Concord Elementary Coats for Kids

2010-07-12T18:47:20Z

RondaMarshall: /* By Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette */

== [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10040/1034476-155.stm#ixzz0fAsIPwQo Around Town: Coats for Kids shows how warm Carrick can be] ==

== Tuesday, February 09, 2010 ==

== By Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ==

Maybe you're stopped at a light. You look out the window and see a little kid walking to school without a proper winter coat.

That's a shame, you say. Then you drive on and forget about it.

There are at least 10 children with new coats, gloves and caps at Concord Elementary School because a lot of good people in Carrick didn't just forget about it.[http://www.essaywriters.net/ freelance writing opportunities]

"It was just an idea of ours," Lisa Ray explained when I asked how she and her husband, Tim, got the Concord Coats for Kids program rolling.

"We'd seen a lot of kids who didn't have jackets, and it was cold. And we know a lot of parents in the neighborhood are getting laid off and losing their jobs."

The Rays have a 12-year-old daughter, Jessica, and a 9-year-old son, Justin, and Mr. Ray is a regular attendee of the Parent School Community Council. He made a pitch there last fall, was encouraged to pursue his idea, and then went out to neighborhood merchants who started writing checks to the PTA.

Meantime, teachers were asked to take notice of who might not have a winter coat. Diane Dwulit, the school counselor, called the parents to see if they might need a children's coat.

"One family said no because of pride," Ms. Dwulit said, but the others were grateful.

So the Rays were told the sizes, color preferences and the gender -- no names -- and made a shopping trip Downtown to the Burlington Coat Factory late in November.

"I knew it was helping somebody so it made me feel good," Mrs. Ray said. "I wasn't going to get them something I wouldn't put my own kids in."

When the children got their coats, gloves and matching hats and assembled for a photograph -- "you never saw such smiles on these kids' faces," said Susan Barie, the Concord principal.

"It's amazing," Ms. Dwulit said of the donations. "This is not a wealthy community."

Yet such generosity is nothing new for this school community. This is a school of just 310 students, kindergarten through fifth grade, where 70 percent of the families are poor enough to qualify for a free or reduced-priced lunch. Yet when a boy lost his home in a fire a while back, the school raised $1,200 in two days.

Darlene Rigby, a single mother of two who is taking courses in the security and investigation program at the Academy of Court Reporting & Technology Downtown, said the coats were a wonderful gift for her son Jordan, 10, and daughter Sahhra, 9.

"They loved them," Ms. Rigby said of their new winter wear. "They were real nice and we're real thankful. Kids grow so fast."

The Rays hope to expand the program to help the elderly at some point. For now, checks payable to Concord PTA (with "Coats for Kids" on the memo line) may be sent to Pittsburgh Concord K-5, Attn: PTA, 2350 Brownsville Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15210.

Brian O'Neill: boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947. More articles by this author

First published on February 9, 2010 at 12:00 am

[http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10040/1034476-155.stm#ixzz0fAsIPwQo Read more]

Carrick

2010-07-12T18:43:37Z

RondaMarshall:

Carrick was named after Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland in 1853 by [[Dr. John O'Brien]].

Prior to 1927 this area, was known as Carrick Borough which was at one time part of Baldwin Township. Lower Saint Clair Township is also found on some deeds. Carrick Borough by 1926 vote was officially annexed into the city of Pittsburgh in 1927. The old and narrow borough building is at 1808 Brownsville Road. Before 1927, Carrick was very progressive under the guidance of very knowledgeable and foresighted leadership. Carrick already had the first sewerage system in western Pennsylvania. Just take a short step out onto Hornaday Road to see the Carrick Boro logos on all the manholes. Here are several photos of manhole covers that John Rudiak found and photographed.
[[Image:Carrick Boro Sanitary resized.jpg]]

[[Image:Carrick Borough LH resized.jpg]]

In its borough days, Carrick also had the first filtered water supply in western Pennsylvania with 180 pounds per square inch of pressure coming from the South Pittsburgh water plant, located at Beck’s Run Road, site of Hays Mine. Carrick Borough and its wealthy businessmen had already [http://wwww.essaywriters.net/ freelance writing opportunities] begun paving its streets with planks of wood three inches thick and four feet wide along with sidewalks. John M. Phillips, for the most part paid for the widening of Brownsville Road to a 60 foot right-of-way from Becks Run Road to 2331 Brownsville Road Mt Oliver.

Once annexed into the city, some street names were changed to avoid duplication of existing street names in use elsewhere in Pittsburgh.

The name of Engleartville was the local name of Carrick prior to 1853, when Dr. John O’Brien established the first post office naming it Carrick after his home town of Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary County, Ireland.

Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society - User contributions [en]

Concord Elementary Coats for Kids

Carrick