Muscatello Yost, Grady celebrated for service
PENN TWP — The 70th annual Distinguished Service Award winners celebrated with a dinner Wednesday night at the Butler Country Club.
The winner of the senior award was Audray Muscatello Yost, 70, of Butler who was heavily involved in volunteer work with the Butler School District, including the backpack program. She also volunteers and supports events and fundraisers, especially those raising money for cancer research.
Winner of the junior award, Jordan Grady, 24, of Slippery Rock works as a project coordinator at Alliance for Nonprofit Resources. But it's the work he does outside his job that propelled him to this honor, being involved with the Chamber of Commerce, Young Professionals and Youth Leadership groups.
The event was sponsored by the Butler Eagle and Rotary Club of Butler.
Ron Vodenichar, general manager of the Eagle, emceed the event and Millie Pinkerton, co-chair of the selection committee, spoke in a recurring role.
“This is our 70th year,” Pinkerton said. “This is the biggest crowd we've ever had.”
The 2017 winners introduced the 2018 winners.
Judy Neigh, 2017 senior award winner, said Grady migrated to the county from West Virginia roots, and the county is lucky to have him.
“He's done amazing things for our community since he came to town,” Neigh said.
Grady said he was thankful to his colleagues and role models, but he credits his work ethic and volunteer spirit to his parents.
“As long as I can remember, we've been active in the community,” Grady said. “Service has been a way of life, not just a word.”
In his speech, Grady mentioned a quote that helps him describe the values important to him.
“You're going to be measured by the differences you make in people's lives and I truly believe that,” he said.
Meghan Lucas, the 2017 junior recipient, said she was shocked to see Muscatello Yost as this year's winner.
“I was blown away that she wasn't already a winner,” Lucas said. “She's inspiring beyond words to me.”Muscatello Yost said she was honored and humbled to receive the award in front of her colleagues and especially her family.“They've always supported everything I've done,” she said of her family.In her speech, Muscatello Yost listed a number of organizations she was involved with, but the one that she spoke of the most was the Butler Backpack Program.Muscatello Yost said she is thankful to Kim Thomas for founding the program that she has been working with since its inception. She said around 360 children are given food each weekend during the school year.“Now they know when they go home they have food in their backpack for the weekend,” she said.Having taught for 23 years in the district, Muscatello Yost has relentlessly given herself to the causes that matter most to her, helping children and fighting cancer, which has taken the lives of some important people in her life.“I loved being a teacher, and now that I'm retired, I can't think of any better way to use my time than to help others,” she said.While the night was focused on the winners, one young woman was able to shift the focus, if only for a moment, to a serious health issue that is plaguing the country, if not the world.Caroline Simms, 18, a senior at Butler High School, told those in attendance a story about the day Type 1 Diabetes almost took her life and how she came to terms with the reality of the disease.“You can die from Type 1 Diabetes before you even know you have it,” Simms said. “Nothing I did caused it, and nothing I did could have prevented it.”Simms said she was lucky to be alive and to have evaded serious brain damage from an astronomically high blood sugar concentration that almost took her life.She said for that reason, she wanted to tell her story.“Too many are not so lucky,” she said.Simms had told the same story at a find-a-cure event last Saturday in Pittsburgh that raised around $1.5 million for research.“I love sharing my story,” she said.
