Who is Guyasuta? He was a Seneca chief who led the French and the British through the wilderness of western PA.

Six years ago, Councilman Peduto captured his spirit and created a Fellowship for young and young hearted Pittsburghers to help form public policy through a unique process. This year you are invited to be a part, as we study triple bottom line economics and see how it can be utilized to revitalize our neighborhoods. The fellowship is looking for young, committed residents of Western PA that plan on staying in the area for at least the next 2 to 5 years.

The first presentation of the fellowship this year, The New Deal/ A Better Deal – A Context For Historical Change, will take place on Thursday, October 29, 2009 6:30pm – 8:30pm at AVA Lounge, 126 S. Highland Avenue, 15206.
Just email pat@jacksonclark.net to sign up or learn more, or visit www.guyasutafellowship.com.

On Sunday, Pittsburgh Police Officers and Pittsburgh teenagers met at Mellon Park for the third annual Battle of the Badge basketball tournament.

Neighborhood teams from around the city came together for a day of basketball, live music and food.  Local businesses donated prizes food and raffle prizes, and The Marilyn G. Rabb (MGR) Foundation ran an art station.

The winning team came from Career Connections Charter High School.  Read more about the event here.

On Saturday, Allegheny Commons in the North Side was filled with teens from throughout the Pittsburgh region, all gathered to do one thing – play ultimate frisbee. Councilman Bill Peduto stopped by the tournament to watch the nine teams from schools throughout the region compete, with the ultimate goal of raising money to give back to the community.  The nrg Powered by Pittsburgh ultimate frisbee tournament raised a total of $1,000 that day, and over 100 local teenagers participated in the day’s activities.  The money raised will go to Venture Outdoors Pittsburgh.

The Penn State Hershey Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion’s program nrg Power by Choice is a campaign that encourages teens to get active, with the goal of combating the growing problem of childhood obesity.  It encourages teenagers to pay attention to healthy eating habits, and healthy physical activity habits.

Tonight, Councilman Bill Peduto will be a guest at the Strong Women Strong Girls Jump into Spring jump-rope-a-thon. More than 200 girls and adult supporters will participate in this jump-rope event, which will raise money for the foundation.  Other celebrity guests will include Teresa Conn, founder of the Pittsburgh Passion, and members of the Pittsburgh Steelers team.

Strong Women Strong Girls is an after school program for underprivileged girls in grades 3 -5.  The goal of the program is to help these girls build positive self-esteem and skills that will make them into strong women.  Girls are paired with undergraduate women from local colleges to serve as mentors.

The annual Pennsylvania Federation of College Democrats convention was held  in Oakland at the University of Pittsburgh in early April this year.  Students who attended the convention got a lesson in local government at the City Council Roundtable, which was one of several opportunities that the students had that weekend to interact with local and state politicians.

Councilman Bill Peduto, Council President Doug Shields, and Mac Booker answered questions from students, and spoke about their role in City government.  Topics of discussion included everything from the issue of the City County merger, to the background of the panelists and how they became involved in local politics.

Last week, Councilman Bill Peduto spent time in two of the elementary schools in Pittsburgh, the Linden Elementary School and the Imagine Environmental Charter School at Frick Park.

At the Liden School, Councilman Peduto read three books to a classroom of elementary children.

At the Imagine Environmental Charter School, Councilman Peduto was a guest speaker at  an assembly.  During his presentation he explained the international movement Earth Hour, which occurred last Saturday night.  He also discussed the image of Pittsburgh as the “smokey city,” and his goal of changing this image.

He addressed a very captive audience, which had many questions for him after his presentation.  For more pictures of both events, check out Councilman Peduto’s Flickr page!