Community comes together in celebration at the Wright Place
Nehemiah Project serves up annual Christmas brunch
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Malissa Yon was laid off from her job with a construction company 12 days before Christmas, but instead of elaborate gifts from her true love to fill the interim, she -- along with boyfriend, Mike Fry -- sought opportunities for volunteering to help each day.
Tuesday, Christmas Eve, brought her to the Wright Place for Kids, a building in her neighborhood where the Nehemiah Project was holding its second annual Christmas brunch for the local community.
Some people might welcome a monthlong winter layoff, but Yon likes to stay busy, she said, as she stood behind a table with an apron and serving utensils, dispensing scrambled eggs and syrup.
The Nehemiah Project planned for 150 attendees at the event, which was non-traditional in its starting time and in the food served, which included bagels, French breadsticks, potatoes and corn, according to Project CEO Peter Joudry, who brought his
9-year-old cocker spaniel Clifford.
Clifford, adorned in a red scarf, spent his time sitting on the feet of people who were talking to Joudry and occasionally looking for food that dropped to the floor.
Shantell Servello came from her house on the other side of UPMC Altoona with son, Xavier, 6, and daughter, Anntwanette, 9 months.
She's a member of Trans4mation Church, which under its former name, Pleasant Valley Assembly of God, created the Nehemiah Project, which has attempted to transform the Lower Fairview neighborhood with several initiatives to alleviate poverty and generate opportunities.
The project has been "building Altoona up," Servello said.
It has made the neighborhood more "kid and family friendly," Servello said.
It helps keep kids away from drugs, she said.
"You can let kids outside again," she stated.
Neighborhood resident Annette Koch attended with Dorothy Anderson, daughter of her fiance, after learning about the event from "The Father's House," another Nehemiah initiative.
The work done by Nehemiah keeps kids away from "the riff-raff in the neighborhood," Koch said. It keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, gives them structure and teaches responsibility and self-discipline, she said.
That's especially reassuring as she watches the development of her four-month-old granddaughter, who will be growing up in Lower Fairview, she said.
After all, "kids make the future," she said.
The event is "a great way for the community to come together," especially given how commercialized Christmas has become, Koch said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.