Out & About category, Page 16
Out & About: ‘Thank Goodness It’s Summer’ — even if it’s rainingVideo
The best-laid plans of mice and men — and outdoor concert organizers — need to be flexible, especially given recent Western Pennsylvania weather forecasts. Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s TGIS free weekly concert series typically takes place in the courtyard of Greensburg’s Palace Theatre, but it went inside and onstage for this...
Out & About: Pair of pups steal hearts at Humane Society breakfast
The Humane Society of Westmoreland County’s Breakfast for the Animals turned into breakfast with the animals, as two adorable shelter puppies showed up to steal the show. The chance to cuddle the fur babies was almost as big a draw as the gourmet breakfast buffet, served June 1 at Christ...
Out & About: Summer Sunday concerts return to Ligonier Diamond
Opening its 70th season, the Sunday Band Concert Series returned to Ligonier on May 26. Members of the Ligonier Valley High School concert and jazz bands and percussion ensemble set up in front of Ligonier Town Hall, as concert-goers parked their chairs in the street (closed to traffic for the...
Steel Chef Challenge features local cooks
See what’s cooking at the Wyndham Grand Hotel and Ballroom in Pittsburgh on Sunday. That’s the site of the sixth annual Steel Chef Challenge Culinary Gala. The gala begins at 5:30 p.m. This event spotlights 20 of Pittsburgh’s premier chefs preparing their creations. The format is similar to the Food...
Out & About: Gettin’ their swing on at the airshow big band danceVideo
It was business before pleasure at the Westmoreland County Airshow WWII Dance Benefit on May 25 at DeNunzio’s Italian Chophouse at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. Paying a Memorial Day tribute to fallen comrades, Leonard Dulik, Stanley Markiewicz, William Williams and John Chearney of Mt. Pleasant American Legion Post...
Out & About: Art as Fashion guests get insider’s view of Met Gala
Tea was spilled, darlings, as a Greensburg audience heard behind-the-scenes tidbits about the planning of the Met Gala from Clyde Jones III, senior vice president for institutional advancement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Jones was the VIP guest at the black-tie Art as Fashion gala...
Out & About: West Overton hosts World War II Victory Ball
West Overton Museum’s World War II Victory Ball covered a lot of territory. Aaron Hollis, event organizer and director of education at the East Huntingdon historical complex, said the Memorial Day weekend event was held to honor local military heroes, to sustain the legacy of the music and dance of...
Out & About: Action for Animals boosters enjoy a walk in the park
A brief afternoon downpour couldn’t dampen spirits at Action for Animals Humane Society’s annual Walk for the Animals, on May 19 at Twin Lakes Park in Unity. Participants came on two feet and four to enjoy a walk around the lakes, a pet blessing, food and vendor sales, basket raffles,...
Out & About: St. Anne Home hosts 16th annual progressive dinner
Breaking bread with friends is one of life’s great pleasures. Participants in the St. Anne Home’s 16th Annual Progressive Dinner were able to double, or even triple, that pleasure. Select guests traveled to select homes for their first courses, then made their way to another location for their entrees. All...
Out & About: New Eagle Scouts honored, challenged at dinner
The Boy Scouts of America mission is to help young men (and now young women) develop self-confidence, a sense of ethics and academic, leadership and citizenship skills to carry into adulthood. Some attendees at the Westmoreland-Fayette Council’s 61st Eagle Scout Recognition Dinner, held May 16 at Stratigos Banquet Centre in...
Out & About: Spring Rhapsody wraps WSO 50th anniversary season
The Spring Rhapsody Gala was like icing on the cake of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra’s triumphal 50th anniversary season. Held May 18 at a private club near Ligonier, the black-tie gala came a week after the symphony’s season-ending concert, featuring the blockbuster movie music of composer John Williams and conducted...
Out & About: First Westmoreland Art Nationals show opens at WCCCVideo
The first of two Westmoreland Art Nationals exhibitions, sponsored by the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival, opened May 18 at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood. The second will open June 29 at Twin Lakes Park, to be held in conjunction with the festival from July 4-7. The exhibitions this...
Out & About: Artistic achievers gather at The Palace Theatre
“Achievement in the Arts is Westmoreland County’s sports award for creatives,” says Kelli Brisbane, Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s director of corporate engagement and events. The trust presented its 21st annual arts awards to seniors from 18 county high schools May 15 at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg. Categories include theater, visual...
Out & About: Cinco de Meowo benefits ‘los gatos sin hogar’
“Los gatos sin hogar necesitan tu ayuda.” That translates from the Spanish as “The homeless cats need your help,” according to Google. It also was the message of the annual Cinco de Meowo party held, appropriately, on Cinco de Mayo (or May 5) in the Youngwood Fire Hall. Hosts were...
Out & About: Westmoreland Walks satisfies passion for fashionVideo
Westmoreland Walks organizers displayed their passion for fashion — and for their cause — at the second annual Passionately Pink Fashion Show, held May 11 in the Christ Our Shepherd Center in Unity. Close to 100 ladies and a few gents gathered to see what’s hot this season from Betsy’s...
Out & About: Feeding the Spirit gala draws more than 300 guests
Welcoming guests to the annual Feeding the Spirit fundraiser, founder and board president Deborah Thackrah said when the group served its first free community meal in 2011, “People didn’t know that we would be around in a year, but here we are in our eighth year.” The event was held...
Out & About: Supporters get sneak peek at Lamp Theatre diner
Supporters of Irwin’s Lamp Theatre have dubbed it “the little theater that could.” The historic theater opened in 1937 as a movie house. After closing in 2005, it changed hands several times until the borough of Irwin bought it in 2013. With lots of volunteer help, it reopened as a...
Out & About: More kudos for retiring Pitt-Greensburg president
Friends and colleagues of Sharon Smith, retiring president of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, won’t just let her slip away quietly. Accolades and appreciation were bestowed during a surprise celebration April 16, and a celebratory open house followed May 7. Traveling from the university’s main Oakland campus for the...
Get back to nature on the Butler-Freeport Community Trail
At times, the Butler- Freeport Community Trail seems to be a mere ribbon of pathway cutting through a landscape so large. Steep, rocky hillsides loom within a matter of miles of calmer and drier terrain of rolling farm fields, accounting for the trail’s variety and charm. Then there’s the lack...
Out & About: Rustic mountain retreat hosts Derby Day for Charity
Derby Day for Charity started promptly at 3 p.m. May 4 at Oak Lodge near Stahlstown. With almost four hours to kill before the main event, live streaming of the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs, there was plenty of time for cigar smoking, mint julep drinking and betting on a...
Out & About: Celebrity dancers wow at Animal Friends eventVideo
Chris Granata and his dancing partner-instructor Kaelyn Gresko took double honors for their swing routine at the 2019 Dancing With the Celebrities competition to benefit Animal Friends of Westmoreland. Burning up the stage at Greensburg’s Palace Theatre on May 3, the high top-clad duo danced away with the first-place people’s...
Out & About: Old friends gather for Jeannette gallery reception
It was like old home week in Jeannette’s You Are Here Gallery during the May 4 opening reception for “Trances,” a solo retrospective exhibition by local artist Larry Beaver. Mike Zvara of Jeannette said he and the artist were in the same Boy Scout troop back in the early 1960s....
Out & About: Laurel Faith in Action hosts neighborhood picnic
Laurel Faith in Action celebrated community connections during a Neighborhood Block Party on May 3 in the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College in Unity. More than 160 attendees were treated to a bountiful spread of picnic foods, including hot dogs, hamburgers, potato and pasta salads, fruit and dessert....
Out & About: Mental Health America hosts Innovations Awards night
Mental Health America of Southwestern PA hosted its 17th annual Innovations Awards dinner and program May 2 in the Ramada Greensburg Hotel and Conference Center. The awards recognize community members and organizations that help make a difference in the lives of people experiencing mental health and substance use issues. Honorees...
Out & About: Italian American students receive lodge scholarships
The Order Italian Sons and Daughters of America was organized in 1930 by a small community of Italian immigrants in Pittsburgh. Members became active in the politics and society of their adopted city and country, but still worked to preserve a cultural link with their Italian heritage. Nowadays, the organization...
