Pittsburg, PA
$60,000 fundraiser with local McDonald’s and Pittsburgh Penguins supports projects at Ronald McDonald House Morgantown – Dominion Post
Every year, around 300 families with children in need of specialized services offered by local hospitals find comfort at Ronald McDonald House Morgantown.
During the 2023–24 hockey season, community members, the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team and local McDonald’s restaurants joined forces to raise approximately $60,000 to support the mission and operations of the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Pittsburgh and Morgantown.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are no strangers to the RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown, and a collaboration between the organizations was a natural choice. Beginning September of last year and running for six months, local McDonald’s restaurants sold $6 insulated drink sleeves featuring Pittsburgh Penguins and McDonald’s branding, donating a portion of proceeds to the RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown. By the promotion’s end, $60,000 had been raised for the Pittsburgh and Morgantown houses.
“It is a tremendous gift. We’re incredibly grateful to have the support of two major organizations, and also the community who purchased the sleeves,” said RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown CEO Eleanor Reigel. “The generosity shown by the community of people, when I think about it, is awe-inspiring. They don’t know who they’re helping, but they want to help, and I think that says it all.”
While the community may not know who specifically they are helping with their donations, they know who RMHC is designed to support — families seeking specialized medical care from regional experts at Morgantown’s renowned hospitals, and some of the most inspiring and courageous individuals Reigel has met.
Families staying at the Morgantown house are often caring for children struggling with genetic disorders, organ failure, premature birth, cancer or other rare or complex conditions that require regular visits or stays at local hospitals. Amid such a difficult time in the family’s life, Reigel emphasizes the importance of keeping the family close and free from additional stressors.
“In Morgantown, the hospital has expanded and increased their medical specialties to better serve the communities of West Virginia,” said Reigel. “I’m thrilled to be part of the support system to help mom, dad, grandparents, whoever is involved in the care, to really give them an opportunity to rest and have some peace while they’re addressing whatever concerns they have for their sick child.”
Ronald McDonald House Morgantown is more than just a place to rest your head, it’s somewhere to find support, a warm meal, a helping hand with chores and more.
For over 30 years, the Morgantown house has provided guests with comfortable private rooms, 24/7 staff, laundry facilities and supplies, linen services, one or two fresh meals per week, pantries stocked with comfort foods and communal relaxation or entertainment areas. Its proximity to WVU Medicine Children’s hospital makes it easy for families to visit their child in treatment — one less matter for families to consider, and one more way RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown has kept families’ attention undivided and focused on their child’s care.
“We consider the family a very close unit, and I think our mission emphasizes the importance of keeping the family together during this journey they’re on,” said Reigel. “We really just try to think of everything that we could possibly provide to mom and dad, so they don’t have to worry about even the simplest things. It’s all those little things, really, that make it really important.”
Funds raised by the promotion will support RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown’s general operations and a variety of projects between the two houses. Both houses require regular maintenance and beautification, including paint touch-ups, security updates and heating and cooling unit replacements. One of the major ongoing projects is one that many visitors to Morgantown might be familiar with: the renovation of the Morgantown house, which began September of last year. The Morgantown house’s renovation will add 11 more rooms and renovate existing rooms. Construction is expected to complete by this fall.
Proceeds from the collaboration fundraiser with the Pittsburgh Penguins and local McDonald’s may fund this project and more. To further support RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown, find donation and volunteer opportunities at rmhcpgh-mgtn.org.
This July, RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown will commemorate its 45th anniversary with a celebration for its families, donors and board members. Further details will be available at rmhcpgh-mgtn.org
Pittsburg, PA
Pittsburgh’s air quality considered “unhealthy for everyone” on Friday due to wildfire smoke
The air quality will remain poor today. Officially, the air quality will be in the “very unhealthy” to “hazardous” range.
Friday’s forecast and air quality warnings
How hazardous are things? Wildfire smoke, like what we are dealing with today, really gives you a double whammy when it comes to impacting your health. The first is that you may notice when talking about air quality that we label it with a number, and then we put behind it PM2.5 or maybe 10.
The 2.5 is important because it is talking about the size of the particles that we are describing as parts per million. The unit for 2.5 is microns. 1 micron is the same as 0.00003937 inches or 0.001 mm. So 2.5 microns is around a fourth the width of a single wool fiber or around 1/7th the width of a human hair. It’s tiny and grating.
It’s small enough to get deep into your lungs but hard enough to irritate, like very fine sandpaper. For those with respiratory issues already in place, this increased irritation causes shortness of breath and frequent coughing spells. Not good.
The good news is that our air quality will rapidly improve overnight, with us returning to more normal air quality on Saturday morning. The bad news is that another plume of smoke is expected to roll in on Sunday, but that plume is not expected to be as bad as this current one.
Getting to today’s forecast, it is going to be hot with highs in the mid-80s today. There will be a haze sitting over the city all day long. I have noon temperatures near 80 degrees with light winds of around 5 mph.
Kennywood and Sandcastle close due to air quality
Both Kennywood and Sandcastle announced on Friday morning that the parks will be closed due to the air quality alert issued by the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection.
According to both parks, patrons who purchased tickets for July 17 will be valid on one operating day throughout the rest of the season.
A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.
“More than anything, we just want folks to know that there is potential that other homes could be built like this and just to be aware,” said homeowner Nicole Holderfield.
Beneath their seemingly normal front-facing two-car garage in the Altman Farms neighborhood in North Huntingdon is a lot of dead space that the Holderfield family just found out about. They said having a secret room is not as cool as it sounds when you realize the structural integrity of the 30-year-old home is at risk.
“I hate to say shocking, but it’s not something that we really wanted to be the first one on the street to find out,” Holderfield said.
Holderfield said there are leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe’s bucket down there.
“You can actually stand all the way down here on this side, a lot of backfill, and then we did see it was weatherproofed on some of the walls,” Holderfield said.
This all started because Holderfield wanted to fix the growing number of large cracks popping up across her garage floor.
“We were starting the cosmetic fix, and our contractor was here. And with a sledgehammer, he wanted to see what he was working with, so he simply pounded down the sledgehammer,” Holderfield said.
The large void directly underneath the garage is not accessible from their finished basement. Only one wall appears to be weatherproofed, so the family believes moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of the entire two-car garage.
“A couple different companies did stop by, and they were in awe of what they found. Even the North Huntingdon inspector came out, took a look, and it was not something he was familiar with seeing,” said Holderfield.
That inspector encouraged the family to hire a structural engineer. They did, and received a report that concluded the issue was the result of “poor workmanship and faulty construction,” Holderfield said.
The family’s homeowner’s insurance denied the claim, saying defects from faulty construction are excluded from coverage.
“Knowing that we were parking our cars in here up until we found this problem — we have children and animals, and knowing that a catastrophe could come, I think that’s our biggest concern,” Holderfield said.
That’s why the family called the builder, Ryan Homes, and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floorplans.
“They really just took a look and took pictures. When we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Homes, he said this was 30 years ago, there were different laws back then,” Holderfield said.
KDKA Investigates reached out to Ryan Homes for comment to ask if building these dead spaces is still its practice. And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan Homes inspect further?
Ryan Homes said they do not comment on news stories.
In an update on Thursday, the Holderfields told KDKA Ryan Homes reached out and said it’s willing to work with them on this, share the cost of the fix, and manage the project to ensure it is fixed as they would expect.
The family feels that’s a valid attempt to make it right.
KDKA Investigates talked to a Cranberry homeowner who also lives in a Ryan Home built around the same time. She sent photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and broke through the concrete last year. When the garage floor failed, she said it revealed a 9-foot void. She said it took four triaxle trucks of fill and $20,000 to fix.
Holderfield says that makes her wonder who else could find this.
“I would love people to be held accountable, but I also understand the laws and that we could potentially be out of the warranty period is what they say. I do wish we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed,” Holderfield said.
More than anything, the Holderfield family says it wants people to know there is potential that other homes could be built like this and to be aware.
Two people were arrested earlier this week following a drug bust in Downtown Pittsburgh, police said.
Pittsburgh Police said Wednesday that Kyree Hairston-Mitchell, 24, and Mya Bryant, 23, were each arrested Monday following a drug bust at a residence along Stanwix Street along with the search of two vehicles.
Police said that detectives from the bureau’s Violence Prevention Unit arrested both individuals after executing warrants and searching the home and the vehicles where they discovered a large amount of drugs, cash, and a gun.
According to police, detectives recovered $12,000 in cash, heroin, marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs, and a handgun.
Hairston-Mitchell and Bryant are each facing numerous drug-related felony charges, according to court records.
Court documents show that Hairston-Mitchell is being held in the Allegheny County Jail after being unable to post $25,000 bail. Bryant was arraigned and released on nonmonetary bond, court records show.
Both individuals are set to face a preliminary hearing later this month.
Police said that a passenger in one of the vehicles involved in the arrests was taken into custody on a warrant out of Ohio.
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