Reconnecting with those in our area who touched the lives of others this year
The Pistner family can continue to smile after a recent MRI indicated all looked good for 7-year-old Jackson, who had a brain tumor removed Feb. 1. Jackson is shown with his parents, Richard and Amanda, and his sisters, Caroline and Mary Kate.
Karen Scuilli of Canton Township, shown with her son, Seth, is gaining national and international attention for her innovative healing company, Face2Face, that provides support for those with disfigurements.
Gabriella McKenzie, 7, poses with her mom, Maria Moyer, and her diabetic alert dog, Charlie, in the family’s Washington home.
Crystal Bender, a June graduate of Trinity High School, is pouring her energy into her work with Duquesne University through St. Anthony School Programs.
A group of volunteers measures and pours rice and soy into plastic bags during a packaging session for Stop Hunger Now in March at the West Alexander Community Center.
Taylor Kehn, 14, held a fundraiser in honor of her 4-year-old niece, Emily Grace Howard, who was the victim of severe child abuse when she was 1 year old. Also pictured is Zach Kehn, Taylor’s brother and Emily’s uncle.
Krista DeFranks relaxes at Lasosky Personal Care Home in Clarksville.
Patti Piatt poses with the more than 14,000 used pairs of shoes that were collected for Funds2Orgs to benefit Faith in Action in Washington.
Once again, residents in Washington and Greene counties opened their doors – and hearts – to the Observer-Reporter in 2014, and, not surprisingly, revealed some pretty remarkable stories.
Here is a look back, in no particular order, at some of the people – and a canine, too! – who appeared on the Lifestyles pages, offering hope, help and courage to others in their communities and abroad.
Jackson Pistner continues to amaze his parents, Richard and Amanda Pistner of Canonsburg.
Less than a year after the 7-year-old underwent surgery to remove a 3-centimeter tumor from the base of his brain, Jackson is playing basketball and doing well in his second-grade classroom at South Central Elementary School. He also was on a traveling baseball team.
In November, an MRI confirmed there is no sign the tumor has returned.
“It couldn’t be a more precious holiday,” Amanda said.
After Jackson started to experience headaches and nausea, a CT scan revealed an Ependymoma tumor, a rare form of cancer, with about 120 new cases diagnosed among children each year in the United States. During the five-hour surgery on Feb. 1, the surgeon did a complete resection, removing the tumor from the fourth ventricle of Jackson’s brain.
In early April, Jackson completed 33 rounds of radiation. He will receive an MRI every three months for the first year post-surgery, then every four months during the second year.
“He’s just like an old soul because he knows so much more than he should at this age,” Amanda said.
At the same time, “We are so very grateful. The MRIs make me crazy, but it’s great at the same time.”
Karen Scuilli’s reach keeps extending further and further.
The 49-year-old Canton Township woman’s innovative healing company, Face2Face Healing, is gaining national and international attention, with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, among those who have recently expressed an interest in participating.
“We’re moving forward. It’s really, really cool how fast this has spread,” said Karen, who was diagnosed in May 2012 with parotid cancer that had radiated to her facial nerves.
In the first of nine surgeries two weeks after she received the diagnosis, the tumor was removed via an incision that spans from the top of Karen’s head to underneath her neck. The surgery and ensuing procedures, including reconstructive surgery, jaw realignment and a bone conductive implant, resulted in a facial disfigurement that, for the longest time, Karen could not handle.
“I grieved my life working. I grieved my quality of life with my son. I grieved my face,” the single mom said. “But if you don’t come to the acceptance of who you are, you’re never going to heal.”
Although the American Cancer Society offers support groups for survivors of various types of cancers, Karen could find no support groups for survivors living with disfigurements, and that’s partly what initially made her recovery so painful – and why she wants to provide unconditional support and understanding through Face2Face to those who are in similar situations.
“I felt too alone,” Karen said. “Everybody else’s scars were hidden. Mine were on my face.”
The Face2Face program is based at UPMC, Center for Integrated Medicine, at Shadyside Place, and was made possible through a grant Karen received in July through the Shadyside Hospital Foundation.
Charlie has chewed his share of furniture since arriving in the Moyer-McKenzie household.
But as Maria Moyer said, she has forgiven him. After all, he saved her daughter’s life.
One morning not too long ago, Maria was awakened by the pounding of paws on her bed. Maria didn’t think much of it at first, but when she checked on her 7-year-old daughter, Gabriella, and discovered that Gabby’s blood-glucose level was 41, she knew she would be forever grateful to the energetic canine.
“He catches things we wouldn’t. He’s another tool,” Maria said. “It was a very scary thing. Unfortunately, I’ve met people who lost their children.
“I had a hard time going back to sleep. The next day, I was very emotional.”
Charlie, a diabetic alert dog trained by Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers in Virginia, arrived in Washington two years ago to help Gabby’s family monitor the youngster’s juvenile diabetes.
Of course, Gabby absolutely loves Charlie, and she likes it when he sleeps in bed with her. Gabby is helping to train Charlie, but they also find time to play. They enjoy playing hide-and-seek, and he doesn’t seem to mind when Gabby lies on top of him.
“He’s like a big, fluffy ball,” said Gabby, who named him after one of her favorite television shows, the Disney Channel’s “Good Luck Charlie.”
Crystal Bender isn’t dancing much these days, but that doesn’t mean her relentless energy is going to waste.
The June graduate of Trinity High School and alumna of Synergy School of Artistic Dance by Roz in Canonsburg is attending Duquesne University through St. Anthony School Programs, an educational environment for those with Down Syndrome, autism, Aspergers and other intellectual disabilities.
“She is doing really well,” her mother, Karen Bender, said. “It was an adjustment at first, but she likes it.”
Crystal was diagnosed four years ago with autism. Karen said the diagnosis finally helped explain the myriad behavioral problems her daughter had as a youngster. Doctors also said Crystal’s movement would be limited because she has some physical issues as well, primarily low muscle tone and pain in her legs.
But through medication, maturity and compassionate mentors and peers, Crystal was able to overcome many of those issues and is developing into a confident young woman.
“When she was younger, she wouldn’t talk to anyone without me,” Karen said. “She’s gone from being socially awkward to being a social butterfly.”
On Tuesday, Crystal also received an early Christmas gift when her mother took her to Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where she not only saw the Rockettes’ “Christmas Spectacular,” but also attended a dance class with them.
“Her dream job is being a Rockette,” Karen said, “but she’s too short to dance with the Rockettes.”
Through the St. Anthony program, Crystal is learning job-related skills at various venues near Duquesne, including the Allegheny County Courthouse, the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center and the Towers Restaurant at Gateway Towers.
“She has some long days, but she’s got the energy for it,” Karen said.
Crystal also enjoys taking Zumba at Duquesne’s Power Center and spending time with her dog, Daisy, who joined the family Nov. 1.
“She wears that puppy out. Crystal loves to take her out for a walk,” Karen said.
On a Saturday morning in March, Anita McNinch helped direct 150 volunteers from four church congregations in West Alexander and West Virginia, who manned fine-tuned assembly lines at the West Alexander Community Center and packed 51,000 meals in less than three hours for Stop Hunger Now.
The mobile food-packaging organization provides meals to support transformational development programs such as school feeding programs, vocational training programs, early childhood development programs, orphanages and medical clinics throughout the world.
Even more impressive?
Food for the meals was purchased with $13,000 donated by members of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches in West Alexander, Dallas (W.Va.) Methodist Church and Roneys Point United Presbyterian Church in Triadelphia, W.Va., bringing their three-year total to $30,000.
“I had an idea we could do it in this town,” said McNinch, program coordinator and a member of West Alexander Presbyterian Church.
In addition to the church volunteers, 30 teens from First Love Christian Academy in Washington were recruited to join the packing party.
When child abuse hit too close to home, Taylor Kehn decided to do something about it.
The 14-year-old began selling bracelets, necklaces, ribbons, pens, pencils and blue ribbons in honor of Child Abuse Awareness Month to her junior high classmates in Chartiers-Houston School District.
She did it all in honor of her young niece, Emily Howard, in hopes of raising awareness and sparing others the same emotional and physical pain that was inflicted on Emily.
“I don’t want other kids to go through it,” Taylor said. “I know what it’s been like to raise her and the issues she has.”
Emily suffered five broken ribs, two broken legs, a broken clavicle and a broken arm when she was assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend, Brandon Joshua Phillips, then 18, on three occasions over a five-day period right before her first birthday on Feb. 21, 2011.
Sandy Kehn and her husband, Karl, helped Taylor with her fundraiser, and Emily’s paternal grandmother, Paula Howard, started a Facebook page in honor of Emily and solicited donations on Taylor’s behalf. Money raised benefited A Child’s Place at Washington, a satellite collaborative children’s advocacy center at Washington Hospital that opened in January.
“This is what I want to do to help Emily, to show her people do care,” Taylor said.
Krista DeFranks wasn’t able to walk across the finish line, but with a little help from her friends, she was able to stand at the finish line during Krista’s 5K to Independence.
The event was held in October by Unity: A Journey of Hope, an organization that grants wishes to those 18 and older with life-threatening illnesses in the tri-state area and Maryland.
Its co-founder, John Robinson, is a hospice nurse who met Krista at Lasosky Personal Care Home in Clarksville, where the 38-year-old has lived for the past 18 months after suffering a heart attack in 2010 that was so debilitating that she was in a coma for two months.
Four years later, she remains partially paralyzed, is unable to walk any notable distance or talk clearly, and she has severe memory loss, all the result of damage to the left side of her brain. It’s been only in the past several months that Krista has even been able to stand straight for at least 15 minutes.
“She had an unusual type of heart attack. Those who experience that don’t usually live,” said her father, Jim DeFranks of Low Hill, explaining that Krista’s heart was extremely enlarged and beating really fast. Then, suddenly, it stopped.
The event was originally scheduled for mid-September at Ten Mile Creek County Park at Green Cove Marina in Millsboro, but had to be changed when Krista suffered a major setback because of a wound on the outside of her left foot.
Because of the injury, “anything she obtained, she lost,” Robinson said.
Patti Piatt hoped to more than double the number of shoes Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, is reported to have owned during a fundraiser for Faith in Action.
She did – in a landslide
Patti, a volunteer with Faith in Action in Washington who coordinated the shoe drive, managed to collect 14,179 used pairs of shoes, far surpassing her goal of 7,500. As a result, Faith in Action, a national nonprofit program that pairs volunteers with seniors or the disabled who need services, such as light housekeeping, shopping, transportation or visitation, received $3,000 from Funds2Orgs to help with operating expenses.
“It was crazy and fun,” Patti said. “Many times when I arrived at my office, there were shoes sitting outside the building.”
Shoes arrived from several different states, she said, with “lovely stories” attached to the donations. The drive even helped Piatt reconnect with two friends she hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years.
Funds2Orgs is headed by Wayne Elsey, a former footwear executive and founder of Soles4Souls. Shoes that are collected are taken to a hub, then sold to vendors who clean and repair the shoes and resell them, creating a business that helps lift families out of extreme poverty.
“I’m just really impressed with the whole concept,” Patti said, calling it a “win-win” for everyone involved.