Recognition a long time coming for seasoned community volunteer
Published: May 11, 2005
Martha Yorkin Berman has been volunteering for as long as she can remember, and that’s a long time. And tonight, she’s being honored with the Clyde J. Tracanna Volunteer of the Year Award by United Way of Washington County at its Volunteer Appreciation Night.
Berman will be joined by David Carroll, a junior at Bentworth High School who will receive the M. Kathleen Ramsey Student Volunteer Award. The Canon-McMillan High School Student Council will receive the Alvin C. Janovich Community Leadership Award during the event at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe, Cecil Township.
“I’ve only been volunteering since we came back to Washington, so why it happens now, I don’t know, but the Washington Hospital Foundation nominated me and here I am,” Berman said from her Upper St. Clair home Tuesday afternoon.
The “back to Washington” to which Berman referred occurred in 1949 when she and her husband, the late cardiologist Dr. Bernard Berman, relocated from Cincinnati, Ohio, after he completed his fellowship.
“I began volunteering, and one of the first things I volunteered for was the Washington Hospital Medical Auxiliary,” Berman said.
She, along with the late Doug Bowman and the late Dorothy Squibb, founded the local mental health association. Berman also was active organizing the Washington Hospital Holiday Ball, first in 1953 and again in 2003. She also was the first chairwoman of the Washington Hospital Board of Trustees.
“I’m honored,” Berman said. “Let’s face it, at this stage of my life, I’m not doing as much now as years ago, but it’s very nice that the foundation thinks I’m deserving of it, and I’m grateful.”
She still volunteers, remaining active at Washington Hospital and serving on the Washington County Community Foundation board, the Washington Literacy Council Development board, and on the City of Washington Economic Development Committee, Main Street Revitalization Committee, since 1995.
“I’m honestly grateful for this award,” Berman said. “At this stage, it’s not like I’m a has-been, but people are probably thinking she’s been around a long time, but I’m still trying.”
In the past, Berman served on the boards at LeMoyne Center, Brownson House and Monday Music Club.
Birdie Roof, manager of community services at United Way, said applications for the three awards are reviewed by a panel of community volunteers. Berman, Roof said, was selected from 10 to 12 applications.
Carroll has served as president of Leo Club of Bentleyville and has participated in most of the 62 club projects this year. He scheduled and set up kindergarten orientation and rode the school bus with first-time kindergarten riders from home to school before the first day of classes. He planned a food drive at the elementary school and high school, collecting 513 pounds of food for Thanksgiving. At Christmas, he organized a collection of $332 to purchase fresh fruit for food pantry families.
At a spaghetti dinner, he helped raise $2,600 for Bentleyville Public Library and helped to provide a Christmas reading party for those at the library’s story hour.
Carroll also helped collect $402 for the Salvation Army kettle drive. He planned a party for patients at veterans centers in Pittsburgh, sent boxes of supplies and toys to children in Iraq and organized a used book drive for distribution at food banks in four counties.
The student council at Canon-McMillan High School was chosen for its dedication to community service. The group raises money and wraps gifts for the less fortunate around the holidays and donated $5,000 to a districtwide service project. Students collected money for the Penn State University Cancer-thon and sponsored hat days on Fridays with the money donated to charity.
A prom fashion show was held in February, with a cell phone collection to benefit Washington Women’s Shelter planned soon. Additionally, the group sponsors an annual $750 scholarship.
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