America’s best weekly ‘Meet the Candidates’ comes to Baptist Temple Church, Oct. 5 SEE PAGE A8
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 115 No. 40 Two Sections
OCTOBER 2-8, 2024
thenewpittsburghcourier Published Weekly $1.00
Third annual ‘Girls Fire Camp’ exposes teen girls to the firefighting profession Right now, only one Black woman in Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Who can forget Horne’s department store, snuggled perfectly at the corner of Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street, Downtown Pittsburgh? Tons of Pittsburghers can say they worked there over the decades before it closed in 1994. One of those people who worked there was Lisa Epps-Cuda, known as Lisa Epps at the time. She was a hard worker. She was determined. She was...prissy? That’s right. Someone told her that because Epps, the Allderdice High School graduate and, at the time, University of Pittsburgh student, worked at Horne’s, she was “too prissy” to be a firefighter, with “all that heavy gear” and so forth. “So I thought, ‘you know what, let me prove that person wrong because I love a good challenge,’” Epps-Cuda told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively, Sept. 27. Decades later, she’s one of the most respected, highly-regarded firefighters in the City of Pittsburgh. “I ended up loving it,” Epps-Cuda said. THE THIRD ANNUAL GIRLS FIRE CAMP INTRODUCED TEEN GIRLS, MANY OF WHOM ARE BLACK, TO THE FIREFIGHTING PROFESSION. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
SEE GIRLS FIRE CAMP A6
More African Americans building careers in the trades PIT2Work celebrates one-year anniversary
by Rocco Pacella and Julie Bercik Blue Sky News
Few airports in the U.S. have programs geared toward the development of their regional workforce. One of those airports is PIT. Now celebrating its oneyear anniversary, the PIT2Work pre-apprenticeship training program, hosted at PIT, comes at no cost to participants. For the participants, who come from six Western Pennsylvania counties, it means much
more than a new career. “This has been a great opportunity… a life-changing experience,” said Devin Hale, a PIT2Work graduate and new member of the International Union of Operating Engineers. Hale is currently working on the new PIT terminal construction site, the very place where his new career through PIT2Work began. “I can better provide for my family and everything. It (has been) an SEE PIT2WORK A4
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WOMEN GETTING INTO THE TRADES—LISA GILMORE, ALEXYS MEDINA, EBONI HARRIS, SIERRA MOTEN, EMILY FEROCE. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Beginning Wednesday, October 9...The Courier presents...
ELECTION CENTRAL All month long, the Courier will provide extensive coverage of the Presidential Election, along with information on local and state races. And remember to vote on or before November 5. Your Vote Matters.