Signing for New Book about East Liberty History

The Kiwanis Club of East Liberty is sponsoring a dinner, book signing, and silent auction celebrating East Liberty’s history on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Hall, 5801 Hampton Street, Highland Park. Co-hosted by the East End/East Liberty Historical Society, this event will celebrate publication of the new book, Pittsburgh’s East Liberty Valley, a pictorial history of our region. Inhabitants of the Valley played a significant role in the growth and positioning of Pittsburgh as a major American city. In addition to tracing the fascinating chronology of the area, the book contains a number of unique, rare images from the past.

The guest speaker is Patricia Prattis Jennings, retired principal keyboard of the Pittsburgh Symphony. She will share her experiences growing up in the East End. After graduating from Westinghouse High School, Patricia went on to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. For several years, she published a newsletter called Symphonium, which successfully encouraged symphony managers all over the country to hire talented African American musicians.

The Kiwanis Club of East Liberty’s signature project is the K-Kids Club at Fulton Academy in Highland Park, recipient of the AFP 2007 Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award. The third, fourth, and fifth grade members of the K-Kids are developing leadership skills, self-esteem, high standards, and respect for others through service to their school, community and the world. In addition to raising money for the victims of the Tsunami ’05 and books for Children’s Hospital, they routinely collect food for a local food pantry and serve as mentors to other students at the Academy.

The evening’s events include 5:30 pm, wine & hors d’oeuvres, 6:00 pm, dinner; 7:00 pm, program. For registration information, call Al Mann, 412-661-5947.

Kiwanis is an international organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.