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EDITOR’S DESK
Revisiting a Miracle
When I was 10, I began my short-lived career as a scrapbooker. It started with baseball and ended with a miracle.
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy stirred memories of the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice” game against the Soviets — so much so that I grabbed my childhood sports scrapbook from the basement to relive some of those memories.
It was filled with whatever sports-related memorabilia I could tape or paste into the book: baseball cards, autographs, ticket stubs. I even enshrined the wrapper from a REGGIE! bar, named after Reggie Jackson, whose spectacular World Series performances earned him the nickname “Mr. October” — and his own candy bar alongside Baby Ruth bars. I had one of those wrappers in there, too.
Mainly, though, the book contained clippings from our local paper — back when it was a daily, with extensive sports coverage from wire services like the Associated Press (a cooperative) delivering stories from around the world — and into my scrapbook. Apart from baseball, much of the book documented the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid: pages detailing Eric Heiden’s incredible five gold medals in speedskating, Ingemar Stenmark’s dominance in the slalom and, of course, hockey.
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, a team of mostly American college kids defeated a veteran Soviet squad of hockey professionals in stunning fashion — a miracle. I smiled reading a clip quoting a man in Hershey, Pa.: “I’ve been jumping up and down rooting for them and heck, I’m Canadian.”
So momentous was that game that people forget it was only the semifinal. Team USA still had to beat Finland for gold.
Incredibly, exactly 46 years to the day of that match against the Soviets, the men’s team won Olympic gold again. This time, it was a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in Milan, the first men’s hockey gold since Lake Placid. And that came alongside another miraculous achievement: the USA women’s team also won gold in a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over Canada.
The last page of my scrapbook has the 1980 men’s team celebrating gold. I never picked up scrapbooking again after that. How can you top a miracle?
PETER A. FITZGERALD
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
FRESHENING UP
Pick Up PA helping Commonwealth put its best foot forward
Image is everything — and, this year, Pennsylvania is working to put its best foot forward.
The state departments of transportation and environmental protection, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and the Pittsburgh Steelers are teaming up to encourage participation in Pick Up PA, an effort to present a positive image to the millions of visitors who will be attending key events in Pennsylvania this year.
In 2026, the Commonwealth will host the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, the PGA Championship near Philadelphia, the FIFA World Cup matches and the MLB
All-Star Game in Philadelphia, as well as a number of events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Pick Up PA is an annual volunteer effort to clean up roads, parks, streams and communities. In 2025, 81,500 volunteers participated. More than 4 million pounds of litter and trash were picked up, 6.1 million pounds recycled, and nearly 63,000 trees, flowers, and other greens were planted.
READY FOR PRIME TIME: Ahead of a historic 2026 tourism season, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Transportation Michael Carroll kicks off the 2026 Pick Up PA litter cleanup initiative. This year, the Commonwealth will host a number of noteworthy events, including the NFL Draft, PGA Championship, FIFA World Cup, MLB All-Star Series and America250PA. The activities are expected to bring more than 209 million visitors to the Commonwealth.
SAFETY FIRST
Pa. hospital systems now operating own policy agencies after attacks
To combat the rising number of violent incidents against health care workers, at least seven hospital systems across Pennsylvania are operating their own police agencies, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
Those systems include UPMC, Geisinger Health, Allegheny Health Network, Temple Health, Jefferson Health, LECOM Medical Center and Uniontown Hospital. Meanwhile, WellSpan is scheduled to open a police department this year.
In recent years, hospital employees have reported hundreds of injuries at the hands of patients or visitors, while hospital officials say many verbal and physical attacks are not routinely documented if there are no injuries.
POULTRY PROTECTION
Pa. is only state with fund dedicated to helping producers recover
Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation with a fund dedicated to helping poultry producers stabilize and recover from devasting losses. The fund’s importance came to light after a bird flu outbreak in Bucks County in early March.
Dubbed the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Recovery Fund, $75 million has been committed to it since 2022. Since then, 302 poultry businesses have received $15.6 million in grants to offset losses, sustain operations and strengthen biosecurity protections.
The Commonwealth has good reason to maintain the fund: Poultry is the largest single sector of its $132.5 billion agriculture industry. It supports nearly 48,800 farms and almost 600,000 jobs in the state.
BACK TO WORK
More than 800 former federal workers join Pa.'s workforce after executive order
More than 800 former federal employees have joined the Commonwealth’s workforce following an executive order last year that called for the recruitment of the displaced employees to fill vacancies in Pennsylvania’s workforce.
The federal government reduced its workforce by more than 242,000 employees in 2025. Last March, the order directed the state Office of Administration to accept federal government experience as equivalent to Commonwealth experience to streamline the hiring process. Today, these hires serve in law enforcement, public safety, human services, health care and other critical roles.
“By tapping into [this] expertise, we’ve strengthened our workforce and improved the delivery of programs and services that Pennsylvanians depend on every day,” state Secretary of Administration Neil Weaver said.
TIME LINES — February 2016
A decade ago, Penn Lines celebrated 70 years of Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Allegheny) serving cooperative communities throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Formed in 1946, Allegheny continues to provide the wholesale power that cooperative consumer-members have relied on for decades. Now 80 years on, our 2016 cover story reminds us of all Allegheny does for our rural electric cooperatives.
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