(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“The Veterans Breakfast Club is all about the stories. There’s no agenda, there’s no advocacy, really. There’s only this community that is focused on encouraging veterans to share their stories of service with others.”

The Veterans Breakfast Club will be holding two major events for Veterans’ Day 2022, showcasing the unlimited bounty of stories and experiences shared by the veterans who have served in America’s wars from World War II to as recent as Iraq and Afghanistan. VBC executive director Todd DePastino joined Matt Drzik on the November 9 edition of A.M. Beaver County to discuss these events.

The first of the major events for the VBC is a live breakfast to be held at Duquesne University at 8:00 AM on November 11 inside the Student Union Ballroom. Judge Mike McCarthy, a former Vietnam Veteran with the Navy SeaBees, will be the Keynote Speaker for the breakfast. DePastino himself will be the emcee, allowing for those in attendance to share their stories, which may carry a range of emotions from light-hearted to heavy and reflective.

The other major event for Veterans’ Day is the 12-hour “Vet-A-Thon”, which will feature hourly conversations in a digital/Zoom format. Unlike the live breakfast, which will feature mostly local veterans from Western Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas, the Vet-A-Thon will be more wide open. “It’s going to be a worldwide connection between veterans,” DePastino said of the event. “That’s how our online program has been shaping up; we tend to focus more on our Veterans Breakfast Club members who are living in Texas, California, Wisconsin, Virginia, or anywhere.”

Beaver County will be host to an upcoming VBC event as well, when Seven Oaks Country Club hosts a Pearl Harbor recognition breakfast on December 7 from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM. Further details about that event as well as all other events can be found by going to their website at veteransbreakfastclub.org.

To listen to the full interview with Todd DePastino, hit the play button below!

Todd DePastino of the Veterans Breakfast Club will join Matt Drzik to talk about the special events being planned by the VBC in honor of Veterans’ Day; the discussion will take place following the 8:35 news.

Frank Sparks starts the morning with news at 6:30 on Beaver County Radio.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“This is going to be truly transformational to the borough.”

The Borough of Ambridge is gearing up for another festive season of lights, sounds, and holiday cheer, and they’ve already received a few gifts that will help continue growing the borough over the next few years. Borough Manager Mario Leone joined Matt Drzik on the November 7 edition of A.M. Beaver County to discuss these major moments.

A couple of major shifts for the borough has come from its police department under police chief John DeLuca. Two SROs (school resource officers) were brought into the Ambridge School District through the police department “That program’s going extremely well,” said Leone,” and we think we’re making our schools safer for the children and parents likewise.” Additionally, the Ambridge PD is reinstating its K-9 program, with assistance from a couple of fundraisers and a donated vehicle from Center Township’s police department.

One way in which the borough is going backwards is going backwards to 2019, the last time that Christmas On Merchant was held in its full, traditional outdoor display. After two years of “reverse parades”, Ambridge is planning to return to the normal Christmas on Merchant proceedings on December 9. The parade will begin at 6:00 PM, there will be ice sculptures in PJ Caul Park at 5 PM and 7 PM, and Beaver County Radio will be broadcasting the parade live, along with bringing along the Prize Caddy and Personality Prize Wheel for your chances to win.

The biggest wins for Ambridge, though, came in the form of two major grants received by the borough for future projects. “It was either last Wednesday or two Wednesdays ago that we received word of a $4.5 million R-CAP,” spoke Leone, “and the purpose of these funds is for a sports complex and community center.”  Leone personally thanked the efforts of Mayor Duke McCoy and State Representative Rob Matzie for their efforts in getting this indoor/outdoor complex built, along with additional funding secured by State Senator Elder Vogel. Additionally, the non-profit Crop & Kettle is also receiving $3 million for a new facility to be built in Ambridge.

To watch the full video with Mario Leone, click on the Facebook feed below!

The 2022 WPIAL Football Playoffs are here, and Matt Drzik will let you know who’s playing, who’s resting, and more coming up in sports updates beginning at 6:45.

Frank Sparks starts your weekend with news at 6:30 on Beaver County Radio.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“You can definitely get rid of them, but it is going to be a process. It isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight.”

Taylor Ball is a Certified Veterinary Technician with the Beaver County Humane Society, and she joined Matt Drzik on the November 3 edition of A.M. Beaver County to discuss how to prevent and deal with fleas and ticks once they enter a home or infiltrate a pet, along with the effects of diseases such as heartworm and Lyme disease.

The key to dealing with fleas and ticks, according to Ball, is prevention through the use of “preventables”. “We have a lot of products to where you shouldn’t have to worry about fleas and ticks in the home because it is something that we are so used to easily preventing in the first place.” The most common types of preventables are chewables and collars for the pet to wear; cats and dogs are the most common carriers of fleas and ticks within the home.

While ticks can cause Lyme disease in pets and humans, and mosquitos are the causers of heartworm for certain animals, the most ubiquitous offenders are fleas. Ball says that the major reason behind that is their propensity to mate and spread their eggs: “One female can lay up to 40 eggs in one day, and an adult flea can live for about 3 months. So in that three months, just one flea can lay over 2,000 eggs.” Ball heavily suggested that any pet owner who has a higher flea manifestation to use daily vacuuming and cleaning of the pet’s area, tossing out any heavily-infested bedding, and to continue to use preventables to help terminate the fleas.

The Beaver County Humane Society is headquartered at 3394 Brodhead Road in Center Township. They can be contacted by calling 724-775-5801 or by checking out their Facebook or YouTube pages. You can also go to their website for further information about their services, events, and much more.

To watch the full conversation with Taylor Ball, click on the Facebook feed below!

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“During the year we have several fundraisers, but this is our very big one that we plan for all year…it’s a very special event.”

The Beaver Memorial Library will be holding its annual Fall Fundraiser on Saturday, November 5 at its location on College Avenue. The event will run from 6:30 to 8:30, and tickets can be purchased for $15 in advance and $20 at the door. The ticket will include a snack box and complimentary beverage. Sue Ann Curtis of the Beaver Memorial Library gave a preview of this fun evening event on the November 1 edition of A.M. Beaver County with Matt Drzik.

The event will feature the raffling off of several baskets donated by local businesses and dignitaries, in which tickets (separate from the event tickets) can be purchased for $2 a piece. There will also be a “Unique Boutique” featuring used and discounted jewelry and a “knit shoppe” that is sponsored by the Beaver Memorial Library Knit & Crochet Club.

All proceeds will go to the library, which Sue Ann describes as “not our grandmother’s library anymore. We encourage people to come in and use the library; that means we have tutors coming and tutoring students here, and children of course coming into the children’s library having a good time playing with toys and reading books…people coming in using the computers, and we have special needs groups that come in and socialize here in the library.”

To listen to the full preview of “Hopes & Dreams” with Sue Ann Curtis, hit the play button below!

Sue Ann Curtis joins Matt Drzik tomorrow on A.M. Beaver County following the 8:30 news to talk about the upcoming “Hopes & Dreams” Fall Fundraiser for the Beaver Memorial Library.

Frank Sparks starts the morning with news at 6:30 on Beaver County Radio.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“Our hope is that it won’t just be these kind of five activities, but that those will be really dynamic and fluid as the time and as the people in the community change.”

Renee Suhr spoke to Matt Drzik about the establishment of the “Baby Bello” in Beaver Falls, located at the site of the old PNC Bank. The Baby Bello is a spin-off of the “Portobello” building that is set to be built next to Oram’s Donuts along 7th Avenue, and both buildings will be used as gathering spaces to hold regular or one-time events.

Suhr hopes that the Baby Bello can act as “how a town square would have functioned like in an old city in Europe, where you have maybe a small market, people coming to meet up and exchange goods and services…that’s where decisions get made, because you’re standing in line waiting for the same thing.” She also expects the Portobello to do the same thing, with additional amenities including an indoor restaurant.

For now, Suhr will have a section of the space open for public events and gatherings, and another section dedicated to the relocation of her primary business, Stray Cat Studio. The website for Stray Cat Studio is where those interested about the Baby Bello can find out all the information, as well as their social media outlets such as Facebook.

To listen to the full interview with Renee, hit the play button below!

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“When I look back at how we do the show on Saturdays, and we kind of bounce all over the place…that is truly the mind of an entrepreneur.”

That “show” is called The Entrepreneur Life, which airs 10:30 to 12:30 Saturdays on Beaver County Radio. Rocco Cozza co-hosts the show along with Eric McKenna, and Cozza dropped by the BCR Studios to preview Saturday’s show with Matt Drzik on the October 29 edition of A.M. Beaver County.

Rocco is the founder of Cozza Law Group, which focuses on business law and entertainment law in the Pittsburgh area. He officially launched it in July 2019, and received a boost in growing his business because of the fallout of the pandemic. “I was a small law firm at the time. These larger law firms were starting to play defense,” Cozza said. “They were basically getting rid of their associates. They were hoarding all the work at the partner level…so I just saw an opportunity and went and attacked the marketplace, and through the pandemic we grew exponentially. I just played offense.”

Cozza has lent his entrepreneurship experience and business law knowledge to Beaver County Radio starting this past April, when The Entrepreneur Life premiered on Saturdays. Rocco talks for two hours about the situations and mental states that separates successful entrepreneurs from struggling DIYers and self-made bosses who may still be stuck with an employee mentality.

“The biggest piece of advice I can give people,” Rocco stated, “is if you really feel a passion for what you’re doing in your heart and in your mind, just keep going. You’re going to have bumps in the road. If you just keep pushing forward and make adjustments, you’ll eventually reach success…but you gotta weather the storm.”

To watch the full interview with Rocco and Matt, click on the Facebook feed below!

Rocco Cozza, Founder of the Cozza Law Group and co-host of “The Entrepreneur Life” on Saturdays, joins Matt Drzik for a discussion about his practice as an entertainment lawyer and journey as an entrepreneur. The conversation will take place following the 8:30 news on A.M. Beaver County.

Plus, high school football is in its final week of the regular season, and Matt will let you know who plays where in sports.

Frank Sparks starts the weekend with local news at 6:30 on Beaver County Radio.