This month we have a special Above & Beyond dedicated to Trish Doyle Burton who was voted the “Neighbor of the Year” at the April Membership meeting.
Since 1992, Trish and her husband John and their children, have been part of the neighborhood, with both their home and business located in Allegheny West. Trish is one of those people whose years of quiet service are the backbone of our welcoming and beautiful community. She started out by cleaning up the leaves in front of the houses on her block, and then graduated to the monthly neighborhood-wide cleanup, and is still one of the most reliable people year after year. When we needed someone to deliver the monthly Gazette to all the houses on Beech Avenue, she volunteered and continues to do so years later. Dozens of tables, cases and cases of wine & beer and hundreds of paper plates and napkins have found their way to years of neighborhood summer picnics thanks to her offorts; not to mention all the potluck dishes she’s contributed to those picnics and volunteer recognition parties. She was one of the leaders of the offort that organized sponsorships for the gorgeous flower baskets that appeared on Western Avenue last year, and managed to wrangle even more support this year.
This past year though, Trish has also taken on a leadership role. After volunteering her home and garden multiple times over the years for tours (ask her about the time the tour goers scraped all the brand new paint off her steps!), this past year Trish served as the Ways and Means chair for the Allegheny West Civic Council, which means she managed both the summer Wine Tour and the winter Christmas tour. Aside from the fact that the tours raised lots of funds to support the Civic Council’s expenses through the year, Trish was incredibly successful at getting new folks involved. We weren’t exactly turning volunteers away (because we would never do that!), but we did have more help on jobs that are often dicult to nd help for, which made for a very smooth running tour. We can’t thank her enough for all her efforts.
Trish will be honored at the Northside Leadership Conference dinner on Thursday June 16 at The Priory. There’s usually at least one or two tables of Allegheny West folks and we’d encourage any folks who are interested in attending to join us. Tickets are $30. You can contact the NSLC directly via Kelly MacKay, NSLC Dinner Coordinator: (412) 231-4714 x201 or kelly@pittsburghnorthside.com
If you’d like to recognize a neighbor who went above-and-beyond for you or the neighborhood this month please send a note to abovebeyond@alleghenywest.org or give Cathy at call at (412) 418-2027 and, space allowing, we’ll recognize them in the Gazette.