BC3 honors 2 Distinguished Alumni at annual dinner
Both of the Butler County Community College alumni honored Saturday night had their careers begin in college field houses.
Linda Franiewski, executive director of the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Center in Butler Township, and John Reddick, an architect at Stantec in downtown Butler, were honored as 2019 Butler County Community College Distinguished Alumni at the college's Oak Hills Dinner.
For Franiewski, the honor capped a journey that began in BC3's field house, where 35 years ago she played basketball and lifted weights as a visitor and inpatient at the drug and alcohol treatment facility she now leads.
Reddick's journey also started in an athletic complex, the Community College of Beaver County's Golden Dome, whose architecture left the BC3 baseball center fielder speechless during a visit between games of a 1979 doubleheader in Monaca.
In her acceptance speech, Franiewski of West Sunbury said, “I am the epitome of diversity and a non-traditional student.
“I first saw this campus when I got off the bus from the treatment center,” she said.
She noted at the time she was in the “A” Treatment Center, the predecessor of the Gaiser Center, and part of her treatment was coming to the BC3 field house for exercise.
“I fell in love with this campus and I am still in love with this campus,” she said. “I decided I was going to go to school here, that was a goal of mine. It was hard.”
Reddick said “Truth be told, I came to BC3 to play baseball.”
He added he wasn't too sure about his academic prowess but “I was never more confident in my life than when I played center field at 18 years old.”
Still, he said he decided to drop out to get a job.
But both returned to BC3.
Franiewski earned an associate degree in business administration from BC3 in 1986 before going on to graduate summa cum laude from Slippery Rock University and getting a master's degree in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh. She worked in the banking and finance sector of that city for 15 years before joining the Gaiser Center board in 1999 and becoming its executive director in 2005. Oct. 8 marked her 35th year of sobriety.
A friend convinced Reddick to return to BC3 where he graduated in 1984 with an associate degree in machine drafting and design before signing on with the architectural firm of Burt Hill.
“Teachers like Mr. Shawliss, Mr. Blewitt, Dr. Van Peterson, Mr. Huseman, Mr. Griffiths, Mr. Dunaway and Mr. Milson, among others, challenged and gave me the confidence to realize I could do college-level work,” said Reddick.
“In fact, they convinced me I could do whatever I set my mind to do,” he said.
Distinguished Alumni Awards honor those who have used their education and experience from BC3 to achieve significant levels of success and who have a commitment to community service.
The Oak Hills Dinner is also an acknowledgment of the community college's 132 2019-20 scholarship recipients and the donors who funded those scholarships.
“It is definitely a celebration of accomplished alumni, the students and the donors who make the scholarships possible,” said Ruth Purcell, executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation.
Greggory Miller of Freeport, a digital audio and video production major at BC3 @ Cranberry in Cranberry Township received a BC3 President's Scholarship this year. He was the student speaker.
“It's called the Oak Hills Dinner because the college was built on the grounds of the old Oak Hills Golf Course, and we preserved the name for the dinner,” Purcell said.
William V. Foley, coordinator of news and media content for Butler County Community College contributed to this story.
