GALA FOR A GOOD CAUSE Color Your World, The Mt. Lebanon Junior Women’s Club’s annual benefit gala raised funds for Jeremiah’s Place, a crisis nursery that provides free, temporary, short-term care for babies and children age 6 and under, for families who have an emergency situation and are unable to secure child care. Jeremiah’s Place, in the Larimer section of Pittsburgh, was co-founded in 2014 by Birch Avenue resident Eileen Sharbaugh. The gala took place at the Children’s Museum in March and featured a cocktail reception, silent auction and a wine pull. At press time, the Junior Women’s Club had not tallied an amount for the grant to Jeremiah’s Place. Past grant amounts to other organizations, including Strong Women, Strong Girls, Foster Love and The Education Project, have been between $20,000 and $30,500.
JoAnn Robb and Barbara Baker have joined to form a sales associates team at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services The Preferred Realty, after nearly 30 years of working together. The move will mean the pair can provide clients with more tools, expertise and service. In 2018, Baker and Robb sold more than $49 million in sales volume—throughout their careers they have jointly exceeded $1 billion. Contact the Barbara Baker and JoAnn Robb team in the office at 412-833-7700 or by cell:
412-403-5950 or 412-860-0336.
Marlin Drive West resident John Miller has been promoted to partner in the law firm of Dingess, Foster, Luciana, Davidson & Chleboski. Miller’s practice focuses on complex trial and litigation matters involving construction, energy, product liability, insurance and commercial disputes. He represents owners/developers, design-builders, EPC and general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, manufacturers and design professionals. He holds a J.D. degree from Duquesne University. Dingess, Foster, Luciana, Davidson & Chleboski has also hired Carl Spindler, Chalmers Place, as an associate. Spindler, who has a law degree from the University of Minnesota, is a former Marine Corps JAG officer who specialized in prosecuting complex special victims cases. His practice focuses on construction industry litigation and dispute resolution.
Anna Grunewald, Mt. Lebanon Class of 2014, will join the Miami City Ballet for its upcoming season. Grunewald, a former student at the Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh, holds a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and comes to the Miami City Ballet from Ballet Arizona in Phoenix. Before that, she danced with the Charlotte Ballet in Chautauqua, New York.
Adeline Avenue resident Rina Ferrarelli has released her third book of poetry, The Winter Without Spring. The theme of the poems are caregiving, written from the viewpoint of a woman who takes care of a man with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. Ferrarelli was born in Italy and her other collections, Home is a Foreign Country and The Bread We Ate, are focused on emigration. She received an Italo Calvino Prize from Columbia University for her translation of Italina poet Giorgio Chiesura’s work, La zona immobili.
The National Aviary has named Mohican Drive resident Fran Reichl Volunteer of the Year, in recognition of her service and passion for sharing her love of birds and nature. Reichl is a retired professor of medicine and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, where she taught medical and graduate students and medical residents at the Pitt Medical School for 34 years. She taught nature study at a private school in Princeton, New Jersey for 17 years and ran the Bryn Mawr-Wellesley annual book sale.
Reichl has volunteered at the National Aviary since 2016. She began as a docent, then quickly moved on to leading group tours, teaching classes, preparing diets for the birds, assisting with the African penguin feeding sessions and working in the veterinary hospital. She has served more than 1,000 hours each year she has volunteered.
“The Aviary provides an ideal opportunity for lifelong learning and allows me to continue teaching others about my favorite subject: birds,” she says. “I very much appreciate the volunteer experience as it allows me to acquire new information and skills. Then, once I have mastered a skill, I can select the programs that use that expertise.”
BELLS WILL BE RINGING The Southminster Ringers, the bell choir at Southminster Presbyterian Church, will be celebrating 50 years on the weekend of May 24 to 26. Ringers will hold an open-to-the-public practice on Saturday morning, May 25, from 9 to 1. Founder Tom Flynn, who led the Ringers from 1969 to 2002, will be on hand at the practice, with current director Rich Pinkerton. On Sunday morning, the ringers will be playing for the 11 a.m. worship service at Southminster in the sanctuary. There will also be displays from the past 50 years, including numerous European tours, in the Fellowship Hall.