Year in Review: Look back on photos from 2023
The view from behind the lens looked different in 2023 than it had in years before. There were less masks and more gatherings.
During the past year, people came together like they had before the COVID-19 pandemic made its 2020 debut. Butler County gathered for festivals, parades, prayer vigils and even the reopening of the historic Penn Theater.
Over the year, Butler county saw its fair share of local fires, smoke from Canadian wildfires and hot summer days that prompted residents to seek ways to cool off.
The year was full of ups and downs, but it all, Butler County came together.
David Halin performs Christmas carols with other members of Butler's Musical Theatre Guild at the Vintage Coffee Shop in Butler in December. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
Members of the Sirkus Dayz Group entertained the families that lined Main Street during Butler’s Spirit of Christmas Parade Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Butler Eagle
Students in third grade, who studied the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, show their balloons as they parade through the school's hallways at Ehrman Crest Elementary School on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
Maddox Kennedy, 7, of Aliquippa, takes a swing Saturday afternoon, Oct. 14, 2023, at the Zelienople’s 36th annual Country Fall Festival. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Troy Stewart, with Misty Lane Farms, takes people on carriage rides on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 14, 2023, during this year’s Sleepy Hollow Festival in Harmony. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Mars Area High School marching band performs atop a geodesic dome on Wednesday evening, Oct. 4, 2023, at Art Bernardi Stadium for this year’s Butler County Band Festival. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Gabe O., 8, of Cranberry Township, practices doing the Hula Hoop on Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2023, during the second annual Evans City PumpkinFest. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Sophia Matecka, 4, of Cheswick, gets her face painted on Thursday evening, Sept. 21, 2023, at Saxonburg’s last Mingle on Main of the summer. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
From left, Mia Foley, 10, Aydin Shipley, 14, Ava Dressler, 8, Alex Dressler, 10, Landon Shipley, 13, and Liam Shipley, 10, all of Cranberry Township, are all dressed in their red, white and blue at Zelienople’s 4th of July Parade on Main street. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Jace Goddard, 6, of Brookville, eats ice cream as he watches steer wrestling at the 63rd annual North Washington Rodeo on Tuesday night, Aug. 15, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Copper Hilliard, 11, of Butler, looks for salamanders on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. He was one of the participants in the Salamander Safari at McConnells Mill State Park’s Hell Run Creek. The event was led by Mike Shaffer, a DCNR environmental educational specialist. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
William Duncan, owner of Duncan Concrete Construction, cools down with a hose while he sprays the concrete at a home on Wayne Street in Butler on Friday, July 28, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Called Hughes 2, of Oakland Township, eats ice cream with his parents at Corner Cones in Herman on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Kids got caught in the rain while on the bungee jump at the Big Butler Fair at the fairgrounds in Prospect on Monday July 3, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Kristi Gregory fixes a mirror in her garden, which will be on the Southern Butler County Garden Club’s 15th annual Garden Tour, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Archer Kalnoski, 1, of Zelienople, plays with the mini fountains in the kids pool at Zeleinople Community Pool on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
A look at downtown Butler on Wednesday morning under a red air quality alert on June 28, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
James Thiele looks at some of the alfalfa on the Thiele farm on May 3, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Rose Greco, 9, reaches out to pick up either Peanut or Doodle, two goslings visiting the Butler Catholic School third-grade Garden Club, at the school in Butler on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Also with the two young geese are, left to right, Joseph Hauser, Fred Edwards, and Olivia Yeager. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle
Irish dancer AnnaMae Ferrell performs during an assembly at Mars Area Elementary School on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Louis Plaisted, a fourth-grader at Slippery Rock Elementary School, foreground, and Miley Rudish, test the obstacle course on the newly installed climbing wall on the school gym in slippery Rock on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Climbers were instructed to go through the hoops while moving left to right across the wall. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle
Ian Martin, of Cranberry, is silhouetted against the sky while skateboarding at Zelienople Community Skate Park on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Progress at the Penn Theater
Bryan Frenchak, the new owner of the Penn Theater, shows off some of the old rheostat that would dim the lights inside the theater on Friday morning, April 14, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Ted Holben, lower middle, with a crew from H&N Concrete work on poring the new cement floor inside the Penn Theater on June 22, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
A crew from H&N Concrete work on poring the new cement floor inside the Penn Theater on June 22, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Penn Theater’s neon lights shine bright on Sept. 14, 2023, on Main Street in downtown Butler. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Luca Panei, 8, of Butler, talks about his artwork, which hangs on the north side of the Penn Theater, to his father, Tom, on Sept. 14, 2023. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
A look at the renovated Penn Theater during cocktail hours at a private event celebrating the revitalization of the Penn Theater in Butler on Nov. 18, 2023. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to Butler Eagle
Praying for Mason Martin
Karns City quarterback Mason Martin looks to make a play Sept. 1, 2023. Mason collapsed on the field that evening during the football game, and he was taken to the hospital. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
Karns City assistant football coach TJ McFarland prays during a prayer vigil at Diehl Stadium on Sept. 3, 2023, for the team's quarterback, Mason Martin. Martin was in critical condition at a Pittsburgh hospital after collapsing during a home game Sept. 1, 2023. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
Karns City's captains walk off the field after bringing Mason Martin's jersey out during the District 9 Class 2A football playoff game against Brookville on Nov. 3, 2023. Brookville won with a final score of 42-41. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Responding to tragedy
Connoquenessing firefighters clean up after they fought a fire at 108 Connoquenessing School Road in Connoquenessing on Nov. 30, 2023. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
Crews responded to a “fully involved” vehicle fire Sept. 21, 2023, after a truck snagged a utility line in Jackson Township. Austin Uram/Butler Eagle
Firefighters battled a blazein a vacant building at the corner of South Cliff Street and Center Avenue in Butler on Sept. 15, 2023. Crews were called to the Butler fire a little after 3 a.m. at what once was Elliott Furniture Auction. Molly Miller/Butler Eagle
Candace Lee stands in her damaged kitchen after a tree fell on her home in Washington Township in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2023. Mikayla Torrence/Butler Eagle
Firefighters respond to a house fire at 126 Country Lane Road in Franklin Township on July 26, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Tom McGregor's house in Prospect caught fire July 26, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
A firefighter cools down at 404 East Locust St in Butler on July 17, 2023. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Emma Smith, 7, watches the blaze during a house fire at 404 East Locust St. in Butler on July 17, 2023. Thanks to Emma, who smelled smoke and woke up her mother, three dogs and a cat also were unharmed. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle
Firefighters respond to a fire at Thiele Dairy Farm on June 29, 2023. The fire burned the hay hoop, which was located next to the cow barn. Photo by Thiele Dairy Farm
Two kittens receive oxygen after being rescued from a mobile home fire May 3, 2023, in Brady Township. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle
Firefighters’ lights can be seen on the second floor of a house fire on March 8, 2023, in Adams Township. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
A firefighter gets help changing his air tank on the scene of a house fire Feb. 6, 2023, in Clearfield Township. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
Several townhouses were damaged in the aftermath of a house fire Jan. 19, 2023, on Timberbrook Court in Zelienople. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle
