Community College
honors Distinguished Leaders

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Community College of Philadelphia’s Northeast Regional Center honored six local citizens last week at its seventh annual Distinguished Leadership Awards ceremony.
The ceremony, which took place at the center at 12901 Townsend Road, recognizes people who have demonstrated a commitment to education and the community.
The winners were Martin Bednarek, president and CEO of Washington Savings Bank; Ron Cohen, a teacher and football coach at George Washington High School; City Councilman Jack Kelly (R-at large); the Rev. Thomas Dunleavy, pastor at St. Anselm Church; Gerry Etling, a volunteer at Aid For Friends; and Angela Cross, a student at MaST Community Charter School.
Guest speakers were Stephen Curtis, president of Community College of Philadelphia; Daniel P. McElhatton, chairman of CCP’s board of trustees; and Judith L. Gay, vice president of academic affairs at CCP.
The winners were selected with assistance from Northeast Regional Center advisory committee members Gertrude Brown, Glenn Devitt, Lynore Eisman, Myles Gordon, Andrea Keegan, Dianne Retzback and Karen Spause.
Community College of Philadelphia held similar awards ceremonies last week at its Northwest and West regional centers.
Here is some background on the local honorees:
• Bednarek is a banker and real estate appraiser who lives in Lexington Park.
He’s a member of the School Reform Commission and also sat on the former Board of Education and served as Democratic leader of the 64th Ward. He’s executive director of the Northeast Rockers AAU girls basketball program, which he founded in 1998. He serves as the District 12 representative to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). Last year, he received a Community Champion award from the Mayfair Community Development Corporation.
• Cohen, a physical education teacher at Washington, has taught in the School District of Philadelphia for 42 years. He’s won a Philadelphia Public League-record 207 games (against only 57 losses and two ties) since he began serving as Washington’s head football coach in 1985. He has won nine Public League titles, second only to the late Al Angelo, who won 10 at Frankford. A Germantown High School graduate, he’s also coached sports at Simon Gratz, Roxborough and Abraham Lincoln. He played football at Temple University and is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
• Kelly, a Somerton resident, is in his second term as an at-large councilman. He also represented the 7th Councilmanic District from 1988-91 and was a longtime Republican leader of the 53rd Ward. In Council, he is best known for favoring lower wage and business taxes, strengthening real estate values, calling for improved services at the Northeast Mini-City Hall and working to make Philadelphia a no-kill city for animals. He also supported extra funding for CCP so the college could offer tuition credits.
• Dunleavy, who was ordained in 1975, heads a parish that consists of about 8,000 members and 2,900 families in Parkwood. The parish provides ministry to residents of the Delaware Valley Veterans Home, patients at Frankford Hospital-Torresdale and clients at the Woodhaven Center for mentally and physically disabled people. Members donate food, clothing and household items during Thanksgiving, Christmas and other times of the year. The parish also offers space for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a summer camp for autistic children.
• Etling has been with Aid For Friends, which provides meals and friendship for homebound elderly people, since its inception in 1974. She’s cooked an estimated 390,000 dinners in her kitchen. In 1980, she started cooking low-sodium meals. She also makes a variety of dishes for clients.
• Cross is president of her senior class, student council and National Honor Society at MaST. An aspiring elementary school teacher, she has a 3.97 grade-point average and takes three advanced-placement classes. She plays catcher and is captain of the school’s softball team. She also played the violin at the spring concert despite having a broken right middle finger. She was a winner in the Congressional Art Competition. She also has time to take three classes at CCP and work 20 hours a week at Home Style Pizza. ••