World-Changer Jan Scheuermann Is Whitehall's 'Citizen of the Year'

Mayor James F. Nowalk and the Whitehall Borough Council have selected Jan Scheuermann—a quadriplegic wife, mother and author whose involvement in a groundbreaking brain science study has become international news—as Whitehall's 2013 "Citizen of the Year."


The recognition has been bestowed annually during Whitehall Community Day celebrations for the past 19 years, with this year's Community Day festivities set for Saturday, Aug. 24. (Read Community Day schedule/preview here.)

"Jan Scheuermann Day" will be proclaimed by the mayor and council at a ceremony at Snyder Park following Community Day's 5,000-meter race/walk. The ceremony should start at around 10 a.m. She will also be recognized at a noon ceremony at the nearby Edwin F. Brennan Plaza (next to the borough swimming pool).

Read Scheuermann's amazing story here.

"I am pleased and honored to be recognized as the Whitehall Person of the Year,"  Scheuermann said. "It has been my joy and privilege to work with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC in the area of brain-computer interface.

"This work is in its infancy. In years to come, it will benefit many, many handicapped people and give them more independent lives. Moving a robotic hand and arm with my mind is fun, challenging, and in the words of the educated scientists in our lab, 'Really cool!'"

Past recipients of the Citizen of the Year honor were: Tammy Donnelly Slusser, Carole Zajac, Cara Kendra Bernosky, Dr. John Murray Jr., Mayor Edwin F. Brennan, Chief J. William Schmitt, Charles McKinney, Dr. Edmund M. Ricci, Dr. John Aupperle, Lee Boyd, Karen Trueblood, Morgan K. O'Brien, George Benson, Sister Margaret Carney, Father John Haney, the Whitehall Community Lions Club, Dr. Mary Margaret Kerr, Faustino Dunckhorst and Jason Coll.

And being awarded at the Brennan Plaza at 3 p.m. on Community Day are Community Service Awards to citizens who have made significant contributions to the betterment of Whitehall Borough. There are four awardees: Tom Kesten, a businessman who made a major contribution to the landscape of Whitehall by eliminating a longtime eyesore/junkyard along Weyman Road in an environmentally friendly way; and Russ Walker, Mike Romano and Barb Duff, who have all made significant contributions to the Whitehall Public Library through their service on the library's board of trustees and with the Friends of the Whitehall Library.

A third type of recognition to be made by the mayor and council at 3 p.m. are Whitehall's Good Neighbor Awards. This year, there is one awardee: Anthony Palatucci.