Hits & Misses
Hit: Congratulations to the Washington County Gay Straight Alliance, whose members and supporters recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary at a gala at the George Washington Hotel. The nonprofit was started in 2005 by three “straight white women who saw the need,” said co-founder Kathy McCulley Cameron, along with Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski of UPMC Washington Teen Outreach, Jenny Newman and two Washington High School students. For the past two decades, the organization has served as an oasis of acceptance and provided support, advocacy, and services for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Cameron said when she helped start the group, she “didn’t think I’d still be doing this.” She hoped there would no longer be a need for the nonprofit, she said, because that would mean gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals had been fully accepted into American society. “But we’ve regressed. It’s not a good time for people in the LGBTQ+ community, especially for trans people,” said Cameron. “We have to think about if we do an event, will it be safe, especially now when trans and trans kids aren’t as welcome. It’s important for them to know there is support out there, and there are allies out there that they didn’t know were out there. … Our straight allies are just as important because GSA is made up of the community.”
Hit: Kudos to Warren Hlafcsak, who for the past four years has opened his Waynesburg home to the public to view the miniature train display housed in his basement. A bustling tableau of chugging train engines, rolling hills, cotton clouds and tiny workers dotting the landscape await visitors, who are in awe of the display that features something new each year. “A lot of people don’t know what they’re going to see when they open that door,” Huffman told the newspaper’s Garrett Neese. “I’ve had a lot of people’s jaws just drop.” The display is free to the public, though donations are encouraged. Hlafcsak splits the funds between the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh (his wife is a two-time breast cancer survivor) and the Greene County Humane Society. His sponsors donate items for a raffle, which also goes to benefit the charities. Last year, visitors chipped in $800. The display is open at Hlafcsak’s home at 137 Huffman St. from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and Monday until Dec. 22. For more information, call 724-802-3613.
Hit: Seventy-one students from 10 Washington County high schools finished their training this week to become certified Teen Mental Health First Aid Responders. The students – from Avella, Bentworth, Burgettstown, California Area, Canon-McMillan, Charleroi, Chartiers-Houston, Trinity, Ringgold, and Washington – received their certificates at an event held at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. They now will serve as ambassadors for mental health in their school districts. The program is part of UPMC Washington Teen Outreach’s education program, the Road to Mental Health Education, which aims to reduce teen suicide by meeting the mental health needs of teens. The program is needed as rates of teen anxiety, depression, and suicide climb across the country. “These young people are being certified in Teen Mental Health First Aid Response, which means they are using a five-step action plan that helps them look for signs, how to ask if someone’s having a crisis, how to get them help, and how to be a supportive friend,” said Amy Podgurski Gough, Teen Outreach COO and community coordinator.