Students were in the spotlight for the 44th annual Westmoreland County Prayer Breakfast, held Jan. 25 in the Ramada Greensburg Hotel and Conference Center.
The breakfast brings together community members from area business, education, government and labor, and each year focuses on one of those sectors. For the first time, young people took the lead as representatives of area schools.
There was a good reason for that, said Chad Amond, president and CEO of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce, which presents the event with Westmoreland County Community College, with support from Excela Health.
He quoted an African proverb, which says that where you sit when you are old depends on where you stood when you were young. In other words, it’s important to be raising up a new generation of leaders, and this was one way to do so.
To open the program, Yough High School student Mollie Landman sang the national anthem. Reiley Smith of Franklin Regional followed with the invocation.
Ben Graham and Madison Raviart, both of Hempfield Area, and Natalia Sturges of Derry Area gave spiritual readings. Ashley Krivansky of Norwin offered a prayer, while Jude Suvak of Franklin Regional was in charge of the benediction.
Saint Vincent College student Skylar Piper, a junior studying criminology, was keynote speaker.
The Saint Vincent College Singers, under the direction of Thomas Octave, provided musical interludes. Joining Amond and the students on the dais were Michael Storms, Tuesday Stanley and Tay Waltenbaugh.
As usual, the emphasis at breakfast was on, as Amond said, focusing on the things that unite rather than divide us and in “making Westmoreland County a better place to live, learn, work and play.”
Seen: Bob Rogalski, Jim and Kathy Bendel, Bishop Edward Malesic, Phil Koch, Nancy Kukovich, Rod Booker, Irma Hutchinson, Lynette Emerick, Dawn Hixson, Jennifer Miller, Louise Wilhelm, Eric Sarn, David McNichol, Mark and Jill Jackson, Sage Pence, August Lawrence, Mark Lawrence, Diane Shrader, Erin Shrader, Mary Catherine Motchar, Debra Woods, Jess Stairs, Scott Avolio, Mandy Zalich, Patti Buhl, Dr. Carol Fox, Helen Burns and Westmoreland County Commissioners Charles Anderson and Ted Kopas.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer.
You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750,
smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib.
