days.

Despite having to return 231 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the clinic was far from a failure, leaders said.

Vaccinating any number of individuals brings the county and the country closer to heard immunity and normalcy, and vaccinating individuals in the most impoverished communities brings vaccination efforts closer to equality.

Ultimately, that’s what Central Outreach did.

Denise Cage, 59, Telise Stewart, 40, and Vam Tran, 36, were all amongst the first to get doses at Wednesday’s clinic and live in Aliquippa which has a 34% poverty rate — the highest in Beaver County.

Though many who snag shots of a COVID-19 vaccine depend on technology and digital savvy to search for coveted appointments, these women managed to skip the search and simply show up, as the clinic intended.

They all reported excellent experiences.

“It was so easy,” said Tran, who saw signs for the event from her neighboring home. “They just got me in and took me in, like, two minutes. I barely felt it.”

Cage, who works at the Salvation Army and learned about the clinic through a flier, agreed.

“I thought it was going to be a little worse than it was,” she said, “and I didn’t have to wait at all.”

Though the women are looking forward to gathering, socializing and traveling again, they still have about a month or so before they can do those things safely.

This article was originally published by the Tribune Review

By Mary Ann Thomas

Thursday, April 8, 2021 6:15 p.m.