By SANDRA K. REABUCK
JOHNSTOWN — Something old and something new will be among the features when WPSU-TV airs a new “Johnstown: Our Town” program April 29, producers said Saturday.
The old will include some of Johnstown’s history of floods – 1889, 1936 and 1977 – by Patrick Sheridan, including the story of Frank Plish, a Cambria City resident who helped at least 15 people to safety as the flood waters rose in ’77.
The new is a segment on the Resurrection Parish in Cambria City, a congregation that emerged after churches were closed there. Larry Olek focuses on two aspects of the parish.
Whitney Chirdon, producer, and Lindsey Whissel, associate producer, met Saturday with 22 volunteer program participants at the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center, Broad Street.
“We want to tell stories of Johnstown, and we told the volunteers to shoot video or collect old pictures to help tell that story,” Whissel said.
Chirdon said that although Johnstown was featured in a 1999 Our Town
show, “we decided to come back because there have been a lot of changes and other stories by new people. It gives regular people a chance to be in the spotlight.”
Sheridan said that he visited several sites of the 1889 Flood, including Staple Bend near Mineral Point, the South Fork Dam and the city. He said that he also focused on some businesses that existed at the time, including the former Johnson Steel Plant in Moxham.
In the 1977 Flood, Plish was able to help neighbors and others get to the Bestform Plant along Broad Street, Sheridan said.
“He walked with them through the water until it got hip deep, and then got a rowboat,” he said.
Olek said that the story of the Resurrection Parish shows how a “smoothie” was made as the blender merged the ethnic heritages: Polish, Irish, German, Croatian, Hungarian and Slovak.
In one project, members made Christmas ornaments reflecting the nationalities for use on festive trees, he said.
In the other, members got together and made 1,300 dozen pierogies to sell to raise money for the parish.
“We sold all of those without one word of advertising. On one Sunday afternoon, nearly a ton of potatoes were peeled and cheese was grated,” with work continuing that week, Olek said.
“Working together, they showed the power of harmony,” he said.
