Tonight at 8 pm for the first time ever the Ambridge Steel Drum Band  will be the featured band leading off Highmark First Night Pittsburgh 2014 celebration with the FedEx Ground Parade at 8:00 p.m.  The  themed parade “Special Delivery” will feature Grand Marshals Mr. McFeeley, First Night Pittsburgh founders, Former Mayor Tom Murphy and Jamee Todd, giant puppets, art cars, marching bands, and a bicycle parade.  
Ambridge Steel Drum Band started in 1987 will be directed by Mr. Todd Hartman and recently celebrated 25 years.  Mr. Hartman has been leading the Ambridge Steel Drum Band for 13 years .  The Steel Drum Band was in the Rose Bowl parade was in 2004 pushing  all of the steel pans, however this year  they will have 16 members playing pans on a 24 foot long flat bed trailer,  4 playing auxiliary percussion, 1 drum, 1 bass,  and 4 will be pushing the carts around the trailer.  Hartman, thanks the Ambridge Fire department for allowing use of a generator to get the the sounds of the pans and bass though a PA system. Ron Wilson, maintenance for Ambridge Area School District, will be driving the truck that will pull the trailer. Hartman added that Wilson was instrumental with wiring the sounds and also blocking in all of the steel pans on the trailer.  
Director Todd Hartman said they started preparing for this night since August. Mr. Hartman shared that a former graduate from Ambridge and former Bridger Bell Jessica Shubet and Parade Creative Director Cheryl Capezzuti  coordinated parade puppetry that will dance to the music that was sent to them via audio files.  The band and dancers will practice for the first time together before the parade starts.   Senior Miranda Penn said that "this will be a big opportunity like the BE Taylor concert. We get to do a lot of gigs, but this is different. We will be on a float with lots of people watching."  Miranda has been in the Ambridge Steel Drums for four years and currently in the advance group. Senior Alex Mycyk, currently in the advance group, has been in the Steel Drum Band for four years.  Alex said he is not looking forward to the weather but it will be the first time he will be on a float, with dancers, while playing the steel pans.  They learned a new piece for this parade, Alex said, it took over a month to to learn. 
 Ambridge Steel Drum Band had to go along with the theme "special delivery"  to participate in the parade . Ambridge will be "delivering" the warm weather.  Come and see the tropical theme trailer tonight Parade lineup is at Convention Center at 10th street. Parade begins at 8pm and goes down Penn to Stanwix street.
Learn more about first night at http://www.firstnightpgh.org/

Follow up  : 

Imagine a knock on your door a weekend before Christmas from a few strangers wanting to give you presents for all of your children and enough food for Christmas dinner and more.  You never entered a contest or even filled out any applications asking for help.  A  group of 25 individuals and over 10 Harmony  Township businesses donated to the  Project Holiday Dreams program to make a Christmas to remember for 28 families and 52 children . The program continues to grow each year starting 5 years ago with 5 families.

Project Holiday Dreams started as a memory that was shared from Harmony Township Chairman Glenn Angus to his son, Jeremy Angus back during the Christmas season in 2009. Glenn shared a memory how years ago the Harmony Township Commissioners used to do something for the under privileged families in the township each holiday season. Through discussion between Glenn and his son as to how they could bring this type of program back to life, they decided to begin it as a family charity that holiday season. The Angus family has decided to continue organizing and donating to this program for all the years since. The difference is now the others involved truly are what make the program what it is not the Angus family. "We are just the organizers for what has turned into to a much larger effort" said Jeremy Angus.  This program has grown since then into a program that is funded through many donors from businesses to individuals looking to help and is done annually.
 The families are picked through the cooperation of the Ambridge Area School District. The program has grown from servicing only Harmony Township families to servicing families throughout the entire school district. The families are then screened several times by those in the district who interact with the students each day. Jeremy added "We then attempt to learn as much information about the students from their supervisors in order to ease shopping." 
The program give toys and food to each family. Each packaged is individually wrapped for each child. They often put  in a gift for the parents  or a gift that the entire family can share and enjoy also. On delivery night, four trucks head out to deliver to the homes of the families with a team of volunteers in each one. The transportation is provided by Harmony Township. The team assembles at the home of the Angus family for what often turns into a small Christmas gathering, to load up the trucks and head out at 6PM on delivery night.
For 2013, two different trips to Giant Eagle and a four hour trip to Walmart later,t he shopping was finally complete. The amazing part is while they are shopping for the goods with several full carts, are the individuals shopping or the managers of the store who come over offering help, donations or anything that they can.  Jeremy shared  "That is the humbling part of the shopping process. Hearing the stories of the families in which we deliver too make the program all the better. A lot of our donors join for delivery and can see first hand what their donation is doing to impact the families, that is very important to us, but even more important to them. " 

Tonight at midnight listen live to SS. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church Christmas Eve Divine Liturgy on KDKA Radio  KDKA 1020.  Father Micheal Polosky said this is the first time the  church has been featured also this is the first time that a Ukrainian Catholic Church Christmas Eve Divine Liturgy has been on KDKA.  This event is sponsored by Mr. John Dioguardi, owner of Rome Monuments.  
Over the past year and half the church has been preparing for this service and formed a choir for this reason.  Mrs. Lisa Hladio, a professional musician, put together the 24 member choir and will serve as the choir director. 
Father Polosky invites all to Christmas Day Divine Liturgy which will begin at 10 am on December 25th at the SS. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church  located at 404 6th Street, Ambridge , Pa 15005 ( 6th and Melrose).

Toys for Tots for Beaver County is managed in a donated space on  Merchant Street in Ambridge.  Under the direction of Linda McKenzie , of Economy,  this past  weekend 800 families was able to receive  4 to 5 toys per child.  Linda  volunteered for 5 years before she took on the new role as the coordinator.  She started  working in September and worked with 15 to 20 volunteers to collect and process all of the toys from over 160 drop off points throughout  Beaver County.  Included in the volunteers are her family members husband John and children Cody 21, Kory 11, and Jessie 16.  When asked how many hours she puts  towards Toys for Tots and she laughed while saying  endless hours.  Volunteer John Shee, from Freedom, has been involved with Toys for Toys Beaver County for four years and says it takes about 2 weeks to bag the toys  and he tries to give the kids what they like. 

Jessica Littlejohn a recipient for the second time with toys for tots said " I am very appreciative , I just moved out of public housing and started paying for all of my utilities ." A friend in line with Jessica adds " She is getting on her feet. Help with the little things like toys for her kids makes a huge difference in her children lives. " 
In all, 2000 children will be helped this season.

New Hope Community Church invites you to their 6th annual New Hope youth Christmas program tonight at 7 p.m. located at 592 Beaver Road.  Pastor Rick Thornhill says the Christmas services begin tonight and invites you to watch the youth again Sunday morning at 1030 followed by a Christmas message.

Bridgers in a true team effort defeat Cheyenne Desert Shield from North Las Vegas, Nevada 50-47. Next game will be against Thunder Ridge Grizzlies from Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Christmas tree sales started with 200 trees and now down to the last 4. Ken Kowalsky, Scoutmaster Troop 498, personally has been handling the tree sells for about 17 years. John Kleemook and Barry Eggers along with the Boy Scouts all the donate time to help this annual event happen.

Troop 498 have been around for 85 years and currently meet at the Ambridge Legion.   The funds raised will to help the Boy Scouts go camping and attend events. If interested in purchasing one of the last four trees you can find them at Ambridge Regional Center located at 2225 Duss Avenue until 9 p.m.  or until the last tree is sold.

Quick Update on Tarkanian Classic Las Vegas Tournament: Ambridge High School Boys Basketball Game 2 Bridgers lose against Utah AA State Champs Wasatch Academy 74 to 44 . Next game will be 8:40 pm (PST)

Ambridge Boys Basketball headed to Las Vegas this week to play in the Tarkanian Classic.    Team Mother , Teri Neiverriter said that fund raising started in February  and with the help of the community they raised $18,000 for 17  players and 3 coaches to compete in the Tarkanian Classic Gold Division of the Tournament.  Eleven parents tagged along for this exciting trip. 

The first game they played was on Thursday against Faith Lutheran , which is the home team for Las Vegas, NV.  Ambridge came out on top with final score  54 - 39 win.  High Scorer of the game Daylon Carter with an impressive 31 points.

Ambridge will play against teams from all across the United States.  Next game will be against Wasatch Academy  from Mt. Pleasant , UT on Friday at 12:40 pm (PST). 

Good Luck Ambridge Bridgers Basketball Players and Coach Mark Jula,  Coach Emil Sauro, and Coach Matt Kutter .

Photos Courtesy of Carlos Carter and Laura Nichi

Ambridge Area High School is  looking for a head football coach. Coach Neil Tkatch contract ended and the district decided to open the position .  The head Coach will be responsible for assembling the coaching staff, coordinating the Varsity, junior varsity, and  junior high programs.  As well as the off- season weightlifting  and organized team programs in accordance with WPIAL /PIAA regulations. 

What qualities do you want with the new head coach and with any new coaching staff? 


* updated 12/20