Pennsbury Partners of the Year Honored

For the 21^st con­sec­u­tive year, the Pennsbury Partners Program cel­e­brat­ed a Non-Profit Partner of the Year and a Business Partner of the Year.

Ordinarily, the Partners Program hosts a fes­tive, spring cel­e­bra­tion to pay trib­ute to the Partners of the Year, with 150+ com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, local elect­ed offi­cials, and staff mem­bers gath­ered at a recep­tion in the cafe­to­ri­um at William Penn Middle School. This year that was not pos­si­ble due to the COVID-19 school clo­sure. When it became clear that the District would not be able to host such an event on a delayed basis in the fall, the deci­sion was made to hon­or the win­ners with small, in-person award pre­sen­ta­tions at their places of business.

The recip­i­ents of the out­stand­ing part­ner­ship awards for the 2019–2020 school year included: 

• Waste Management – Fairless Complex: Business Partner of the Year, and
• The Salvation Army – Levittown Corps: Non-Profit Partner of the Year

The Waste Management award pre­sen­ta­tion was made by Pennsbury Superintendent, Dr. William Gretzula, and Ann Langtry, Supervisor of Communication Strategies, who over­sees the Partners Program with assis­tant, Dena Seiple. Accepting the award on behalf of Waste Management were Bob Jones, Senior District Manager, Judy Archibald, Director of Public Affairs (newly-retired), and Kristy Loteckie, Community Relations Specialist.

“Waste Management was the very first Pennsbury Partner when the pro­gram began 25 years ago,” said Ms. Langtry. “Today, they are val­ued more than ever as an active Partner.” Examples of the ways that Waste Management has worked in part­ner­ship with the School District over the years include:

• Free trash and recy­cling ser­vices — worth $110,000 per year
• Donations to the Pennsbury Partners Program — near­ly $12,000 to date
• Donations to the Pennsbury Education Foundation — near­ly $2.2 mil­lion to date
• Student schol­ar­ships (five per year) — $60,000 to date
• Environmental grants to sup­port teach­ing & learn­ing — $80,000 to date

“In addi­tion to this extra­or­di­nary sup­port for our District, our stu­dents, and for inno­v­a­tive fac­ul­ty ini­tia­tives, Waste Management is now work­ing with us in the ear­ly stages of devel­op­ing a com­pre­hen­sive recy­cling effort that will encom­pass all of our build­ings,” added Ms. Langtry. “We hope to share more infor­ma­tion about this as it unfolds.”

The Salvation Army – Levittown Corps pre­sen­ta­tion was made by School Director Gary Sanderson, Superintendent Dr. William Gretzula, and Ms. Langtry. Accepting the award were The Salvation Army – Levittown Corps Commanding Officer Captain David Kelly and Community Relations & Development Director Adela Davis.

“The Salvation Army – Levittown Corps offers exten­sive oppor­tu­ni­ties for our stu­dents to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty as well as devel­op lead­er­ship and orga­ni­za­tion­al skills,” said Ms. Langtry. Students at every grade lev­el and their fam­i­lies are invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the Red Kettle cam­paign at mul­ti­ple loca­tions through­out the area. At the high school lev­el, there is a great deal of sup­port demon­strat­ed each hol­i­day sea­son by stu­dents, fam­i­lies, fac­ul­ty, and staff for the Salvation Army stock­ings and Little Angel gift ini­tia­tives. The Pennsbury High School Air Force JROTC unit has also stepped up as a group to sup­port the orga­ni­za­tion, in addi­tion to the Salt and Light Club.

The recog­ni­tion is mutu­al: at its annu­al appre­ci­a­tion brunch held in ear­ly 2019, The Salvation Army – Levittown Corps rec­og­nized the Pennsbury School District for its exem­plary com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the organization’s pro­grams. “Teachers, stu­dents, and par­ents have come along­side The Salvation Army to pro­vide much-needed sup­port for the dis­ad­van­taged in Bucks County,” the group shared in its press release. “Afton, Edgewood, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fallsington, Makefield, Manor, Penn Valley, Oxford Valley, and Quarry Hill ele­men­tary schools, as well as Pennsbury High School and the Bucks County Technical High School have par­tic­i­pat­ed in bell-ringing dur­ing Red Kettle sea­son. Charles Boehm, William Penn, and Pennwood mid­dle schools have host­ed toy dri­ves.” Funds raised dur­ing each of the Red Kettle sea­sons helps to pro­vide food for hun­dreds of local fam­i­lies, dis­trib­ute toys to over 1,000 chil­dren, and share items of cloth­ing with those in need in Bucks County.

To raise funds in sup­port of the Pennsbury Partners Mini-Grant Program for District fac­ul­ty, Partners are invit­ed to donate funds each year at tiered lev­els of spon­sor­ship. The 2020 Platinum Sponsors includ­ed Waste Management, ShopRite of Yardley, KidsCare of Pennsbury, and D’Huy Engineering, Inc. Gold spon­sors were the Pennsbury Education Association and Rudolph Clarke, LLC. Silver spon­sors includ­ed McCaffrey’s Supermarkets and Wells Fargo Bank. Bronze spon­sors were Fraytak, Veisz, Hopkins and Duthie, P.C., VFW Post 6393, Penn Community Bank, and Levittown-Fairless Hills Rotary. River Signs LLC pro­vid­ed the etched glass awards for both 2020 Partners of the Year. “We are extreme­ly grate­ful for all of our gen­er­ous donors this year,” said Ms. Langtry.

Over the last two decades, the Pennsbury Partners Program has grown to be a high­ly suc­cess­ful, col­lab­o­ra­tive effort involv­ing over 1,000 part­ners in the Pennsbury com­mu­ni­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about the pro­gram, vis­it this link.