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WHAT’S NEWS IN
WEST JEFFERSON HILLS
PLEASANT HILLS GARDEN
CLUB CELEBRATES
80 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Anyone entering Pleasant Hills can
hardly miss seeing the positive impact the
Borough’s Garden Club has made.
At the cloverleaf entrance to the
borough off Route 51, there’s the lovely
award-winning Let Freedom Ring Garden
honoring members of the armed forces
that was initiated and is maintained
by members of the Garden Club, now
celebrating its 80th year.
“Our members raised money throughout
the community for the engraved paving
bricks that serve as pathways through
the garden,” explains Club president
Helen Galluppi. Members of the Club’s
Arboretum Committee also plant and weed
areas of the A.W. Robertson Arboretum at
both its Oakcrest Lane and West Bruceton
entrances, and one Club member serves
on the Board of the Arboretum.
The Club will soon be launching a new
project beautifying the West Bruceton side
of the Pleasant Hills Library where they’ll
be planting new bushes and perennials, as
well as honoring past Club members by
donating books to the library that feature
garden and floral design.
“And each month during the growing
season, we place a sign in the yard of
the Pleasant Hills resident whose yard
or garden best represents our goals and
purposes,” explains Club member Marie
Mueller, who is a National Garden Clubs,
Inc. Accredited Life Judge
“Actually I don’t have a garden,” says
Club President Galluppi, adding with
a touch of irony, “I live in a condo.” But
the Club, she explains, “offers interesting
experiences and programs other than
‘digging in the garden,’” such as a flower
shows, courses in horticulture, classes
in design, and presentations by wildlife
specialists.
Galluppi strongly encourages “anyone
with a love of gardening or floral design to
visit the Club website pleasanthillsgc.org
to learn more about us and how much joy
that participating offers.”
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The Pleasant Hills Garden Club
is sustained by members who dig up
perennials from their gardens and sell
them at the Club’s annual plant sale in
May. Membership, Ms. Galluppi noted, is
not limited to residents of Pleasant Hills.
HIDDEN VALLEY SUPER
SENIORS LOOKING
FOR GOLFERS
The Hidden Valley Super Seniors Men’s
Golf League is looking for golfers. The
only qualifications are to be 65 and older
and a love of golf. We play at the Rolling
Green Golf Course on Route 136 near
Eighty Four, PA on Thursday mornings at
9 a.m. It is a 9-hole handicapped league.
We play various games that include
individual play, scrambles, step-asides,
chapman, closet to the pin and fewest
putts to name several. Annual dues are
$45. The season is capped off with a
banquet. The league begins April 16th
and continues until October 1. If you are
interested, please email Gordon Jungquist
at [email protected] and one of our
officers will contact you.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
AND HEALTHY START
TO INCREASE EFFORTS
TO ADDRESS BIRTH
DISPARITIES
The Allegheny County Health
Department’s (ACHD) Maternal and
Child Health Program (MCH) and
Healthy Start, Inc., announced that they
will receive three years of training and
technical assistance from CityMatCH to
develop programs and policies and to
implement equity-focused strategies
aimed at reducing birth disparities in
Allegheny County.
While there has been an overall decline
in national Infant Mortality Rate (IMR),
data shows that there continues to be birth
disparities in Allegheny County, as black
babies are dying at 3-4 times the rate of
white babies.
“There is growing recognition
that chronic exposure to structural
and institutional racism, regardless
icmags.com
of a mother’s socioeconomic status or
educational attainment, are primary
contributors to the high rates of infant
mortality among black women,” said
Dannai Wilson, ACHD Maternal and
Child Health Program Manager. “This
opportunity to advance our work to
reduce disparities in pre-term births is a
result of years of planning with our Infant
Mortality Collaborative membership
of over 100 stakeholders from various
sectors, including community residents.
We look forward to continuing these
partnerships so all women and children in
this region have access to a long healthy
life, especially black women and infants,
given their rates of mortality.”
CityMatCH is a national organization
serving local, urban health departments
in their maternal and child health efforts.
The organization launched its Birth Equity
Strategies Together (BEST) Cities Project
through a $1.4 million grant from the W.K
Kellogg Foundation. The BEST Cities
Project includes the Institute for Equity in
Birth Outcomes (EI) and designation as a
Best Babies Zone (BBZ).
In addition to receiving training
and assistance, ACHD was selected to
participate in the Institute for Equity
in Birth Outcomes, and Healthy Start’s
place-based initiative in Wilkinsburg was
designated as a Best Babies Zone.
These initiatives are designed to both
address inequities in birth outcomes, and
to add to the menu of evidence-based
and/or promising practices, programs,
and policies for improving equity in
birth outcomes.
“Although our working relationship
goes back much further, we’ve worked
tirelessly the past three years with ACHD’s
Maternal and Child Health Program
to combat birth disparities in our area,
which has resulted in this huge win for the
health of women, babies and communities
in Allegheny County,” said Jada Shirriel,
Chief Executive Officer of Healthy
Start, Inc.
For more information, visit:
healthystartpittsburgh.org. n