FEBRUARY 17-23, 2016
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Author shares the story of ‘Concussion’
Shining moment
By Suzanne Elliott
Bible Chapel hosts prom for special needs teenagers and adults
Staff writer selliott@thealmanac.net
By Karen Mansfield Staff writer kmansfield@observer-reporter.com
There were gowns and tuxedoes. There were limousines and a red carpet. And there was plenty of dancing. More than 160 teens and adults with special needs attended the Night to Shine prom Feb. 12 at The Bible Chapel in McMurray, courtesy of the Tim Tebow Foundation. The Bible Chapel is one of more than 220 churches in 48 states and seven countries that held the prom simultaneously. Every guest at Night to Shine got the full VIP treatment. Throughout the day, stylists at Geno Levi Salon in THEALMANAC.NET Peters Township created glamorous hairdos and did makeup for promgoers. Participants arrived at the prom in a limousine and entered on a red carpet, where photographers took their pictures. Inside, promgoers, dressed in gowns and tuxedoes, were given corsages and tiaras or boutonnieres and a crown, and ladies had an opportunity to drop by hair and make-up stations for a touch-up, while the men stopped at the shoe shine station for a quick polish. During the night, Tebow, a former NFL quarterback, coronated all of the participants as king or queen of the prom, via a videotaped message. Each of the partygoers was paired with a volunteer buddy, who spent the night making sure they participated in all the activities available, including karaoke and a photo booth. The Tim Tebow Foundation provided each prom with financial support, decorations and gifts for each participant, and a step-by-step guide to make the prom a success.
video online
Above, promgoers Cameron and Katy dance during Night to Shine at The Bible Chapel in McMurray. At left, Rebecca Zabo of Charleroi gets fitted with a tiara before she hits the dance floor. PHOTOS BY CELESTE VAN KIRK / O-R
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Because... Everyone needs a Guardian Angel
Jeanne Marie Laskas’ message was simple to the more than 300 people crammed into the Peters Township Middle School auditorium Friday night: Tell the truth and do what you believe in, she said. The Scenery Hill resident is the author of “Concussion,” a book that chronicles the life of Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist who linked football with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE disease for short. It was recently turned into a movie starring Will Smith, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance. Laskas, a regular contributor to GQ magazine and director of the creative writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, said the project began as an assignment in 2009 – one that she was initially reluctant to take – from an editor at the magazine. She JIM McNUTT / O-R was asked to find Jeanne Marie Laskas out more about the relationship between football and traumatic brain injury. “I am not a sports or science writer,” said Laskas, who was in Peters Township Feb. 12 at the request of Peters Township Public Library. But she started researching the topic and discovered Omalu, who at one time worked as a forensic pathologist for Allegheny County and former county coroner Cyril Wecht. “I found Bennet Omalu, but he disappeared after two publications,” she said. And that intrigued Laskas. “I always wanted to write about Bennet Omalu,” she said. “He was working in a wretched mortuary and taking brains home to his Penn Hills apartment at night to study.” One of the brains that particularly intrigued Omalu was that of Mike Webster, the Pittsburgh Steeler Hall of Fame center who died of
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