Direct Energy and Trib Total Media Announce 2014 Adult and Junior Winners of Pittsburgh Volunteer Citizen of Year Awards

Pittsburgh, PA (March 24, 2014) - Direct Energy and Trib Total Media's Pittsburgh Volunteer Citizen of the Year award program has named its winners in both the adult (18+ years of age) and junior (6-17 years of age) categories. Eugene Meidinger of Aliquippa is the 3rd annual Pittsburgh Volunteer Citizen of the Year and Juliana Kochis of Kennedy Township have been named the first ever Pittsburgh Junior Volunteer Citizen of the Year. Both winners will be honored at a special award event at the Ambridge Center for Hope on Tuesday, April 1st and will each receive a $2,500 donation to their charities from Direct Energy.

In 2007, Crisis Center North (CCN), a nonprofit that provides counseling, referral, and educational resource center serving victims of domestic violence, their children and teens involved in violent dating relationships in the northern communities of Allegheny County, proposed the Western Regional Training Initiative (WRTI) to help combat state and federal funding cuts to domestic violence and sexual assault center. WRTI allows participating programs to share trainers and training materials, maximizing the use of already scarce resources. A website, hosting streaming video and other important training modules, was developed, in part, by CCN's volunteer Eugene Meidinger. As a senior at Penn State University, Eugene single-handedly created the website's interface to access the training videos, developed necessary back-up systems and much more that enabled the WTRI website to build bridges in the university community, engage students in social change work, and house vital training materials in one convenient location. The site also provides increased outreach to individuals with disabilities. WRTI has seen extensive benefits as a result of this website, including a savings of more than $100,000 per year in training costs. To date, 527 users accessed the website with an age range of 18-73, illustrating the ease and intuitiveness of the website. According to Grace Coleman, CCN's executive director, none of this would have been possible without Eugene's technical talents which assisted domestic violence and sexual assault centers in Southwestern PA to make communities safer. Eugene's impact extends beyond CCN to twelve DV and SA programs which collaborate and participate in WRTI. WRTI was the first online training resource developed for domestic violence and sexual abuse programs in Pennsylvania. As a direct result of his efforts, hundreds of additional volunteers and staff are now available and trained to assist victims.

Juliana Kochis is currently ranked #1 in her graduating class at Montour High School. She is also a four sport scholar athlete, President of the St. Vladimir's Youth Group and President of Montour High School's National Honor Society. However, aside from these impressive accomplishments, Juliana's true passion is mentoring children in an underserved community. From a young age, Juliana has enjoyed volunteering and as she's grown older, the gratitude she experienced by doing so inspires her to develop projects and involve others so that more of the less-fortunate can be helped. Of those projects, Juliana's most meaningful time is spent at the Ambridge Center for Hope, a faith-based community center dedicated to ensuring the well-being of Ambridge residents through education, service and outreach. Concerned by the challenges the Center's children face, Juliana helps mentor the children at their summer lunch program with hands-on activities that focus on healthy eating, exercise and the importance of hard work in school. Juliana's goal is to make a lasting impact on children's lives and strives to meet this goal by engaging other community members and fellow classmates. She recruits volunteers to help with annual family carnivals, a ?Santa Shop? during the holidays and other fun activities for the Center's children. By organizing these initiatives, Juliana wants to give children a chance to experience how rewarding it is to give back in the hopes that they will inspire others to do the same. Juliana says that her experiences and accomplishments at the Ambridge Center for Hope have given her the ambition to carry on her goodwill throughout her lifetime.

?Both of these winners are extraordinary in what they do for others and it's clear that they are a valuable asset to the city of Pittsburgh and its surrounding communities,? said Chris Charbonneau, commercial director for Direct Energy. ?It goes without saying the tremendous impact they have on those in need and for that, it is our pleasure to honor them in this way.?

Direct Energy's $2,500 donation to Crisis Center North on Eugene's behalf will be used to maintain costs associated with running the WRTI training website and the $2,500 donation to the Ambridge Center for Hope on Juliana's behalf will be used toward an expansion of its facility.

A special event honoring Eugene Meidinger and Juliana Kochis will be held at the Ambridge Center for Hope on Tuesday, April 1, 2014 at 5:00 pm. Representatives from Direct Energy and Trib Total Media will be on hand to present their awards and the event is open to the public. The Ambridge Center for Hope is located at 740 Park Road, Ambridge PA 15003.

About Trib Total Media

Trib Total Media is a multimedia network of daily and weekly newspapers, weekly shoppers, and websites delivering news, information and advertising to over 1.2 million readers across Western Pennsylvania every week. Trib Total Media also provides targeted direct mail, commercial printing and promotional item services. Visit online at www.tribtotalmedia.com and get it right. Now.

For further information, please contact:
Julie Hendry
Direct Energy
Julie.Hendry@directenergy.com