Mar 6, 2013 3 min read

Children are our most important asset. Offering them a quality education is a priority we must remain committed to achieving.

Alan Ciechanowski, development director at Bethel Park’s Hillcrest Christian Academy, has been thrilled to see a steady increase in student enrollment over the past few years and is looking ahead to another building expansion. Classrooms are needed to provide space for the newly added high school students and to accommodate growth in its progressive curriculum.

To raise the needed funds for Hillcrest’s most recent addition, a dinner-auction, “Hard Hats & High Heels” will be held March 8 at the Southpointe Hilton Garden Inn. At 6 p.m. and at their leisure, guests may begin checking the more than 300 items in the silent auction. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pirate and Penguin tickets, health and beauty items, kitchen and cuisine and fitness are just a few of the popular themes.

Choose from dinner selections of either chicken pommeray (mustard wine sauce) or tilapia with fresh mango-pineapple salsa. An exciting live auction will follow dinner. Lucky bidders will take home center-ice Penguin tickets including an overnight stay at the Omni William Penn Hotel, a shopping weekend in New York City, Nascar race driving experience and autographed Jack Lambert and Rocky Bleier shirts.

Keeping with the construction theme, the fundraiser’s guests can choose to be glamorous in semi-formal fashions or add a little fun by accessorizing with a tool belt or anything work-site related. Tickets are $60 per person.

For more than 30 years, Hillcrest has offered an excellent academic program, an athletic and physical education balance and a Biblical foundation. The school’s mission is to guide its students into the future with character, integrity and compassion.

Proceeds from “Hard Hats…” will be largely instrumental in adding approximately 13 classrooms and a science lab. The anticipated building is planned to connect with the current middle/high school wing. Groundbreaking is expected to begin later this year and opened for the 2014-15 term.

Hillcrest offers diversity in education. The first high school play, “Laffing Room Only,” was performed early this year. A Dicken’s musical is held annually at Christmastime performed by its eighth grade class. Other music programs are held in the spring and as a tribute to veterans.

Secondary students have the benefit of guidance counselors offering assistance with career choices and age-appropriate needs. General counselors provide guidance to elementary grades.

Hillcrest Christian Academy’s goal is to build a strong future for kids as teachers prepare the school’s youth to face the challenges of a fast-moving world.

Hillcrest

Hillcrest Christian Academy was but a vision of former Pastor Owen of South Hills Assembly of God in Bethel Park. In the early 1980s, a vacant building belonging to the Bethel Park School District became available, making way for Christian education in the South Hills.

Seventy students in grades one through six were enrolled on opening day 1982. This year, 265 boys and girls are receiving elementary and secondary education in grades K-12. Children head to Hillcrest from 16 school districts and 60 area churches. The school’s first 12th grade class will graduate in 2014.