Sep 5, 2025 3 min read

Hit: Last week’s trench collapse in Charleroi could have had tragic results had it not been for the diligence of multiple rescue teams from across five counties working together to extricate a trapped man. The unidentified man had been working in a trench in the 800 block of McKean Avenue in the borough’s business district when the collapse occurred. Emergency responders worked five to six hours to free the man trapped chest-deep in dirt. “As they were putting the harness on him to pull him out, he said, ‘Let me just climb out of here,'” Charleroi fire Chief Robert Whiten Jr. said. “He got up and started walking on the ladder on his own.” The man was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital with what appeared to be minor injuries. The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. In 2019, an Ohio man working on a sewer line in North Strabane Township died when the trench collapsed on him. And two years before that, a man replacing a storm drainage system in Rostraver Township died in a similar collapse.

Courtesy of Fayette County Community Action Association

Giving2Grow has supported a number of agencies since its inception, such as the Fayette County Community Action Association (FCCAA). Among its many initiatives, FCCAA offers programs that increase both access to healthy and fresh food, and education on how families can achieve a healthy diet on a limited budget.

Hit: An organization with roots in the South Hills is to be lauded for its work in raising money to help fight childhood hunger and food insecurity across seven counties. Giving2Grow donates money to organizations in Washington, Greene, Fayette, Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland counties. Founder Jennifer McDowell, a Mt. Lebanon native, heard about the concept of giving circles and launched the nonprofit. “A giving circle is just a group of donors who share a passion to make a difference in some particular way,” explained Debbie Schneider, Giving2Grow president. “They pool their funds and make larger contributions to good causes that they choose. The size of that contribution will have more impact than anybody’s individual contribution would have. Our shared passion is childhood hunger.” Since 2013, the group has donated $563,747 to 23 organizations, including Fayette County Community Action Agency, East End United Community Center in Uniontown, LeMoyne Community Center in Washington and South Hills Interfaith Movement (SHIM). For more information on the organization, visit the website giving2grow.org.

Courtesy of Bridge to Home Animal Rescue

Dogs being fostered by Bridge to Home

Hit: We join in celebration with Bridge to Home Animal Rescue, which marked its milestone 5,000th rescue last month, when the group took in Todd, a corgi mix, from a West Virginia shelter. Todd had been in a bad situation, in what Bridge to Home co-founder Tracey Crompton described as a “drug house.” Todd is being fostered, and still available for adoption. “I haven’t found the perfect home for him yet,” Crompton told the newspaper during an interview last week. She and four other women decided to start the rescue in 2017 while sitting around Crompton’s dining room table. Their focus has been on rescuing dogs at risk of being euthanized in West Virginia and Kentucky. “We help local dogs when they need it and when they fit into our program,” Crompton told the newspaper. Today, Bridge to Home has 30 foster homes in Washington County and the Pittsburgh area, including Crompton’s South Strabane Township home. “We never imagined that the rescue would grow like it has. It has grown crazy,” Crompton said.