• 412-464-4000

  • 305 E. 8th Ave., Homestead, PA 15120

MVI honors community volunteers at annual dinner Oct. 20

“A river cuts through rock not because of its power,
but because of its persistence.”
Jim Watkins, American humorist

Turtle Creek native and WPXI-TV reporter Cara Sapida is scheduled to serve as master of ceremonies when the Mon Valley Initiative hosts its annual dinner and awards ceremony on Oct. 20.

Tickets are $35 and are on sale now, a spokesman said.

The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. at The Willow Room, just off Route 51 in Rostraver Twp., Westmoreland County. Transportation is available via a complimentary chartered motor coach which will depart at 5 p.m. that day from MVI’s office, 305 E. Eighth Ave., Homestead.

To purchase tickets or reserve a seat on the motor coach, call (412) 464-4000 or email Stephanie Eson at seson@monvalleyinitiative.com.

The dinner will recognize members of the community development corporations, or CDCs, stretching from Swissvale to Monessen and West Newton, that make up the Mon Valley Initiative. Awards will be presented to the CDC community volunteers of the year from several of those member communities.

MVI also will present its H.J. Heinz Award for Community Service to Stephanie Cipriani, senior vice president and market manager of community development banking for PNC Bank, and its Regional Partnership Award to the Mon Valley Providers Council, an alliance that serves as a network for information and resource exchange about critical issues affecting the Mon Valley.

sapida_cara
Sapida (above) is a graduate of Woodland Hills High School and Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism in Athens, Ohio, where she earned a degree in journalism with minors in French and political science. Before joining WPXI in 2009, Sapida worked at WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Fla., and WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Md.

She is a recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Feature Story from the Radio Television Digital News Association as well an Associated Press award for coverage of the aftermath of a tornado.

Based in Homestead, the Mon Valley Initiative is a non-profit, tax-exempt coalition of community development corporations in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties, all working together to revitalize the economy and restore the economic vitality of the Mon Valley. MVI’s four program areas are Housing and Real Estate Development, Workforce and Business Development, Housing Counseling and Community Outreach.

(Stream photo by Ib Aarmo, via Flickr.com. Used under Creative Commons 2.0 license.)