Not all scars show.
Guests at the 56th annual dinner hosted by Mental Health America of Southwestern PA learned about the invisible wounds of war from keynote speaker John C. Burns. Dinner took place Oct. 24 in the Ramada by Wyndham Greensburg Hotel and Conference Center in Hempfield.
Waynesburg native Burns is a decorated U.S. Army veteran aviator who served combat tours in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq, he survived the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED).
His talk centered on how that event changed his life.
A Wounded Warriors mentor, Burns is now a Florida resident and owner of Eagle 6 Technical Services, specializing in government command and control systems and cyber security.
Also during dinner, Ray T. Charley was presented with the 38th Fred Funari Mental Health America Award of Distinction. Charley, the owner of three local Shop ‘n Save supermarkets, says, “When it comes to charity, I prefer to do it — rather than talk about it.”
Earlier this year, Charley rode a bike 3,058 miles from California to Florida to raise money and awareness for the Maryland-based Feherty’s Troops First Foundation, which supports veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dinner committee members included MHA Executive Director Laurie Barnett Levine, Chairwoman Joan Stairs, Josie Funari, Michelle Gordon, Dr. Lisa Issac, Don Lawry, Anita Leonard, Bill Magda, Marybeth Grandinetti Pultz, Rachel Cunningham Ravis, Molly Robb Shimko, Richard and Joanna Stillwagon, Bev Stonick, Christine Vitale and Deb Wasilchak.
