Written by Frank Garland and published in the West Hills Gazette, April 6, 2025.
The young and the not-so-young shared the spotlight Saturday at the 14th Athletes of Action Memorial Scholarship Luncheon, held at VFW Post 148 in McKees Rocks. The nonprofit group is in the business of building community and honoring legacy, but its main beneficiaries each year are high school students who are chosen to receive scholarships to help continue their education.”
Bob Zitelli, who served as master of ceremonies and has been a driving force in AOA since its inception, shared with the crowd that these scholarship luncheons were inspired by get-togethers that once took place at various church social halls in and around the area. One longtime McKees Rocks area booster, the late Lenny Cersosimo, was a regular at these gatherings, and at one point, he recognized it was time to pass the torch to Zitelli.
Bob Zitelli: He had an old program, and he handed it to me and said, ‘Bobby, it’s your turn now. I want you to promise me you’ll do this. I told him I would. So here we are. Those who are up there looking down, I know they’re smiling.”
Zitelli asked the scholarship recipients to stand at one point and recited a phrase to them that Cersosimo had told him: “We were what you are. We are what you will be.”
2025 Athletes Of Action Scholarship Award Recipients (from left) Brayden Davin and Joelle Ludwick of Montour High and Ciana Mason and Khayyam Smith of Sto-Rox High (photo by Lynne DiLiman as published in the West Hills Gazette)
