Special Events
Pinebrook FUNdraiser Coincides with The Great Allentown Fair!
Pinebrook Family Services is looking forward to lots of sunshine and welcoming more than 50 enthusiastic volunteers who will be directing fair-goers into its parking lots during the Great Allentown Fair, August 31st through September 5th.
Our staff and community volunteers will greet you with a smile when you choose to park at Pinebrook for a mere $5 donation. Our FUNdraiser provides a stress-free parking opportunity and the joy of helping children, young adults, and families in need. Located just two short blocks from the Fair’s main gate, Pinebrook provides convenient parking weekdays starting 5:00 p.m. and Labor Day weekend starting 12:00 noon.
For volunteer information, please contact Pinebrook’s Development Department at 610-432-3919 or email .
Save the Date!
Pinebrook Family Services 31st Annual Fundraising Luncheon
On Thursday, November 4, 2010 Pinebrook Family Services will host its 31st Anniversary Fundraising Luncheon. The event will take place at Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel & Conference Center (Routes 22 and 512, Bethlehem). Join us as we celebrate 31 years of promoting the well-being and self-sufficiency of the children, young adults, and families in our communities through adoption, placement, behavioral health, and other community-based services.
The event, which begins at 11:30 a.m., will include lunch and a silent auction filled with an array of art, jewelry, home goods, sports-themed items, wine baskets, and much more. Entertainment will be provided by the Allentown Choir of Allen High School.
Tickets are available for $50 per person. Individual and corporate sponsorships are still available. Donations for the silent auction are also gratefully being accepted.
For tickets or more information, please contact Pinebrook’s Development Department at 610-432-3919 or email .
Thirty years of service to be marked by music, fun and new beginnings
Pinebrook deeply appreciates the financial support of its sponsors, supporters and friends who were instrumental in helping to raise nearly $50,000 at our Pearl Jammin with Pinebrook celebration last November.
Pinebrook unveiled its new logo and agency name at the event, which was attended by more than 200 individuals. Guests were entertained by Reba McEntire look-a-like, Marie Levin, and danced to the beat of the Olympus corporate Band, Peripheral Vision. Highmark’s Director of Eastern Regional Sales, Winnie DiLeo Melinsky, served as honorary chair and WLEV Radio Personality Shelly Easton, as guest emcee.
For many, the highlight of the evening was a touching video, and guest appearance of foster youth, Soliymar, who overcame tremendous obstacles in her young life. She said it best when she told the audience, “Because of you, I learned that I could be something better. I could be myself. I could be the person who smiled and enjoyed life and I could be the person who danced for life.”
Sponsors for the event included Alpha Benefits Group, Inc.; Buckno Lisicky & Company; Burkholder’s Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.; Campbell, Rappold & Yurasists, LLP; Nancy and Steve Curl; Dan Schantz Greenhouse & Cut Flower Outlet; Heritage Insurance Group, Inc., Allentown; Highmark Blue Shield; Bob Jacobs and Dave Artman; King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul, LLC; KNBT, Division of National Penn Bank; Lighting Fixture & Supply Co., Inc.; Lindsay Insurance Group, Inc.; Lloyd H. Jones & Associates; Olympus Corporation of the Americas; the Glen Paisley Team of Prudential Patt, White Real Estate; PPL Corporation; Service Electric TV Cable & Communications Inc.; and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
Honorary Chair, Winifred DiLeo Melinsky, and Guest Emcee, WLEV's Shelly Easton
Foster youth, Soliymar, and Shelly Easton Gang Awareness Workshop, May 13, 2009
“Violent gangs are already here in the Lehigh Valley, and we are not ready for the arrival of more gangs from other states.” This chilling assessment was made by Officer Jason Werley, the presenter at Gang Awareness in the Lehigh Valley, a training conducted by Pinebrook at its Allentown facility. The seminar was a follow-up to the Agency’s Bullying and Truancy Workshop held last year.
Jason Werley, Gang Intelligence Officer at the Northampton County Department of Corrections, warned against rising trends in gang activity. Based on the latest available National Youth Gang Survey (NYHS) conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an estimated 3,550 jurisdictions in cities with populations of 2,500 or more experienced gang problems in 2007. The study estimated that 788,000 gang members and 27,000 gangs were active in the United States that year.
According to Werley, a number of gangs are migrating east from the west coast and southwest, primarily from California and Mexico; Latino gang operations have also been reported in most of the 50 states. “We know that what goes on in prison is happening on our streets and in schools,” Werley said. “Recent data shows that age groups among gang members range from as young as 10 years to as old as 60.” Another alarming fact highlighted at the workshop: gangs are not a strictly urban phenomenon. Gang membership in rural counties rose 36.2% from 2002 to 2007.
Werley pointed to the glorification of gangs and drug culture in the movies, on television, on Internet social networking sites, and in “gangsta”-inspired rap music as the drivers of gang recruitment. “The reduced importance of family structure and interaction,” Werley added, “is a critical factor.” He observed that youths get involved with gangs due to the lack of parental involvement in their lives, the absence of positive alternatives, the need to belong and to feel important. Gang members often take the place of the family in the affections of young people who have low self-esteem and lack self-identity. “Education about gangs must start with the parents,” Werley advised, “because by the time 14- to 16-year-olds get to me at the Corrections Department, it’s already too late to save them.”
Nonprofit resources that address root causes of gang involvement by youth include family-focused programs designed to lower the rate of truancy, which often spurs juvenile delinquency (Pinebrook’s Making the Grade pilot program is one); Youth Succeeding in School projects funded by the Greater Lehigh Valley United Way; Internet resources provided at http://www.gripe4Rkids.org and by the East Coast Gang Investigators Association at http://www.ecgia.org.
Donor Recognition Night, May 6, 2009
During a memorable evening at the Education Center of the Integrated Health Campus, Pinebrook paid tribute to private sector stakeholders whose support has enabled the Agency to sustain its programs even during difficult economic times. That special Wednesday, major individual, institutional and corporate donors were feted to an intimate evening by officers and members of Pinebrook’s Board of Directors, senior management and key Agency staff. The Donor Recognition Night offered a clear statement that the Agency can best thank its supporters by providing consistently high-quality services to vulnerable children, young adults and families in the Lehigh Valley. Bob Jacobs, Pinebrook’s Executive Director, capped the evening with a PowerPoint presentation on the Agency’s rebranding campaign that will culminate on November 7 as Pinebrook officially marks its 30th year of operations. Bob also shared major strategic directions, a new mission statement and vision that will drive Pinebrook’s work in the decades ahead. The Donor Recognition Night was underwritten by the Agency’s Board of Directors; Dr. Tom Meade, Senior Partner, OAA Orthopædic Specialists; and Starters Riverport through its proprietor, Dave Rank.
Pinebrook opens new Northampton County Office
With a snip of the ceremonial ribbon on December 5th, 2008, Congressman Charlie Dent and Easton Mayor Sal Panto, Jr. declared Pinebrook’s newly relocated Northampton County office open. Simple ceremonies at 1101 Northampton Street in Easton, which also houses the agency’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic, launched stronger linkages with Northampton County stakeholders, including funders, referral sources and residents. It is anticipated that future additions of community-based teams at the regional office will require adequate room as Pinebrook expands its treatment services for families, including medically uninsured or underinsured residents of Easton and peripheral townships in Northampton County.
Also present at the Open House were Paul Brunswick and Janet Mease, Executive Director and Vice President for Community Affairs, respectively, of The Two Rivers Health and Wellness Foundation; Pinebrook’s founder, Florence Applebaum; Ross Marcus, Northampton County Director of Human Services; Atty. Larry Center, who represented the Center Family at the commemoration of the Family Room in honor of the late Nancy Center, Pinebrook's second Executive Director; and Christine Bowditch, Richard Clapp, as well as Michael Principato, members of Pinebrook’s Board of Directors.
Photo from left: Congressman Charlie Dent, Easton Mayor Sal Panto, Atty. Larry Center,
and Pinebrook Executive Director Bob Jacobs
