the almanac A P R I L 7, 2024
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
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MT. LEBANON WOMAN DISPLAYS CREATIVITY WITH HER DESSERTS PAGE A4
PHOTOS: KAREN MANSFIELD/OBSERVER-REPORTER
St. John XXIII Interfaith Food Pantry volunteers Barb Rousis, left, and Amy Shope, right, enjoy a laugh with Finleyville resident Penny Lovelace, who attended the pantry’s food distribution on Feb. 3.
A local lifeline
KERNAN NAMED ALMANAC WRESTLER OF THE YEAR PAGE B1
St. John XXIII Interfaith Pantry provides help to families in need By Karen Mansfield Staff writer
kmansfield@observer-reporter.com
It’s the first Saturday of the month, and at 9 a.m. the parking lot of St. Francis of Assisi, St. John XXIII Parish in Finleyville, is starting to fill up with cars. Inside the church social hall, a cheerful group of volunteers clad in teal T-shirts warmly welcome visitors, who have arrived to grocery shop. Yes, grocery shop. The church’s nearly 3,000-square-foot social hall is now the site of the St. John XXIII Interfaith Food Pantry, a collaboration of St. John XXIII Catholic Church and churches in the Finleyville Ministerial Association that opened its doors in November. The pantry – which provides non-perishables, meats, produce, refrigerated goods, SEE LIFELINE PAGE A2
UPPER ST. CLAIR STUDENTS LAUNCH ‘HI, NEIGHBOR!’ PROJECT PAGE B3 What’s happening, B3 Real estate transactions, A4 Classifieds, B4-6 St. John XXIII Interfaith Food Pantry volunteer DeeDee Ruggerio helps Finleyville area resident Debbie Ryce navigate the pantry on Ryce’s first visit.
Falling like dominoes Mother of Mercy Academy students collect cereal boxes for food pantry By Paul Paterra Staff writer
ppaterra@observer-reporter.com
It was a sight to behold: 287 cereal boxes toppling like dominoes. The maneuver was the culmination of a recent service project at Mother of Mercy Academy in Whitehall. The school’s 323 students at the K-8 school brought in the cereal boxes, decorated them, set them up and watched them topple over, one by one. “For our service project for the third quarter, we wanted to give to the St. Winfred Food Pantry,” said Amber Ingold, the school’s advancement director. “We saw other schools were doing domino challenges, so we decided to do ours with cereal. We rolled with it and the students really enjoyed it. Our families love to give back to the community.” A video on the school’s Facebook page shows the boxes toppling as the students, lined up on each side of the hallways, cheer. The cereal boxes were then taken to the food pantry in SEE CEREAL PAGE A2
A PennDOT worker makes repairs to a pothole.
COURTESY OF PENNDOT
Potholes keep popping up, causing problems for drivers By Karen Mansfield Staff writer
kmansfield@observer-reporter.com
COURTESY OF MOTHER OF MERCY ACADEMY
Students lined the hallways to watch the cereal boxes fall like dominoes.
If you’ve driven anywhere in Southwestern Pennsylvania in the past few weeks, you’ve likely had to dodge a pothole or two – or 10. The winter’s frequent temperature swings and bitter
cold snaps are to blame for potholes taking a toll on roads. They’re inevitable, said Melissa Maczko, community relations coordinator for the state Department of Transportation Engineering District 12 . Potholes form when water from rain or melting snow gets under cracks in the road surface. When temperatures
drop below freezing, the water freezes and expands. Then, when temperatures rise, the water melts, leaving behind a cavity under the road. As vehicles drive over the weakened roadway, the surface of the road caves in, creating a pothole. SEE POTHOLES PAGE A2