Cranberry Twp. recognizes retiring safety educator
CRANBERRY TWP — The board of supervisors recognized Peggy Kane of the Cranberry Volunteer Fire Company’s Fire Safety Education Program on Thursday as she heads into retirement.
“She’s been a part of educating — this number’s crazy — at over 150 fire service events, over 500 or 600 hours of service in these programs, and over 40,000 school-aged children during her tenure with the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company,” vice chairman Bruce Hezlep said.
The Fire Safety Education Program was founded in the late 80s, according to Hezlep, by Wayne Kovac and Chris DeCree, who died two years ago.
“And it grew from a very, ‘Hey, we’ll just have some kids in, and we’ll just start this little stop, drop and roll,’ and ‘What do you do if there’s a fire? Get out of the house,’ right?” Hezlep said. “But it evolved over the years, and it has evolved to the point where the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company has been recognized not once, not twice, but several times as one of the leaders in the state in our fire prevention.”
After the death of DeCree, Hezlep said he feared the legacy of the program would be lost — but thanks to the initiative of members like Kane it continued.
“And it’s hard to count things that don’t happen, we count things that happen — we count how many fires happen, we count how many vehicle accidents that occur, we count how much property is damaged,” Hezlep said. “But we have heard, over the years, many stories about how we roll up to a house, and there’s children that have gotten out, they’ve met at their meeting point, they’ve done what they’ve learned because of our fire safety and education program.”
The board thanked Kane for her years of dedication to that safety program with a proclamation.
“The township supervisors want to thank you for you service,” Hezlep said. “We wish you the best of luck in your retirement.”
The board also recognized Girl Scout Troop 20546 for receiving the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors Youth Award.
“We have a group of award-winning people in our room here tonight,” chairman Mike Manipole said. “And this is very exciting to see the board is going to recognize the PSATS Youth Award Winner, Girl Scout Troop 20546, for restoring the entrance sign into park trails in Community Park.”
Additionally, Manipole said, the troop built and installed a new map of the trails.
“The troop collaborated with many departments within the township to achieve this goal: parks and recreation, public works, IT — with all the mapping — and communications,” Manipole said. “This is really neat to see a group of young people go work with all these people in different fields to accomplish this task. That is really, really amazing.”
The troop also worked with Phelps Nursery, Penn Global Signs and Graphics and an anonymous donor.
“It’s really amazing to see young people involved in our community,” Manipole said.
The troop was also presented a proclamation by the township.
Finally, the board recognized J.W. Johnson, Jr., the township’s content and communications specialist, for his part in winning the “Outstanding Citizen Communication” award in the PSATS annual Citizen Communication Contest.
“Well, once again, our staff was honored for their communication efforts, which I think is truly a huge task,” Manipole said. “You think about a resident base of over 30,000 people and trying to get the word out in a timely manner. That’s extremely, extremely difficult — especially if it’s good news, it’s even harder to spread.”
This is the second consecutive year the township has won the award.
“J.W., the department of communications, we applaud you for an outstanding effort in always getting that word out,” Manipole said, “and always trying to do your very best to keep residents notified of everything that’s going on.”
