HERMITAGE — Attendees of the Hermitage Holiday Light Parade better be on their best behavior — they will be under the watchful eye of Mercer County’s top judge.
Common Pleas Court President Judge Francis J. Fornelli has been named grand marshal for Saturday’s parade in honor of his years of community service.
Fornelli, 68, of Hermitage, was first elected to the bench in 1982 and was retained by voters in 1992 and 2002. He has been president judge since 1991.
The Sharpsville High School salutatorian for the class of 1959 is a graduate of Notre Dame and New York Law School.
He serves on a number of judicial committees, and locally he serves or has served on the boards of Southwest Gardens Economic Development Corp., Farrell, Mercer County Hall of Fame, John XXIII Home, Hermitage, and Community Food Warehouse, Farrell, among other activities.
Fornelli will share the spotlight with junior marshals Brendan Zampogna, 5, the son of Nathan and Margie Zampogna, Hermitage, and Karsyn Rupert, 8, daughter of Dan and Ashley Rupert, Lackawannock Township.
Their names were drawn randomly from those submitted, and they will get a handful of gift cards from city businesses.
The parade, which usually attracts about 15,000 people, has 51 entries so far, not counting the marshals, city commissioners and Santa Claus.
Fire departments who plan to run their trucks in the parade include Hermitage, Farrell, Shenango Township, South Pymatuning Township, Transfer, Wheatland, Sharon and Patagonia.
Marching bands will come from Kennedy Catholic, Reynolds and Hickory high schools.
Large floats are planned by Notre Dame School, T.J. Maxx, Grace Chapel Community Church, Twirling Angels, Bentley House, Sensations Baton, First National Bank of Pennsylvania and Kedron Masonic Lodge 389, all Hermitage; PNC Bank; U.S. Army Reserves’ 347th Quartermaster Co., Farrell; Hopscotch Early Learning and Childcare Center, Sharpsville; and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, South Pymatuning Township.
Shenango Valley YMCA will be collecting non-perishable food items for Community Food Warehouse. The YMCA’s float usually is one of the first on the route, and volunteers will collect bags of food as they walk along. Paradegoers can place food bags on the road in front of where they are standing.
Food items that are particularly needed include canned meats, fruit and stew, tuna, cereal and oatmeal. Food also can be dropped off at the YMCA before the parade.
The parade, the city’s 12th, starts at 6 p.m. on Kerrwood Drive, and heads east on East State Street to North Hermitage Road, then north, where it ends at the former Hermitage Middle School. Following the parade, an awards ceremony and reception will be held in Delahunty Middle School.
East State Street will be closed from Buhl Farm Drive to the Shenango Valley Freeway from about 6 to 8 p.m.. Detours will be posted.
Community
Grand marshal will keep order at holiday parade
- Community
-
-
Extension offers ‘Dining with Diabetes’
Back by popular demand, Penn State Cooperative Extension is offering a low-cost series of classes, “Dining with Diabetes: A Program for Adults with Diabetes and their Families,” to teach those with type 2 diabetes how to manage their disease.
-
Sisters pretty accomplished
The most nerve-wracking moment in a pageant is when it comes down to the last two girls on stage, and 17-year-old Caroline Collins has stood in that spot three times in her life.
After two first-runner-up places in the National American Miss Pennsylvania Pageant, the pressure was really on for the Shenango Township girl the third time — her younger sister, Lexi, had taken the pre-teen crown in Harrisburg the day before in her first pageant run.
But Caroline wasn’t disappointed this year. In August, the Collins family celebrated the crowning of two daughters when the older sister was named Miss Pennsylvania Teen, and they all couldn’t be happier.
-
‘Rat Packer’ pays homage to friend
When Jerry Chiodo was in the hospital, shortly before he died, Sirjio the Entertainer, his friend for 40 years, stole into his room one night after Chiodo’s family had left, and sang “New York, New York,” to him.
“I promised him right then, ‘I won’t let people forget you,’ ” Sirjio said.
Sirjio, of Farrell, has made good on his promise by creating the Jerry Chiodo Memorial Scholarship, a non-profit charity that plans to present music scholarships to high school students interested in careers in music.
-
Pet project
There are two new faces at Strayhaven Animal Shelter in Hempfield Township, but they don’t belong to any cats or dogs.
Greenville-area residents Kristen Weaver and Todd Dunlap have been working as the shelter’s new managers since May, and they’ve already completed some upgrades to the property at 94 Donation Road.
-
Car club hosting national antique car event here
Antique and classic cars are no strangers to local roads this time of year as old car enthusiasts cruise on sunny days.
Next week, expect to see not one or two cars as you drive around town, but dozens.
The folks who put on the Father’s Day Car Show will be hosting a national classic car tour Wednesday through Aug. 27 that will be based in the Shenango Valley.
-
Flying fortress
“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” 88-year-old John Grosbeck said in a weak voice that was filled with emotion.
It was the first time Grosbeck had been on a bomber since 1944, he said. The local stop was part of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s “Salute to Veterans Tour,” and on Tuesday and Wednesday people had the chance to buy a seat on a flight aboard the “Aluminum Overcast” B-17G.
The Aluminum Overcast is at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pa., through today and will be at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport Sept. 14 and 15. Ground tours are offered for a small fee but are free to all veterans. -
Teen wins two World Open baton twirling titles
Brianna Colbert, daughter of Steven and Melissa Colbert, Hermitage, won World Open Three Baton Twirling and World Open Flag Twirling titles at the National Baton Twirling Association’s America’s Youth on Parade at Notre Dame University, July 20-23.
This National and World Open baton competition held in South Bend, Ind., had thousands of twirlers from all over the United States, Canada and representatives from other countries as well. While there,Simone Esters of Hermitage and Marissa Pierce of West Middlesex, members of the Shining Star Competition Team, represented Pennsylvania in the Miss Majorette of America Pageant, founded in 1945.
-
Blues will fill air
The Sharon Arts and Music Initiative’s inaugural Sharon City Blues Fest, like its headliner, is “The Real Deal.”
Grammy Award nominee John Primer will take the stage along with local and regional blues musicians on Sept. 11 in downtown Sharon.
-
Teaching with technology
Technology in the classroom is always changing and one Greenville teacher has spent the last three summers learning new skills through a program limited to a select few.
Jan Abernethy, a fifth-grade teacher at East Elementary School, was one of 75 teachers nationwide chosen to attend the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute, which is held at a different location each year.
-
Actors visit Camelot
The magic and mysticism that abounds in the King Arthur legend has been just as prevalent in the life of a woman who has written a three-part play chronicling the history of Camelot’s famed ruler.
Youngstown native Carol Weakland said she’s been working for 12 years on the play that premiered last weekend: “The Arthurian Trilogy Part One, Arthur and Merlin: The Making of a King.” She was never able to assemble a cast to play the demanding roles or “whittle down” the lengthy script into a compact but complete show. But this year, everything came together.
- More Community Headlines
-
Extension offers ‘Dining with Diabetes’
