Even after their lives end, some people continue to make a positive impact on others. To her credit, Evelyn Rodgers, the last heir to the Rodgers Realty Co. of Slippery Rock, was just such a person.

Rodgers, who died Dec. 4, 2009, willed most of her estate, estimated at $2.7 million at the time of her death, to a trust named in memory of her parents.

The J. Robert and Alberta C. Rodgers Memorial Charitable Trust is designated to benefit the Slippery Rock area. According to Tim Shaffer, a coexecutor of Rodgers' will, it is hoped that, beginning in the spring, grants from the Rodgers estate will be awarded to qualifying nonprofit organizations that benefit the area. He also said, annually, one Slippery Rock High School student will receive a scholarship from the trust.

That student's success will be a lasting, positive reflection on the high standards Rodgers sought to maintain and project.

As described by Shaffer, “Because her parents made their money in Slippery Rock, she thought, ‘What could be better at the end, when no one is left, than to give it back to the community?' ”

As years go by, more and more people will be grateful for — and benefit from — Rodgers' generous, forward-thinking, community-minded attitude.

Her generosity should inspire others with the financial wherewithal to make a lasting gift to their community as well.

The Steelers didn't win the Super Bowl, but the beard that made defensive end Brett Keisel such a football celebrity produced a victory Thursday, even though the Green Bay Packers have the Vince Lombardi Trophy.The winners in the “shave-off” of Keisel's memorable growth of facial hair were the cancer programs at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Celebrity barbers, including Steelers president Art Rooney II and wide receiver Hines Ward, took their turns at the scissors.More than 400 people paid $25 to witness the removal of the beard that Keisel had grown since training camp. Organizers of the festivities also reported that ticket sales, combined with the sale of T-shirts and an auction, raised approximately $30,000 for Children's Hospital.Keisel indicated that a new beard might be appear sometime in the future, which hopefully would eventually produce as notable of a result as Thursday's.“I think that it is a part of me now,” Keisel said, as reported by a Pittsburgh newspaper.

This area's President's Day snowstorm will be remembered by many people for many reasons — but primarily for the inconveniences, hardships and, in some cases, accidents that it spawned.But, rightly or wrongly, many people believe that the storm proved more of a problem than necessary because road crews and their supervisors were enjoying the government holiday and failed to mobilize quickly enough.Clearly, Butler area crews got a late start attacking the storm. And that situation existed throughout much of the Pittsburgh-Butler area.Holiday or not, that should not have happened.In the city of Butler, whose crews have shown many times the ability to jump in and get a bad situation under control quickly, even heavily traveled streets remained in bad shape throughout Monday evening.Roadways maintained by the state Department of Transportation, such as New Castle Road, remained deplorable more than four hours after the snow arrived — despite the fact that a PennDOT maintenance facility is located on New Castle Road.Three hours after the storm moved in, the trip from Duffy Road to the city required nearly a half-hour of frustrating, slow-speed creeping. Likewise, the Butler Township section of Mercer Road remained treacherous more than two hours after the storm began.Well into Monday evening, Butler's North Main Street Hill, also maintained by PennDOT, was reported as giving drivers serious headaches.Some businesses, such as fast-food restaurants, lost considerable revenue because of what can be fairly judged as the slow response to the storm.PennDOT touts its ability to pre-treat roads prior to a storm's arrival, but there wasn't any of that evident around here Monday.Tuesday's milder weather enabled crews to get roads in good shape. But that was little consolation to those who navigated Monday's dangerous conditions that could have been less daunting, if crews had been mobilized more quickly.