Around the Township
A History Lesson
Upper St. Clair corn husking party
Woman’s Club Offers Scholarships
The Woman’s Club of Upper St. Clair is a social and philanthropic organization open to all women in the South Hills communities. For more than 65 years, the club members have raised funds through various means, including catering of weddings, parties, and civic meetings, as well as rental and fundraising events, including the Christmas Shopper Delight and the funnel cake booth each year at USC Community Day. The group supports not only charitable donations and scholarships but was also able to build a large, beautiful clubhouse and maintain it for 55 of those 65 years. Sadly, as membership in the Woman’s Club dwindled, the members were forced to face the reality that the sale of the building was necessary to keep the club alive. To date, scholarships and charitable donations using the funds from the sale of the clubhouse and surrounding property have reached well over $300,000. This year, $5000 scholarships were awarded to three very deserving high school graduates of 2016. Selected by a club committee, the scholarship recipients were presented at the club’s May meeting, held at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. n
Corn Husking Party In the 19th century and early part of the 20th century,
corn husking parties took place in the late fall every year after the harvest. Neighbors would travel to each other’s farms in turn to help one another with the overwhelming task of preparing that year’s corn to store through the winter months. After a long day’s work, they would share a meal and often finish the evening with dancing. Many communities also had a tradition that the guy or girl who found a red ear of corn could kiss the girl or guy of their choice. This photograph shows a local corn husking from the late 19th or early 20th century. Those pictured are possibly members of the McEwen family and their friends. n Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Upper St. Clair. If you have genealogy questions or old photos that you would like to share, email president@hsusc.org.
Left to right are Judy Gardner (Woman’s Club outgoing president); Matthew Price (CVHS grad and son of Rebecca and Douglas Price), who will be attending Penn State University; Maura Brody (USCHS grad and daughter of Jan and Stephen Brody), who will be attending Temple University; and Mary Ann Cunningham, Paula Huffman, and Shirley Tadda (Woman’s Club scholarship committee members). Not pictured is Sarah Kerman (USCHS grad and daughter of Amy Kerman), who will be attending American University.
Results are In Carpet Pad Recycling Partnership a Great Success! Rusmur Floors, a family-owned flooring company headquartered in Bridgeville, recently reported the results of a carpet pad recycling partnership it initiated four years ago with Carpenter, the world’s largest producer of comfort cushioning products. Since the partnership began in April 2012, Rusmur Floors and Carpenter have jointly recycled more than 250,000 pounds—nearly 125 tons—of carpet pad 84
UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
recovered from Rusmur Floors’ customers. The recycling process begins when Rusmur Floors collects urethane carpet pads removed from the homes, offices, and buildings of customers during new installations and stores them at its Lawrence warehouse. From there, the pads are baled and sent to Carpenter, where they are processed and manufactured into newly re-bonded urethane padding. Don Boal, director of operations for
Fall 2016
Rusmur Floors, said, “We’re proud to be a part of this environmentally-friendly program. Our family-owned company has been part of the Pittsburgh community for more than 50 years, and we are grateful to Carpenter and to our customers for helping us to keep thousands of pounds of scrap materials out of local landfills.” n For more information about Rusmur Floors and their recycling efforts, visit www.rusmurfloors.com or call 412-221-6366. See ad on the inside back cover.