Feb 28, 2016 3 min read

Phyllis Mason worked for many years at Washington Hospital’s Extended Care Facility, formerly Washington Manor, which was off East Beau Street in South Strabane Township. It is now Greenbriar Treatment Center.

“Every year, there would be a Christmas party, and a group of students from one school or another would come to entertain the residents,” she said.

The year the party depicted in the Mystery Photo took place was most likely 1981. And dozens of Observer-Reporter readers emailed and called us to help identify those celebrating.

The “Becky” as noted on the snowman name tag of the girl on the right in the plaid shirt is Rebecca Hale Washabaugh, who told us it was a 4-H County Council community service event.

She was able to identify several of the students who participated. Washabaugh graduated in 1983 from Chartiers-Houston High School.

Washabaugh wrote that the girl holding the wreath is Rindy Sprague, a Bentworth High School student and member of the Eighty Four 4-H Club, and to her left Teresa Trisick. Two other readers confirmed those identifications. We searched for Rindy’s name in the Google newspaper archives and found a photo of 4-H County Council officers published in the O-R in July 1979. From that photo we can see that Christy Bails is the girl just to the left of Washabaugh.

The girl at back left is Kelly Stackowicz.

“We would go to the local assisted living centers and sing Christmas carols for the residents,” Stackowicz, then a student at Bentworth High School, wrote to us. “The year could be no later than 1981 because I graduated from high school in 1982 and got contact lenses as a graduation gift!”

Stackowicz went on to Edinboro University for awhile, then to Texas. She has been training horses all her life and now trains at the Meadows.

Though we were given names of some of the other kids, there was not enough consensus to name them here.

The woman at left in the foreground is Edith McClay, according to niece Betty White, daughter-in-law Wilma McClay and grandson Dave McClay. She was a teacher and later principal at Lagonda School (now Joe Walker Elementary) and a volunteer at the extended care facility. She died in the late 1980s.

Holding the wreath is occupational therapist Linda Hill. Among those identifying her was her brother, Sam Malone, who related that Hill lived in Burgettstown and died three years ago.

The woman at right is Isabel Thomas, an occupational therapist. She died at the home of her daughter in Las Vegas in 2003.

Often, 4-H is a program that doesn’t stop when kids finish school. It is a multi-generational tradition in many families, and Washabaugh’s is a good example.

Becky has been the organizational leader of the Crossroads 4-H Club for about 20 years, and her husband, Bob, has been a leader and a supporter of the program. Their children were very active in 4-H until age 19. Both are now married with children, and their spouses are active 4-H leaders. And Becky’s grandson recently enrolled as a Cloverbud (for kids ages 5-7) member this year.

“I look forward to the next generation of my family continuing in the 4-H program,” she wrote.

Look for another Mystery Photo in next Monday’s Observer-Reporter.