• President: Val Wojton
• 1st Vice President: Bobby Maher
• 2nd Vice President: Mark Babich
• 3rd Vice President: Tommy DeFazio
• Secretary: Holly Mendel
• Treasurer: Jeff Janaszek
• Assistant Treasurer: Marty Weber
• Membership Secretary: Jesse Barkey
• Trustees:
  • James Nochese
  • Janice Gwizdak
  • Barb Schall

Congrats to people who sworn in to be Greater Pittsburgh Community Center for the Deaf officers!

President: Jesse Barkey

Vice President: Mary Jean Shaheen

Secretary: Holly Mendel

Treasurer: Tonya Strait

Treasurer Assistant: James C. Noschese

Board of Directors: Lori Ann LaSorsa, Casey Weyant and Jenna Barkey

Athletic Director: Kenneth Peters

Visit GPCCD page for the information.

Jeff Thomas
President

List of Past Presidents

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Tim Taylor
1st Vice President

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Vacant
2nd Vice President

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Lenny Visco
3rd Vice President

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Holly Mendel
Secretary

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Jeff Janaszek
Treasurer
padtreasurer1854@gmail.com

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Marty Weber
Assistant Treasurer

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Tonya Strait
Membership Secretary
padmembership1929@gmail.com

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Samantha Taylor
Trustee

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Janice Gwizdak
Trustee

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James Noschese
Trustee

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Jeff Thomas
Club Manager

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Circulation: Jeff Janaszek: contact@pghdeafclub.org

Co-Editor and Co-Publisher: Jeff Janaszek and Lori Ann LaSorsa – Abshier lalasorsa@gmail.com

Web Maintenance: David P. Fulmer

Thomas DeFazio
President
Padpres1854@gmail.com

List of Past Presidents

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Tim Taylor
1st Vice President

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Jeff Thomas
2nd Vice President

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Gloria Biega
3rd Vice President

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Holly Mendel
Secretary

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Jeff Janaszek
Treasurer
padtreasurer1854@gmail.com

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Marty Weber
Assistant Treasurer

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Tonya Strait
Membership Secretary
padmembership1929@gmail.com

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Samantha Taylor
Trustee

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Janice Gwizdak
Trustee

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James Noschese
Trustee

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Carrey Gamble
Club Manager

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Circulation: Jeff Janaszek: contact@pghdeafclub.org

Co-Editor and Co-Publisher: Jeff Janaszek and Lori Ann LaSorsa – Abshier lalasorsa@gmail.com

Web Maintenance: David P. Fulmer

PAD Senior Citizen hosted Lunch Bingo on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at Pittsburgh Association of the Deaf clubhouse. All of the photos taken by Donald D’Angelo.

We have informed that 10th Biennial Holiday Party is cancelled due to low attendance. It was announced back in October 2021, and late post today. From chairperson Mark Babich:

My name is Mark Babich, Chairperson for Holiday Party for November 13th 2021. Maybe you hear or not from us, anyway last October 9th our committees had meeting to discuss to canceled because of due to poor attendances around 55 people, our goal was 200 or more, but we failed.

We understand you all want stay home safe from Covid. Yes it is fine. Anyway hotel will closed our account for reservation, it up to you to call and remove your name. The refunds will be sending out within week or 2 with a letter back to you. Yes stay home be safe.

Next year Frederick, Maryland will host tentative holiday party. Thanks for watching Good night

Just reminder that 10th Biennial Holiday Party is CANCELLED coming Saturday!!

We will reopen on April 10th, and 24th. 7 pm to 11 pm as following lcb regulations. All CDC rules still applies to our reopening. Our club manager has resigned so we are searching for replacement who can take her place for remaining of year (today to December 31, 2021).

Please contact me, or our executive board to nominate or interests ASAP. As of today, March 13, we only received 85 member out of 250. It’s bad news!!! Membership due is on March 31! It’s this month!!! Please show your support by paying your membership due! New member are welcome, send in your name and we will take care of application later.

Our first active meeting will be in May 8th. There will be election night also! We have some ideas for pad over the summer time with brewing beer offering. We really need youth group to join. I want to see pad to have strong membership to keep club open. Please consider.

See you all soon!

Dear DeafBlind, SSP’s, Allies, Family, and Friends,

IT IS URGENT, and WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW!!!

HB 2938 is at the House Appropriation Committee. As of right now, they are not in session because of the November 3rd Elections. They are in their offices. Once the November 3rd Election is done, they will be back in session voting. WE NEED FOR YOU TO CONTACT the people on the appropriation committee NOW. We can not wait until after the November 3rd elections. WE NEED ACT NOW to call their offices, VP, or send a fax. WE NEED TO LET THEM KNOW WE ARE SERIOUS!!! The more people we can get, the better that they will take us seriously!!!
The House Appropriations Committee, the link is below: when you click on the link, there is a list of names on your left side who are the members on the committee:
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/Index.cfm?Code=4&CteeBody=H

We need to take action now. If we don’t do this, we WILL NOT HAVE ANY SPP SERVICES!!! Please take a few minutes to call a few of them. If you need help with what to say, we have a script for you to read to them: Please contact Christina, iwanttoseepadb@gmail.com, if you need help.
This is the script below for calling your Representative via
phone, VP, or Zoom. It has to be short and straightforward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Representative.
I need to talk with you for 5 minutes?
My name is ———-. I am Deafblind /, or I have Usher Syndrome.
I use a Support Service Provider (SSP) to help me with various tasks out into the community.
There is HOUSE BILL 2938 that I want you to co-sponsor with Rep. Miller. It is significant for all of the DeafBlind people to have SSP.
SSP is an essential worker, not a caretaker.
SSP Program will stop on December 31, 2020.
If you co-sponsor HB 2938, the SSP Program will continue once HB passes.

Thank you so much for your time.
Your name
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know this is exhausting, but we need to keep at them until we get what we need. WE WILL NOT GIVE UP!!! We must show them that we are serious.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at iwanttoseepadb@gmail.com.

WE CAN DO THIS!!!! Together with working as a team AS ONE!!!

Let’s make this happen!!!

Sincerely,
I WANT TO SEE
Heather Schoenwald, PA DB Leader
Christina Derhammer, SSP
Gerald Penna, PSAD President
Laura Shipley, SSP

Once again another blessing day with GPCCD Kids Events. Truly cherish theses moments. The fun, smiles, and happiness we see from these kiddos is priceless. Thank you all that came and supported this holiday season. Thank you to all the volunteers. Hats off to each and everyone of you. We appreciate you. See you all next year and Happy holidays!!!🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻

Merry Christmas! At least 64 deaf and CODA children had good time for the entertainment and foods. 175 pictures are available for your enjoyment to view our Flickr gallery set.

Did you know that you can download the photo  from Flickr site that you can keep the photo images in your computer?