with the new showers’ field ready to go, the dubois area...
TRANSCRIPT
STAFFORD, Va. — A former area resident who teaches in Virginia decided to take drastic measures to help one of her students.
When Lesa Brosky, 26, formerly of Falls Creek, now living in Stafford, de-cided to shave her head to raise awareness for child-hood cancer, she never imagined she’d raise more than triple her original monetary goal.
Brosky had been raising money for a head-shaving event in Stafford. She final-ly shed her locks March 16.
Seven-year-old Savan-nah Cox was Brosky’s muse in her decision to shave her head. According to Brosky, “Savannah is a loving, ar-tistic, and spunky second grade student of mine. Just this month, her doctors confirmed that Savannah has a Rhabdoid tumor. This is a rare and aggressive type of cancer that typi-cally doesn’t respond well to treatment.”
Wanting to help her student out, Brosky came across The St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
St. Baldrick’s is a port-manteau of St. Patrick’s and bald, as the first head-shaving event took place on the holiday in 2000. Re-searching this foundation’s site is what initially got
Brosky interested in par-ticipating. “According to the St. Baldrick’s website, be-fore they turn 20, 1 in 300 boys and 1 in 333 girls will develop some sort of cancer. As an elementary teacher, I get to know just about that many wonderful, wide-eyed students each year. By shaving my head, I will not only support this organiza-tion, but demonstrate my own support to those bat-tling and those who have battled the disease.”
Brosky originally set her goal to $800. That was reached in less than 24 hours so she decided to challenge herself. “I dou-bled the goal to $1,600,” Brosky said.
Currently, Brosky’s do-nations are at $2,795 and climbing.
She said the event was a huge success with herself and others collecting more
than $36,000. Those who still wish to
donate may do so until the end of March by visiting http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/Brosky.
Brosky was more than thrilled to take part in this event for such a wonderful cause. Brosky thanks all of contributors and support-ers who helped make her fundraiser such a success.
Brosky is the daughter of George and Linda Brosky of Falls Creek.
q q qEditor’s note: This ar-
ticle and photos were sub-mitted by Laura Markiev-ich, former area resident and former intern at the Courier-Express. She is the daughter of Mark and Karen Markievich of Falls Creek.
Vol. 134 - No. 62
Rain in the afternoon. Cooler with highs around 40. Chance of rain near 100 percent. Full report, A2
16 pagesClassified ......................... B5Comics ............................. B4Lifestyles ......................... A3Lottery ............................. A7Opinion ........................... A6Public Notices ............... B5Sports ............................... B1
75 Cents
• Curtis Chamberlin, 79
Pennsylvania’s overall population rose modestly last year. Census esti-mates show that the state’s population last July 1 was 12,773,801 — about 9,300 more people than the pre-vious year. A4
Health care pollPublic support for
President Barack Obama’s health care law is lan-guishing at its lowest level since passage of the land-mark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll. A4
Candy plantCandy giant Mars Inc.
is operating its first new plant in 35 years to churn out millions of sweets ev-ery day. A8
Peanut butterNearly a million jars
of peanut butter are being dumped at a landfill to ex-pedite the sale of a bank-rupt peanut-processing plant that was at the heart of a 2012 salmonella out-break and nationwide re-call. B7
Pa. populationis increasing
Tomorrow’s Forecast
Index
ObituariesA7
MORE INSIDE
FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MARCH 28-29, 2014
With the new Showers’ Field ready to go, the DuBois Area High School baseball team is expected to open its season against Warren Monday, weather permitting. (Photo by Elaine Haskins)
By Jim Grant
BROCKWAY — The Sny-der Township supervisors con-tinued with the next steps in cleaning up the Lees’ property on Cemetery Hill which was found to contain a meth lab in September.
The site was the scene of a shootout and standoff after po-lice tried to serve a search war-rant. State police Trooper Brad Wilson was critically wounded. Kenneth Lees Sr., who shot Wil-son, later took his own life dur-ing the standoff.
A letter was sent by solici-tor Ross Ferraro to the current owner, Amy Summers, detailing the township’s intention to have a controlled burn of the house if no other action has taken place by May 1. She requested an ap-peal of the action since a fire would destroy the foundation as well as the building.
To have an appeal, it was nec-essary to establish a township Board of Appeals composed of three township residents with two others on standby. The three members were sworn in by Fer-raro at Thursday’s supervisors meeting. Ernie Inzana was ap-pointed for one year, Ron Freem-er for two years and Scott Keith for three years. The board will convene at 7 p.m. Tuesday to hear the appeal on the Lees’ house.
If nothing else happens, the township will move forward to have the house tested for asbes-tos and have it removed if any is found. All appliances and car-peting must be removed. Then, the Brockway Volunteer Fire Co. will be free to use the site for a training exercise.
Brockway fire Chief Jeff Fustine reported that firefight-ers responded to four calls in the township since the last meeting. He noted that we are moving into a critical fire sea-son, and cautioned residents to be very careful with brush fires throughout the dry condi-tions before vegetation begins to grow. Details of the township’s burn ordinance may be found on the township website at www.snydertwp.com .
Fustine said he has contin-ued to meet with the 4th of July Committee to develop plans to keep the community safe during the celebration. A request was received from the committee to ring all the bells in the commu-nity before the annual Patriotic Program begins. The township has an emergency management siren that may be used that day.
The annual township clean-up days will be held April 11 and 12 with the road crew on hand at the township building between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. to accept old ap-pliances, tires and scrap metal along with other “junk” items. The collection will not include any household garbage or elec-tronics. Electronics may be tak-en to Goodwill or Staples.
Bids for limestone were awarded to New Enterprise Stone & Lime for 2,500 tons of #8 (1B) at $18.25 per ton and 50 tons of rip-rap at $19.15 per ton. Also accepted were bids from
Townshiptakingsteps to clean up lab site
Snyder Township
Former area resident takes drastic measures to help children with cancer
By Katie Weidenboerner
RIDGWAY — The North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning & Development Commission is applying for a grant to bring entrepreneurship into local classrooms.
If the commission receives grant funding through the Department of Community & Economic Develop-ment’s Discovered & Developed in PA program, it would work with school districts to help develop youth entre-preneur clubs, or “E Clubs.”
Once established, workforce invest-ment groups such as North Central would be able to go into classrooms to help teachers educate students about what entrepreneurship is.
“It’s an exciting new initiative for us,” agency Executive Director Eric
Bridges said Thursday. “It will help us get into the door and have a con-versation about what the commission and our partners can do to spur the entrepreneurial spirit within these young people.”
The grant will help provide sti-
pends for the teachers involved in the program and provide the “seed mon-ey” for student projects.
“Whether they’re service-oriented or product-oriented ideas, that mon-ey would help these E Clubs develop a service or product strategy which would then come to fruition,” Bridges said. “The idea would be that proceeds
that came as a result of their business plan would then be reseeded back into that E Club to help fund future Entre-preneur Club projects.”
Bridges said the idea was pitched in July, and one month ago the state said it was interested. The organi-
zation will hear in June if it has re-ceived the money.
“We plan on having a 12-week pro-gram in the schools starting next aca-demic year. That gives us the ability from September to December to run this program and then have ample time after to make adjustments,”
Grant would help students learn about entrepreneurship
Elementary school teacher Lesa Brosky, left, is shown with her student, seven-year-old Savannah Cox. Savannah has a rare and aggressive type of cancer that typically doesn’t respond well to treatment. Brosky, formerly of Falls Creek, now living in Stafford, decided to shave her head to raise awareness for childhood cancer. (Photo submitted)
Photos show Brosky, at left, before her haircut and at right, after the haircut.
Once established, workforce investment groups such as North Central would be able to go into classrooms to help teachers educate students about what entrepreneurship is.
See Grant, Page A7
See Snyder, Page A7
A1 Front Page