If you are somewhat aware of the annual Nellie Awards Gala you know there is always a theme. In recent years guests have been jetted off to Paris, they have taken the “A Train” or maybe they boarded a cruise ship to experience the great work of Three Rivers Youth (TRY). This year on May 6, at the Twentieth Century Club hundreds of guests strolled through a beautiful lighted garden of hope.
Peggy Harris, president and CEO of TRY said, “Tonight we have created a beautiful garden to celebrate our 2016 Nellie Leadership Awardees. We have chosen to celebrate women who are mothers and one corporation who are flowers in their own right. We have lighted your path to our door with greens, boxwoods, roses, hydrangeas and other flowers to emphasize the words of the late Lady Bird Johnson ‘where flowers bloom, so does hope.’”
This year’s event was in capable hands with Board of Directors Chair, Chauncey Smith, Charlie Batch and Latasha Wilson-Batch as Honorary Co-chairs and Lynne Hayes-Freeland as Mistress of Ceremonies.
This year’s honorees included: Sylvia Hill Fields, executive director of the Eden Hall Foundation. Fields is the first and only African American woman to direct a major private foundation in the Pittsburgh region and is responsible for allocating $9 million dollars annually. Kathy Humphrey, PhD, serves the University of Pittsburgh’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Engagement, Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Patrick Gallagher’s chief of staff. In these roles she oversees the university’s internal and external relations, focusing on facilitating business engagement, strategic initiatives and partnerships and government interaction at all levels. Katie “Peachie” Wimbush-Polk, U.S. Air Force veteran, fairy godmother, wife, teacher, comedian, counselor, straight shooter, life coach, self-sufficiency/get your life expert, mommy to her children LaLa and Cameron better known to his fans as Wiz Khalifa and her favorite role to date, OG to her grandson, Sebastian.
Also receiving a Nellie Leadership Award was Lowe’s Home Improvement Company. In September and October of 2015, Lowe’s Heroes from their Cranberry and Scott Township stores combined the efforts and funding from 18 stores totaling $45,000 in materials and well over 1,000 participant hours to provide significant upgrades to three residential facilities of Three Rivers Youth in the Metro Pittsburgh area.
This year’s scholarship presentation was made to Roger Titus in the form of a $1,000 check for Community College of Allegheny County. Three Rivers Youth has been serving the Pittsburgh area since 1880 and has driven actions that served in positive outcomes for over 2,000 youth and families that they serve annually.
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